Marc Shaiman talks about returning as music director of the Oscars ceremony

Tony winner Marc Shaiman is headed down Oscar's red carpet once again. The stage and film composer is returning as music director of the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held March 7 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Shaiman, who won a Tony for his work on Broadway's "Hairspray" and has received five Oscar nominations, is a veteran of the Academy Awards ceremony, having written comic medleys for shows in years past. He also served as musical director for the 2004 ceremony.

Speaking from New York, Shaiman said he's already started working on potential musical numbers for the show. "We've had just a few meetings, and some ideas have started to be put into place," he said.

"The show is a huge ship that takes off every year. It's never too early to start work, but it's not until the nominations are announced that we can really begin."

The Oscar nominations are set to be announced Feb. 2.

Shaiman said he was happy to be re-teaming with his "Hairspray" collaborator Adam Shankman, who is producing the telecast along with Bill Mechanic. Shaiman added that his job entails all aspects of music during the show, except for conducting the live orchestra.

The composer revealed some tidbits about his current and upcoming stage and screen projects. His musical adaptation of the film "Catch Me if You Can" is currently looking for a home on Broadway, after out-of-town tryouts in Seattle earlier this year.

"We're circling theaters like Broadway vultures," he said. "You have to actively hope for a show to fail. It's a terrible thing to think."

He also discussed his in-the-works Showtime project with director Steven Spielberg -- a scripted series about the world of Broadway musicals: "We've just begun, but the ideas are flowing. And it seems to be on the fast track."

In addition, Shaiman is working on a new musical version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," for which he is writing the score along with Scott Wittman.

As for the Oscars, Shaiman refused to say whether hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin would be performing a musical number together.

"Who knows?" he said. "I can tell you there will be surprises, but of course I can't tell you what they will be."

-- David Ng

Photo: Composer Marc Shaiman, at right in the blue pimp outfit, at the 2000 Academy Awards ceremony, with "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. (They worked together for the film "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut.") Credit: Los Angeles Times

Monster Mash: LACMA's red ink; Charlie Chaplin museum in Switzerland; Galileo's fingers

-- Financial trouble: LACMA loses 23% of its investments in the last fiscal year. One victim is Jeff Koons' dangling train project, which was scheduled to arrive at LACMA in 2011-12, and is now delayed for three more years. (Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg)

-- Little tramp: A long-planned museum dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, pictured, will be constructed at the site of the actor's former home in Switzerland. (Radio Suisse Romande)

-- Discovery: Two severed fingers and a tooth belonging to Galileo have been identified by a museum in Florence, Italy. (CNN)

-- Landing on their feet: Two actors from the recently closed Broadway revival of "Brighton Beach Memoirs" have landed roles in the upcoming revival of "A View from the Bridge." (New York Times)

-- Major project: A $208-million concert hall in Helsinki, Finland, is intended to improve on the existing Finlandia Hall, but it's already 50% over projected costs. (Bloomberg)

-- Winner: Jez Butterworth's "Jerusalem" was named best play at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. (Playbill)

-- Operatic great: Swedish soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom has passed away at age 82. (Telegraph)

-- Moving up: "Enter Laughing," which has had two runs off-Broadway, is aiming for a Broadway engagement in the fall of 2010. (Variety)

-- And in the L.A. Times: The L.A. Philharmonic's "West Coast, Left Coast" festival begins; a look at the Broadway production of "Fela!"

-- David Ng

Photo:  Charlie Chaplin with Virginia Cherrill in a scene from "City Lights." Credit: Los Angeles Times

Playwright Marisa Wegrzyn wins 2009 Wasserstein Prize

Chicago-based dramatist Marisa Wegrzyn has won the 2009 Wasserstein Prize for her new play, "Hickorydickory." As part of the award, the twentysomething playwright will receive a significant chunk of change -- $25,000, to be exact. In addition, "Hickorydickory" will receive a reading at Second Stage Theater in New York.

The road to success has not always been smooth for Wegrzyn, whose plays have been produced by theater companies around the country, including some in Los Angeles. In 2007, her drama "The Butcher of Baraboo" received a series of scathing reviews from newspapers including the New York Times and the New York Post when it premiered at Second Stage Theater.

