Monster Mash: Picasso, Matisse taken in Paris art heist; Jerry Brown backs appeal in Norton Simon case

-- Overnight job: A thief broke into the Paris Museum of Modern Art and stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- including major works by Picasso and Matisse. (Associated Press)

-- Legal action: California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up an appeal by a woman who wants the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to relinquish two paintings the Nazis seized from her father-in-law. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Offstage drama: Italian government reforms aimed at state-supported opera houses and orchestras have sparked strikes and cancellations of performances across the nation as well as a debate about the quality and future of opera in Italy.  (Independent)

-- Change of plans: Playwright Deb Margolin has withdrawn "Imagining Madoff" from the 2010-11 lineup of Theater J, a Jewish theater in Washington, after author and humanitarian Elie Wiesel objected to a character in the play that was based on him. (Playbill)

-- Hope fades: A judge in New York says it's unlikely that former art dealer Lawrence B. Salander, who has pleaded guilty in a $120-million fraud case, can repay his victims. (Bloomberg)

-- Leading lady: Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang will join a memorial tribute in New York for Jadin Wong, whom he describes as "a brassy, brilliant ex-actress-turned-agent for 'Oriental' talent ... the quintessential Broadway dame." Wong died in March at 96. (Playbill)

Also in the Los Angeles Times: Chris Pine will star in "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" at the Mark Taper Forum; the JapanOC festival will feature Japanese and Japanese American arts and artists; the evolution of Las Vegas and the evolution of urban dance collide in "The Jabbawockeez Present: MUS.I.C." (muse I see) at the Hollywood Theatre in the MGM Grand hotel.

-- Karen Wada

Photo: Police transfer an empty frame through a window at the Paris Museum of Modern Art on May 20, 2010, after an overnight heist. Credit: Benoit Tessier / Reuters

'The Jabbawockeez present MUS.I.C.': Opening the doors to dance ... in Las Vegas? [UPDATED]

The evolution of Las Vegas and the evolution of urban dance collide in "The Jabbawockeez Present: MUS.I.C." (muse I see) at the Hollywood Theater of the MGM Grand hotel.

[UPDATE: The show is extended from June 17 - June 23, though it was earlier said to be from June 6 - June 13.] Originally slated to run for three weeks from May 7 - May 26, the show has sold out most of its performances and has done so well that the hotel has slated another week, June 17 - June 23, for the crew to return.

The Jabbawockeez, the first winners of MTV's "Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew," created a 90-minute show that stylistically ranges from contemporary hip-hop to a "Singin' in the Rain" number. Crew member Ryan 'Kid Rainen' Paguio believes that The Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil excelled in Las Vegas and beyond because they were "different." The success of the MUS.I.C. event, though, may not be just because it's different, but could be due to the genre's surging popularity. Dance's domination of pop culture -- "Dancing With the Stars" has even beaten the mighty "American Idol" in ratings this year --  could open up other avenues for dancers and even start a bit of a Vegas trend.

Frank Gehry, polarizing as ever

 

There's no doubt about it: Frank Gehry remains the most polarizing architect in the world. Every time I write about his career or one of his buildings, the e-mails come pouring in, and they always cover a wide range of critical reaction, from readers who find Gehry's architecture deeply moving to those who think he is architecture's naked emperor.

Today is no different. In response to my review of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Gehry's first building in Las Vegas, the e-mailers were again out in force, and again showing evidence of dramatically split opinion. (The comments are also piling up beneath the story on The Times' website.) I've excerpted -- anonymously -- some of the most entertaining, negative and thoughtful correspondence after the jump.

Michael Jackson will get the Cirque du Soleil treatment

Michael Jackson, always a kid at heart, surely would have appreciated this news.

Cirque du Soleil said Tuesday that it will create a brand new traveling show that will honor the music and the spirit of the King of Pop.

Jackson’s estate and Cirque du Soleil will collaborate on a concert-like production that will tour sports arenas starting in the fall of 2011.

The traveling production will be followed in 2012 with a permanent show in Las Vegas, similar to existing Cirque du Soleil productions built around the music of the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

“Having attended Cirque du Soleil performances with Michael, I know he was a huge fan,” John Branca, co-executor of Jackson’s estate, said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“This will not just be a tribute to Michael’s musical genius, but a live entertainment experience that uses the most advanced technology to push every creative boundary as Michael always did.”

The venue of the permanent show has not been announced. The late pop star’s estate and Cirque du Soleil will split the costs and profits of their collaborative ventures equally, while intellectual property royalties will go to the estate.

In March, administrators of Jackson's estate and his longtime record label, Sony Music Entertainment, announced a seven-year-distribution deal for as many as 10 new Jackson projects, including unreleased recordings and DVDs.

