Copious Notes

BlondeTV: So much better than expected

Haylie Duff, far right, and assistant choreographer Dennis Jones, to the left of Duff, brief the contestants in Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods. Copyrighted photo courtesy of MTV.

We will confess our misgivings up front: It is reality TV, which we have no faith in for substance, and MTV, which completely ceased being relevant to me after the third season of The Real World. Add to that, we saw this before in NBC's dreadful Grease: You're the One That I Want, which tapped the stars of the Grease revival currently running on Broadway.

So, I was not expecting much from Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods, which debuted on Monday night on MTV and will run for seven more weeks.

But if the show can stay on the level of its premier, you can shut me up like Professor Callahan.

The object here is to find a successor to Lexington native Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde -- The Musical.

One of the best signs this show has a chance to be good comes in the first segment when Legally Blonde director Jerry Mitchell tells the hopefuls, "Casting the next Elle Woods will be my decision."

With those words, we know this will not turn into a popularity contest where the winner will be determined by whoever has the fan base that can text the quickest. It will be a professional Broadway director, plus veteran casting director Bernard Telsey, Legally Blonde book writer Heather Hach and actor Paul Canaan, who tells the hopefuls, "I wanted to be Elle Woods, but there was a height issue . . . "

By then, we also know that the show isn't going to waste our time with preliminaries. No lingering in the hinterlands to see what crazy, delusional people show up at the open calls. We start with the ladies who got to come to New York, and quicklywe are down to a final 15 who have to be whittled to a final 10 in 45 minutes. So we see a lot of dancing and trying to sing the Act I finale, So Much Better, in which the final note is held for 16 bars. We really do get a sense of how tough being in a Broadway show is.

When Emma, a hopeful who claims Broadway is in her blood because her parents met working on the original Grease, asks associate choreographer Dennis Jones if he could demonstrate a move slower, he says, "I am."

Emma provides the most drama of the night, walking in touting her Broadway bloodline  but apparently not bringing her A game to the audition. But she makes it, and the show also starts to develop some characters, like Bailey, a 20-year-old Southern Belle from Anderson, S.C., who seems destined to become the show's bumpkin, and Lauren, already becoming the meanie.

There is a classic moment in Lauren's singing audition, where she brags, "I'm not here for my 15 minutes of fame making friends with the other girls."

Hach responds, "But Elle Woods would take it to the top, but she'd also make friends with the other girls."

Lauren starts backing up immediately, "All the other girls here are really nice . . . "

Yes, judging by the preview, there will be some drama, some tears, some backstabbing, and you want a little of that on reality TV.

But like Project Runway at its best, The Search for Elle seems to be aiming to present the process of the craft. The main whining in the first episode is about exhaustion. Bundy, who looks a couple of decades more mature than any of these girls when she meets them at the end of the premier, says, "If you are tired right now, that is nothing."

That does bring us back to the overall misgiving about this process, this premise. Dismissing the final contestant cut, Telsey says, "We can't cast based on potential."

But at this juncture, isn't that basically what this show is doing? None of these actors appear to have much professional seasoning in the premier. So really, they are looking for someone who's right for the part and has the potential to be able to go from this pressure cooker to centerstage at the Palace Theatre in a few months.

That's asking a lot.

But fortunately, watching MTV's Blonde talent search doesn't appear to be asking for too much.

'Blonde' reality show unlikely to find another Bundy

Laura Bell Bundy takes a bow on the opening night of Legally Blonde -- The Musical, April 29, 2007. Before she bows out, we'll see her a few times on the MTV reality/competition show that will name her replacement. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Aaron Lee Fineman. Below: A moment from Legally Blonde The Musicial: The Search for Elle Woods. Copyrighted photo courtesy of MTV.

The argument against a reality show to find Laura Bell Bundy's replacement as the lead in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde -- The Musical is Laura Bell Bundy.

This isn't argument Bundy is making. She has said nothing against Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods, the MTV show that premiers tonight with 10 aspiring starlets competing to inherit Elle's hot pink wardrobe. In fact, she's promoting the show, will appear in several episodes and help train the winner for her big debut.

But you cannot deny that this show is a purely commercial move designed to keep Blonde in the spotlight after its Tony Award-nominated star exits. Yes, there is always that chance that The Search will turn up some diamond in the rough, a previously unknown talent with the skills, magnetism and stamina to fill Bundy's pink high heels.

But that's doubtful, because Bundy didn't walk into the show straight out of Lexington Catholic High School, and that's not how most of Broadway's leading lights got to center stage. Bundy first turned heads when she was 10, taking an Obie Award nominated star turn in Ruthless! The Musical. She had roles in movies such as Jumanji and guest turns on Home Improvement that you can still see on Nickelodeon. If she'd been born 10 years later, in an entertainment landscape like today's that offers more opportunities to child stars, she could have been a Miley Cyrus or Ashley Tisdale. But she actually went to high school here, then went back to New York and walked onto a plum role in a hit daytime drama, followed by a Broadway debut in a Tony Award-winning musical. When we talked to her directors and colleagues on Blonde, almost all referred to the years of work she put in leading up to this show as being of paramount importance to her landing and succeeding in the part.

She paid her dues, but even more importantly, she gained valuable experience that prepared her for a colossally demanding role that is plausibly billed as being as big as Gypsy's Mama Rose. Granted, Blonde does not have Gypsy's literary cachet. But as Elle, Bundy is dancing, singing, acting a range from humor to heartache and basically executing every play in the triple threat book with only a few minutes off stage.

It is a role you work up to, not one you walk into off the street.

