The Woolgatherer, Flat Iron Productions, at Flat Iron Gallery. Given that William Mastrosimone’s lyrical, somewhat romantic drama of two mismatched loners falling for each other is one of the most overproduced plays around, and given that Dan Halstead and Ann Koons are not the most seasoned or skilled of actors, and given also that they’re […]
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 24
Issue of Mar. 19 – 25, 1998
Posted inNews & Politics
Sports Authority/ The Back Page
By Michael Miner Sports Authority No galleon sailing the Spanish Main ever boasted so imposing a prow. Reader editors stared in astonishment at the mug shot that accompanies Skip Bayless’s new Tribune sports column and imagined him as leading man of a soap opera. A Tribune writer pondered the taut visage and murmured that here […]
Posted inMusic
Melvin Sparks & Leon Spencer
MELVIN SPARKS & LEON SPENCER One of the salutary side effects of acid jazz has been the unearthing of forgotten funk. Take Lou Donaldson’s The Scorpion, an exquisitely hip live session the alto saxist recorded more than a quarter century ago; it languished in the vault until 1995, when Blue Note issued it as part […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories The Los Angeles Times reported in January on the unusual success of Moscow’s Cat Theater, whose 300-seat shows remain sold out weeks in advance. The show’s proprietor, Yuri Kuklachev, has trained cats to climb poles, walk tightropes, push toy trains, leapfrog over human backs, and balance atop tiny platforms. New Scientist announced in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Restaurant Review
cohen.qxd To the editors, I’ve lived near My Place For? since it was opened, and used to dine there regularly [Neighborhood News, March 6]. If the restaurant is going to survive, whatever the name, the owners had better understand that the business did not simply decline “for reasons beyond the Dorizases’ control.” There were also […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Love’s Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights
Love’s Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights This show is based on one of those premises that could easily go awry. Seven darlings of the American theater–Eric Bogosian, William Finn, John Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Ntozake Shange, and Wendy Wasserstein–were each given a different Shakespeare sonnet and asked to write a short one-act […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Stars in the Morning Sky
Stars In The Morning Sky, European Repertory Company. It’s rare to find a single theatrical image so compelling, heartfelt, and passionate that it can make an acceptable evening of theater unforgettable. But that’s precisely what happens in this production of Alexander Galin’s 1986 drama about Soviet prostitutes during the 1980 Olympics. The play’s based on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Polish Movie Springtime
Polish Movie Springtime Polish Movie Springtime, a festival of classic and contemporary Polish films presented by the Society for Arts, continues Friday through Sunday, March 20 through 22. Screenings will be at the Gateway Theatre at the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence. Tickets range from $5 to $7, depending on the program; a $25 pass […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Wrong Number
bernstei.qxd Dear editors: We feel compelled to clarify some of the ambiguities created by Harold Henderson’s critique of Jane Holtz Kay’s Asphalt Nation (February 20, 1998). The Center for Neighborhood Technology was cited as Kay’s source for inaccurate data pertaining to the amount of land consumed between 1970 and 1990. There has been a great […]
Posted inMusic
Fatal Mambo
FATAL MAMBO From the first notes Fatal Mambo sounds like a pleasant, vivacious salsa band–albeit one that takes a decidedly lighthearted approach to traditional Cuban dance rhythms, incorporating humor and even a fair amount of camp (a la Perez Prado). But you realize something’s not kosher as soon as the singing starts: the lyrics are […]
Posted inMusic
June Tabor
JUNE TABOR With her most recent album, Aleyn (Green Linnet), British folksinger June Tabor has come a long way from her early-70s beginnings. Back then she rendered traditional material with elaborate embellishment, usually unaccompanied. Her first real notoriety came when she paired up with Steeleye Span vocalist Maddy Prior to form Silly Sisters; through that […]
Posted inMusic
Roni Size Reprazent
RONI SIZE REPRAZENT Most of the attention drum ‘n’ bass music has garnered since its introduction to the mainstream has been for its assimilation into putrid dabblings by dancing skeletons like David Bowie. The purveyors of drum ‘n’ bass have been as much to blame for this as the media–most DJs show all the personality […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Something to Prove
Blues for an Alabama Sky Goodman Theatre By Albert Williams Last season the feisty little Onyx Theatre Ensemble presented a low-budget production called Flyin’ West in the upstairs auditorium of an Edgewater church, a play by a Detroit-bred, Atlanta-based black woman named Pearl Cleage. Telling the tale of African-American women homesteaders in 1890s Kansas, Flyin’ […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In Print: women publishers make the zine
In the wee hours of November 24, 1996, Martha Bayne found herself shivering in the back of a paddy wagon on Lake Street, facing misdemeanor charges of serving alcohol without a license, serving alcohol to minors, and operating a business without a license. Earlier an army of patrolmen with flashlights had raided a loft party […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Theater People: Danny Thompson breaks a leg
One week before his new play was set to open, actor and playwright Danny Thompson stepped off a platform while wearing combat boots with five-inch heels. He lost his balance. Trying to break his fall, he landed on his right foot–or, more precisely, his right ankle. When he put his weight on it, Thompson felt […]