Read the full story on the Jackson-Cirque du Soleil collaboration at the Pop & Hiss blog.

-- David Ng and Scott Sandell

Photo: Michael Jackson. Credit: Reuters

RELATED:

Why Michael Jackson danced like no one else

Ruling: Spielberg rightfully owned Rockwell painting he gave up

Given the logic behind a federal judge's ruling this month in Las Vegas, the Norman Rockwell painting that Steven Spielberg voluntarily handed over in 2007 after the FBI listed it as stolen goods never should have been taken down from the film director's wall.

While Judge Roger Hunt didn't say so directly in his April 8 decision, his ruling in the convoluted case of "Russian Schoolroom" (above) is based on evidence that the FBI must have erred when it put the painting on its list of stolen artworks. The painting, which Rockwell did for Look magazine in 1967, was stolen from a Missouri gallery in 1973. Hunt found that when it resurfaced at auction in New Orleans in 1988, the FBI investigated and decided that ownership had been resolved and the auction was legitimate.

New York art dealer Judy Goffman Cutler was the high bidder in New Orleans, at $70,400, then sold it to Spielberg, a regular client, for $200,000 in 1989.

When Jack Solomon, the owner at the time of the 1973 theft, sued Spielberg in 2007 for ownership of "Russian Schoolroom," Cutler stepped in to extricate the film director from the case by swapping another 1960s Rockwell painting, "Peace Corps in Ethiopia," for the rights to "Russian Schoolroom." She took over as the defendant in his place, and Hunt's ruling means the painting is now hers.

Spielberg "never should have had to give it up," Gene Brockland, attorney for Cutler, said Monday. "The painting never should have been listed as stolen by the FBI. It was an honest mistake."

But Solomon's attorney, Michael Mushkin, said Monday that "we're kind of stunned" that the judge based his ruling on disputed evidence over whether the FBI had indeed investigated and signed off on the 1988 auction.

Theater review: 'Viva Elvis' -- Cirque du Soleil brings the King back to Vegas

Midway into Cirque du Soleil’s latest eye-popping Vegas production, “Viva Elvis,” there’s a segment saluting Elvis Presley’s love affair with Hollywood. It’s an upbeat, thigh-slapping ersatz western number in which one of the troupe’s dancers, outfitted as a movie cowboy, spins a lasso that keeps expanding until it seems to take in half the stage at the Aria Resort & Casino, where the show had its glitzy premiere Friday.

Impressive as that was to behold, it underscored how the Canadian company can’t get a rope around the mythic figure that is the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. All the signature Cirque elements are here: breathtaking acrobatics, dazzlingly inventive sets, joyfully inspired costumes and imaginatively reimagined music -- the bulk of it derived from Presley’s recordings.

But Cirque’s creative team appears to have set a standard for itself, and others, with the Beatles-driven “Love” show just down the street, which is not easily equaled, much less surpassed. That venture not only taps the musical spirit, but also reaches to the magical soul of the Fab Four, something that “Viva Elvis” aspires to only fleetingly in paying homage to pop music’s other titanic figure.

“Love” brought the Beatles to Las Vegas without a hint of schlock, a mission apparently impossible with Elvis given that his association with Sin City virtually defined the contemporary notion of pop-culture kitsch.

Cirque might have attempted to ignore that aspect of his career, but instead embraces it, and often in witty, mostly affectionate ways in a production for which tickets run $99 to $175. Ultimately, however, “Viva Elvis” is skewed more toward fans who are captivated by the cultural excess of Graceland than those most drawn to the startling power of his best music.

Cirque du Soleil's 'Viva ELVIS' to open in December in Las Vegas

If Elvis Presley had lived in Montreal, would his famous catchphrase have been, "Merci ... merci, beaucoup"?

Earlier this year, Cirque du Soleil announced that it was planning to produce a new show in tribute to the king of rock 'n' roll, in collaboration with Elvis Presley Enterprises. Today, the Montreal-based Cirque said the show will be titled "Viva ELVIS" and that it will premiere in December at its permanent home at the Aria Resort & Casino, which is located in MGM Mirage’s CityCenter complex.

Choreographer Vincent Paterson is directing the show, marking his first Cirque collaboration. In a video interview on the company's website, Paterson describes the production as "an abstract biography of Elvis Presley" that will incorporate some "acting moments" spoken in English.

While he is most famous for his collaborations with Madonna and Michael Jackson, Paterson also has worked in the performing arts. In 2006, he staged a '50s style revival of Massenet's "Manon" for Los Angeles Opera.

