dirac

It looks like a number of used copies cheaply priced are cropping up on eBay and Amazon after a time when it seemed like there were very few available. Most likely they are ex-library even if they don't say so, but a copy is a copy. The only thing wrong with the book is that it ends where it does. ☹️

Last day for our Christmas lights. The same to you, cubanmiamiboy, and to all who are celebrating. Thank you for the link, it's beautiful.

Cathy Marston is making a new work for San Francisco Ballet based on a character from "The Graduate."

A review of Birmingham Royal Ballet's Nutcracker by Deborah Weiss for DanceTabs.

A report on a new exhibition on fashion and dance at the Centre National du Costume de Scène by Roslyn Sulcas in The New York Times.

Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre presents its Ballet Beyond Borders festival.

The National Ballet of Cuba presents its Nutcracker.

The Paris Opera loses serious money as the pension reform strike goes on.

Thanks for chiming in , California. Not sure how true this is, although familiarity with the material and the plot, for want of a better term, probably helps. Comparisons of the movie to the stage show have been generally unfavorable. I would be interested to hear from people who have seen both:

“Pavarotti” is now playing on Showtime. The split from Adua was handled better than I expected – the pain and family dissension may have been glossed over but was still evident. The movie gets off to a promising start with footage of a young Pavarotti and his family unseen by me, and singers discussing his voice and the qualities peculiar to the tenor. Overall, however, I thought there was not enough music and too much emphasis was placed on the later and least edifying portion of Pavarotti’s career. Howard has a weakness for celebrities – too much Bono and Di for my taste. We do hear from Anne Midgette, but her commentary isn’t given much weight. The pacing is also off – Pavarotti receives his fatal diagnosis and then it seems like forever before he actually buys the farm. As YouOverThere noted, two important witnesses, Bonynge and Freni, are not heard from, not even in old clips. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part and recommend it, although I preferred the PBS documentary. Has anyone else seen it?

I must disagree, respectfully. That's not the critical reaction I remember - and certainly not the book I know.

Yes -- relatively speaking. The implications were "troubling" back then, which is why Lolita's age was raised.

Kubrick's Lolita, Sue Lyon, has died at age 73.

People whose judgment I trust went to see it in the hopes of enjoying some campy frightfulness for Christmas and were somewhat disappointed to find out it was mostly mediocre and a little tedious.

An update. Not out of the woods just yet:

I'm not sure if the cast should be promoting or in hiding at this point. I hope this fiasco doesn't sink Hayward's and Fairchild's chances at other movie roles. The movie has tanked at the box office (cue the litter box office jokes). The few who are going skew older, so perhaps mature viewers familiar with the material shouldn't be scared off. I'm still traumatized by those stills of Taylor Swift with her rack jutting out of her furry cat costume, so I don't think I have the intestinal fortitude to take a chance.

So many of the Balanchine ballets I have seen were staged by her as répétiteur. Gone too soon, she will be sorely missed. RIP.

The critics rave: The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Los Angeles Times Variety The Seattle Times Hollywood Reporter I lost track of the furball jokes.

Goodbye to Dr. Jonathan. I can’t say I’m sorry, he had Alzheimer’s and it’s sad to think of that freakishly quick mind gone blank. Only Alan Bennett left of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet. Among many, many other things, Miller wrote one of the very few good Shakespeare parodies that I know of, a takeoff on the history plays called “So That’s the Way You Like It," A sample: And so we bid you welcome to our court, Fair cousin Albany, and you, our sweetest Essex, Take this my hand, and you, fair Essex, this, And with this bond we’ll cry anon And shout Jack Cock of London to the foe. (Increasing the tempo sharply) Approach your ears and kindly bend your conscience to my piece, Our ruddy scouts to me this hefty news have brought: The naughty English, expecting now some pregnance in our plan, Have with some haughty purpose Bent Aeolis unto the service of their sail. So even now while we to the wanton lute do strut Is brutish Bolingbroke bent fair upon Some fickle circumstance. Get thee to Gloucester, Wessex. Do thee to Essex, Exeter. Fair Albany to Somerset must eke his route. And Scroop, do you to Westmoreland, where shall bold York, Enrouted now for Lancaster, with forces of our uncle Rutland, Enjoin his standard with sweet Norfolk's host. Fair Sussex, get thee to Warwicksbourne, And there, with frowning purpose, tell our plan To Bedford's tilted ear, that he shall press With most insensate speed And join his warlike effort to bold Dorset's side. I most royally shall now to bed, To sleep off all the nonsense I've just said. RIP.

Douglas enjoyed his 103rd birthday this month. He and wife Anne have been married 65 years.

Apparently Mayer (and Freed) initially felt that way and wanted it cut. Then Minnelli ran the picture for Freed without the Halloween sequence and Freed said, "It's not the same picture," and the scene stayed in. The movie is structured episodically, so I don't think the Halloween episode sticks out quite that much, but it's true that it's the sequence that does least to move the story forward, which is why the execs objected to it, and it has a tone all its own - it really is rather scary, for one thing. However, I like that the kids seem to be operating in their own little world (no helicopter parents in old St. Louis, I guess). If nothing else, the segment is a showcase for the unique gifts of Margaret O'Brien. For all Minnelli's legerdemain I don't think it works without her.

Those are great clips, Deflope, thanks. How do people feel about adding music with vocals to the competitions? Is that working out for you?

Thanks for posting, abatt.

I remember reading somewhere that Robbins, Bernstein, and Sondheim regarded Laurents' book as the most underrated contribution to the success of the show.

Reviving this thread for the season. It's not too late to catch Meet Me in St. Louis on the big screen tomorrow, December 11.