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Friday, 9 August 2013

Horse Extravaganza Show Extends Near Boston

Posted on 09:32 by Unknown
The Travelers V / Les voyageurs V | Credits: JF Leblanc
Cavalia’s Odysseo, a $30-million horse show imagined by Normand Latourelle, one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soleil, has extended its run under the White Big Top at  201 Assembly Square Drive in Somerville, MA at the intersection of Interstate 93 and Route 28.

Tickets, priced from $34.50-$139.50 are on sale through Aug. 25:  www.cavalia.net or by calling 1-866-999-8111.  VIP tickets (Rendez-Vous package) offer the best seats in the house, buffet-dinning before the show, open bar, deserts during intermission and an exclusive visit of the stable after the show. The Rendez-Vous package prices range from $154.50 to $219.50.

To give life to this extraordinary equestrian adventure, Cavalia created a 17,500-square-foot stage, in the middle of which rise two hills each three storeys tall. Some 10,000 tons of rock, earth and sand are trucked in and then sculpted to create the vast space of freedom where human and horse come to play in complicity.

Above the stage hangs an imposing technical grid capable of supporting 80 tons of equipment including, a full-sized merry-go-round. Odysseo presents a “live 3-D” voyage with extremely high-definition computer graphic images that transport the audience across the world’s most beautiful landscapes. To project these
breathtaking graphic backdrops on an immense cyclorama the size of three IMAX screens, Odysseo uses 18 projectors simultaneously.

The dream begins in a misty, enchanted forest where horses graze and frolic under a sky of rolling clouds and a setting sun. Horses, riders, acrobats and musicians embark on a soulful journey that leads them from the Mongolian steppes to Monument Valley, from the African savannah to Nordic glaciers, from the Sahara to Easter Island.

Among the sites on this grand voyage are urban stilters,  a troupe of African acrobats, horses powering angelic aerialists in a four-person silks act that takes them into the skies, an African harp called a Kora and purebred Arabian horses directed by inaudible vocal commands from their kneeling trainer.

The scenes follow the seasons; at times, the horses and people become too numerous to count. The Odysseo epic wraps up with a fantastic crescendo as the stage is inundated with 80,000 gallons of water in just a few minutes. A virtual waterfall overhangs the resulting lake, in which horses, riders and artists join to frolic, leaving behind them the traces of their splashes and an astonished audience.

Fun Facts:
  • Odysseo features 63 horses of 11 different breeds including the Appaloosa, Arabian, Canadian, Holsteiner, Lusitano, Oldenburg, Paint Horse, Quarter Horse, Spanish Purebred (P.R.E.) and armblood.Headquartered in Montreal.
  • The horses are from Spain, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, Germany, The United States and Canada.
  • There are 47 artists - riders, acrobats, aerialists, dancers and musicians.
  • The artists are from around the world including the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Belgium, Guinea, Russia, Spain and Ukraine.
  •  There are 350 costumes and 100 pairs of shoes and boots in the show. Artists may have up to seven different costumes.
Cavalia Inc. is an entertainment company that specializes in the creation, production and touring of innovative shows for audiences of all ages. Founded by Latourelle, the company has an expertise in equestrian and performing arts, and is known for cutting-edge technology, multimedia and special effects. Cavalia, seen by some 4million people across North America and Europe since its 2003 debut, celebrates the relationship between humans and horses by loosely recounting the evolution of this bond.

The website for Odysseo says information about tour stops in Washington, DC and Seattle is coming.
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Saturday, 3 August 2013

A Midsummer Night's Dream -- CT Free Shakespeare

Posted on 05:35 by Unknown
A Lively “Midsummer” Presented Under the Stars
By Tom Holehan
There was life last week on the grounds of the woebegone American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford where Director Ellen Lieberman continued her annual presentation of “accessible Shakespeare” this time with a fast and lively production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Shakespeare’s popular tale of mismatched lovers lost in a forest of fairies, sprites and changelings looks right at home on the theatre grounds with majestic tall trees framing the stage. The trees helped considerably as Doug Frawley’s bland scenic design doesn’t begin to suggest the enchanted forest required for the classic.

