At the Movies Then & Now: America’s Obsession is Mine, Too ..

From Edison to Turner, America’s love affair with moving pictures dominates almost every aspect of our lives. Now in the palm of your hand, you can watch videos on your latest gizmo. (did anybody stand in line all night for that ridiculously over-hyped iPhone?) Now in the privacy of your home, your family room can become your mini-theatre. From four inches in your hand to sixty on the wall in plasma or LCD — what next, Consumer Mad, USA? ... iScreen implants, I suppose ...What next for me is Turner Classic Movies — the best cable decision I ever made. I’m discovering good, sometimes true "classics"reaching back to the silent era. In stark speechless black and white the actor’s facial expressions convey so much emotion. Here’s comedienne Beatrice...

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Circus Chat from Ellington to Feld to Ruffin and Vargas ...

We start out on no particular lot. Nothing big to hype or snub. Maybe let’s give Big Bertha big top dreamer Craig Johnson the mike. In answer to my Circo Caballero post, alluding to a dangerous Oakland journey en route, e-mailed Craig, Get myself a mug, fill it with soda pop, pop up a ton of corn, let my DVD of The Greatest Show on Earth roll and "be safe."Staying safe, I could miss what’s under the Caballero canvas hood. Might call ‘em up early Saturday to see if a 3 p.m. show is on tap for sure. I guess they do business as the crowds — or the tarot cards — move them. I’m guessing they take the light weight, modestly charming route of the Zoppes. Not banking on a return in spangles of co-owner Ruben Caballero, who once flew nearly as high...

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Big Tops Falling, Big Tops Empty ... And Then There Was Circo Caballero --- Maybe Now Showing ....

There’s a show called Circo Caballero with a super casual way about entertaining folks who might show up under the impression it is actually in business to perform at certain set times. On the verge of taking bay area public transit out to the dreky BART coliseum station in East Oakland, then a bus across a freeway to this crummy lot that has been graced in recent years by Carson & Barnes (never forgive myself for missing that one) UniverSoul and others — I decided to confirm a 3 p.m. show time for today. The best Circo number I can find connects me to a lady’s home phone in Vegas with a voice greeting; One time a man called right back. Today, I kept calling, and got him again. "Not sure about the three o’clock show," said he, contrary to what he had told me a couple of days ago. "If not...

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MIDWAY FLASH ... Circus Chimera Closes Early. What Are We to Make of It?

Showbiz David SpeculatesCircus Chimera was the first American show to be created in the shadows of Cirque du Soleil. When it tried out in the Bay Area before pitifully attended houses in 1998, I recall discovering it by accident at Jack London Square. So good was the bargain basement version of a Cirque-like experience which Chimera offered— winning acts cleanly and artfully presented against an original taped soundtrack more lyrical than bombastic — I went back a second time.Carson & Barnes veteran manager Jim Judkins invested a lot of his own money in the one-ringer, which eliminated animals and favored an intimate program that is referred to by some as "the new American circus." Promising, indeed, seemed the idea of offering lower and middle class families an affordable Cirque du Soleil...

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Tinseltown to Times Square, New Musicals Face Vexing Odds

A Showbiz David Essayfrom early 2006For a town at the epi-center of entertainment that turns out new movies, songs and sit-coms as fast almost as Pink's produces hot dogs, why do virtually none of the original musicals it puts up year after year on local stages ever make it on the Great White Way?A curse? The long-argued east-west rivalry? Gotham's revenge for every one of its classic song and dance hits that got turned by this town into celluloid mush? Or is it just plain hometown myopia supported by a cast of undemanding critics who give the local talent pool delusions of sufficiency? The latest reality check reveals that in recent seasons a quartet of locally acclaimed darlings made the trek into New York's smaller off-Broadway houses, where, low and behold, some critical respect did show...

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M. Butterfly's Henry David Hwang Has a New Play in Yellow Face

New play reviewLos Angeles, June 10, at the Mark Taper Forum through July 1Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang obsesses over the question of ethnic appearance versus interior sensibilities. If I look Asian, am I Asian, or might I be more white? And so forth. An intriguing premise, alright, that lacks the dramatic focus and force to earn our ultimate respect. The good natured Hwang, recipient of a Tony award for M. Butterfly, has also contributed dialogue to hit Disney musicals, and so he has done mighty well for himself on the great white way. But what does he still see in his mirror? From the questions he continues to persistently raise, I would ventre to guess that he sees an image of himself that he does not fully accept, which is a pity.At...

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Chimera’s Ground-Bound Juke Box Romp Dances More than it Circuses

Circus Review: Circus Chimera$22.00 top. Santa Rosa, California, June 2, 1:30 p.m.In a rare moment of artistic redemption during the second half of the new Circus Chimera, which has wrapped itself around a juke box of rock from Beach Boys to disco, a quartet of lovely Chinese women, each keeping six plates spinning atop that many sticks, move fetchingly about while an old disco hit "Get Down, Boogie!" plays. Music and motion merge magically in rare juxtaposition: old China and modern American pop in tandem. And in that fleeting moment, a stylishly distinctive show that might have been teases our imagination. Alas, not to be. This Chimera, on balance, is the most problematic one I’ve seen. Unfortunately, Chimera’s founder and boss Jim Judkins...

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