Those wacky clowns, the Troubadour Theater Company, are back and they are tearing up the stage at the Falcon Theatre with their annual holiday spoof show. As always they merge pop music with a familiar Yuletide story and the result is a riotous evening of light satire and pure nonsense.
This year writer/director and chief jester Matt Walker has taken the slim story of Frosty the Snow Man and his magic top hat and infused it with some songs and jingles from everyone”™s favorite schmaltzy singer, the one, the only Barry Manilow.
The storyline is a bit on the lean side but that doesn”™t matter one whit. All these merry pranksters need is sufficient plot to string together a bunch of songs with mangled lyrics. Hence “Oh Mandy” becomes “Oh Frosty” and “Copancabana” becomes “Greenhouse Cabana” and so forth.
It”™s all just an excuse for various stunts, lazzis (slapstick and gag-style comedy) as well as prop comedy. The cast have a selection of jokes handy for when characters lose their mustaches (I”™m looking at you, Rick Batalla – loved your impression of Manilow, though!) or when a low-tech prop refuses to co-operate.
Once again, the songs are the highlight of this season”™s musical. Evidently a great deal of care was taken in putting together a top-notch band who flawlessly duplicate many of Manilow”™s hit numbers as well as his memorable advertising jingles. The four-strong backing band is brilliant and the entire cast are outstanding singers and dancers. I have to give credit to Nadine Ellis and Ameenah Kaplan for their deceptively simple yet tight choreography. This is clearly a cast that works extra hard to make it all seem effortless.
A highlight of the evening is a lively jitterbug followed by a tap routine – worthy of Dancing with the Stars – featuring the strongest dancers in the cast. These guys are so incredibly talented.
It all shapes up to be a festive night of lively entertainment. For an evening of riotous laughter, dance and song, look no further than the Troubadour”™s wacky blend of a holiday fable with pop music.
Released this past Fall by powerHouse books is Susan Anderson’s glossy coffee table book, entitled High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants. The book’s description reads, “The girls are spray-tanned, made-up, and groomed to a glossy perfection. Anderson captures the result of this time-consuming transformation process in exquisite detail.”
For her book and photographic exhibition, fashion photographer Susan Anderson has taken an anthropological approach in presenting a disturbing series of images that offer us an insight into this controversial world.
By observing, yet not judging, Anderson has turned her lens to scrutinize the mysterious world of kiddie beauty pageants. By asking her subjects – almost all are little girls, from toddlers to pre-pubescent poppets- to strike their own poses for her camera, Anderson expertly manages to walk a fine line when presenting the awfulness and horror as well as a celebration of this mesmerizing subculture.
While certain photos celebrate, and others shock, all are linked by a fascination with a world many have only heard of through the unfortunate (and still unsolved) murder in 1996 of little Jon Benet Ramsey. In Anderson’s book and exhibition, the toddlers don bikinis and often strike poses that seem informed by an awareness of adult sexuality but that is detached from any understanding of its meaning.
More crucially, these photos of these competing kiddies – many tarted up like a desperate cougar – uncovers what has been described as the “Uncanny Valley” of revulsion.
The “Uncanny Valley” hypothesis holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.
Hence, when viewing these gorgeous photos, you simply can’t help feeling uneasy. Something is definitely wrong. Our mind knows we are looking at very young girls, and yet the eerie effect of all the caked-on makeup, fake tans and bouffant hairdos is to create the illusion of child-women far older than their actual years. Many even give the impression of being jaded and middle aged, the only thing missing is a jaunty martini in their tiny hands.
It’s creepy stuff.
To watch my short video interview with the artist, go here.
Posited at precisely the right point between respect and revulsion, Susan Anderson’s fascinating book, High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants, is available to purchase on amazon.
Profane, revealing and downright hilarious – Allen Edward”™s memoir, Shear Force, is the kind of behind-the-scenes racy tell-all you just can”™t stop reading. Written in a frank, confidential and endlessly amusing style, this outrageous book offers readers a glimpse behind the curtain of a spellbinding career.
The name “˜Allen Edwards”™ is synonymous with the exciting world of style, glamour and beauty. During his impressive three-decade career in the fashion and entertainment business, beauty industry icon and hair guru Allen Edwards has become an internationally renowned image-maker and business leader.
Edwards and his team of personally-trained hair stylists have fashioned the hair and recreated the images of many luminaries, some of whom are among the world”™s most recognizable celebrities. Edwards”™ impressive client list includes Raquel Welch, Brooke Shields, Ted Danson, Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Kirsten Dunst and Donna Mills.
