LA Scene: LA Phil's Importance of Being Earnest by Ades and Barry

The review from the professional (LA Times Mark Swed) was positive.

The reviews from the comment's section of Mark Swed's report were mixed.

The fact that the concert hall was no where near full meant that many had voted with their feet by either not showing up for their subscription concert, trading out of it or not buying this show in particular.

We went with some trepidation. But as a subscriber since 1999, I had been exposed to some contemporary musical programs and had more often than not enjoyed them. Thus, we went with an open mind to see the show.

It was awful.

Imagine the sound of singers trying to sound like roaring lions? Or was that cats coughing? Or dogs choking? Imagine watching two musicians cracking plates in garbage cans and cranking wind machines. I had to wonder what the singers and musicians thought when they first got the music score? Do they actually like to do these kinds of programs? Or do they figure, well its a paycheck?

Below is the letter I am sending to the LA Phil.

April 9, 2011

Los Angeles Philharmonic
111 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear LA Phil,

I have been a subscriber since 1999 and my ticket package (currently FR3) has usually included one concert a season devoted to contemporary music. Over the years, more often than not, I've enjoyed those concerts. Thus, I'm not reflexively opposed to contemporary music. I have admired the astute judgement of your program planners that resulted in musical choices that “pushed the edge” without going over the edge.

However, last evening, the Ades-Barry project The Importance of Being Earnest was well over the edge. I recognize that when an organization commissions a work they must permit the artists considerable freedom to pursue their ideas. However, it should be noted that the “customers” can vote with their feet by leaving the performance or not showing up.

I did not know what to expect and came with an open mind. But within 5 to 10 minutes, a number of people started to leave the concert. We would have left as well except for the fact we didn't want to climb over a half-dozen people to get to the aisle. Suffice to say, we did not return for Act III.

Because of the high quality performances of familiar works and tasteful selection of less familiar and new works, the LA Philharmonic enjoys a vast pool of good will. However, such rapport with the subscribers and audience should not be taken for granted or abused. Hopefully, blunders like The Importance of Being Earnest will remain the exception.

Thanks for a mostly wonderful 2010-2011 season. I look forward to 2011-2012.

Sincerely,

The LA Phil has a clearly marked and labeled new music series called Green Umbrella.

I don't attend those because having heard some new music on the radio, I know I am not likely to enjoy or be interested in that type of programing.

Over the years, I have come to trust the LA Phil programing staff in regards to their music choices beyond the traditional Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and other crowd pleasing favorites that they mix in to the general subscription packages. Some have been quite enjoyable or at least thought provoking. Examples: Salonen's farewell concert, an Ades led concert, Concrete Frequency Festival, Stucky's Second Concerto for Orchestra.

Importance of Being Earnest was dreadful.

LA Scene: Dodgers done?

As a fan, we have highs and lows: the Dodgers are terrific, the Dodgers are bums.

The Dodgers are 5 1/2 behind in the wild card with 32 to go. They are too far behind to catch up in the West.

Philadelphia leads the wild card and look on pace to win 88-90 games this year.

The Dodgers are 67-63 and will have to go 23-9 to get to 90 wins.

Dodger GM Colletti is competitive and it will be hard to throw in the towel. But on the other hand, he has to plan for the future of the team.

Hence, the questions over what they will do about the Chicago White Sox's waiver claim on Manny.

There are 3 scenarios:

He goes to the White Sox outright and they take the salary off the Dodger books.
He goes to the White Sox in exchange for players or cash or a mix of both
He stays with the Dodgers.

Manny has a no-trade clause so he could veto option 1 or 2 if he wants to.

As of now, the White Sox are on the edge of being too far behind to make the playoffs. They are 4 1/2 games out with 33 games to go in the race for the Central. They are too far behind to make the wild card.

It is possible that the Dodgers will want to move Manny because they are out of it and the White Sox decline because they feel they are out of it.

Thus, as I see it, the Dodgers might be stuck with Manny and his LA tenure will end with a whimper with, at best, him putting on a hitting display to set himself for a DH gig next year in the AL as a free agent.

