YouOverThere

Broadway's all-time most successful musical is on tour, and is spending more than a month at the Kennedy Center. I grudgingly went to it, as the ticket prices were far more than I think that any musical is worth (I got stuck paying $114 for a seat in the back row of the 1st tier! - actually, I think that almost nothing other than the Bolshoi is worth that much money). While it was better than some of the other musicals that I've seen (in particular, Hairspray and The Light in the Piazza), I didn't quite get all the hype. My overall impression is that the creators were more interested in cramming as many songs as they could into it than they were in developing real characters. I suppose that part of this could stem from: a) I was about as far from the stage as it's possible to be in a very large theater; b) the singers were mic'd and highly amplified, so that the singing was more like the singing in a rock concert (a reviewer from the Washington Post thought that the amplification made it seem more like being at a movie than being at a live performance). There were too many things that were unexplained for my taste, such as why the ballet mistress knew so much about the Phantom but didn't tell anyone even after he murdered a stage hand and why the hero had to pursue the Phantom by himself (were the police a bunch of cowards?). All-in-all, I found it to be solidly average. But an A+ for the costume designer.

Apparently Mick is getting at least a little satisfaction.

Today's email from the WB mentions the addition of a female dancer named Eun Won Lee, who has been a principal dancer with the Korean National Ballet.

Saturday evening (7/16) at the Wolf Trap: Gillian Murphy gave her bouquet to Victor Barbee, who played Lord Capulet as apparently his final activity with ABT.

OK. I just couldn't resist going to this (at the Wolf Trap) even though I was a litte under-whelmed when I saw something more akin to the original Riverdance about a decade ago. The show is somewhat revised, but still has everything that we all love and loathe about Riverdance: the infectious music, the high energy performances, the amazingly quick feet, the very attractive, athletic, and precise dancers, the lip-synched "singing", the pre-recorded instrumentals, and the pre-recorded tapping sounds (that were occasionally out of sync with the dancers). The solos, at least according to the program, are basically reproductions of what Michael Flatley and Jean Butler did in the original; certainly the strutting by the leading man and the leather pants made me think of Michael Flatley. It's been a long time, but my impression was that there was less Irish dancing than in earlier incarnations and more musical interludes. I did not remember the American-style tap dancing or the Russian dancers. The Wolf Trap performances (for social reasons I had to attend twice) were fairly poorly attended, with little more than half the tickets sold for each of the 6 performances.

There's a blog called dancetabs.com that contains a review that perfectly expresses my opinion of Juliet and Romeo.

I ended up going to see it again (actually, twice more). It is more enjoyable once you've figured out who is who (the person who was responsible for causing me to make the 3rd trip shares this assessment - she saw it twice). But still there was just something missing. I felt like I should have liked it a lot more than I did. It was dynamic, innovative, athletic, and colorful. A big problem, for me, was the emotional flatness. When the Colorado Ballet performed Alun Jones' choreography, there were even men crying. I didn't notice a single person in the audience reaching for a kleenex; in fact, there was even a smattering of applause after the scene in which Mercutio and Tybalt are killed. Romeo was never given any personality; instead he just sort of drifted along. The most important plot elements - the first meeting between Juliet and Romeo and the deaths of the major characters - are rushed through

I'm not sure what you're asking. It's definitely modern dance, and full of movement, but it doesn't degenerate into a bunch of intertwined bodies. How it rates is a matter of taste. It isn't bad; I just think that it's over-rated. I liked it a little more than the Washington Ballet's Carmina Burana but enjoyed the WB's Hamlet more. If I see it again, having been able to work out the plot, such as it was, by working backwards and by reading articles about it, I might like it better. And as long as there's a live orchestra, you can enjoy Tchaikovsky's beautiful music.