Wegrzyn later told the Chicago Tribune that the "nobody goes to New York for her off-Broadway debut hoping to get panned."

The playwright seems to have better luck in L.A. Her play "Ten Cent Night" opened at the Victory Theatre in Burbank in June. A reviewer for The Times called it a  "delightful but messy romp" and wrote that the production featured "Olympian performances" from the uniformly excellent cast.

Wegrzyn's one-act "Psalms of a Questionable Nature" played at L.A.'s Lucid By Proxy in 2005 and also received positive notices.

The Wasserstein Prize is awarded for an outstanding script by a young woman who has not yet received national attention. It is named after Wendy Wasserstein, the award-winning author of "The Heidi Chronicles."

Previous winners of prize were Linda Ramsey in 2007 and Laura Jacqmin in 2008 for their plays "The Feather House" and "And when we awoke there was light and light," respectively.  

-- David Ng

Photo: Marisa Wegrzyn. Credit: Chicago Tribune

Close encounters with animals: from Paris to L.A.

A striking nighttime image of two leopards, one snarling in profile, the other looking warily over its shoulder, appears on posters all over Paris announcing “anima,” an exhibition of photographs by Jean-Francois Spricigo.

On view at the Palais de l’Institut de France through Nov. 21 and coming to Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles in January, the show introduces a body of work produced by the young Belgian artist who won the 2008 Prix de Photographie de l’Academie des Beaux-Arts.

One of many applicants for the prestigious annual prize, Spricigo submitted eight prints and a proposal to a jury appointed by the academy. He was awarded 15,000 euros (about $22,500) to realize the project, a suite of 60 black-and-white images of animals.

What apparently impressed the judges was the artist’s fresh approach to a standard subject. Neither sentimental nor anthropomorphic, his blurry, soft-edge images have a haunting, soulful quality.

Most of the cats, dogs, donkeys, goats, horses, cows and birds depicted in the pictures emerge from the dark as unexpected encounters with creatures caught in motion. Whether seen up close or at a distance, the animals confront viewers with surprising intimacy.

Monster Mash: Move to save Claremont Museum; Eli Broad's Beverly Hills museum; Honolulu Symphony cancels concerts

-- Stay of execution?: The city of Claremont is considering a measure to assist the Claremont Museum of Art, which is on the verge of closing. (Contra Costa Times)

-- Moving forward: Eli Broad is currently under property and lease negotiations with the city of Beverly Hills for his long-planned museum. (Beverly Hills Courier)

-- Dire measures: The Honolulu Symphony has canceled its remaining concerts for 2009 and may lay off half of its musicians. (Honolulu Advertiser)

-- Art of diplomacy: Germany and Egypt are planning talks over a contested statue of Nefertiti. (Agence France Presse, via Art Info)

-- Back in business: Oxford's Ashmolean Museum has finally re-opened to the public after extensive renovations. (BBC News)

-- Retro hit: "The Marvelous Wonderettes," the off-Broadway musical that originated in L.A., will close Jan. 3 after a 16-month run. (Variety)

-- Award winner: Russian pianist Georgy Tchaidze has won the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary. (Globe and Mail)

-- Classical twist: A ballet adaptation of Bizet's opera "Carmen" in South Africa is given a soccer-themed twist. (Agence France Presse)

-- And in the L.A. Times: A large outdoor fork sculpture attracts attention in Pasadena; music critic Mark Swed compares conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alan Gilbert; art critic Christopher Knight discusses a "maybe" Michelangelo. 

-- David Ng

Photo: The Claremont Museum of Art and its former director, William Moreno. Credit: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times

L.A.'s Harmony Project honored at White House

In eight short years, the Harmony Project has gone from L.A.'s toughest neighborhoods to the glitz of the White House.

On Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama presented the music-education organization with the Coming Up Taller Award, which recognizes youth-oriented arts and humanities programs nationwide. Each year, 15 organizations are chosen to receive the award, which comes with a $10,000 prize.

This year's winners were chosen from a field of 50 semifinalists. The prize recipients include New York's Epic Theatre Center, for its Shakespeare Remix Program; Citywide Poets of Detroit; and the Young Artist Apprenticeship Program from Blaffer Gallery, at the Art Museum of the University of Houston.