UPDATE: At the end of Sunday, the Dodgers were 6.5 out and the White Sox 4.5 out. It appears that the Manny era with the Dodgers will end with his ejection from Sunday's game and a straight up waiver to Chicago.

LA Scene: L.A. Philharmonic Conductor Gustavo Dudamel Dog

The new LA Phil music director has a hot dog named after him at Pinks.

Contains: Stretch hot dog, guacamole, American & Swiss cheese, fajitasmix, jalapeno slice, topped with tortilla chips

Price: $6.95

For non-LA folks, Pinks is an LA institution.

Paul Pink started his hot dog stand in 1939. It was only a large-wheeled pushcart in those days. The depression was on and money was scarce. Pink's chili dogs, complete with a large warm bun, oversized hot dog, mustard, onions and thick chili sold for 10 cents each.

LA Scene: Dodgers vs. St. Louis in NLDS!

Am guessing the Dodgers are the underdogs against St. Louis.

The 25-man roster hasn't been announced yet...

I wonder how many pitchers will they select for the NLDS. Shorter series probably eleven.

My guess for the 25-man roster...

1. Broxton, Closer
2. Sherrill, 8th inning
3. Kuo, 7th inning
4. Belisario, relief
5. Elbert, relief
6. Weaver, long relief
7. Garland, emergency starter, long relief
8. Wolf, #1 starter
9. Kershaw, #2 starter
10. Padilla, #3 starter
11. Billingsley, #4 starter

Catchers
12. Martin
13. Ausmus

Infield
14. Loney
15. Hudson
16. Blake
17. Furcal
18. Belliard
19. Loretta
20. Castro
21. Thome

Outfield
22. Ramierez
23. Kemp
24. Ethier
25. Pierre

Go Blue!

UPDATE: The Dodger 25-man roster has been announced. I incorrectly thought they would go with Elbert over Troncoso.

LA Scene: Dudamel Era about to begin

Dudamel, the new LA Philharmonic music director arrived for his first rehearsal.

Excerpt:
Cameras -- still, video and really huge -- jammed the area; Philharmonic President Deborah Borda and Philharmonic board Chairman David Bohnett hovered in anticipation while Borda exulted that the Phil just gotten word that the NBC Nightly News was planning a Dudamel feature for Thursday.

There's really no such thing as a formal greeting when it comes to Dudamel -- as he stepped from the vehicle, he waved to the cheering musicians; but the wave gesture soon turned into a Dudamel-style fist, thrust exultantly into the air. He obediently posed for photos with Borda and Bohnett at the foot of the stairs, but was soon charging upward to distribute a generous round of hugs, especially to the musicians who played a welcome fanfare on the steps.

The reception by the musicians remains very positive.

Excerpt:
He added that the musicians see Dudamel not as their leader but as another member of the band -- just with a different role to play. "What's most important is his humility," Socher said. "Many conductors don't know what that word means -- much less exhibit it."

LAT's Swed is hopeful but trying to keep some perspective and humor on things.

Excerpt:
As for me, I'm preparing for the arrival this week of Gustavo Dudamel by charging my pocket Nikon. The camera will accompany me on daily walks along the beach, where I'm determined to get the first shot of the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic walking on water.
....
Forget rock stars. All too often they find things that work and get stuck. Either they don't grow because the feedback for what they already do is so addictive or because if they try to change, they find obstinate fan resistance.
....
What works now for Dudamel, what is so vibrant in a conductor in his 20s, will not work for a conductor in his 40s and would be creepy for a conductor in his 60s. At the moment, Dudamel is a fully fueled rocket. He has the energy, the intelligence and the curiosity to take on a variety of new works and projects. But he has his tricks that he relies on to create excitement before he is in full command of many pieces.

LAT's Johnson profiles what Dudamel is doing besides the LA Phil.