I took in the opening night of the Juliet and Romeo run at the Kennedy Center. It was, well, different, but not always in a way that impressed me. There wasn't much of a plot; just a lot of dancing with an occasional scene from Romeo and Juliet thrown in. No real character development except for Juliet. In fact, several significant characters could only be inferred through elimination - the guy in the trench coat who was dancing to the opening of Tchaikovsky's piano concerto after 3 people died during a big dance scene must have been the prince because there is a prince listed in the program. The choreography was creative, but occasionally became silly. Maybe I'll like it better after the second time, though I don't know if there will be a second time. Going in with the attitude that I'm going to be watching an abstract dance rather than a story might improve my perspective.

This was a fun show, even if Mercury Half-Life isn't true ballet. I don't see any reason to knock a ballet company for performing a piece like this. Many symphony orchestras, for example, perform Carmina Burana. It took a couple of viewings for me to get into Dancing in the Street, which often is the case for more subtle works. They had a little ceremony at the end of the May 15 evening performance for Septime Webre. They marched out all the dancers who weren't in Mercury Half-Life plus a number of former members of the company one-by-one, each presenting Septime with a rose. I haven't always liked his choreography, but he did give the company a distinct personality in a locale that is almost over-saturated with performing arts.

I agree with Belka that the ridiculous costumes were a distraction. Perhaps I would have enjoyed Carmina Burana with better costuming. I ended up seeing this program 3 times (so I saw all 3 T&M pairs). I came to have some appreciation for Carmina Burana - the choreography was more sophisticated - and difficult - as I perceived it to be the first time. But it just didn't move me. The lack of anything more than a vague, implied story was a problem. It just came across to me as a series of individual, short dances rather than as a unified work. That, coupled with the bad costumes and problems with the chorus (especially noticeable from the balcony), left me wanting a little more. Even the very soft and romantic sequences towards the end didn't generate any emotion (and I kept thinking that I should be feeling something). But this opinion seemed to be held by pretty much no one else in the audience. Venus Villa continues to impress. I enjoy Gian Carlo Perez' dancing as well, apparently more than the WB management does. I noticed that Sarah Kaufmann had a glowing review of CB in the Washington Post, after panning Hamlet. I feel another rant about critics coming on...

After Hamlet, I had trouble getting into Carmina Burana. Maybe it was because I sat in the balcony. Or maybe because I had been totally blown away by the Bavarian Radio Symphony's performance of Mahler's 5th the night before. Unlike the Colorado Ballet's version, which I saw a long, long time ago, the WB's version consisted of a series of dances with no storyline or true central characters. The costumes varied so widely that it kind of lost a sense of unity. The chorus (a rare WB performance with live music) struggled, or maybe it was because they were so spread out on the wings and rear of the stage that the different distances made it sound like they weren't together. I'll probably see it again, and I often like programs better the second time.

For T&M: Friday: Maki Onuki and Corey Landolt Sat. Mat.: Nicole Graniero and Jonathan Jordan Sat. Eve.: Kateryna Derechyna and Brooklyn Mack Sun. Mat: Maki Onuki and Corey Landolt Sun. Eve.: Nicole Graniero and Jonathan Jordan For CB: Friday and both matinees: Sona Kharatian and Brooklyn Mack Sat and Sun evening: Esmiani Jani or Stephanie Sorota and Jonathan Jordan The pairings for T&M are interesting, with one person that you'd expect and one that you wouldn't expect.

I received an email from the WB about a 15 percent discount on tickets for the Friday evening, Saturday matinee, and Sunday evening performances. The passcode is "POEM". I haven't purchased my ticket(s) yet, so I don't know if it really works. The email mentions phone and in-person purchases but doesn't mention online purchases.

I went back and saw it again. Doing so just made me more frustrated with the bad review that Sarah Kaufman gave it in the Washington Post. I'm coming to think that her reviews are basically worthless. She clearly totally missed the point of the 3 mirror Hamlets (an idea that my accomplice for the performances rated as "genius").

