Monday, March 31, 2008

Weekend Wrap

Posted by John Stoehr on Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:07 AM

A busy week deserves a wrap.

The Charleston Ballet Theatre gave the second of two 20-anniversary celebration programs.

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art opened its annual juried student exhibit Young Contemporaries.

The Little City Musical Theatre Company debuted with Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World.

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra showcased its concertmaster Yuriy Bekker and the first-ever symphonic drug trip.

The Kids in the Hall are coming to North Charleston in May.

Stop-Loss, directed by Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce, opened Friday.

The director of the Gibbes Museum of Art suddenly and unexpectedly quit last week.

The Spoleto Festival is one step closer to its sister festival in Italy.

Review: CSO presents more gold than korn

Posted by John Stoehr on Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 8:59 AM

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra presented its concertmaster for the first time Saturday. Lindsay Koob says it was a grand performance. He sent us this review.

Last Saturday’s Visions Cinématiques program at the Gaillard — the latest in the Charleston Symphony’s Masterworks series — offered a feast of incredibly colorful and evocative music, plus the welcome chance to hear concertmaster Yuriy Bekker perform his first major concerto gig with his colleagues.

The Hungarian master György Ligeti left his stamp on 20th-century music in many ways, beginning with the use of his other-worldly Atmospheres in Stanley Kubrick’s landmark film, 2001: A Space Oddysey. Likewise, Lontano is a work that achieves its sense of eerie, cosmic mystery without melody or rhythm. Conductor David Stahl and his orchestra gave it a shimmering rendition that enthralled the near-capacity crowd.

Then it was on to the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a composer whose reputation rests mainly on his rich, swashbuckling movie music — like from The Sea Hawk and Robin Hood. His only violin concerto is a neo-Romantic extravaganza of epic sweep that borrows from several of his Hollywood scores. Despite its cinematic effect, Jascha Heifetz — the great violinist who first performed it — evaluated it as “more gold than korn.”

And our esteemed concertmaster certainly squeezed every last drop of musical gold out of the opulent score. The solo violin part rests rather high in the instrument’s range — probably because its lower notes would be hard to hear over the big, juicy orchestra that the composer calls for. And not too many violinists can stay in the stratosphere like that without sounding thin or screechy. But Yuriy’s sweet and singing tone never stopped soaring dreamily over his colleagues’ lush palette of supporting sound. Bravo, Bekker!

After halftime, we got to revel in French genius Hector Berlioz’s ever-amazing Symphonie Fantastique — an overwhelming sonic spectacle that’s probably the first-ever musical realization of a drug trip gone bad.

Loosely reflecting his own infatuation with an English actress, the symphony’s five movements portray manic-depressive episodes in the “life of an artist,” ending with horrific opium-induced visions of his own execution and damnation after he has murdered his beloved.

Stahl and company took us on a thrilling musical roller-coaster ride that captured Berlioz’s quirky writing perfectly, while bringing out all of the music’s brilliant colors and effects. A fearsome challenge to even the best big-city bands, it was gratifying to hear our own orchestra play it so well. The roof-raising ovation brought more solo and section bows than I have room to recount. —Lindsay Koob

Topics: Concert Music

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Review: Halsey Institute's Young Contemporaries

Posted by John Stoehr on Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 1:14 PM

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art opened Friday its latest show called Young Contemporaries. Kevin Murphy went to check it out and sent us this review. The annual juried student exhibition will be on view until April 25.

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YOUTHFUL INDISCETIONS

Young Contemporaries shows artists busy growing up

By Kevin Murphy

If your impression of an art major is a hipster with grubby fingers and a ten speed, the 23rd annual Young Contemporaries exhibit, which opened last week at the College of Charleston’s Halsey Institute, is out to prove you’re right.

But there’s much more here than first impressions.

The exhibit features 75 pieces of widely varied art, displays them on walls and floors, and offers students long-awaited, much-needed exposure. The exhibit offers new work to the public. For better or worse it signifies a pivotal period in a series of young careers, which will no doubt be reflected upon with tenderness, yearning, and perhaps a little embarrassment.

Art fills the gallery with the same assortment, claustrophobia, and charm as a jammed lecture hall. Subjects range from glimpses of nature to New York’s subway system, from the intimacies of dorm life to the terror of medieval dentistry. However stylistically diffuse it may seem, “Young Contemporaries” is fundamentally a survey, providing a view of the substance hanging in the ether.

First you’ll encounter Conrad Guevara’s sculpture, “Teeth Puller.” It imagines what could happen if the Jolly Green Giant turned wicked and wanted your teeth instead of green beans. Huge rusted sheers clamp a pair of equally colossal dentures. The piece rests motionless on a low white platform inches above the floor. But it has an unpredictability that makes it tense and attractive, as if your touch might stir it into frenzy.