Excerpt:
At any given moment, Gustavo Dudamel might be catching a red-eye flight to Sweden, rehearsing young musicians in Venezuela, blazing a path through Mahler's First in Los Angeles or brainstorming with the head of his record label in Germany.
......
"He said to me the other day he wishes there were 600 days in a year," said Edward Smith, chief executive of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony, Dudamel's other principal conducting gig. "Of course, he's doing too much, by anybody's normal standard, and I think he's beginning to realize it. But what is too much for Gustavo? What might be too much for an ordinary guy isn't too much for Gustavo."

We shall see how things develop. But for now, the city is buzzing as it awaits his welcome concert the Hollywood Bowl this Saturday, October 3 which has long ago had its free tickets all claimed and then the Gala at the Walt Disney on Thursday, October 8.

I have heard the LA Phil play under Dudamel's baton and feel the ensemble has exciting days ahead!

Bienvenido Gustavo!

LA Scene: Fire fighting continues ...

A message on Facebook from one of the members of our church with a home in the frontlines:
The helicopter pilots that water-drop are unbelievably accurate. Chopper #734 may have saved our home this morning. Neighbors where incredible.

Have the TV on and the reporter is saying some of the areas are so remote that it could burn for over a week because some of the areas have so much fuel.

The key thing to watch for is winds. The only "good" news so far has been that the winds have been mild. If they were to pick up and blow in the wrong direction, whole communities could be engulfed.

Besides checking the coverage on the regular media, see LA Observed. Roderick links the following:



A time lapse ... see below...

Time Lapse Test: Station Fire from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

Hats off to the firefighters who have been on the line for so many days and condolences to the families and friends of the two who died today in the line of duty.

LA Scene: Salonen Farewell Concerts

I've been a subscriber since 1999. While on a European vacation in 1999, I attended two orchestral concerts (Prague and Vienna) and an opera (Vienna). When I got back, I figured, we got our own world class organization in LA, why not subscribe?

And so began my personal experiences with Salonen's gifts. Not being a music expert, I simply enjoyed the music and the creative programing of Salonen who often paired familiar works with newer works. I had been told that the Dorothy Chandler was not a great acoustic environment. I felt it was cavernous and the orchestra always felt a little "small" even though it was so big. But I enjoyed the music anyway!

When time came to renew my subscription to the Phil when they moved to Walt Disney, the price went up and for a moment I hesitated about renewing. I decided to renew. As a reward for "my faith," my first concert there I got to hear Rite of Spring in the first of the ultimately ill-fated programing experiment First Nights. From the opening warble to the fireworks of an orchestra gone crazy, the audience was bathed in sound. The music was now heard and felt and from all directions. Salonen and his collaborators dream had come true!

Well, the house that Salonen helped build hosted his farewell concerts this past weekend.

Lots of coverage in the LA Times ... check out from the front of Sunday evenings LAT on the web with some photos of today's final farewell concert.

LAT's Swed's review of the performance he heard on Thursday night was generally positive.

I attended the event on Friday night.

The pairing of the Stravinsky's edition of the Greek Tragedy Oedipus Rex with Symphony of Psalms was another example of Salonen's creativity in designing a concert experience. I have come to admire his programing choice where he often goes beyond the more familiar old classic classical pieces.

I have no idea what Salonen's religious sensibilities are but as a Christian, I appreciated the linkage of the horribly tragic Oedipus with the hope embodied in the Psalms used in the second composition. Don't know if Stravinsky or Salonen had in mind the Gospel message - humans are crushed by sin but in God there is the possibility of redemption - but that was my gut reaction and so it was in a sense a devotional moment for me Friday night.

See here for Wikipedia's re-cap of the Symphony of Psalms. Here are the English translations of the Psalms used:

Psalm 39:13-14
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and with Thine ears consider my calling: hold not Thy peace at my tears.
For I am a stranger with Thee: and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
O spare me a little that I may recover my strength: before I go hence and be no more.

Psalm 40:2-4
I waited patiently for the Lord: and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling.
He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay.
and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings.
And He hath put a new song in my mouth: even a thanksgiving unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear: and shall put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 150
Alleluja.
O praise God in His holiness:
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him in His noble acts:
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him in the sound of the trumpet:
Praise Him upon the strings and pipe.
Praise Him upon the well-tuned cymbals,
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Alleluja.