Broadway already tried this once, when the revival of Grease held a reality show audition for the leading roles of Danny and Sandy. Likable Max Crumm and Laura Osnes won via viewer votes over a few folks who had more seasoning, and the opening night reviews were not kind. Normally, these roles have gone to veterans who worked their ways up through the ranks or were filled with a little stunt casting. Actually, Grease is resorting to that now, with American Idol champ Taylor Hicks joining the cast for the summer.

Broadway is a business -- big business. And with so many lights on Times Square producers need to do something to make theirs shine brighter. Maybe being the show with the girl from MTV will help Blonde, now well into its second year. But it's not a move that shows a tremendous amount of respect for Bundy, her supporting players or hundreds of other actors who have put in their time on auditions, rejections and bit parts to get roles like this. And in many ways, it will put the eventual winner of the contest in precarious position she'll need Elle-like determination to overcome.

Starting tonight, we'll find out if anyone fits that bill.

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Country music

Concertgoers arrive at Meadow View Barn in the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill for Saturday afternoon's concert in the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass. Below: Sibling violinists Todd and Daniel Phillips of the Orion String Quartet perform Saturday afternoon. Copyrighted LexGo photos by Rich Copley.

SHAKERTOWN -- Classical music is something we normally associate with the city. There are those big orchestras in New York, Chicago and just about every other metropolis worth its salt. Even here, in the heart of the Bluegrass, our major concert hall is in the middle of a wide web of asphalt.

Meadow View Barn isn't.

The old tobacco barn at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill lives up to its name, nestled atop a hill that looks out upon vast expanses of green valley or trees from every direction.

For the second Memorial Day weekend in a row, the barn and Shakertown are hosting the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, produced by Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts. Featuring the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, direct from the asphalt jungle of NYC, it is one of the most sublime concert experiences you will ever have.

The string musicians' instruments probably haven't been played this close to their natural elements -- i.e. trees and horse hair -- and sounded this at home in a long time. Somehow the cellos sound more woody, the strains of the violins twirl in the air like a lark dancing, and the violas sound like old souls taking it all in.

This year, the chamber music society brought along four musicians of its own: co directors Wu Han, piano,  and David Finckel, cello, and emerging artists Arnaud Sussman, violin, and Beth Guterman, viola, who were new to the festival. Han and Finckel also invited along the Orion String Quartet, which is performing in its own right and splintering off to perform with the Lincoln Center artists as well.

That was an added bonus with Saturday evening's concert in the Meadow View Barn: We got these world-class musicians mixing and matching for more variety than you usually get from a chamber concert.

Interview: David Finckel and Wu Han on the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass

Wu Han (center) and David Finckel (right) at Shaker Village last year with their daughter Lilian. Photo courtesy of Finckel and Han.

Last year, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center participated in a pioneering effort: The first Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass.

Presented by the Norton Center for the Arts and its director, George Foreman, the fest was held at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, off the beaten path for most concert goers, in a renovated tobacco barn, an atypical venue for musicians more accustomed to cozy concert halls.

And it was a smashing success.

The concerts were sold out, and the chamber music society’s press representative says the musicians haven’t stopped talking about Kentucky.

So, with the second edition upon us, we got on the phone with cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, co-directors of the Chamber Music Society, to talk about the second edition of the festival and their return to the Bluegrass.

Herald-Leader: Tell us about your trip here last year and what made it so great.

David Fickel: The most wonderful thing, besides being in Kentucky, and in such a beautiful place and having such beautiful weather and meeting all the new people and playing for a new audience was being present at the birth of a really exciting new project. These days, when classical music takes root in a new location and blossoms, it’s wonderful news for everybody involved. We also look at our involvement at the Shaker Village there as being something that the Chamber Society is good at, something that we should do, being the kind of organization we are, we should go around and help people start new things because we can present great art in great programs and get people excited.

In the end, we all had a marvelous time. We made a lot of new friends, and we’ve really been thinking about it ever since.

Wu Han: In a regular concert, we usually hit a city and play for an audience of 500 to 2,000 and then we probably split the next morning and hit the next town. That’s a performer’s life.

So, to have the opportunity to base in such a gorgeous environment – it’s inspiring to be in such a pure and spiritual place like the Shaker Village – and to have the opportunity to be involved in a festival is incredibly satisfying. Festival is a place you come to meet people to have exploration, to have a community that has the opportunity to mingle, to eat meals together, to talk and to share a space and exchange ideas. At the end of the festival, we know the presenters very, very well, we get to know the audience, we get to know where to eat locally, we get to hike a little bit and the audience bonded with us. We have so much to share and it’s a very different sensation from just traveling from city to city and doing one night stands. The setting of the Shaker Village is fantastic. I don’t have the TV to distract me with CNN and 30 minutes of updating in my hotel room. And everyday I would wake up in the same place and it is very close to nature and I get to meet my audience in the daytime.

That’s unusual for musicians and I think it’s unusal for the audience to be that close to the musicians.

And playing the tobacco barn is so unusual. It’s very close to the earthiness of what we do using the chamber music form and its intimacy. It’s a project I really treasure.

Q: Last year, before you came, you said you were curious as to what the venue was going to look like. How did the tobacco barn turn out as a place to play?

WH: I loved it. To have a little bit of cowbell and the birds flying around the Dvorak Piano Quintet is not a bad thing at all.

Lyndy is 'Dancing with the Stars'

Lexington-native Lyndy Franklin and her fellow castmates from A Chorus Line will be on Dancing with the Stars at 9 tonight (May 6) on ABC. Franklin made her Broadway debut in the hit revival of A Chorus Line in 2006 and is now the company's dance captain. Along for the ride was company manager and fellow Lexingtonian Adam J. Miller. Miller and Franklin went to the Sayre School together.

Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Aaron Lee Fineman.

2007: Top arts stories

Shakespeare at Equus Run was one of several events launched in the Summer of 2007 to fill the void left by the closing of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival. Herald-Leader/Kentucky.com photo by Matt Goins.

"This is a developing story . . . " is a fairly common phrase in the news biz, and it certainly applies to the arts in Lexington in 2007. When you start thinking back on the big stories of the past year, several of them were stories that carried over from 2006. And heck, some of them won't be resolved by the time this piece is being penned in 2008.

There's quite a bit of evolution and change taking place here, and that usually doesn't easily fit into a calendar year. But evolution and change are also exciting, so let's see what was going on.

Summer reboot: One of the late-breaking stories of 2006 was the dissolution of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival. The arts community responded big time, filling the summer with events including Actors Guild of Lexington's Shakespeare at Equus Run and another festival that swooped into the Arboretum to replace the Shakespeare Festival. The summer also saw the debut of new chamber music festivals at the beginning and end of the season: The Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, featuring the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, at Shakertown and the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, featuring Lexington native and Chicago Symphony violinist Nathan Cole, at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion.

This story will continue to develop in 2008. Actors Guild has already decided to pass on presenting a indoor musical, as it did with Kiss Me Kate, this year, and SummerFest will likely look different in its 2008 offerings than it did this year. We'll keep you posted.

The search begins: George Zack is an indisputable institution in the Lexington arts community. So it meant a major change was afoot late last year when he announced he was stepping down as music director of the Lexington Philharmonic after 35 years on the job. This year, the change started happening. Though Zack's final concert isn't until September 2008, and his successor won't be announced until 2009, we got a look at the first two candidates for his job -- Phoenix Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Kayoko Dan and Alexander Platt, who has several orchestras under his baton -- and an idea what the Phil will look like without Zack. In 2008, we should see at least five more candidates for the job.

Laura Bell takes the lead: No, this did not happen in Lexington. But if you ever wanted a statement that you can be born and raised in Lexington, go to school here, sharpen your skills in local arts entities and go on to top the marquee in a major cultural capitol, Laura Bell Bundy's star turn in Legally Blonde -- the Musical was a strong one. The Lexington native and Lexington Catholic graduate culminated years of working through stage and film to grab the leading role in one of Broadway's hottest shows, and a Tony nomination for the performance. Bundy's a performer with a lot of irons in the fire, so we'll see where 2008 leads her.

Zirkel's passing spotlights his cause: Ross Zirkle's death from cancer robbed the University of Kentucky of one of its beloved art professors and Lexington of a strong and active member of its visual arts community. It also revived a cause that Zirkle had fought passionately for: Getting the University of Kentucky administration to pay attention to the deplorable conditions at the Reynolds Building where the art department is housed. Despite problems that prompted an accreditation  team to call the building, "a disaster waiting to happen," and previous problems including a collapsing staircase, the University of Kentucky administration has not made renovating the facility a top priority. We'll see if Zirkle's passing prompts any change of heart in '08.

The UK Symphony goes on the record and on the road: This year saw conductor John Nardolillo putting his orchestra on the national map with achievements including recording a CD for Naxos Records, the largest classical music label in the world, and playing Carnegie Hall with folk legend Arlo Guthrie. That CD of ballet music by George Frederick McKay should come out in 2008, and we'll see how else Nardolillo turns heads in the new year.

UK Opera joins forces with San Francisco Opera and composer: The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre increased its national profile joining with the San Francisco Opera's Merola Young Artist Program for the world premier of Thomas Pasatieri's comic opera Hotel Casablanca. It put the UK company in league with one of the nation's strongest opera companies, a prolific composer, and it stamped its name on a show that could wind up on stages around the world.

The Mayor issues a challenge: New Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry made the Lexington arts community nervous when he initially declined to declare a donation to the LexArts annual Campaign for the Arts as the effort got underway, breaking a tradition set by several of his predecessors. But he came back with an interesting proposal: He allocated $350,000 to the campaign and offered an additional $150,000, if LexArts could match the grant by coming up with new donors to pledge an additional $150,000, at no more than $1,000 each. LexArts rose to the challenge and acquired a new base of support, thanks to Newberry's visionary proposal that he hopes to apply to other concerns in the city. Now it's up to LexArts to build on the money and the new donor base.

Lexingtonians in NYC for Turkey Day weekend

Laura Bell Bundy in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde, the Musical. Copyrighted photo courtesy of Barlow-Hartman Public Relations.

How's this for football counter-programming: MTV is reshowing the Broadway production of Legally Blonde the Musical, this time in a sing-along format, at 1 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. The show, starring Lexington's Laura Bell Bundy as SoCal sorority girl-turned-Harvard law student Elle Woods, will play with lyrics at the bottom of the screen. It's been a successful technique with tween hits such as High School Musical.

MTV and Legally Blonde broke new ground in October by being the first Broadway show ever to be shown on TV in its entirety while it was still running on Broadway. According to Playbill.com, between the initial Oct. 13 showing and subsequent airings on MTV, Legally Blonde was seen by more than 12.5 million viewers. Funny thing is, unless there's a real quick resolution to the Broadway stagehands strike, TV is the only way you'll see Legally Blonde Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving morning, Bundy and the Blonde cast will perform on the broadcast of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which starts at 9 a.m. on NBC.