In addition to styling some of the world”™s most glamorous and fashionable women, Edwards is the creator of the Farrah Fawcett layered cut, a trend that still exists today. He also engineered the dramatic improvement of Assistant District Attorney Marcia Clark”™s style by giving her a fashionable new hairdo during the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial. He was the first to turn hair shows into up-beat rock events and changed the world of beauty, armed with shears, a blow dryer and the force of his dynamic personality.
With over one thousand television appearances, including Oprah and Regis,Allen Edwards has stayed at the top of his game for over 30 years.
To celebrate their 35th Anniversary in business, Edwards and his wife and business partner Lisa have published a frank and fascinating coffee table book that vividly describes those exciting and turbulent years of his climb to the top of his profession. Edwards collaborated with Lorin Shields-Michel to pen this inspiring personal story of triumph over adversity, taking us deep into the glitzy Beverly Hills beauty industry during the “™70s and “™80s.
Allen Edwards”™ biography, “Shear Force,” is an extraordinary story that follows his journey of overcoming adversity (including a debilitating speech disorder) and his determined journey towards success. En route, he found a way to overcome his awkward stuttering and this ultimately led him to become one of the most renowned celebrity hairdressers and image-makers in the world.
Trim, fit and still damn sexy at 60, Edwards saunters over to shake my hand. Friendly and approachable, and sporting a trendy black cut-off tee shirt, bicep tattoos, jeans and motorcycle boots, here is a guy who personifies his status as an edgy rock star of the hairdressing world.
To read his frank, funny and page-turning memoir is to participate vicariously in an exciting life observed.
Perhaps you remember the sexy Warren Beatty/Julie Christie satire “Shampoo”? Made during the seventies, director Hal Ashby and writers Robert Towne and star Warren Beatty based their free-wheeling, sexually promiscuous main protagonist on Jay Sebring and Jon Peters, both hairdressers and slightly older contemporaries of Edwards.
But Edwards lived through that post “free-love” era as well, and is more than happy to tell us all about his exploits.
Thanks to the book”™s confidential, slightly self-deprecating and flippant tone, Allen”™s matter-of-fact recollections of his sexual prowess somehow don”™t actually come across as boasting, even though there are multiple references, including no fewer than three separate references on a single page (p41.)
Ah, those innocent, carefree days before the specter of AIDS reared its ugly head!
But it”™s certainly much more than a brag-book. Reading about Edwards”™ pioneering career, charting the victories as well as the devastating set-backs, inspires you to motivate yourself and make big dreams happen.
As frank and revealing as this exciting memoir is, I have to ask him, what did he leave out?
“Half. (Edwards laughs.) My ex-wife and my ex-partner hated me after the book came out. My ex-partner is a funny guy. We were starting to be friends again, but then I wrote the book. He only picked up on the few negative things I said about him, because I did say a lot of good things.
“The opening statement reads along the lines of “˜My ex-partner sucked the business dry of all its profits,”™ so that”™s a strong statement. Maybe I shouldn”™t have said that, now that I think about it. That was one of the first things you see when you start reading. But the thing is, you have to write things like that, so people will go, “˜Well, what does that mean?”™
“Then, in the book, it talks about the mistakes I made, including letting him quit cutting hair, because when he stopped cutting hair, he stopped making a living, and then he was using all the profits as his living. But it was my weakness – just being the star, the busy hairdresser – “˜Oh, sure go ahead! Go do it, we”™ll be fine!”™ – instead of researching it, and realizing this was not a good idea.
“He thought he was going to focus more on expanding the business. But he was a bit off-kilter. There were drugs, and women and gambling – this was during the eighties – so that was the mistake. He didn”™t end up doing what he said he was going to do.
“I was busy being a star, and that”™s the moral of the book. It”™s almost like being a singer or an actor, and your trusted financial manager ends up taking all the money.
“My ex-wife – we got married as kids. It was wild. In the book, I talk about all the sleeping around I did, but everyone was doing that during the seventies! I was slammed into it by being this young, hot hairdresser and all these pretty girls kept coming to me for haircuts and so, it was just a sign of the times.
“The problem with the book, for my ex-wife, is that it”™s in-your-face. Everybody is reading about me, and she was married to me. But she can say, “˜Well, that”™s why we got divorced! It was the seventies.”™ That”™s what she should say. But she was nuts. She was really hard to live with. She was a bit wacky.”