Here are photos from on of the final concerts and see LAT's team coverage.

If you can't get enough, check out KUSC's 2-hour radio documentary, E-P in LA.

For more personal glimpses check out the round-up of reflections by his collaborators in music.

His farewell at the Hollywood Bowl was Mahler's #8 which was a choral work also. I thought it was interesting that for both farewell concerts he went with choral works. He could have gone with a mixed program including some of his own works or easier still, crowd pleasing favorites. Instead, he went with the unconventional and he went with works that require him to share the stage. And from reading the round-up of reflections, that keeping the ego in check is part of why he is beloved as a conductor and collaborator.

EPS had his debut with the LA Phil in 1984 at the age of 26. He has had a relationship with the orchestra since then and will continue on as conductor laureate. He became music director in 1992 and his 17 year tenure has been the longest in the history of the LA Phil. Its been a great ride.

Thanks Esa-Pekka for the great music making filled with passion and risk taking!

LA Scene: Did you know that there is an election on 3/24/2009?

There is an election to file the 26th State Senate District seat in Los Angeles.

The seat is vacant because Mark Ridley-Thomas won a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Who is trying to get his old job?

Well, the guy with the cash is Curren D. Price, Jr. who was a state assemblyman. I've gotten many, many, many mailers from his campaign.

I got one piece of mail from Jonathan Friedman who say on his web page: "Los Angeles native Jonathan Friedman is a Chartered Financial Analyst and an expert in tax policy and financial issues."

I have not received any mailers for the other six candidates.

Mike Davis has a few paragraphs in the voter booklet. He is also a state assemblyman like Price.

Robert Cole also has a few paragraphs in the voter booklet. He has worked as a staffer in a Congressional House office, a California Assembly office and a local government commission.

Saundra Davis is the Vice President of the Board of Education for the Culver City Unified School District.

Cindy Varela Henderson is an Peace and Freedom party activist.

Nachum Shifren is a LA Public school teacher and is also known in the community as "the surfing Rabbi" with interests in fitness and nutrition.

Mervin Leon Evans is a management consultant.

Here is a web page with all the candidates listed and a brief description of them.

This LA Times item survey's the field and covered a candidate forum.

Who would you vote for?

LA Scene: LA Phil with Ades

Went to see the LA Phil last night.

The Marseillais Hymn was instantly recognizable and the combined forces of the LA Philharmonic and Master Chorale was quite powerful. What I didn't realize was how blood curdling the lyrics were!

This was followed by the volatile Royal Hunt and Storm by Berlioz.

Ades then went on to take the microphone to explain why he chose these pieces to lead into his work, America: a prophecy.

He set his music as a wraparound to words from Mayan poetry.

Lyrically and musically, it didn't do much for me. It represented some of the excesses of contemporary art and music: attempts to shock for the purpose of shocking.

In its defense, in the program notes, it made the point about how the coming of the Europeans to the Americas had multiple perspectives. For the natives, it meant the destruction of their societies as they were defeated by the Europeans who came from the east. But at another level, those societies had very brutal elements tied to human sacrifices and so the Europeans destroyed that and liberated the masses oppressed by their rulers. Of course, the Europeans also did bad things. But then again, the Americas have now grown to be powerful on the world stage and have brought much to the world. Thus, the Americas of 1000-2000 is a complex story. Ades also pointed out that 9/11, the singular event of the new millenia, was once again the East, in this case Middle Eastern terrorists, coming to the Americas.

On this level, I have some sympathy to the consequences of post-modern thought. Indeed, there are multiple realities to historical/cultural events which seems to be the mantra of post-moderns. But, of course, these perspectives only have meaning because the narrative has objective elements that can be used by the person making the analysis which runs against some post-modern claims against the possibility of such knowledge.

If we hold to the traditional definition of knowledge as justified true belief, we would have to say that Ades' effort to provide a narrative about the drama of the American story from 1000-2000 is defensible as his facts are correct.

Thus, I suppose, a true hard core post-modern perspective is self-defeating in that any attempt at weaving a narrative would be nothing more than whisting in a wind storm and would be attempted only for the purpose of pleasure or shock and not for illumination.