The exhibit’s photography offers an assortment of black-and-white images illustrating introspection and the lonely search for identity. Meg McLean uses two young women close in age but in opposite states of mind. The immediate contrast between the women’s demeanors, one seductive and mysterious, the other relaxed and contemplative, reveals a moodiness that makes you linger.

Kiera Summers splashes the exhibit with an interesting abstract piece that’s untitled, as are many of the pieces in the gallery, and so falls further away from definition or school of thought. A pistol of red shoots across the painting’s equator and exacts attention as muted greens, yellows, and oranges sink behind a thick blue texture. The painting has a controlled chaos, and shows its creator to be a young artist in tune with her charge.

An alternative charge is felt by Morgan Blaich’s sculpture, “Tank.” Blaich uses steel, chicken wire, and stuffed animals to construct her piece. Familiar and normally intimidating as a steamrolling military weapon, “Tank” has been transformed into a playfully idle muse-piece that challenges the mindset of violence by instilling humor and goodwill. Picture a Vietnam protestor sliding a flower into a gun and the same sardonic attempt at peace becomes apparent.

Young Contemporaries is an ambitious and charitable exhibit. It challenges our attention by lacking cohesion. But is also provides a panoramic insight into Charleston’s blossoming artists. Many of the artists are still honing their crafts, which sometimes result in pieces that are timid and shaky. Others have already, precociously found their stride. In this type of exhibit everything is a work in progress, lending the experience a sense of relief, optimism, and camaraderie.

As students, artists are free to roam; they seek and destroy and then create anew. These traits will likely follow them as they step into professional lives. But it is only now, as they create within the cocoon of college life, that their work will be safe from the compromises of the art marketplace.

Young Contemporaries

On view through April 25

Free

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art

College of Charleston

54 St. Philip St.

(843) 953-5680

www.halsey.cofc.edu

Review: program No. 2 of Charleston Ballet Theatre's 20th-anniversary celebration

Posted by John Stoehr on Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 11:18 AM

The CBT did the second half of its 20th anniversary programming last night. Nick Smith, always up for seeing svelte dancers emerge from a pile of dirt (not kidding), enjoyed the show and sent us this review. CBT continues with another performance today at 3 p.m. at the Sottile Theatre. Tickets are $30-$40. Sexy, powerful, surprising. It's worth it. For more, check out the Charleston Ballet Theatre.

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While writing about this kind of progressive ballet with its striking imagery and complex movements, we’d say this ain’t your momma’s classical ballet.

But since Charleston Ballet Theatre is busy wrapping up its 20th anniversary celebration and one of the pieces in this second program dates from 1987, chances are your mom did see it. Then as now she’d have had a memorable, impressive experience. Fortunately that first, ’80s piece — “Poetry with a Splash of Blood” set to a segment of Philip Glass’ Mishima movie soundtrack — is as relevant now as it was back then.

Jill Eathorne-Bahr choreographs, Ruth Hutson sets evocative lighting in the wings, and Don Cantwell costumes the dancers in black with blood red gloves (and ties for the men) against a stark black background. But before the whole thing turns into a Grace Jones video, the males and females start to move; one after the other, they mirror soft and forceful movements against each other to symbolize the excitement and frustration of relationships. By making totemic images with their bodies, arms jutting out, the male dancers help to give this exploration of love and death its primal appeal.

Bahr is less successful with “Wings,” the second dance in the program. Cantwell’s flowing white costumes help to give the dancers a swannish quality; a blanket of dry ice at the beginning emphasizes the theme of stratospheric flight. Majestic ballet mistress Jessica Roan and dancer Steven Hammell ably lead the lithe troupe, challenged to pack the stage while avoiding a mid-air collision.

After the complexities of “Splash of Blood,” Bahr’s choreography for “Wings” seems repetitive. Hutson’s subtle lighting is a delight, though, and dancers Trey Mauldwin and James Peronto help to spice things up — they obviously enjoy being up on the stage and they’re not afraid to show it through their mischievous movements.

The show wraps up with “Rite of Spring,” using Igor Stravinsky’s brassy Le Sacre du Printemps to create an otherworld where women rule. If there were a ballet version of Doomsday, it would look like this. A statuesque, straggly-haired, heavily made-up Melissa Weber makes a great impression as The Matriarch, boss of her tribe of women. She emerges from a pile of dirt to lead morning rituals around a large metal structure that looks like a cross between a giant soccer goal and a rock concert lighting rig. A group of men, led by the dynamic Alexander Collen (The First Man), arrive to shake things up. The messy union of The Matriarch and The First Man creates The Chosen One, played by an energetic Jessica Roan.

As with “Splash of Blood,” ballet acrobatics are melded with primitive, ceremonial dance moves to build a striking set of images in a fitting end to CBT’s celebrations. —Nick Smith

If you're interested, check out today's Post and Courier's review by Dottie Ashley.

