Undoing Disney

Posted on June 5, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

She’s back. Alice, that is. But maybe we should make it clear which Alice we’re talking about because … well, maybe it’s not as disorienting as falling into an alternate universe, but it’s not as easy as it seems.
You see, there are two separate books by Lewis Carroll: “Through the Looking Glass” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Then Disney came in and made a mess of everything, combining the two books for its 1951 full-length animated version, which, for better or – more likely – worse, is the standard, the version that everyone remembers.
So while many of us may be expecting to see Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum and the chess game when Theater in the Open stages “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” this weekend, we won’t see them.

Merrimack River Current | 4 June 2004

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Gorey Ballet

Posted on June 5, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

BostonHerald.com reports that Snappy Dance Theater will be performing the world premiere of The Temperamental Wobble, a ballet based on Edward Gorey’s books, as part of the FleetBoston Celebrity Series:

After receiving the commission from the Celebrity Series (under the auspices of its Boston Marquis Series, which is dedicated to the work of Boston performing artists), the company began its usual collaborative process. The dancers retreated for a week to a studio in Chatham, reading Gorey’s books, improvising and paying attention to their dreams.

Costumes were designed by Kambriel.

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New Alice Book by Carroll, by R.J. Carter

Posted on June 4, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

cover

The Trades has a review of a forthcoming novel by R.J. Carter, with illustrations by Lucy Wright, which continues Alice’s story picking up nine months after the end of Through the Looking Glass.

Alice’s Journey Beyond the Moon “has been written as if it were a ‘lost’ Carroll manuscript and then presented as a book, complete with footnotes to explain all the references” (David J. Howe of Telos Publishing Ltd. in a post to the Lewis Carroll mailing list). Carter, according to Howe, “began taking notes on an idea gleaned from a drawing of a book in a stack of books that didn’t exist in an issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic.”

The book will be published in August, but can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

In the meantime, if you feel like visiting the Man in the Moon have a look at my edition of The Flight of the Old Woman Who Was Tossed up in a Basket.

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J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys

Posted on June 2, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

A review of Andrew Birkin’s J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys from the Times Literary Supplement, 27 May 2004:

J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre on December 27, 1904. It was one of the most ambitious theatrical productions ever mounted, and most of those involved expected it to be “a mild disaster”. It was in fact a triumph and has been part of the theatrical repertory ever since. The play was not to everyone’s taste – “Oh, for an hour of Herod!”, Anthony Hope famously pleaded – but it has endured in spite of being reduced to pantomime, turned into a cartoon by Walt Disney, set to music by both Leonard Bernstein and Jule Styne, and “developed” into a cinematic vehicle for Robin Williams.

Birkin has also created a great web site where you can read the Introduction to the book and find a lot of information on Barrie.

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The Lear Macaw on the Brink of Extinction

Posted on June 2, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

The Guardian reports about a protest at Downing Street to introduce legislation banning wild bird imports:

One of those on the brink of extinction is the Lear’s macaw, a long-tailed blue parrot named after Edward Lear, the author of nonsense verse whose painting of a captive specimen led to the first description of the species. The only known wild population of the bird was discovered in 1967 on the Raso de Catarina plateau in north-eastern Brazil. As few as 250 birds are thought to exist in the wild.

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The Owl and the Pussy-Cat Come To Auckland

Posted on May 31, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

Join the Owl and the Pussy-Cat on their wonderful and magical journey to the Land where the Bong Tree grows. With music, songs and some very funny characters, Tim Bray Productions brings this quirky poem of Edward Lear to life.
‘The Owl & the Pussy-Cat’ opens at The PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna, Auckland on July 5 for a weeklong season during the school holidays.