Also in NYC:

~ The Dunbar High School Marching band will be in the Macy's Parade -- maybe they should just hold the thing in Lexington, don'tcha think? Keep up with the high schoolers adventures in the big city on the blog, March of a Lifetime.

~ The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's big Carnegie Hall appearance with Arlo Guthrie is Saturday night. Watch the Herald-Leader over the weekend for photos and a story on the big event.

New York's enviable arts scene isn't perfect, and we can learn from that

The acoustics in the legendary Carnegie Hall make you wonder how an orchestra could want to perform anywhere else.

New York envy is easy to come by, particularly if you love the arts.

No matter how busy the arts scene in Lexington gets, it will never hold a candle to the lists and lists of events that pack the arts sections of The New York Times. And the organizations themselves seem to have everything: multi-million dollar budgets, world-famous venues and the best talent on the planet.
Occasionally, you might remind yourself that you’d better move to New York with a healthy salary if you want to partake in even a smidgen of this arts smorgasbord, but still, you contemplate the menu and drool, drool, drool.

Over 10 days in New York as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera last month, I got to indulge in and learn about that scene with a depth I hadn’t before. And while it was thrilling to go to shows night after night and talk about music all day long, it was most intriguing to learn that things are not always as idyllic as they seem in the Big Apple.

This was particularly striking when discussing performance spaces.

Bluegrass Broadway stars coming 'Home for Christmas'

Legit Lexington talents Laura Bell Bundy and Lyndy Franklin will present a Christmas concert with the Bluegrass Jazz Ambassadors at 7:30 Dec. 10 at the Lexington Opera House. Tickets are $15-$35 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

Bundy is starring as Elle Woods in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde, and Franklin is the dance captain and understudies several roles in the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line. Last December, in the midst of rehearsals for Legally Blonde, Bundy came home to present a concert with the Jazz Ambassadors at Memorial Hall, with whom she recorded a CD, I'll Be Home for Christmas. Bundy and Franklin are longtime friends who actually spent last Christmas day together in New York.

It's good to be home

The fellows from the NEA Institute on Classical Music and Opera in Central Park. Too many to name by name, but they included six daily paper scribes, including me; a defense policy analyst by day and music critic by night from Washington; Gentleman Jim from Montgomery, Ala., and Valeria from Hawaii. Notice, I'm not the only one in a bow tie.

It is good to be back in Lexington.

That's a typical thing for a weary traveler to say when he gets back to familiar territory. But considering my journey home included a canceled flight, two-and-a-half hours sitting on the tarmac at LaGuardia and a very aerobic trot through Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta to make my connection to Lexington, it is really good to be back, though I already miss my fellow fellows.

All of us are returning home with a lot to think about.

Joseph Horowitz and Alex Ross, L-R, discuss contemporary music at Columbia University.

Some of the reading we did before the fellowship, particularly by Joesph  Horowitz and Alex Ross had me thinking about things that led to other posts on this site, including the changing role of the conductor and  re-examining concert etiquette.

~ I come away from it thinking about our roles as music writers and critics. Are we best serving readers with what we are doing? What can we do better? What is out obligation to the art form itself?

~ What about this thing we call "classical music," usually for want of a better term. How's it doing, and where is it going?

~ What is the role of classical music in our larger communities?

~ Is new and recent music getting a fair shake in our concert halls? If not, why not, and how important is it that new music be heard?

~ It is very easy for the rest of the country to develop an inferiority complex about New York. But what's the quality of that quantity? Are we, here in Flyover Country, actually better poised to be innovative than the big cities? And, back to we, the journalists, what is our role in encouraging that innovation?

We're not going to answer all those questions today, and I'm not just saying that because I'm tired.

But many, if not all of these questions, are things for us to examine here in Central Kentucky, particularly at such a fluid time in our classical music scene.

Notes:

~ Sitting  on the tarmac in New York, I entertained myself for a while listening to the Delta classical music channel (it's No. 5 if you're traveling soon). I was particularly taken with Canadian Kelly-Marie Murphy's Give Me Wings to Fly, performed by the Gryphon Trio. Listening the entire album, Canadian Premiers, I experienced love at first listen with Old Photographs for Piano Trio, by Christos Hatzis.

~ Fortunately, with the extended plane time, we had been given a lot to read. I finally had time to dive into Ross' The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. It's already an engrossing book, and it was particularly cool to read his section on Charles Ives after hearing Jeremy Denk play the Concord Sonata at BargeMusic. (My fellow fellow Bryant Manning has a great post on this event at his blog.)

The Washington Post's Daniel Ginsberg and the Chicago Sun-Times and TimeOut Chicago's Bryant Manning in the lobby of The New York Times.

By the way, Typepad, the company that supports this and reams of other blogs, has an good interview with Alex about his blog, also called The Rest is Noise. And I just learned NEA fellow Suzi Steffen had an excellent interview with Alex, also.

~ Here's some more NEA Institute blogging from Brenda Tremblay of WXXI radio in Rochester.

OK, I'm starting to get the feeling I'm rambling, like many tired people do. But we'll keep talking about these things, and really, it is good to be home.

New York notebook

Stools in the cafe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, illuminated by the muted light of a rainy Friday afternoon.

Among the many amazing things I could mention about the NEA Institute in Classical Music and Opera is this: We have been amazingly busy. Even over the weekend, between shows we were seeing, things to write for the institute and what some of us call "work work," there hasn't been time for much else. But y'all back home will get the benefit in a reporter totally psyched with new ideas and a new sense of mission.