This is in-your-face, endlessly enthusiastic Shakespeare with enough good actors and high spirits in the large company to win over even those who still don’t quite “get” the Bard. Handsome Mark Friedlander makes for an appealingly love-struck Lysander matched well with the adorable Caitlin Chuckta as Hermia. Jonathan Holtzman’s Oberon and Saluda Camp’s Titania are both well-spoken who suggest the otherworldly without a lot of fuss and CFS regular Eric Nyquist is a ball of energy as the exuberant Puck. The clear crowd-pleaser of the evening, however, was Ian Eaton’s delightfully hammy Bottom. He probably gets away with more than the law should allow here, but the audience I sat with was not complaining.

Pyramus and Thisbe, the hilarious play-within-a-play that caps the production, goes on far too long but, again, the crowd would have probably enjoyed even more. There are also extended dance and song sequences that could have been trimmed and pity this poor company that doesn’t even get a rest at intermission as they lead group sing-alongs while passing buckets for donations. Frankly, I could have used a break from this fun but aggressive production, but there is no denying that Ms. Lieberman knows her audience very well.

 A Midsummer Night’s Dream will continue at McLevy Green in Downtown Bridgeport through Aug. 11. For further information call 203-916-8066 or visit:www.ctfreeshakespeare.org. 
 
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website:www.ctcritics.org.
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Theater Review: Grease -- New Canaan

Posted on 05:21 by Unknown

Courtesy of New Canaan
Grease Rocks Under the Stars in New Canaan
By Tom Holehan
Grease, the much-produced 1950s rock and roll musical and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Shakespeare perennial (especially at this time of year), are both being offered al fresco this summer by the Summer Theatre of New Canaan and Connecticut Free Shakespeare. Pack your picnic basket and enjoy the night breezes…if not the productions!

Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey struck musical theatre gold with Grease, which opened on Broadway in 1972, had a few revivals, countless National Tours and a certain blockbuster film version whose popularity continues to baffle me to this day. The simple story about some not-too-tough high school greasers and the women they love includes the main romance between virginal new girl Sandy Dombrowski (STONC’s perky Sharon Malane) and bad boy ladies man Danny Zuko (Christian Libonati, working awfully hard). Complications, as they say, ensue and the dubious moral of  Grease still seems to say: Embrace your inner slut and the boys will love you. Nice.

At STONC, the cast is knocking themselves out to entertain and the mugging and extreme “face acting” going on is broad enough to be comfortably observed from the parking lot. Director Melody Meitrott Libonati leaves little to the imagination and everyone seems to be trying just a little too hard. It would have been nice if the actors were encouraged to take a step back and find some truth in these cartoonish characters. You’d also like them to relax a tad and enjoy their characters instead of forcing them so on us with such gusto.

The nifty score, however, is still fun to hear and audience members sang along with the familiar, infectious music. The most successful performance of the evening was Cristina Farruggia as mean girl (with a heart of gold, ‘natch!) Betty Rizzo. Farruggia may look mature enough to join the cast of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”, but her powerhouse singing of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” late in act two may be the production’s highlight. Adam Hill’s Teen Angel does a decent job with “Beauty School Dropout” finding the wit within the lyrics and Elysia Jordan brings real feeling to “Freddy My Love”. David Hancock Turner’s compact but pistol-hot orchestra continues to impress and this Grease manages to entertain despite itself.

Grease continues at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan through August 11. For further information or ticket reservations, call the theatre box office at 203.966.4634 or visit: www.stonc.org. For further information call 203.916.8066 or visit: www.ctfreeshakespeare.org. 
 
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theater information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website:www.ctcritics.org.
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