The second half of the show had Berlioz music from an opera he never completed. It has the spooky elements consistent with its title about a secretive jury.

The final work was then introduced by Ades as his attempt to paint with musical notes the Ark of Genesis carrying humanity through which he tied to our earth today carrying all of humanity through the universe.

This work was quite a bit easier to listen to than his first work and allowed me and the 2/3 full auditorium to leave feeling a bit better compared to the disquiet of our entry into intermission.

UPDATE: For a music professional's perspective, check out Swed from the LA Times.

LA Scene: Dudamel, Bruins, Dodgers

Friday Evening

Got the chance to see Dudamel in action.

The body language of the conductor and orchestra said they are having fun out there!

The evening started with Salonen's Insomnia. As the name suggests, it was a spooky sounding piece that captured the rat running in a maze feeling one feels late at night when one can't sleep.

The piano soloist Simon Trpceski joined the philharmonic on stage and played the demanding Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1! His fingers were moving along the keys with frantic speed. How do piano players do that? Just amazing!

Upon completion, the audience roared and applauded its praise. Trpceski treated us to a rare encore. He played a beautiful and delicate solo piano piece by Debussy.

The night was closed out with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

It was a night of music that makes you sit up and take notice. Dudamel energy made the audience sit up and take notice and he is clearly on his way to seizing the adoration of the LA Phil fans.

In a rare move, he had the Philharmonic take a bow facing us in the cheap seats in the Orchestra View section located behind the orchestra. We applauded and cheered at the gesture!

UPDATE: Mark Swed of the LA Times has his report of the Friday night concert.

Saturday Afternoon

UCLA 76 Xavier 57!

Followed along with radio (570 KLAC) and television CBS channel 2.

A good team effort with 4 players scoring in double digits. Go Bruins!

Saturday Evening



Click here for the LA Times coverage of the 50th Anniversary of the Dodgers in Los Angeles.



Read a story about the exhibition game at the LA Coliseum. I was in Section 26 Row 56! It was a tad chilly and the strange configuration of the field was a sight to behold. It was more of an event and celebration than a baseball game but it was all for a good cause with funds going to "Think Cure" which is the Dodgers charity for cancer research.



The box score of the game. Red Sox 7 Dodgers 4.

Next up ... opening day at Dodger's Stadium on Monday afternoon!

Photos to come but for now, check out Plaschke's column describing the opening ceremony.

UPDATE: Photos below!



McCourt meeting the fans and the workers in the Left Field Pavilion.



People carrying out the flag.



Its huge!



The B-1 flyby!

As a fan of the Dodgers growing up in LA in the 70s, it brought chills to see players from those days. As someone who gobbled up Jane Leavy's biography on Sandy Koufax in a matter of days, I recognized some of the other names who came out onto the field from that era.

As player after player walked onto the field like Field of Dreams, I wondered, Koufax has been so private all these years, will he make an appearance?

The players standing at their old positions began to walk toward to mound. Lasorda trotted out from the left field bullpen and the crowd roared. Lasorda reached the mound and the crowd exploded as Koufax came out from the dugout to join the living history of the Dodgers!

Erskine, Newcombe and Koufax threw out the opening pitches!

LA Scene: $5.5 million and 256 synced signal lights

Will the commute get better?

Excerpt:
City officials are betting yes with $5.5 million of our tax dollars. They've synced 256 traffic signals between Wilshire and Hollywood boulevards, and La Cienega Boulevard and Western Avenue, My Fox LA reports. That'll translate to a 15% reduction (am I alone in thinking, that's it? 15%?) in travel time.

Hope so!

LA Scene: Dudamel, next LA Phil music director, on 60 Minutes

Saw some clips of the conducting prodigy that the LA Phil is bringing in. I guess 60 Minutes posts clips after or before they air an episode?

Anyway, am looking forward to seeing him in action!

LA Scene: Melting pot, mosaic, whatever you want to call it

If you heard the name Leila Feinstein and didn't know she was a reporter for KTLA, what would you think she would look like?

