Music review: Riccardo Muti, Chicago Symphony at Segerstrom Hall

The mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra -– made great by Fritz Reiner and turbocharged by Georg Solti -– last visited Southern California 25 years ago this month, playing one concert in then-new Segerstrom Hall and three in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 

Much has happened at the CSO since. The Daniel Barenboim era came and went. More than half of the personnel has changed over and it landed the much-coveted Riccardo Muti as its new music director. And with the convenient convergence of the San Francisco Symphony’s centennial and Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 25th anniversary, the CSO was finally lured back Friday night -– this time in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.   

Yet our ears have changed too. I remember when the CSO blew through town and turned heads with its staggering precision and ability to get a big sound out of recalcitrant halls like the Chandler and old Segerstrom. Now, with the upgrade in technical standards here and elsewhere, the CSO no longer seems so startling.  And in newer Segerstrom, the still-brawny Chicago brasses worked too hard, which they didn’t have to in this space, where the adjustable setting was much too reverberant. 

There was only one concert this trip, but it was a bold one -– loaded with future-shock pieces past and present and one oldie that has dropped off the radar, Franck’s Symphony in D minor.  At 70, Muti looks exactly the same and conducts with the same vigor and expressiveness as he did in his last visits with the Philadelphia in the 1980s.

Catching up with young soprano Jackie Evancho [Video]

Is Jackie Evancho a prodigy? A product? A cautionary tale in the making? It depends on whom you ask. One thing is for certain: Any mention of the 11-year old soprano with a mature voice is sure to generate passionate comments. As Evancho is set to be in Los Angeles on Friday for a concert at Nokia Live Theatre, we add our thoughts to the mix in this article in Sunday's Arts & Books section.

For those just catching up: Evancho did the local talent show circuit before joining "America's Got Talent" halfway through the 2010 season as part of a YouTube talent search. Her parents posted the first video of Evancho singing when she was 7 years old, which provides an easy way to see how the voice has changed and grown over the last four years.

No business like show business: the fate of nonprofit theater in America

The economic crisis has certainly accelerated the ongoing commercialization of nonprofit theater.

But it’s not the only story.

In a Sunday Arts & Books notebook I explore the leadership vacuum that has been exacerbating the situation, examining the way the management side of institutions (such as the Old Globe in San Diego) has wrestled power away from the artistic side and questioning the role of the boards of directors in allowing this to happen.

To read this article, please click here.

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—Charles McNulty

twitter.com\charlesmcnulty

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Photo: Michael Ritchie of Center Theatre Group.  Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.

Theater review: 'The Jacksonian' at Geffen Playhouse

In “Crimes of the Heart,” playwright Beth Henley wrung laughs from suicide, with a report of a mother who killed herself alongside her precious kitty and a scene with a grown daughter so mired in scandal that she sticks her head in the oven as though it were a Bundt cake.

Well, that’s nothing compared with the outrageous goings-on in Henley’s latest play, “The Jacksonian,” which is receiving its world premiere in a Geffen Playhouse production featuring Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and Bill Pullman at their creepy-comic best. This black comedy, set in Jackson, Miss., in the tinderbox year of 1964, proudly waves its Southern Gothic flag. You know you’re deep in Flannery O’Connor country when the quotidian merges with the grotesque and genteel manners are accompanied by a fist in the face.

Henley, like all good practitioners of the Southern Gothic genre, observes the bizarre customs of her characters without much editorial commentary. (No need for a soapbox with behavior this self-incriminating.) In setting the work in her birthplace during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, the playwright gets to sift through sepia-tinged memories and examine the pretense of normality in white folks’ lives as churches were burned and black people were lynched. Yet she’s also fabricating a farfetched story that’s as eccentrically stylized as any by David Lynch.

Pasadena Playhouse postpones 'Sleepless in Seattle' musical

The musical based on the 1993 movie “Sleepless in Seattle” scheduled to open June 12 at the Pasadena Playhouse has been postponed until the theater's next season.

The new musical features a book by Jeff Arch, who wrote the original story and co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy directed by Nora Ephron. The songs are by Michelle Citrin, Michael Garin and Josh Nelson. No casting for the musical had been announced.

A statement from artistic director Sheldon Epps said that “our desire to ‘get it right’ led us to the wise decision to give this project additional time for further creative development.”

A replacement for the musical in the Playhouse schedule is still to be announced.

A new opening date for" Sleepless in Seattle" was not announced. The Playhouse's next season begins in September.

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-Kelly Scott

Above: Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle." Credit: Bruce McBroom

 

 

Caracas diary: Dudamel, Abreu and a multitude of young musicians

Not even a parent is likely to relish the thought of a musical showcase with 1,700 schoolchildren performing. So it was probably smart of El Sistema not to tell the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its entourage Thursday afternoon what to expect for an event at and around the Teatro Teresa Carreno, the main concert hall in Caracas where the orchestra currently is finishing up its Mahler Project. The hosts for the showcase were a beaming Gustavo Dudamel and a beaming José Antonio Abreu, the founder of El Sistema.

The kids came from the núcleo schools around the country that are the heart of El Sistema. Several news crews were on hand, and though  the event was closed to the public, hundreds could look on from outside terraces. Dudamel was shadowed by formidable security bruisers.

The Venezuelans do know how to put on a show. At various points around the courtyard of the concert hall -- which faces a lush park and botanical garden where, like nearly everywhere else in this intriguing but frustratingly inaccessible city, it is not safe to wander alone -- we were shown one mind-boggling ensemble after another.