Besides, a hernia repair is a simple out-patient procedure. I was unable to resist the curiosity, so I attended one of the Kennedy Center shows. My impression is that she wants to get back into a ballet company. A fair amount of the show consisted of videotaped interviews, and in one interview she mentioned that she thought that she benefitted from as a child attending a dance school that gave more opportunities to perform than dance schools typically do. This had me thinking that she is doing these shows because she believes that she needs to be on-stage and performing in order to get back to where she was pre-illness. She still is a beautiful dancer, with especially expressive but yet natural arm movements. The question is whether she needs to improve her athleticism (since she's only 26, one would think that if this is necessary it is doable, unless her illness is a limiting factor) as well as scrape off a bit of the rust. I'm hoping that she can make it back. All the better if that comeback starts at the Washington Ballet (they are hoping to add 2 additional ballerina positions for next year ...).

MyTix is a program at the Kennedy Center to try to get young adults interested in the performing arts by offering a limited number of highly discounted tickets to various events for people 18-30 or who are in the military. Participants are also entered into drawings for free tickets. Initial funding for the program, like just about everything else at the Kennedy Center, came from the Rubensteins. Most (if not all) of the events in the program are Kennedy Center productions.

He's scheduled for Thursday evening and both weekend matinees.

Assuming similar sales for the first 5 performances of Hamlet (and more than 54 percent of the orchestra seats were occupied at the performances that I attended), Hamlet would outdraw CB, though there are likely to be further sales for CB before the run starts. The low sales for both Sunday matinees is a little surprising.

Are you sure that Carmina Burana is outselling Hamlet? Carmina Burana would have to average 57 percent more seats sold per show to match the total number of seats sold for Hamlet because of the greater number of performances of Hamlet.

I might be a sucker for anything with a psychodelic component to it, but I really enjoyed Stephen Mills' Hamlet. I doubt that my opinion would be shared by all of the DC-area ballet fans, though. In particular, the lack of virtuoso solos would turn off some people (beyond Sarah Kaufman, whose review comes across as written by someone with a grudge against the WB. Of course, we're talking about a person who recently equated Mark Morris with Mozart...). Some also might be bothered by it being set in the 21st century rather than the 16 century. There were a few things in it that could have been improved. Most glaringly, Claudius would have had ample time to keep Gertrude from drinking the poisoned wine. And Polonius was clearly visible when Hamlet killed him, making it less plausible that it was a case of mistaken identity. I've seen both casts, and I actually liked the 'B' cast (with Brooklyn Mack as Hamlet) better, though perhaps this was because it was my second viewing. This cast included newcomer Venus Villa as Ophelia, and she appears to have some real potential (of course, I might have been biased because she has, even by dancers' standards, really great legs ).

I apologize for not making it clear that I was referring to the SFB not being an important part of the Kennedy Center's programming. I'm skeptical that the limiting factor on the SFB's performances is money. The Kennedy Center seems to have so much cash that they have to look for ways to spend it, so I would think that they could subsidize more performances if they wanted them.

You are correct (and it is an official relationship), but it might be merely a carrot to get Suzanne Farrell to work with (or allow her name to be used by) the Kennedy Center. The Suzanne Farrell Ballet only does 1 program a year at the Kennedy Center, so it hardly is an important part.

This is followed by https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/when-the-boss-is-a-ballerina-julie-kent-on-balancing-washington-ballet-top-job-and-family/2016/03/25/7d076798-f03f-11e5-89c3-a647fcce95e0_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-arts%3Ahomepage%2Fcard , which contains a few more details, e.g., she wants to schedule Symphonic Variations next season. I assume that they've researched funding sources, but doubling the size of the company seems like a pretty daunting task. It would be nice if they could become an affiliate of the Kennedy Center, which seems to have more money than it knows what to do with (e.g., they are paying well over $2 million/year to the not particularly talented music director of the National Symphony). But would the Kennedy Center have an interest in that? They presumably rake in lots of money from the annual visits by ABT, NYCB, and (especially) Mariinsky, so would they want to turn around and hand some of that money over to another ballet company? And then have to worry about scheduling conflicts?

Keith Emerson, IMHO the best pure musician in rock music, died today. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/keith-emerson-dead-prog-rock-legend-dies-aged-71-a6926476.html The music heros from my college days are starting to fade away.