The day after hearing about the Downtown Entertainment Development Task Force in Lexington, we made our first trip off the Island of Manhattan to visit the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And looking at BAM was quite intriguing in the context of hearing about a serious proposal to develop an arts district back home. BAM is an institution which has become a major force in its community as well as the nation. Part of the intent of the Academy is drawing audiences in through as many avenues as possible, from events at the opera house to movie theaters in the facility, which roll arthouse fare such as Into the Wild and The Darjeeling Limited. And the multi-venue facility is looking to expand. During a Q&A with president Karen Brooks Hopkins and executive producer Joseph V. Melillo, with the new Lexington proposal fresh in my mind, I asked about facilities with BAM sensibilities around the nation -- Ohio State's Wexner Center came up -- and if they consult with other facilities, which they do. But the most interesting moment was as we departed. Melillo leaned over to me and said, "You've got a great guy in Lexington. Jim Clark. He knows all about BAM."

Certainly, I haven't talked to anyone about this proposal, and I am well aware Lexington has to accomplish its own vision of an arts and entertainment center. But Melillo's comment was a reminder we have a guy in the process with a grasp of the possibilities.

~ Thursday was Carnegie Hall.

Live from the Met

The Metropolitan Opera House on Tuesday afternoon. William Wegman's dogs have been part of the Opera's promotional campaign this year, including the banner for Macbeth.

Take a pretty long opera to begin with, add an 8 p.m. curtain and two super-long intermissions, and you have the red-eye edition of Copious Notes. But they just said MuteMath is on Conan, so I'm up until at least 1:35.

Anyway, our first -- and thus far only -- consensus disappointment at the NEA Institute in Classical Music and Opera was that Natalie Dessay did not sing the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor last night.

We learned that Tuesday morning in a class with Columbia University assistant music professor Karen Henson, where she casually mentioned that Natalie wouldn't be singing Wednesday night, and then proceeded to bring her up at least half a dozen times during the two-hour session. "Natalie this," "Natalie that," "You know, Natalie is really good a mad scenes." Really? Because, you know, Lucia has one of those.

Anyway, I know Karen wasn't trying to pour salt in the wound. She was simply using one of the great acting sopranos today as an example in a class, even showing Natalie's mad scene as Ophelia in Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet that was so incredible, I've already ordered the DVD.

Karen also had a little aside about the current trend of "Opera heroin chic," riffing off the high-contrast and emaciated look of models just a few years ago, in ads such as the banner (photo, right) of Dessay for Lucia.

Anyway, for an out of towner, no night at the Met is a bad night at the Met.

Live from New York

So, last week, I was try to drum up some sympathy around the office, but it wasn't working. See, I'm going to be missing a bunch of stuff around the Bluegrass, like Friday's opening night performance of Hamlet at Actors Guild and Rent's return to the Opera House.

But somehow, I haven't been able to sell this poor, poor pitiful me act. In fact, when I tried to bring it up at features staff meeting last week . . . well . . . I can't remember if any of my polite colleagues said, "shut up," but I know a few were thinking it.

You see, the reason I won't be around for some of these events is I am in the City that Never Sleeps, and my schedule over the next few days includes, but is not limited to:

~ Seeing Mary Zimmerman's new production of Lucia di Lammermor at the Metropolitan Opera with Natalie Dessay (photo, right, by Simon Fowler) in the title role

~ Seeing Sir Colin Davis conduct one of his 80th birthday concerts at Lincoln Center, and then getting to be part of a group chat with him afterwards

~ Hearing the American Composers Orchestra present a night of new works, including a world premier by Scott Johnson, who I have revered since hearing Kronos Quartet's version of his Soliloquy from How it Happens

~ Hearing New Yorker critic Alex Ross talk about his new book, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century

~ Writing reviews of some NYC productions and then having the reviews reviewed by folks like the New York Times' Anthony Tommasini (OK, that's scary)

~ Communing with 22 other arts journalists from across the country

We had our first meeting last night, and I have to say it was fun to brag on Lexington for a few minutes, mentioning that we had just come off a week of a thrilling concert by Kronos and a world premier performance of Thomas Pasatieri's new opera, and that in less than two weeks the search for the Lexington Philharmonic's new music director gets under way. We've got it going like Stacy's mom when it comes to classical music in Lexington. That's actually one of the main reasons to be here at the NEA Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University. With so much going on, it's a great time to sharpen the skills and work to bring you better coverage than ever during this exciting time in Lexington culture.

It's a tense trip. They've tried to pack a bunch into our schedules, so I don't know how much I'll post this week. But if anything really cool happens, I'll try to send you a blurb, particularly after our singing lessons -- imagine 23 music critics singing together . . . even we shuddered at the thought.

But seriously, I will miss home. (Can I get a sniff from someone?!)

~ Notes from the airport: It was sort of funny seeing all the LSU fans in purple and yellow at Bluegrass Airport yesterday. I was thinking, "What do you say? Hope you had a nice trip, anyway?" One of the fun things upon arrival was buying the New York Times and seeing a photo of Steve Johnson's touchdown as the huge centerpiece of the sports section.

Blonde Highlights: Return to 'Nibroc'

Having seen Arlene Hutton's Last Train to Nibroc at Actors Guild of Lexington back in 2000, two of the really fun things about seeing the sequel, Gulf View Drive, on Saturday night were the theater and the actor playing May.