Why did you write this book?
“I just needed to. I think it helps people. It helps you think about your own life. The main thing, for me, was I never give up. Like, if business is slow, I”™ll figure out a way to make it busier. If I just did a TV appearance, when”™s the next TV show? I never labor on my successes. Ego-wise, I never let any of it turn me crazy. I had fun with it, but I never had an “˜I”™m a big star”™ attitude. To me it was all fun. I think because I was grounded with my marriage and kids, it was really more about work for me, all business-related. I loved the celebrity aspect of it all.”
This year he has also launched a new product line, Allen Edwards Shear Force, named after his salacious memoir.
SHEAR FORCE: An Image-maker”™s Memoir, written by Allen Edwards with Lorin Shields-Michel, is published by Durban House Press and is a perfect coffee table gift. Priced at $19.95, Edwards”™ memoir is now available at his salons, online and at bookstores across the country.
– ends -
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Acclaimed stage actor Bryan Torfeh, a long-time member of England”™s famed Royal Shakespeare Company who grew up in Pacific Palisades, returns to his roots to appear with Chamber Music Palisades (CMP) to narrate the original version of Igor Stravinsky”™s virtuosic L”™Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier”™s Tale) on Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 8:00 P.M., at St. Matthews Parish in Pacific Palisades.
Torfeh – whose credits include Nicholas Nickleby in the U.K. and on Broadway and the American premiere of Tom Stoppard”™sHapgood – adds his classically trained lilt to a program that also highlights two works by pillars of American music: Duo for flute and piano by Aaron Copland, and Then and Now and Forever by Morton Subotnick.
In addition, the concert features some of the Southland”™s finest chamber artists – Ida Levin, violin, Joshua Ranz, clarinet, Carolyn Beck, bassoon, Alex Iles, trombone, Jon Lewis, trumpet, Edward Atkatz, percussion, and Nico Abondolo, bass, who join CMP Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Susan Greenberg, flute, and Delores Stevens on piano. KUSC”™s Alan Chapman will provide commentary for this one-night-only concert.
Stevens, who notes that Stravinsky emigrated to the United States and spent his final years in Beverly Hills, says, “This program provides an outstanding example of the tremendous musical variety that can be found on the American music scene.”
Greenberg also states, “Given the range of music we”™re performing, it takes a special group of artists to play these different styles.”
L”™Histoire du Soldat is a work that is rich with shifting rhythms and elements of jazz, waltz and ragtime. It is based on a Russian folktale about a solider who trades his violin to the devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy, but ultimately discovers he”™s sold his soul to the devil. The original version, approximately an hour in length, is written for a septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone and percussion.
Copland composed Duo for flute and piano in 1971 for a commission in honor of flutist William Kincaid. Considered Copland”™s last important work, the duo has a lyrical and relaxed opening that develops into a pensive second movement and ends in a lively county dance.
Subotnick, one of the pioneers of electronic music and multi-media performance and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems, has also composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles and theatre. Then and Now and Forever was written as one continuous 15-minute long movement with several sections that return in subtle varied utterances.
BACKGROUND:
Chamber Music Palisades was founded in 1997 by Pacific Palisades residents Greenberg and Stevens. They draw guest artists from their vast pool of talented colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, plus other leading instrumentalists from the U.S. and Europe.Â
In addition to presenting established chamber works, to date Chamber Music Palisades has commissioned 11 compositions by such renowned composers as Paul Chihara, Jane Brockman, Henri Lazarof, Adrienne Albert, Maria Newman, Gernot Wolfgang and Joel McNeely.
Performance is on Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are $25; Students with ID will be admitted free.
St. Matthew”™s Parish
1031 Bienveneda in Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
For tickets and information, please call 310-463-4388 visit their official site.
Chamber Music Palisades presents the music of Stravinsky, Copland and Subotnick
Guest Artists Joining CMP Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors
Susan Greenberg, Flute, and Delores Stevens on Piano, are:
Ida Levin, Violin,
Joshua Ranz, Clarinet,
Carolyn Beck, Bassoon,
Alex Iles, Trombone,
Jon Lewis, Trumpet,
Edward Atkatz, Percussion
Nico Abondolo, Bass
and, of course, Bryan Torfeh, Narrator
Program includes:
AARON COPLANDDuo for flute and piano MORTON SUBOTNICKThen and Now and Forever IGOR STRAVINSKYL”™Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier”™s Story)