Founded in 2001, L.A.'s Harmony Project provides classical-music education for low-income children. The organization is based in Hollywood but does much of its work with youth from the South Central area of L.A as well as other regions.

The Harmony Project is also one of the partners with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra.

Speaking by phone from Washington, Harmony founder Margaret Martin said the organization will use the $10,000 prize money to help pay for teachers and other professionals. Harmony currently has about 50 instructors and 750 students.

Martin said Harmony's current annual budget is about $1.2 million. The organization started out in 2001 with a $9,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Hollywood.

Today's White House ceremony is part of a day of music celebration that includes a concert featuring violinist Joshua Bell. A group of several young musicians from the Harmony Project's Hollywood Youth Orchestra are scheduled to perform as part of the day's events.

-- David Ng

Photo: Leslie Cardenas, front, and Sara Flores rehearse as part of the Harmony Project in this 2007 photo. Credit: Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times

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National radio broadcast of NEA's opera awards will elude L.A.

There will be a recurring California motif at the National Endowment for the Arts' second annual NEA Opera Honors ceremony on Nov. 14 -- but there are no plans for the national radio broadcast of the musical proceedings and award presentations to grace Southern California's airwaves.

Composer John Adams, who is based in the Bay Area and has close ties to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Lotfi Mansouri, former general director of the San Francisco Opera, whose wide-ranging career began in L.A., will join mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, former New York City opera conductor Julius Rudel and director-librettist Frank Corsaro as honorees at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. Each will receive a $25,000 prize.

Placido Domingo, general director of both the Los Angeles Opera and the Washington National Opera, will offer greetings via video, and Deborah Borda, president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be on hand to present Adams' award. 

The WFMT Radio Network, based at Chicago classical station WFMT, aims to send the live broadcast to more than 150 radio markets, but Steve Robinson, the station's senior vice president, says it's unlikely Los Angeles will be among them. That leaves area opera buffs with the online option: wfmt.com will carry the proceedings live starting at 4:30 p.m. PST on Nov. 14, but Robinson said the program won't be archived for later listening.

"We already do a lot of opera programming, so it's tough to add another one to the schedule," said Brenda Barnes, president of L.A.'s classical station, KUSC-FM (91.5). The station offers weekly Saturday morning and Sunday night opera programs, as well as broadcasts of performances by Los Angeles Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.

The NEA Opera Honors show will feature musical tributes from soprano Angela Brown and baritone Gordon Hawkins, as well as a video encomium to each recipient. Andre Previn will be the presenter for the Iranian-born Mansouri, who launched his career in opera as a student, then a professor, at UCLA, and went on to lead the San Francisco Opera from 1988 to 2001. Broadway and concert singer Barbara Cook will do the honors for Horne, soprano Shirley Verrett is Rudel's presenter, and composer Carlisle Floyd, who collaborated often with Corsaro, will present his award.

Floyd was one of the four inaugural NEA Opera Honors recipients last year, along with soprano Leontyne Price, conductor James Levine and opera administrator and advocate Richard Gaddes.

Monster Mash: Banksy's graffiti defaced; Oregon Shakespeare Festival surprise; Caravaggio's self-portrait

--Everyone's a critic: A mural by British graffiti artist Banksy was defaced during a vote on whether the artwork ought to be preserved. (BBC News)

--Box office surprise: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival says it saw record attendance and revenue for its 2009 season. (Associated Press)

--A lot of Windex: A Jeff Koons sculpture cost a couple between $75,000 and $100,000 a year to maintain. (Connecticut Post, via Art Info)

--Big plans: Billionaire Victor Pinchuk said he will build a contemporary arts center in Kiev, Ukraine. (Bloomberg)

--Where's Caravaggio? Art experts say they have found a tiny self-portrait of Caravaggio hidden in his 1597 painting "Bacchus." (Telegraph)

--Setting a date: Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum says it will reveal its 125,000-square-foot expansion in October 2010. (Crocker Art Museum)

--Summer in the park: The Public Theater said it will stage Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" and "A Winter's Tale" next summer in New York's Central Park. (Playbill)

--Lucrative project: Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire is set to adapt an upcoming series of children's books by William Joyce for DreamWorks Animation. (Variety)

