Results tagged “annenbergcenter”

Last week at the Annenberg Center, Phillyist attended a performance by trumpeter Herb Alpert and vocalist Lani Hall. Upon hearing about the show, this Phillyist's mother expressed surprise that Herb Alpert could still be alive, and indeed, the average age of the audience was remarkably high. Alpert began the show inviting these gray-haired fans to shout out questions, and by the end of the night he had realized his mistake: voices yelled, unprompted, "We love you!" or "Herb, I just want to say this: I love your music and I love your art!" Phillyist began to worry if Alpert and company would be allowed to leave the theatre at all, or whether he would be consumed in an elderly version of the finale of the movie Perfume.

Tomorrow night, the husband and wife jazz team Herb Alpert and Lani Hall will perform songs from their new album, Anything Goes, at the Annenberg Center. Herb Alpert is a trumpet-playing legend: an eight-time Grammy® winner, bandleader of the Tijuana Brass and co-founder of A&M records. Among the friends of Phillyist with longer memories, Herb is famous for his 1965 album Whipped Cream, the cover of which displayed a rather attractive woman wearing nothing but. This time around, however, Herb is performing with his wife, Lani Hall, a Grammy® winning vocalist since the 1960s—we expect both musicians to be fully clothed. They are playing in Philadelphia for one night only.

You have to really love Shakespeare to be familiar with Love's Labour's Lost. Although it's one of the Bard's earlier comedies, it's not performed often... probably because it doesn't really end. A man ahead of his time, Billy Shakes ended the play in true cliffhanger fashion, setting things up for a sequel. A sequel that was, legend tells us, allegedly written and performed, but whose script does not survive. (Probably for the best—sequels are never as good anyway. Right, Mannequin: On the Move?)

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

He was called the “naughty boy of dance” by none other than the grand dame of modern dance herself, Martha Graham. The Paul Taylor Dance Company comes to Philly with five works, the latest,Changes (2008), a Philadelphia premiere. The naughty boy is tricky though: there are two programs, A and B, so you’ll need to head over to the Annenberg twice to catch it all. A includes Changes, Esplanade (1975), and Lines of Loss (2007); B has Philadelphia premiere De Suenos (2007), Changes, and Promethean Fire (2002). Taylor’s dances run the gamut of overwhelming to trivial, so every heavy moment is likely to be counterbalanced with, if not whimsy, at least a little less heavy.

What kind of octogenarian would you like to be? Us, we’ll be Merce Cunningham please. At 89 the famous choreographer is not only still creating works, but continues in his tradition of pushing the technological envelope by combining dance with accompanying music in unique and often fantastical ways (dude’s had Radiohead compose for him. That we’d love to see). Merilyn Jackson has a wonderful article tracing some of his collaborations and technological innovations in the Inquirer, which has served as a yummy appetizer. You see, we are lucky enough to be going to see the Merce Cunningham Dance Company when they perform at the Annenberg Center tomorrow and Friday nights. And our iPods are already in a flurry of excitement.

We are torn. We are not usually torn. Usually, when something makes us rather uncomfortable, we use our prerogative as a (unpaid) blogger to ignore it. We have taken great license with our Phillyist byline, in that we write about what we like and think is important; we don’t pick up on the stuff that is out of our league or seems boring to us. Hence you’ll find a lot of arty stuff, charity stuff, and even some sports stuff under the below name. However, today, we are torn.

When a performer is a standard bearer and larger than life in his or her field, it's hard to escape knowing who that person is, even if you only have a passing interest in his or her art. This Phillyist isn't particularly interested in cinema or dramatic theater, for example, but still knows who Orson Welles and John Barrymore are, if only vaguely. Similarly, one cannot be familiar even in passing with modern dance and not have a clue about, and probably even an opinion on, Martha Graham. She, along with the likes of Isadora Duncan (you know, the one with the scarves) and Ruth St. Denis, is credited with laying the foundation for a dance revolution in America, and the world's been reaping the benefits ever since.

The Opera Company of Philadelphia finishes its run of Verdi's timeless and tragic Rigoletto.

The Dolce Suono Trio devotes an entire concert to Philadelphia composers, including Ned Rorem, George Crumb, Charles Abramovic, and Curt Cacioppo.

If there's one thing that we love about Philadelphia, it's the wealth of creative and talented people that we encounter every day. Philadelphia's singers, actors, and artists are thriving – and so are its dancers. Tomorrow night, local choreographer Braham Logan Crane (who, at 22, is one of the youngest professional choreographers we can think of) will be performing with his company, ASH, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. We've been e-mailing back and forth with Braham to ask him about his career, his work with ASH, and this weekend's performance.

, which will be presented with a (new) live film score, performed by Relâche. Phillyist, for one, loves an evening of live music and suspense. (Especially one that doesn't require that we dress up or spring for a gift.)

This week, we’re starting something new. You see, we’ve just about run out of generic quotes about theatre to use for headlines, and the few times we’ve used less common quotes, we’ve had a few people contact us in rather a lot of confusion. So, we’re going to begin explaining the more, er, “in-quotes,” right here. If you’ve got any theatre-related quotes you’d like us to use, e-mail the quote, play/song, and context to us (contact info is at the end of each week’s listings), and we’ll be happy to use it sometime. This week, we begin with . The headline quote comes from Edmund’s monologue in 1.2; in it, Edmund has decided to ruin his family so that he can claim his half brother's inheritance. Good times are subsequently had by all. Now, on with the listings!

Just because it’s Thanksgiving weekend and you’re going to be overdosing on tryptophan for the next few weeks (all those leftovers!), it doesn’t mean you can’t partake of the great Philadelphia Theatre scene!

We're sorry we're late this week, folks. There was just so much good theatre this week that we found ourselves a little overwhelmed, and we needed a moment to handle the excitement.