Topics: Dance

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Review: Little City Musical Theatre debuts with Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World

Posted by John Stoehr on Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 3:53 PM

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The Little City Musical Theater Company gave its first performance last night in North Charleston. The brand-new theater troupe performed Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World. Nick Smith went to check them out. He sent us this review. The production resumes tonight and Sunday at 8 p.m. at the South of Broadway Theatre. More info here. . . .

The Little City Theatre Company packs a lot of energy into its debut show, Songs for a New World, which opened Friday. It’s an effervescent collection of different musical theater styles that moves quickly and leaves a good, solid impression of the cast’s abilities.

Usually a new company picks a crowd-pleasing, well-known production to herald its arrival. As far as their choice of material goes, the Little Citizens prefer to do their own thing — please themselves and hopefully take a few like-minded audience members with them.

“We’re doing what we want to do for our own enjoyment,” says Co-Founder Ralph Prentice Daniel. “We’re taking it slow and low key.” The mop-haired Daniel isn’t set on packing the house every night. “If we touch five people and give them a new experience, we’ll be happy.”

Fortunately for the rest of us, Little City’s picked Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown’s first musical to have their fun with. Brown’s better known for The Last Five Years and the Tony Award-winning Parade. In most of his work, each song is like a mini-play of its own — perfect for young performers who want to highlight their individual skills.

Songs for a New World, written while Brown was still a teenager, is no exception. It opens on the deck of a sailing ship, with the company hoping and praying for a better life in a new-found land. Daniel handles the characteristically demanding vocals as a warbling Christopher Columbus, blasting the audience with miked-up notes that are carefully balanced with a trio of musicians. In the intimate setting of the South of Broadway Theatre, the music is just loud enough to enthrall audience members without blowing their ears off.

The second song flips to present day, trading drama for comedy with “Just One Step.” Cara Dolan (another company founder) plays a lady on a ledge, a desperate hausfrau who seeks attention through attempted suicide. Dolan’s obviously very comfortable with comedy and she handles it well, making the number one of the most effective in the show.

Christina Yap receives a letter from a lover in “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” balancing her strong singing (she’s a classically trained opera singer) with convincing characterization. The fourth Little City founder Adam Johnston also creates a convincingly screwed up character in “She Cries.”

Thanks to their strong personalities, the cast members bring coherence to what could otherwise be a stripped down song cycle. There are no costume changes, no character names, a scant few lines of dialogue, and the underlying theme is loose even for a musical: the paths that we choose make us who we are, and if we take the wrong one we risk forgetting where we’ve come from.

Hardly original stuff, but Songs did premiere in the same year that brought us Waterworld and Pogs. Long after its sell-by date should have expired, this show still works thanks to the enthusiasm of the performers, musical director Robbi Kenney and musicians Michael Hamf, Jeremy Wolf, and Ben Wells.

Enthusiasm can only get them so far, of course. Daniel and Yap are the most proficient singers, and even they miss a couple of notes. Johnston’s posturing would work on a large stage but looks unsubtle here. The contemporary costumes are unflattering. And towards the end of Act Two, “Flying Home” lacks its potential power. The song fails to engage the audience despite its dead-on musings on mortality. That motif also comes across as heavy-handed in its staging; to make sure we understand the whole death thing, there’s a gravestone and a dying Civil War soldier heading for a bright-lit doorway.

Complaints aside, this show’s recommended for all lovers of raw, modern musical theatre. All four of the performer-founders worked on Charleston Stage’s Beauty and the Beast, and they mix that company’s technical ability with their own zest for the musical genre. They make the most of their rented theater space — South of Broadway has a modest stage and minimal lights, but they still manage to evoke settings like a Spanish sailing ship, a jail cell and a gathering place for hobos.

Yap is a long-time acquaintance of South of Broadway Theatre’s owner Mary Gould; she helped to open the theater five years ago. So it’s understandable that she would want to kick off Little City’s season there. But SOB’s location has always been problematic. North Chuck just isn’t the must-go place for theater buffs — at least, not yet. Most recently Opera!, a series of preview lectures of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 simulcasts, was switched from SOB to the Main Library on Calhoun Street to boost attendance.

Unless they pull a Village Playhouse-style trick and create their own audience base in the Park Circle area, once the company members have honed their skills to their satisfaction, they might want to consider moving where the action is ­— downtown. By maintaining their level of quality and adding a steady influx of locals and tourists to their fan base, Daniel and his friends should be able to sustain their company.

Songs for a New World

Presented by the Little City Musical Theatre Company

April 4-6, 8 p.m.

South of Broadway Theatre

1080 E. Montague Ave.

$15-$22.50

(843) 343-1182

Topics: Theater
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