The original cast of the Disney Channel smash hit High School Musical movie, are celebrating their 10th anniversary. They will be doing it all on camera. The eternally youthful cast is headed back to high school for a special telecast of the movie, which will air Wednesday. Missing will be Zac Efron who isn’t available to join Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman for the telecast, but he will be appearing in a pre-taped message for the fans.

The special will air January 20th at 8 p.m. ET on Disney Channel.

My View: Uptown, Downtown, East or West The Result Is The Same – Standing Ovations

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Suzanna Bowling

Suzanna, co-owns and publishes the newspaper Times Square Chronicles or T2C. At one point a working actress, she has performed in numerous productions in film, TV, cabaret, opera and theatre. She has performed at The New Orleans Jazz festival, The United Nations and Carnegie Hall. She has a screenplay and a TV show in the works, which she developed with her mentor and friend the late Arthur Herzog. She is a proud member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle and was a nominator. Email: suzanna@t2conline.com

Broadway

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ Is Looking For Bob Fosse

Published

13 hours ago

April 1, 2023

Suzanna Bowling

Where are the Sandahl Bergman, René Ceballos, Christopher Chadman, Vicki Frederick, John Mineo and Ann Reinking’s? They are not in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ now playing on Broadway right now. Only Wayne Cilento, who was in the original, has become the director and Musical stager of the show on Broadway now.

Dancin‘ originally was created, directed, and choreographed by Bob Fosse and originally produced on Broadway in 1978. This new version holds very little of what Fosse stood for or represented.

I went to show score and someone wrote: Lots of dancin. very little Fosse. See it if You’ve never seen real Fosse. Don’t see it if You’ve seen real Fosse.

This is so true. I came to New York in 1978 and I knew most of the cast of Dancin. If you auditioned for a Fosse show, you did what was known as “Tea For Two” routine. It was the first in a round of cuts. Everyone knew the routine. It was about placement. Your arms and hands had to be a certain way, your fingers, head, legs, Fosse was about precision. This is what Casey Nicholaw, does in spades in Some Like it Hot and it is a joy to behold! Somehow Wayne Cilento has forgotten his training, because what is on stage at the Music Box is a sloppy, over indulgent mess. Only Peter John Chursin who is fabulous, Dylis Croman, Manuel Herrera and Kolton Krouse have an understanding of how a Fosse dancer moved and kept it so easily under control. For that matter why is it called Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ when this reviewer didn’t see a lot of Bob Fosse’s dancing.

Except for the costumes for “Sing, Sing Sing” they are seriously unflattering and ugly. The set list, though a lot is taken from the original is disappointing and unrecognizable. We have music supervision, orchestrations, incidental music, and vocal arrangements by Jim Abbott, music direction by Darryl Archibald and dance arrangements and additional music by David Dabbon to thank. Kirsten Childs has given the show a script that is banal. Robert Brill’s set design, Finn Ross’s projection design, go from utilitarian to stark reality.

In Act 1 we are “treated” to “Big City Mime”, that seemed more sleazy than steamy. When you watch Fosse’s “Take Off With Us” number from “All That Jazz” its erotic, not like moves in a strip joint in the 70’s 42nd Street. Also notice the precise placement of all body parts.

In this piece they did add elements of the “Snake in The Grass” number from “The Little Prince”, and the Pippin “Glory ” ‘ Manson Trio .’Also the choreography of Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall’s “Duet from My Sister Eileen” one of my favorite pieces of dance to watch. That was extremely well done by Peter John Chursin and Manuel Herrera.

Ending the first act is the crowd pleaser “Dancin Man,” but again sloppy.

Jacob Guzman, Ron Todorowski, Karli Dinardo, and Peter Chursin in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

The second-act opener “Sing, Sing, Sing,” is performed very close to the original, except the female solo goes to the excellent Kolton Krouse who is a they/their. As a matter a fact most of the female solo’s are given to others. Why? During the number the marvelous Gary Seligson is on drums.

Kolton Krouse by Julieta Cervantes

Selections from Sweet Charity‘s “The Rich Man’s Frug”, “Hey Big Spender” and “I’m a Brass Band,” “From This Moment On” from the film version of “Kiss Me Kate” are included.

It was wonderful to see Fosse’s Big Deal back on the stage.

The cast also includes; Ioana Alfonso, Yeman Brown, Tony d’Alelio, Jōvan Dansberry, Karli Dinardo, Jacob Guzman, Mattie Love, Yani Marin, Nando Morland, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Ida Saki and Ron Todorowski.

I am a huge fan of choreography. My go to video’s to wind down are “Whose Got The Pain” from Damn Yankee’s, “Sing, Sing, Sing” from the original Dancin’, “Duet from My Sister Eileen,” “Lets Take a Glass Together” from Grand Hotel and “Turkey Lurkey Time” from Promises, Promises. When Dancing is done well, it is euphoric, but it seems lately on Broadway dancing is going freestyle and technique no longer counts. I miss the days of Bob Fosse.