The 78th Street Theatre Lab is highly reminiscent of AGL's old Short Street digs. It was up a rollercoaster-steep set of stairs  and the theater itself was essentially a little shoebox. It was also an extremely engaged crowd of, from what I gathered, mostly New York Theatre goers. And the house was packed, with patrons tucked in the corners around the stage, buoyed apparently by  The New York Times rave review. Gulf View was the third of a trilogy -- Nibroc, See Rock City and Gulf View -- and last night's show capped a performance of the trilogy that had stared that afternoon. (Wonder if local audiences would go for that.) When Hutton asked how many in the audience had been there for the whole day, a good third to half of the hands shot up. They got a door prize: a recipe for Mrs. Brummett's sweet summer squash. Did you ever think New York City theater would be so down home? It was also fun to hear things like references to Berea College and think, "I know what that's about."

I mentioned May. Alexandra Geis was the original May in the 1999 debut production of Nibroc, and she was strikingly similar to Rachel Rogers, AGL's May. Granted, they were playing the same role, but there were also similarities in appearance and mannerisms that were fun to note.

We're getting together with Hutton tomorrow, and will have more on her in the Gutenberg edition of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com, soon.

As for today, it is the big day for Laura Bell and Blonde. So, before things start hopping, I'm heading out for a New York morning of coffee, bagels and The Times.

Blonde Highlights: Kazee in '110'

Roundabout Theatre's production of 110 in the Shade is Steve Kazee's first time as the original cast of a Broadway show, albeit original revival cast. Still, he gets above the title billing with stage and screen stars Audra McDonald and John Cullum, and we are happy to report, he totally holds his own with them. (Totally? Am I dropping into a Blonde voice here?)

Everyone is in top form in the Harvey Schmidt-Tom Jones musical based on N. Richard Nash's play, The Rainmaker. Kazee plays Starbuck, so his job is to come out exceedingly confident and charismatic and own the stage for most of his scenes, which he does. Kazee's look has changed quite a bit for the role as his strikes a somewhat messianic pose compared the photo to the right.  McDonald, by the way, is heaven to hear live, and her acting  is quite impressive, and Cullum's role was reminiscent of his Northern Exposure character, Holling  Vincoeur.

Read more about Kazee and 110 in next Sunday's Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com.

A chat with two 'Color Purple' people from Louisville

NEW YORK — It’s a small world, and in The Color Purple, actors Eric L. Christian and LaVon Fisher-Wilson found out Broadway is even smaller.
Both attended Louisville’s Youth Performing Arts School, Christian a few years ahead of Fisher-Wilson.
“He was the hot-shot senior,” Fisher-Wilson, who graduated from YPAS in 1991, says of Christian, who was in the class of ’89.
After graduation, they took divergent paths from Louisville to Oprah Winfrey’s big Broadway production. But now, they are together again backstage at the Broadway Theatre.
Both are swings, meaning they understudy several roles in the show.
“It’s the first original production that I have been an original cast member in,” Christian (photo, right, by by Aaron Lee Fineman, backstage at The Color Purple) says of the show, which celebrated its first anniversary Dec. 1. “That’s exciting because you get to work from the bottom up, creating all of these things.
“This show has been a very interesting journey, arriving at what it is. Lots of ups and downs, lots of changes in choreography and music, to the point that sometimes you would get songs, and that night, you were putting them in the show — full songs, trying to figure out what worked best.”
Fisher-Wilson joined the cast in September.
When she got a call to audition for the show, “I was a little pessimistic,” she says, “because I had auditioned for The Color Purple before, and I said, ‘They don’t want me.’”
But they did, and Fisher-Wilson (photo, left, by Aaron Lee Fineman, backstage at The Color Purple), who has taken a long journey to her Broadway debut, says, “It’s my dream I kept deferring and doing other things. I think I was supposed to do other things because I am glad I am the age I am and have the mind-set I’m in because I am very focused and driven about what I am going to do.” Fisher-Wilson continues, “Also, I could have been put in any cast, but I wound up in this one. The love and care of Kentucky keeps drawing me back to my family, and I get that here with this cast.
“I haven’t even met Oprah yet, but to have my dream happen and to be in such a loving environment is a blessing.”
Part of the reason Fisher-Wilson kept deferring the dream was that she always wanted to move back to Kentucky.
After graduation from YPAS, Fisher-Wilson went to Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., for her bachelor’s degree and then to the University of Florida for graduate school. After that, she embarked on a touring and regional theater career. She was frequently tempted to move to New York but was a little timid about making the leap.
One thing she was doing and still wants to pursue is creating youth arts programs in Louisville. For several years, she ran Ujamma, an African dance program for girls. Part of the motivation for heading to New York was that to get grants at the level she needed, she needed to have some Broadway credits on her résumé.
It also helped that she met her husband, who is from New York, though he is now with Fisher-Wilson in her desire to eventually move to Kentucky.
“I am on this journey, and we will see where it takes me, but eventually, the journey will lead back to Kentucky,” she says.
Christian, on the other hand, recalls, “When I first hit New York, when I was 16, I said, ‘This fits my pace. This is where I want to be.’ ”
He’s now been in the city 12 years, performing in the Broadway productions of Hairspray and The Lion King, in which he understudied Simba, as well going on several national tours.
He is actually a Lexington native and attended Meadowthorpe Elementary School before he moved to Louisville in sixth grade. Christian got his first taste of stage work at a Lexington Children’s Theatre’s summer program. His tuition for that and several summer theater programs was supported by the Chittenden family, which he considers the “guardians” of his theatrical development.
“We couldn’t afford the tuition to the Children’s Theatre programs,” Christian said of his family. “But they said, ‘We think this would be good for you, and we really want you to do it.’
“Lexington is where the bug started,” Christian reflects, and though he now calls New York home, he says his Kentucky upbringing “was the foundation of everything that I have arrived at.”