Cirque performers traveled to Graceland to conduct research for the show, which will incorporate some well-known songs from the Presley catalog.

Check out the mini-documentary above, which features more on Paterson's work on "Viva ELVIS."

-- David Ng

Related stories

Cirque du Soleil's 'Kooza' extends through Dec. 20 in Santa Monica

Review: Cirque du Soleil's 'Kooza'

Steven Spielberg and the Norman Rockwell painting that got away

More than 20 Norman Rockwell paintings belonging to Steven Spielberg have until July to get ready for their close-up, which will come when they're hung in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington -- along with more than 30 other Rockwells from the collection of his fellow filmmaker-to-the-masses, George Lucas.

Then there's the one sitting in climate-controlled sequestration, somewhere in Las Vegas, and no telling when it'll be seen again. It's called "Russian Schoolroom," and it belonged to Spielberg from 1989 until 2007, when he and it became unexpectedly caught up in a sequence of events that, if turned into a film scenario, would require an eminently skillful director to keep the audience from losing the story's thread (many of its elements, including a surprising detour drawing a possible link between the stolen Rockwell and a plot to kill Martin Luther King Jr., were woven together here by the Riverfront Times, a St. Louis weekly).

The film's opening scene would be set in 1973. First we'd see the painting itself, a horizontal image of a roomful of Soviet schoolboys seated at their desks, eyes trained dutifully on a white, jut-jawed bust of Vladimir I. Lenin -- except for a lone dreamer (or dissident) whom Rockwell shows letting his mind and gaze wander. The camera would pull back, and we'd see "Russian Schoolroom" being snatched from its gallery wall in Clayton, Mo .

Cut to 1988, where an auctioneer in New Orleans slams the gavel, and the same painting is sold to a New York art dealer for about $70,000. She shows the painting publicly, advertises it, and by the following year it's hanging on Spielberg's wall.

Next big scene: in February 2007, an assistant to the film director sits at a computer and notices that "Russian Schoolroom" is listed on an FBI website of stolen art works. Spielberg immediately contacts the feds; they thank him for being a good citizen and tell him to hold the painting for safekeeping until they can figure out whom it belongs to.

Monster Mash: Spielberg, Showtime going screen to stage; NEA explains phone controversy; Rose Art Museum under spotlight, again

-- Mogul multitasking: Steven Spielberg is developing a scripted TV series with Showtime about the creation of a Broadway musical, Variety says, with the hope of producing the musical in New York after the series runs.

-- Jumping ship: Allison Vulgamore is leaving her position as president and CEO of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, but is she moving to Philadelphia?

-- Conference call: The NEA's Rocco Landesman discusses the recent demotion his communications director, Yosi Sergant.

-- Lingering controversy: A Brandeis University committee has recommended that the Rose Art Museum remain open after the college threatened to shut down the facility earlier this year.

-- Singing stars: Catherine Zeta-Jones is confirmed to co-star with Angela Lansbury in a Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music."

-- Home improvement: The California Shakespeare Theater is set to embark on a major renovation of its main amphitheater space.

-- Culture klatsch: Michelle Obama will lead other first ladies in an arts tour of Pittsburgh during the upcoming G-20 summit.

-- Bye bye baby: A minor media controversy arises around a cast change in the Las Vegas production of the musical "Jersey Boys."

-- Unlikely winner: Joss Whedon talks about his Emmy win for the Web series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog."

-- David Ng

Photo: Steven Spielberg. Credit: Associated Press

Monster Mash: Sarah Palin inspires new opera; LACMA names curator; a DVD of Liza at the Palace

-- You betcha: Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and erstwhile governor of Alaska, has inspired a new operatic work titled "Say It Ain't So, Joe."

-- Old masterpiece: A Rembrandt portrait is expected to fetch $29.7 million to $41 million when it hits the auction block in December.

-- S/he's back: Dame Edna is scheduled to return to Broadway in a new show opening in March.

-- Appointment: LACMA names Franklin Sirmans as its new chief curator for contemporary art.

-- Musical pioneer: Composer Leon Kirchner dies at age 90 at his home in New York.

-- Change of heart: Artist Bill Viola changes his mind and now plans to attend a cultural conference organized by the pope.

-- Theatrical drama: Work on the Minnesota Shubert Center is slated to begin this fall after extensive delays.

-- Ready for her close-up: "Liza's at the Palace" will be filmed in Las Vegas for television broadcast and a DVD release.

-- Courting controversy: An artist serves cocaine during a performance and gets in trouble with the law.

-- Stage star: Tony-winning South African actor Zakes Mokae has died at age 75.

-- David Ng

Photo: Sarah Palin. Credit: Associated Press