Bob Fosse’s Dancin: The Music Box Theatre, 239 W 45th Street.

Art

Have You Seen Windy At The High Line?

Published

13 hours ago

April 1, 2023

Suzanna Bowling

On the High Line, Bennani realizes her first public sculpture, Windy, co-commissioned by High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Windy is a spinning sculpture in the shape of a tornado made from black foam. The work plays with various traditions and ambiguities of public sculpture. In many cases, the public is asked to walk around public sculpture, taking in its grandeur from a safe distance. Bennani’s sculpture spins itself, and at a speed that makes the details of the work almost impossible to grasp—both visually and physically. The work continues Bennani’s practice of creating large, geometric steel sculptures, which to date she has built to house her videos. Windy marks Bennani’s first sculpture that exists on its own terms, while the object’s movement continues her fascination with animation and the way that drawn and still characters come to life. In her conceptualization of the work, Bennani was inspired by the dynamism and constant movement on the High Line, wishing to make a sculpture that could capture and work within this urban energy.

Merging magical realism, absurdist humor, and techniques from a wide range of moving image genres, Meriem Bennani creates video series that tell stories about human behavior and our experiences on- and offline, tackling subjects such as language, displacement, and diasporic living. Employing production aesthetics and storytelling methods found in recognizable forms such as reality television, home videos, documentary film, cell phone videos, and animation, Bennani welcomes the viewer into narratives that feel like an amplification of reality. Bennani shares her videos in a variety of traditional and creative formats, from immersive projection installations, to screens embedded in colorful, cartoon-like sculptures, to social media platforms like Instagram.

Audemars Piguet Contemporary, established in 2012, commissions international artists to create contemporary artworks. The art programme of Audemars Piguet—the oldest fine watchmaking manufacturer still in the hands of its founding families—engages with and commissions artists to create new work across a variety of scales and media, which may enable them to explore new territories in their practice. The curatorial team accompanies each commission process from inception to development to exhibition and builds experiences for audiences to engage with the work around the world. The resulting artworks belong to the artists and contribute to their body of work. Learn more.

Meriem Bennani (b. 1988, Rabat, Morocco) is an artist based in New York. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois (2022); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England (2022); Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, Germany (2020); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2019); The Kitchen, New York, New York (2017); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2016). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at institutions including LAX, Los Angeles, California (2020); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2020); and MAXXI National Museum of XXI Arts, Rome, Italy (2018). She has participated in major international exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (2019); Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, Turin, Italy (2019); Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2018); Biennale de Rennes, France (2018); and 11th Shanghai Biennale, China (2016).

Windy is on display until May

Cabaret

My View: Happening In Palm Beach……. Paul Anka, Rita Rudner, Linda Purl, and Billy Stritch

Published

1 day ago

March 31, 2023

Stephen Sorokoff

If there was any doubt that Cafe Centro was a bona fide Cabaret Venue it was dispelled last night. Billy Stritch was seated at the Cafe’s Grand Piano and Linda Purl was the songstress headlining on the cabaret stage of the South Florida restaurant. The SRO crowd that had managed to snag dinner/show tickets got to hear one of the most skillful performances of the Great American Songbook and Broadway show tunes currently out there in Cabaret world. Linda Purl, an extraordinary actor is also an extremely talented vocalist who makes you fall in love with the song and also with Linda Purl, and I might add she is oh so great to focus on through my camera lens.

Billy Stritch was the music director for this gig and he brought his creative, virtuosic, jazz infused piano playing to accompany her. Billy was an engine of harmony and rhythm that coupled with Linda’s natural swing and romantic ballads perfectly. The overflow crowd loved every note of the performance. Mr. Stritch usually adds his lush voice underneath his stable of super singers to create some fantastic musical symmetry, as he has done for some of show biz’s legendary entertainers (Liza Minnelli, Christine Ebersole, Linda Lavin, Linda Eder, and Marilyn Maye to name a few.) During this show he wowed us all with his keyboard artistry. BTW, BIlly, an extraordinary singer/ entertainer on the cabaret and concert stages worldwide can be seen at the new WICK Museum nightclub on April 1st for a special one night only engagement performing his Cy Coleman show. Not to be missed by music lovers.

Sanford Fisher produced the Linda Purl evening. It brought these two super stars of the Cabaret and Concert stages together for an outstanding evening at Cafe Centro, our local oasis of live music in Palm Beach.

Another great Palm Beach event this week…..the “LADY IN RED” LIFE Gala at The Breakers……Congratulations to Lois Pope, the Board of LIFE and Entertainment Chair Sunny Sessa for creating a fantastic evening……

RITA RUDNER & PAUL ANKA……What a show!