Help wanted: New hero for Reprise Theatre Company

The announcement by Reprise Theatre Company on Friday that the theater company is canceling the spring production of “The Apple Tree” and “entering into an exploratory phase in order to assess its future programming and the funding of that programming” is saddening but hardly surprising.
 
In a statement issued by the theater’s press representative, Reprise Managing Director Christine Bernardi explained, “based on analysis of recent sales trends, we have projected that we will be unable to meet the required ticket sales and fundraising to responsibly mount the rest of our 2011/12 Season.”

These are tough economic times, to be sure. But they’re only made harder by a leadership vision completely at odds with the theater’s limited resources. And if box office is off, it’s not simply because musical theater aficionados are drastically cutting back. “Once bitten, twice shy” pertains as much to bad romance as to bad Sondheim. 

Theater review: 'Three Year Swim Club' at East West Players

This review as been corrected. See below for details.

For every visionary who endures mockery and adversity to realize his or her dreams, millions of other visionaries endure mockery and adversity and then go back to their day jobs. We don’t hear so much about those visionaries. As dramas from “Henry V” to “The Bad News Bears” attest, there’s little more satisfying than watching an unconventional prophet lead an unpromising team to victory against all odds.

East West Players is presenting the “mainland premiere” of “Three Year Swim Club,” a play in this tradition by the Hawaiian writer Lee Tonouchi, based on the true story of Soichi Sakamoto, a science teacher in Maui who, in 1937, decided to turn the children of sugar cane workers into an Olympic swim team — despite not being a swimmer himself or having access to a pool.

Sakamoto developed his training regimen by observing animals in nature, and the kids swam in the plantation’s irrigation ditches. Somehow you know right from the outset that neither the jeering of the other islanders nor even the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics (because of WWII) can deter this plucky bunch.

Although the story is predictable, it is well told, with affectionate, lively characterizations, gentle humor and fresh ingredients. The characters speak in pidgin English — Tonouchi is a pro-pidgin activist who calls himself “Da Pidgin Guerrilla” — which is easy to follow and enhances the charm of this production’s entirely Hawaii-born cast, including Jared Asato as humble hero Keo, Mapuana Makia as his spirited love interest, Kelsey Chock as blustery but sweet-natured Halo, Blake Kushi as the stalwart coach and Kaliko Kauahi as his drily witty wife.

Director and choreographer Keo Woolford uses hula-inspired dance to evoke swimming; the routines are beautiful if a bit monotonous (like swimming itself, actually). Adam Flemming’s striking set includes a raffia backdrop where he projects flickering images, and an alluring blue glow represents the irrigation ditch. All of these elements come together to warm your heart so powerfully that you may feel it has vacationed in Maui.

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“Three Year Swim Club.”David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 N. Judge John Aiso St., L.A. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 11. $26 to $36. (213) 625-7000 or www.eastwestplayers.org. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

[For the record: An earlier version of this review misspelled Jared Asato.]

Photo: Coach Sakamoto (Blake Kushi, top) trains his team (Chris Takemoto-Gentile, Mapuana Makia, Kelsey Chock and Jared Asato) in “Three Year Swim Club.” Credit: Michael Lamont.

Reprise Theatre Company goes on hiatus, cites financial hardship

Reprise Theatre Company has canceled its upcoming April production of "The Apple Tree" and is suspending all mainstage productions for the foreseeable future, the organization said Friday. The company has suffered from weak projected ticket sales and lackluster fundraising.

The company, which produces revivals of classic and recent musical theater titles at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, said it will go on hiatus in order to determine what business model it will adopt for the future.

Reprise won't be suspending all operations. The company will continue to produce one-night-only special events, such as "Seth Rudetsky's Deconstructing Broadway" on Feb. 23. But the company said its mainstage productions have been put on indefinite hold.

Jason Alexander, the "Seinfeld" actor and the company's artistic director since 2007, said Reprise has been unable to reconcile the need to expand its audience base while also staying true to its artistic mission, which includes productions of quirky, lesser-known musical titles.

"I can't tell you that we've ever grown our audience," Alexander said in a phone interview. "What does attract an audience in L.A.? Our entire model broke six or seven years ago. We kept bandaging it rather than addressing it. This hiatus is going to force us to reinvent the wheel."

Jazz review: Chucho Valdes, Poncho Sanchez and Terence Blanchard

A deeply soulful and often underrated genre, Latin jazz has been the focus of a controversy lately. When the Recording Academy decided to restructure the Grammy Awards this year and in the process killed the Latin jazz category, the decision was met with wrath by some of the most influential musicians in the field. Latin jazz still matters, they asserted. It deserves to be cherished.

The timing, then, couldn’t have been better for Thursday’s performance by veteran Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and his Afro-Cuban Messengers at Walt Disney Concert Hall, just days after the Grammy ceremony.

Wonderfully unpredictable, luminous and mercurial, the one-hour set left the capacity audience pining for more. The conclusion was inevitable: So this is what we’d be missing if Latin jazz was silenced.

Valdés is the son of Bebo Valdés, perhaps the most exquisite pianist and bandleader from the golden era of Cuban music. During the ’70s, Chucho stepped boldly into the future by founding Irakere -- the now-mythical group that pioneered the fusion of Cuban folklore, jazz and rock.