By now, you’ve probably heard about Patti LuPone’s show-stopping incident on the next-to-last day of Gypsy’s Broadway run, on January 10, demanding that an audience member stop taking photographs. If you didn’t read about it in the Village Voice or Gawker or Life’s a Pitch blogs, you’ve heard the actual outburst itself: in an ironic [...]

Ah, New York, the ring of fire that all good ballet companies must eventually jump through, despite facing large financial hurdles (well, chasms, actually) and a critical gauntlet. Miami City Ballet makes its first major New York run at City Center from Jan 21-25, and artistic Edward Villella is bringing the big stuff in two [...]

Last week, the Metropolitan Opera announced that it was facing a budget crunch. Wow, like, that’s a surprise? Some staff members have already taken pay cuts, salaries will be discussed with unions. And of course the crisis will impact programming: Costly revivals of Ghosts of Versailles, Benvenuto Cellini, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and [...]

Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Arvo Pärt’s compositions rank among the most inspirational for choreographers, at least in my neck of the woods. Reich and Glass are beloved for their muscular propulsiveness, their vigorous rhythms, their hypnotic threads. But it is Pärt’s compositions that invite collaborators into a shared space, a helium-filled elysium, or on [...]

“I’m aware of the speculation that I’m a candidate. I’m not interested in the job at New York City Opera.”—George Steel, Bloomberg News, December 22, 2008 So, after months of rumors that George Steel, Dallas Opera’s newly hired general director, was considering coming to New York City Opera after incoming general director Gerard Mortier abruptly [...]

Lots of cheap tickets: The economy tanked, and tickets to everything were magically available at short notice, at cut rates. Example A: The Metropolitan Opera continued its yearlong offer of same-day $20 tickets in the orchestra section, offered many 2007-08 operas on television here at Thirteen/WNET, continued its live HD broadcasts to movie theaters, and [...]

The next few months on the New York stage are going to be hot! I’d even venture that they’re going to be hottt! Just look at this lineup: Jane Fonda, Kathleen Turner, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, Jeremy Irons, Angela Lansbury, Maggie Gyllenhaal—and for the thespian freaks huddling over in the corner, we have Janet McTeer, [...]

Looking back at 2008: Best Performances  Cognizant of World Events Maguy Marin’s Umwelt, Joyce Theater (excerpts here) Jane Comfort’s An American Rendition, Duke Theater Best William Forsythe Alumnus Showing Richard Siegal, As If Stranger, Danspace Project and New 45 at Fall for Dance Best Show You Probably Didn’t See Batsheva (Ohad Naharin)’s Kamuyot, in performances [...]

Earlier this December, I took the number 1 subway up to 125th Street to catch a daytime performance by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Apollo Theater http://www.apollotheater.org/ for schoolchildren. The program, “What is American Music? NYC: The Great Migration and Ellis Island,” focused on twentieth-century migration to the United states, through the music [...]

If you’ve been hibernating in a cave, here’s some good news: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Don’t ask about the bad news. Just go back in the cave, fast.) You can only tip your hat to the juggernaut they’ve become, what with street namings, Barbie dolls, guesting on Dancing with [...]