--In memory: Britain's Evening Standard Awards has renamed one of its annual honors after the late Natasha Richardson. (The Stage)

--Expensive wheels: Bicycles that Lance Armstrong used during the Tour de France have fetched $1.3 million in a charity auction for his cancer foundation. (Bloomberg)

--Invaluable documents: The Juilliard School announced the acquisition of manuscripts by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. (New York Times)

--Fast on their feet: The nominations and honorees for the Isadora Duncan Awards -- honoring the best in the Bay Area dance community -- have been announced. (San Francisco Chronicle)

--And in the L.A. Times: Researchers say that the ancient Nazca people of Peru hastened their own demise through deforestation; President Obama makes 25 appointments to his Committee on the Arts and the Humanities; Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza" extends through Dec. 20 in Santa Monica.

-- David Ng

Photo: The recently defaced mural by Banksy in South London. Credit: BBC News

Monster Mash: Broadway's 'Brighton Beach' closes; forgery case reopened; Ground Zero center in danger

-- Open and shut: Despite good reviews, the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" closed Sunday after just one week. (Newsday). Some thoughts on the reasons (Los Angeles Times).

-- F is for fake: The FBI has reopened a case involving a Louisiana couple accused of selling art forgeries. (Associated Press)

-- Spreading the word: José Antonio Abreu, the founder of Venezuela's El Sistema, discusses music education in Canada. (The Globe and Mail)

-- In danger: The proposed performing arts center at New York's Ground Zero could be axed before it breaks ground. (New York Times)

-- Classical prize: A musician tries to restore the luster to the once-prestigious International Tchaikovsky   Competition. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

-- On the move: Galleries in San Francisco are leaving the city's arts districts in search of cheaper rent. (San Francisco Chronicle)

-- Tale of two cities: Which is Asia's top cultural metropolis -- Hong Kong or Singapore? (Wall Street Journal)

-- Felicitations: French playwright-novelist Marie NDiaye wins her country's highest literary honor for her novel "Three Powerful Women." (Bloomberg)

-- Lucky find: A contemporary Egyptian sculpture that sat in a Cleveland man's garden for nearly 40 years has been sold for $118,000. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

-- And in the L.A. Times: San Diego's Old Globe announces its 2010 summer season; the heirs of George and Ira Gershwin are at odds over foreign royalties; winners are announced in the First Annual Art Awards.  

-- David Ng

Photo: Laurie Metcalf and Dennis Boutsikaris in "Brighton Beach Memoirs." Credit: Joan Marcus / Via Bloomberg

Jeff Koons, MOCA, Connie Butler among winners of new art award

Award season in Hollywood is often mocked by cultural aesthetes as crass and commercial. But purveyors of the fine arts certainly aren't above throwing their own lavish parties to honor themselves. In fact, it's apparently hip now to imitate those vulgar Tinseltown award ceremonies -- but in an ironic way, of course.

Yesterday at New York's Guggenheim Museum, the elite of the museum and gallery worlds gathered for an event titled "The First Annual Art Awards." The ceremony, which was organized by conceptual artist Rob Pruitt, was intended to ape the Hollywood tradition of bestowing glitzy prizes in a celebrity-infested atmosphere. (Julianne Moore and James Franco were on hand to present some of the awards.)

A news release for the event went so far as to spin the evening itself as "a performance-based artwork." Culture Monster doesn't really buy the whole tongue-in-cheek angle. After all, when does a parody cross the line to become the thing itself?

In any case, the ceremony included many high-profile art-world winners. Mary Heilmann and Connie Butler won the artist and curator of the year awards, respectively. (The latter was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A. for many years.)

Jeff Koons won the award for exhibition outside the U.S. for his installation at Versailles. The award for solo museum show went to the Martin Kippenberger retrospective organized by MOCA and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Other winners included artist Ryan Trecartin, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York's Tony Shafrazi Gallery and critic Jerry Saltz.

The award trophy, which was designed by Pruitt, resembled a celebratory bucket of Champagne that also serves as a fully functional lamp, according to the Guggenheim.

-- David Ng

Photo: Julianne Moore and Francisco Costa (of Calvin Klein) at last night's ceremony at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Credit: Jemal Countess / Getty Images

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