Peter Danish - Page 9

Playwright Neil LaBute seems to like to write stories about men who behave badly. The protagonist of 'Some Girl(s)' (who is nameless) is yet another LaBute bad boy.

The biggest music festival in NY this year will be in Rockland County!

There's always something going on in the city that never sleeps, but this summer the classical music offerings are plentiful and wonderful!

Disney and Stravinsky clash over Fantasia!

The New York Philharmonic's series of 11am Friday matinee concerts is one of the real hidden gems of the New York cultural experience. True, the programming for the series is a bit less adventurous than one might wish for, but it is nonetheless laden with masterpieces.

'Hudson Valley Honor Flight: Generation Bridge' tells the story of the local Honor Flight hub that takes World War II veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the monuments in their honor. It's a day-long celebration that gives the veterans the coming-home party they never received. It also follows the veterans as they visit local schools to talk to teenagers about World War II and what it was like to fight it.

March is Chopin Month at The Carnegie Concert Series

New York City Opera was one of the great artistic treasures of New York. It was famously dubbed 'The People's Opera' by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at its founding in 1943 and throughout its nearly 70 year history, the NYCO helped launch the careers of many of the world's greatest opera stars including Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes, Placido Domingo, Maralin Niska, Carol Vaness, Jose Carreras, Shirley Verrett, Tatiana Troyanos, Jerry Hadley, Catherine Malfitano, Samuel Ramey. Sills later famously served as the company's director and chief ambassador for the art form from 1979-1989. It also sought to produce an innovative choice of repertory, and provide a home for American singers and composers.

'Chinese Coffee' by Ira Lewis is a very idiosyncratic play that has been an actor's favorite since its debut 25 years ago. Al Pacino has championed the piece both on Broadway and in a film which he produced, directed and starred in. The current presentation at The Nyack Village is a real gem and shows vividly why actors are so drawn to the piece.

The only thing missing from the opening week of the New York Philharmonic's 'Dohnanyi/Dvorak' festival was Dohnanyi. The legendary conductor was laid out by a bad case of the flu, causing him to miss the first performance of the series. 32 year old Krzysztof Urbanski, the music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, stood in for the 85 year old maestro and last week and did a fine job, but after a massive promotional campaign one can be sure the management breathed an equally massive sigh of relief when Dohnanyi returned last Saturday night to an enthusiastic New York welcome.

David Chmielewski and Kimberly Hawkey gave beautifully touching performances in Elmwood Playhouse's aesthetically stirring production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical Sunday in the Park With George.

On Tuesday night, November 18, NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will be the scene of an opera-lover's dream come true. As the Met continues to try to find ways to keep audiences engaged; trudging through tacky new productions of classic repertory and mediocre production of mediocre new works, Teatro Grattacielo has quietly shown that there is another way.

Petrouchka is an often performed piece that can sometimes feel tired and perfunctory. Along with The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's other two big ballets from the same period (all of which remarkably flowed from the composer's pen within five years), Petrouchka requires a deft hand at the helm to feel fresh. Luckily, in the hands of Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony, a fine fresh take was on the menu. The New Jersey players did a fine job, and even if this music was not their typical fare, Maestro Lecombe managed to bring excitement and subtle inner colors to the surface throughout.