To read about her go here and here.

If you heard the name Jennifer Bjorklund and didn't know she was a reporter for KNBC, what would you think she would look like?

To read about her go here and here.

I don't know about you but when I saw their surnames and on news broadcast, I couldn't figure out what their ethnic backgrounds were!

And you know what, maybe that is a good thing?!

Only in LA?

LA Scene: LA Philharmonic Concrete Frequency

Concrete Frequency is the current music festival being run by the LA Philharmonic. Excerpt from the press release:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Concrete Frequency festival – a multi-disciplinary series of events – offers a probing exploration and celebration of the elements that define a city and how they are affected by, and reflected in, music. The unique examination of the relationship between music and the urban environment includes three orchestral programs, an electronic concert and a singer/songwriter program, enhanced by a film series, an art exhibition and a thought-provoking symposium. The two-week event begins with a Casual Fridays performance featuring Festival Director David Robertson conducting the Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Friday, January 4, at 8 p.m., and wraps up Thursday, January 17, at 9 p.m., with the special event – Man-Machine in the Digital City, featuring Tokyo’s Cornelius and British techno duo Plaid.

I attended the event at Walt Disney Concert Hall scheduled for January 11.

When I go to concert events, I pretty much just react to the music. Since I have little knowledge about music making and writing, I presume the technical competence of the performers. Even as a non-musician, it was apparent that the music being played last night was very demanding.

How one reacts to the unusual sounds? That is another story!

DAVID ROBERTSON picked up the microphone and spoke to the audience to kick off the concert. He brought some humor to the proceedings and offered some explanation of the works to be heard. He selected Berio's "Sequenza" to highlight the idea that typical city musicians would play classical by day and supplement their income playing jazz at night so the work fuses both elements. He placed Ives' "Central Park in the Dark" next to give the audience the feeling of that musician walking home through the park.

No question the trumpeter GABRIELE CASSONE was an amazing performer. You can't make those sounds and play with such energy for so long without being at the top of your game. Clearly, some in the audience were trumpet fans as some of them rose up to give him a standing ovation. The rest of the audience offered polite applause.

I think many in the audience, including me, felt unmoved by the composition by Berio. No question, technically demanding but it just didn't catch with me. An interesting feature of the work was the trumpeter sending his sound into the piano strings to generate a resonate sound. Unfortunately, where I was seated that effect was too subtle to really notice.

During Ives' "Central Park in the Dark," the strings provided a low hum and set the atmosphere of the ambient feeling of a warm night in the city. The sound maybe even hinted at the slight buzz of someone feeling tired at the end of a long day and having had an alcoholic drink or two. In the middle of the composition, a collage of sounds intruded from off stage through the speaker system over the sound of the strings. The idea was to create the feeling of various city sounds including street musicians playing in the park. That sound faded away as it would for someone continuing their walk in the park returning to the low buzz of the strings. All in all an intriguing work that accomplished what I think it set out to do emotionally.

Conductor Robertson introduced Feldman's "Turfan Fragments" with the explanation that the composer wanted to offer a musical interpretation of manuscript fragments found on the Silk Road. Indeed, as one watched and listened to the music, various "patches" of the assembled ensemble would play short little snippets of music. This was aurally and visually the most interesting work of the night as one's eyes darted around to see where the music was coming from.

After the intermission, Robertson explained to us that a Palimpsest is a scraped over parchment. Thus, the music would mimic the layers of a palimpsest where the old scratched out writing underneath would be vague and fragmentary while the newer layers would be more full and complete. The first half of the show was dedicated to music with a smaller sound. Palimpsests utilized moments of extreme delicacy with violinists lightly rubbing the strings to others where the full orchestra was blasting away.

The final work of the scheduled program was Zimmermann's "Concerto for trumpet and orchestra (Nobody knows de trouble I see)" with the solo trumpet work of rising young Brit ALISON BALSOM. The work evoked a wide range of emotions and musical styles. To my ears there was a mix of classical, modern, gospel and jazz leaving me with a desire to tap my feet and feeling good.