Broadway, a view from the other 57 percent

New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood had a column in the paper Dec. 10 that piqued my interest, having just returned from New York. Headlined “The Great White-Bread Way,” the piece was something of a lament for the old Broadway experience, before the “Disneyfication” of Times Square and its adjacent blocks to attract more tourists.
Broadway, Isherwood pointed out, used to be a seedier neighborhood where serious theatergoers, the vast majority of whom were New Yorkers, had to trip over colorful characters to see shows. (An aside: Aaron Fineman, the New York photographer with whom I worked on my trip, and I were amused by a line in the Chorus Line revival that refers to the 42nd Street of old, and we guessed that younger folks probably won’t get it.) Now, Isherwood says, Broadway plays to a decidedly different crowd that treats shows as just diversions on sightseeing and shopping trips.
The Broadway audience, he writes, used to be 58 percent New Yorkers. Now, only 43 percent are locals.
In some ways, I’m inclined to be sympathetic to Isherwood’s point of view. Even as an out-of-towner, I share a distaste for the Times Square shopping hub loaded with a lot of stores I can patronize in Lexington — probably for less than I would pay in New York. Why should I eat at the Olive Garden in New York City when I have one at Fayette Mall? I travel to experience different things.
But I also, with a bit of pride for New York, will brag that I can feel perfectly safe walking around Times Square until late in the night. I cannot comment with any authority on the changes Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought to the theater district. But I confess I would be far less enamored of New York if walking out of my 46th Street hotel door felt inordinately risky.
I have to agree that the theater-going experience in New York has its downsides. The product has changed so that you have numerous shows, such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, that feel like pure commodities. And inside the theater, it can feel more as if you’re at a movie than a play.
At my first show on this trip, The Color Purple, I was appalled at the late seating that was allowed. Three or four numbers into the performance, people were showing up. And the ushers were bringing them down the aisle and seating them, even if it meant uprooting half a dozen seated patrons in the middle of a song. Maybe when people have paid $111 a ticket, theaters are afraid to tell them they’ll need to watch from the back or sit in the lobby for half the show. But what about my $111 experience?
And it was sad how easily I was able to grab a really good half-price seat to a Thursday night performance of Grey Gardens, a serious endeavor starring Christine Ebersole, one of Broadway’s most celebrated talents. Then it was sad to talk to some patrons who didn’t know who Ebersole was.
The Broadway experience is still exhilarating, watching levels of talent and production you don’t experience much of anywhere else. It’s well worth a trip. But there’s a lot of ancillary noise you have to put up with now, if you’re there to see some good theater.
Like Isherwood, we all are inclined to long for the old days. The dissolution of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival brought a fresh round of grinching from people who lamented it being moved from Woodland Park. Still, some people have whispered in my ear, “It wasn’t that great at Woodland Park.”
We often are inclined to remember the past more fondly than we experienced it.

Updated: Video of Will Chase in 'High Fidelity'

Broadway.com strikes again, and this time, it's Frankfort's Will Chase we get to see in action. Will, a veteran of Broadway productions such as Rent and Lennon, is now the leading man in High Fidelity, the musical adaptation of Nick Hornby's beloved novel. Opening night was Dec. 7, and Broadway.com has posted some cool video of Will and the cast in action, as well as interviews from the post-show bash at Roseland. Click here to take a look.

Update: Unfortunately, High Fidelity has been experiencing low turnout and will close Sunday, after only 14 performances and 18 previews. The show opened Dec. 7, to mostly negative reviews. The New York Times Ben Brantley put it on his list of five most forgettable musicals, adding, "Now if only I can remember the names of the  others." Ouch.

The night that review ran, I settled into a seat at the Imperial to see the show. It was not completely devoid of entertainment value. In fact, there were one or two quite memorable scenes, including Rob's fantasy about doing away with his rival, Ian, set to several different musical genres. But the show did miss both the appeal of a the High Fidelity story and the flavor of a Broadway musical, dooming it to not making much of anyone happy. It should be noted that when it came time for the curtain call, the audience remained seated until Will Chase burst on stage. His standing O affirms that whatever was wrong with this show, it wasn't him.

New York notebook: A critic reads reviews

I read reviews. Specifically, when I am making a hotel reservation, I devour online reviews of potential places to stay. To me, hotel reviews are really important, because you are choosing a place to leave you valuables and sleep at night while you are traveling. You don’t want to be stuck somewhere unpleasant or unsafe.
Making a reservation for the New York trip I just completed reminded me of some of the ins and outs of reading a reviews -- be they of hotels, shows or restaurants -- particularly in this Internet age, where everyone's a critic.
Now, some of my limitations this trip were, I was booking late and into New York City during the busy Holiday season. The Herald-Leader was happy to send me on the trip, to cover stories about several Central Kentuckians on Broadway, but asked me to keep a lid on expenses. That seemed hard to do, as when I logged onto  Orbitz for Business, most everything in New York City a two-star rating or above was running over $300 a night. After a frustrating while searching the mainstream travel searches such as Orbitz and Expedia, I went searching for inns and bed and breakfasts that might be in NYC, a route that had served me well on a trip to Toronto in 2005 for the Toronto Film Festival. There, I ended up in a quiet inn, Victoria’s Mansion, that was a perfect home base for a five night stay.
The best option to emerge from my New York search was a place called The Broadway Inn, at the corner of 46th Street and Eight Avenue. Having stayed on the Upper West Side my last few trips to New York, I really wanted to be in the theater district on this trip. The price and accommodations looked right, so I went looking for reviews. And they were mostly good, even at places like Trip Advisor and Yahoo Travel, which are good for providing unvarnished opinions of a place. But here is the hazard with things like the reader reviews at Travelocity and other places, even movie reviews at imdb or Rotten Tomatoes. You don’t know who the people are, what their standards are, what their personalities are like, none of that. So, I tend to look for a consensus of opinion and what people are saying. For instance, one of the first negative reviewers of the Broadway Inn was upset they pulled back the sheets and there was a hair on the bed. That was sort of the extent of their complaint. OK, it shouldn’t be there, but one hair on a sheet is not going to kill me. Another complained that he was penalized for canceling late, though the cancellation policy is clearly stated on the hotel’s website. A few other people didn’t really seem to understand New York very well, specifically that you will pay twice to three times as much as you’re used to paying for a room elsewhere and probably get half the accommodation. It’s a big city with a lot of dinky hotel rooms, and most of us shrug it off saying you don’t go to NYC to sit in a hotel room. So, anyway, user reviews were mostly positive, and I read deeper to understand what some of the complaints were. Then, I went to a few sources like Frommer’s and Fodor’s, because these are travel experts who know what to expect and what a good value looks like. I may not always agree with them, but they have track records I trust. They and a few other mainstream sources I consulted all seemed say the Broadway Inn was a good option.