Presented by veteran children’s theatre writer and actor Tim Bray, The Owl & The Pussy-Cat heralds the long-awaited return of professional children’s theatre in Auckland.
A highlight of the season will be a Gala Opening Performance on Sunday 4 July at 5.30pm. “As adults we enjoy dressing up for opening nights,” Tim says. “We want to give the children a chance to dress up and experience their own opening ‘night’ at the theatre.”
Another highlight is a special performance where New Zealand Sign Language interpreters will be part of the show, so that deaf and hearing impaired children and their families can also enjoy the magic of live theatre. The interpreters are from Kelston Deaf Education Centre and have been kindly sponsored by the Takapuna North Rotary Club.
The PumpHouse Theatre is located in a beautiful historic building next to Lake Pupuke, Takapuna and is an ideal spot for a picnic lunch, or grab something to eat at the café. Plus there’s free parking.
Performance times vary with some early evening shows to cater for working parents and caregivers.
“We want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy the fun of live children’s theatre,” Tim says. The Owl & the Pussy-Cat’ is the first of four professional shows that Tim Bray Productions is presenting in 2004. Also at The PumpHouse is ‘Mahy Magic’ in the September school holidays and ‘The Santa Claus Show’ for the Christmas season. ‘Foibles’, a solo show for the grown-ups at the Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, THE EDGE® will be staged in September.
‘The Owl & the Pussy-Cat’ is a remake of the original 1992 production staged by Tim Bray at The Central Theatre, Auckland where The SiLo Theatre now stands.
Tim Bray is a 40-year-old actor/playwright who has been creating his own style of theatre productions in Auckland for more than 13 years.
He was the founder of The Central Theatre which produced such classic and diverse shows such as ‘The Nice Show’, a lovely and very nice cabaret starring Lisa Chappell and the late Kevin Smith, a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits’ at The Herald Theatre, and the funny and fabulous ‘Ponsonby Road’.
He has written and performed two solo shows, ‘Me and My Vice’, which toured to the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1998, and ‘The Last Laugh’. He co-wrote and starred in the comedy play, ‘Ponsonby Road’.
As well as his adult shows, he has a passion for creating theatre for children and has written seven plays for children (three original and four adaptations) and co-written four children’s plays. Tim was also for many years performed as Basil Fawlty with his ‘Fawlty Towers’ team, which has performed throughout New Zealand and, incredibly, had five tours to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Tim’s screen and TV credits include Lofty in ‘Chunuk Bair’, and roles in ‘Her Majesty’, ‘Gloss’, ‘Shortland Street’, ‘Cleopatra 2525’, ‘Mother Tongue’ and ‘Marlin Bay’. The Owl & The Pussy-Cat is at The PumpHouse Theatre, Killarney Park, Takapuna, Auckland from 5-10 July. To book, phone (09) 489-8360 or online at http://www.pumphouse.co.nz. Family concessions available.

Scoop. Also see the press release (31 May, 2004).

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A Hoe is a Hoe, or is it?

Posted on May 30, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

Politicians have got themselves into a flap about The Cat in the Hat.

Censors were forced to defend the film’s classification after a Tasmanian politician tried to give it a bad rap.

smh.com.au | 24 May, 2004

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Gilbert and Sullivan

Posted on May 30, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

A performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado in Sydney prompts a long article on their importance in The Age, 29 May 2004).
Peter Craven writes:

Gilbert and Sullivan were the high watermark of the music of the English-speaking people in that long optimistic stretch of time, the 40 or so years before the First World War.
There’s the parallel with Kipling, but Gilbert and Sullivan, with their dazzling Savoy presentations under D’Oyly Carte’s banner, are the mass dissemination of that spirit of nonsense that runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear and insinuates its way into the comedy of Oscar Wilde (“Mr Worthing, to be born or at any rate bred in a handbag”) and whispers through the stories of Saki, which are a kind of Wildean aftermath.

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Edward Lear Art on Sale

Posted on May 30, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

The Fine Art Society, London, will be exhibiting and selling Lear art from 3 to 22 July. There are four watercolours online.

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The Other Sides of Seuss

Posted on May 29, 2004 by Marco Graziosi

The New York Times reviews the new Dr. Seuss exhibition at the Animazing Gallery.

SoHo has recently become the habitat for some extraordinarily rare species, including the Tufted Gustard, the Two-Horned Drouberhannis, the Blue Green Abelard and the Andulovian Grackler. These odd animals, some liberated from a chicken coop in upstate New York, have hardly ever been glimpsed in Manhattan or, for that matter, anywhere else. And to think that I saw them on Broome Street.

Such wild creatures originated not in some far-flung continent but in the imagination of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. Carved in wood, these 1930’s sculptures are in “The Art of Dr. Seuss,” a show at the Animazing Gallery.

Dr. Seuss the sculptor? This display also features Dr. Seuss the advertising genius, Dr. Seuss the magazine illustrator, Dr. Seuss the political cartoonist and Dr. Seuss the Surrealist, as well as sketches from his beloved children’s books. (The Cat in the Hat will greet children at the show tomorrow through Monday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) Much of the art has never been exhibited before.

“He was a private person and not a very confident man,” said Heidi Leigh, the gallery’s director. “He knew that with his children’s books and in the advertising arena he was successful. I think he didn’t dare to expose himself as a fine artist.”

An example of his self-effacement is “Man Who Made an Unwise Purchase,” a colorful painting of a Chaplinesque fellow carrying on his shoulder a huge, yellow, unmistakably Seussian bird. “What the painting is about is the 18th publisher, who bought his first book,” Ms. Leigh said. That tale, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” had been rejected by 17 others.

But Dr. Seuss was self-assured in his political views. Complementing his ad campaign for bug repellent is a 1942 illustration of Uncle Sam administering “mental insecticide” to a startled man, blasting a “racial prejudice bug” out of the man’s ear.

The show even includes a bit of bawdy doggerel and a few nudes. But don’t worry: Dr. Seuss’s illustrations for his book “The Seven Lady Godivas” are no more anatomically correct than Barbie dolls. But they are much more Rubenesque and have something Mattel’s creations don’t: a sense of humor.

“The Art of Dr. Seuss,” through June at Animazing Gallery, 461 Broome Street, near Greene Street, SoHo, (212) 226-7374. Free.

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