VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival admirably focuses on both emerging and established artists with Yoann Bourgeois’s MINUIT and Shen Wei’s NEITHER

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s expansive Next Wave Festival marches on, and what’s becoming evident is the festival’s dedication to giving exposure to both emerging (the use of the relatively … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Distilling classic texts: BATTLEFIELD and SONGS OF LEAR at BAM

BAM’s Next Wave Festival continues with two shows that showcase theater’s ability to distill narratives, particularly classic texts depicting troubled kings, to a few elegant strokes. With running times of … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Holy Body Tatto’s MONUMENTAL assaults the senses (and society) at BAM

Last night at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (as part of the Next Wave Festival), I attended a performance of monumental, courtesy of Canadian dance company The Holy Body … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mark Morris’s MOZART DANCES stirs the soul

One of the handful of my “aha!” moments in dance was when I first encountered Mark Morris’s dance set to Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. The humanity and … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – KANZE NOH THEATRE quietly mesmerizes, courtesy of this year’s Lincoln Center Festival

This past week, I had the great pleasure and privilege of immersing myself in Noh, a centuries-old form of Japanese music and dance theater – complete with elaborate masks and … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – This summer, two oversized spectacles double as Broadway-style musicals

This summer – just in time for tourist season – New Yorkers are being treated to two huge spectacles, Radio City Music Hall’s New York Spectacular (the legendary venue’s summertime … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – NoFit State’s BIANCO presents circus as house party

Hailing from Cardiff, Wales, NoFit State is one of the leading circus troupes in the UK (although its members also come from Spain, France, and beyond) and is known for … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Compagnia Finzi Pasca’s whimsical LA VERITÁ invokes Dalí at BAM

The contemporary cirus troupe Compagnia Finzi Pasca is currently in the midst of a brief residency at the Brooklyn Academic of Music with its latest show La Veritá, a charming, somewhat … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Back at BAM, André Campra’s rarely-performed LES FÊTES VÉNITIENNES is stunning in the hands of William Christie and Robert Carsen

Last night, I caught a rare staging of André Campra’s episodic opera-ballet Les Fêtes Vénitiennes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The much-loved conductor William Christie and his influential early-music … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – 400 hundred years after his death, Shakespeare permeates the New York performing arts season

As April 23, 2016 – the date of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death – approaches, New York finds itself in the midst of a whole lotta Shakespeare. In the … Continue Reading →