After a couple of "curtain calls," Robertson took the mike and said, I know encores are rare in contemporary music concerts so since you have been such a wonderful audience, we will play Round Midnight.

This was a jazz piece arranged for orchestra. Robertson and the performers were clearly having fun on this work and the audience who had lingered enjoyed this comparatively light and breezy work after an evening of more difficult contemporary music. As such, we were delighted and responded with applause and cheers upon completion.

Check here for LAT's Mark Swed's expert analysis which I read *after* I wrote this. I always try to write my concert reviews based on my own impressions!

Culture: Wicked Lottery

Yup, I finally saw the musical sensation Wicked!

First, the practical LA Scene side of the story.

The Wicked Lottery offers up 26 front orchestra seats for $25 each. The names are collected from 2 1/2 hour to 2 hour before show time. You can request one or two tickets. You must be 17 or older with ID and pay in cash. It is quite the festive atmosphere as the guy calls out the names of the lucky winners.

After the lottery ends, and if you don't win and this evening, I did not, you can get in line to buy left over tickets to certain sections at a discount.

This is really smart marketing by the theatre company. I'd say there was well over 200 people there for the lottery and of that group probably 1/2 lined up to get at the discounted tickets. What a great way to get people to get out on a rainy Thursday night to insure a packed house!

As for the appeal of the musical, the clear favorite numbers were "Defying Gravity" and "For Good" which were the emotional moments of act I and act II respectively. "Defying Gravity" celebrates the discovery of one's abilities and the sense of possibility for one of the main characters and sends the audience off to intermission exuberantly. "For Good" provides the moving emotional closing of the circle of the two main characters.

The musical has won a devoted following among many members of my church youth group and now I understand why!

The characters are easy to identify with. The social "stereotypes" of the cast of characters in the story mirror the social pecking order of their lives in school and indeed our lives as adults too.

The musical numbers, "What Is This Feeling?" "Popular" and "I'm Not That Girl" would be instantly accessible to anyone who has gone through even a modest amount of teenage angst and haven't we all?

My final two thoughts before I call it a night would be that the musical is incredibly post-modern and it is a celebration of friendship.

It has all the rhetoric of the post-modern perspective toward history that puts truth up for grabs. Yet, its message in the end is that there is still a truth to the lives of people even if things aren't as they seem at first glance. Truth existing in personal context is another theme of post-modern thought.

An interesting topic for discussion the musical could fuel is whether it advocates moral relativism (another common feature of post-modern thought) when the musical asks: are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?

Lastly, the story works and moves the audience because it is about love and friendship. Life is messy. There are misunderstandings. There are circumstances: stuff happens. There are mixed motivations. And in the end, what brings joy is those moments when we can connect with another soul in the journey.

As entertainment, it is a really wonderful show with great staging, costumes and musical numbers. It leaves you in awe at the skill and creativity of all involved. And if you want to think about it, it also provides some good food for thought about world views and the human condition.

Contemporary art often blurs the line between "high art" and "pop culture" and "consumer products."

The same is true of the performing arts. It might be "pop culture" and "entertainment" but there is also a filter on the world being described consciously or not.

For those so inclined, discuss amongst yourselves and I wish I could listen in on those conversations.

LA Scene: Star sighting - Jennifer Robertson

image source: http://www.diamondfield.com/jenniferrobertson.php

Okay, well, Jennifer Robertson isn't a household name yet but she's on The 1/2 Hour News Hour the new comedy that takes the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update concept to a full show.

The other night I got to hear her along with one of the show's co-creators and one of the writers talk about how the show got started and a bit of the behind the scenes fun they all have doing the show.

The show has done well enough for more episodes to be ordered up. Since it is filmed right here in Los Angeles I might have to try to go to a taping!

LA Scene: Dodger's All-You-Can-Eat Right Field Pavillion

Am going to visit this at Dodger's Stadium. It is one of their new marketing ploys for this season.

Here is the AP story on the new feature.

For a more snarky account of two fan's experiences see this item over at Slate.

UPDATE: For photos and a more detailed account, check my latest post over at LAFB.