So, I e-mailed a reservation request late one night. When I arrived at my desk the next morning, I already had a call from a woman offering me a room, including a discount on the weekend rate Friday night because I was checking in for a five night stay ($215 a night). Still, I was a little nervous because there were some negative comments. Coming into the city, I was a tad concerned my cabbie had no idea where the Broadway Inn was. But, for a budget traveler, it turned out to be a really nice option. My room (photo, right) was a shoebox, which I expected, but not so cramped I couldn’t stand it. The wireless connection was only available in the lobby. But the lobby was so cozy, I kind of enjoyed going down there each night to file blog posts. The last day I was there, the staff was even sharing a box of chocolates a customer had given them. One web reviewer, and a guest I heard while I was there, complained the continental breakfast was just pastries. But I had never stayed in New York hotel that offered any complimentary breakfast before, so I was happy.  Overall, I was happy, particularly considering the money spent and time of year I was there. So I would join the rest of the net in a good review of the hotel, and I was glad I had so much information to help me decide whether or not to go there.

~ Now that I'm home, this seems like a nice post to end the New York series on:
So, I’m going to see Adam Miller Friday afternoon (Dec. 8). He’s a UK grad and Lexington native who has established himself on the management end of things on Broadway, working in the offices of shows such as Urinetown; Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang; Ring of Fire and now A Chorus Line. Adam gave me directions to his office on the Eighth floor of a building at the corner of 51st Street and Broadway. Nice address. But I still wasn’t prepared for the name on the door of his office: Cameron Mackintosh Incorporated. Uh, yeah, Adam has moved up, working for the guys who brought you Cats and Les Miserables.
Anyhoo, it was great to chat with Adam because he is so plugged into the Broadway scene, but also keeps in touch with Lexington Theatre. Nice to talk to a guy who can make really astute third party observations about the fate of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival and also evaluate the likely impact of Ben Brantley’s subtley savage review of High Fidelity in the Times that morning.
But the interesting recurring theme was the preponderance of Central Kentuckians in New York, and even on Broadway, as most recently demonstrated by he and Lyndy Franklin both working on A Chorus Line. He recalled how they commiserated the day of the crash of Flight 5191, when they were both in San Francisco for the out-of-town preview for Chorus Line. They waited for news of whether they knew anyone on the flight and were calling back to New York to check in with other Kentuckians in The City.
“Anytime I need a taste of Kentucky,” Adam says, “I don’t have to look far.”
Broadway, Adam says, is a small community, and it is amazing, he adds, how many Kentuckians are  in it.

New York notebook: Christmastime in the city

I don’t know the origins of Silver Bells' gentle refrain, “It’s Christmastime, in the city.” But it is nearly impossible to walk the streets between Herald Square, Fifth Avenue and Times Square without humming that tune. Yes, every city, including Lexington, has its Christmas traditions. But with so many iconic holiday perennials -- the tree at Rockefeller Center, Macy’s, the shop windows on Fifth Avenue, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker -- it is no wonder that the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the toughest tickets in New York City.

My first  night in town, Monday (Dec. 4), I ventured down to Rockefeller Center to see the iconic Christmas tree and ice skaters. You would have thought it was Saturday with all the families crowded into the plaza, the waiting lines for really good vantage points to photograph the tree. If you are one to avoid crowds and monster markups for hotels, NYC in December is not your scene. But, to be honest and admittedly foolish, watching the eyes of children sparkle in the light of the tree and their jaws drop looking at Macy’s window displays of Miracle on 34th Street and other classic Christmas tales makes me want to take a little weekend jaunt there before my primary school duo grows to cool to have a sense of wonder. Of course, New York at the holidays also has its quirks -- witness sax playing Santa outside Macy’s to the left. There was also a blue Santa outside the Quicksilver shop on 42nd Street that prompted Laura Bell Bundy to exclaim, “It’s a UK Santa!”
And there’s a lot to be said for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s farm as well as in my hometown of Virginia Beach, where the municipal version of Southern Lights stretches out along the Boardwalk with pieces like surfing Santa.
But Christmastime in The City has to be experienced at least once.

~ Riding the train down the Lower East Side Friday morning to have Breakfast at the Life Cafe (photo, right) reminded me a bit of the first time I was in Athens, Ga. I went to landmarks such as the 40 Watt Club and Allen’s Bar, highlights of the careers a