The gospel according to Aretha Franklin
Concert review by Marjorie Hernandez,
mhernandez@VenturaCountyStar.com
Monday, June 29, 2009

When the Queen of Soul takes you to church, you stand up and listen.

For nearly two and a half hours on Friday at the Hollywood Bowl, the venerated diva of divas, Aretha Franklin, took the audience to church with her soul and gospel roots, commanding the stage like a preacher leading her congregation.

Although it’s been 35 years since Aretha graced the Hollywood Bowl stage, the 17-time Grammy winner performed her mainstay hits such as “Respect” and “Freeway” and songs from her upcoming album set to drop in September.

The robust songstress, wearing a peach gown with a flowing train that was as big as her powerful voice, was escorted onto the stage and opened with her hits “Higher and Higher,” “Baby I Love You” and “Think.”

Many in the audience, however, jumped to their feet when the Queen performed her 1968 hit “Respect” early into the show, aptly backed by her five singers.

Conductor H.B. Barnum led a full orchestra that played Aretha off the stage for a brief intermission as Brazilian dancers took over the entertainment.

The Bowl was suddenly transformed into a Brazilian carnivale as scantily clad female dancers, drummers and men on stilts walked the aisles. While certainly entertaining, (there was a Conga line going), the samba music and dancing seemed disjointed from the deep soul and gospel music that preceded it.

After about 15 minutes, the women in their feathered headdresses walked off the stage to make room for the Queen of Soul and the second half of the show.

This time, Aretha donned a white full-length fur coat and a snug black gown that sparkled with rhinestones.

“I told you I wasn’t playing with Mother Nature tonight,” said the diva as she sashayed to the front of the stage.

The second half of the show took a bluesy turn as Aretha sang “I Remember” and “Today I Sing the Blues,” which left many in the audience speechless as the diva showed off raspy low tones to her signature high octave vocals.

“If you’re not sure how to work it out, try God,” she said to the audience, as she sang “Old Landmark,” while a choir joined her on stage.

While Aretha gave shout-outs to some famous people in the audience like Jesse Jackson, Billie Dee Williams, Judge Greg Mathis, Halle Berry and Angela Bassett, The Queen of Soul asked for a moment of silence for Michael Jackson, who had died the day before in Los Angeles.

“In remembrance of a genius, a very kind and sensitive young man who never gave less than 150 percent,” she said of Jackson. “He’s moved on up, just a bit higher now.”

Aretha and her crew continued to wow the audience with vocal prowess on “It Ain’t No Way,” as backup singer Brenda Corbett belted high notes along with the Queen.

“Freeway,” however, brought the most applause and sent some to dance in the aisles as the song turned into a 15-minute gospel romp. The Queen of Soul closed out her show with “The Greatest Love of All,” and reappeared onstage with the infamous gray felt hat with a prominent huge bow and Swarovski crystals that she wore to President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Comedian Bruce Vilanch — who brought along 14 of his friends with their own various colorful versions of the hat — was thrilled to see The Queen sport her elaborate headgear.

“I’m stunned and I’m glad she embraced it because she did get a lot of flack for wearing it during the inauguration,” said Vilanch, who wore his own violet version. “She was phenomenal.”

Phenomenal, yes, but you don’t expect less from The Queen of Soul.

Theatremania.com
Bruce Vilanch to Host Fire Island Dance Festival
By: Brian Scott Lipton · Jun 26, 2009 · Long Island

Bruce Vilanch will host the 15th Annual Fire Island Dance Festival, which is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 in the Fire Island Pines.

This year’s festival will feature performances by Keigwin + Company, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Armitage Gone! Dance, Danny Tidwell, Jodi Melnick, Feliciano Dance Company, ZviDance, and a piece d’occasion by choreographer Christopher Huggins.

Vilanch played Edna Turnblad in the Broadway production of Hairspray and appeared Off-Broadway in Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Telll and his solo show, Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous. Vilanch has contributed material to numerous Academy Awards broadcasts and has worked extensively with such performers as Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, and Joan Rivers.

NAKED BOYS SINGING Celebrates 10th Anniversary, Launches New Website
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by BWW News Desk

NAKED BOYS SINGING!, the fifteen-song celebration of the male form will hit yet another milestone: it will celebrate its tenth anniversary on Saturday July 25th. The Naked Boys are appearing on New World Stages Stage 4, graciously shared with the other (clothed) Boyz of New World Stages: Altar Boyz! New World Stages is located at 340 West 50th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues. Naked Boys plays Fridays at 10:30pm and Saturday evenings at 6pm.

To further mark the occasion, the producers of the show recently launched a new website! Check it out at www.NakedBoysSinging.com.

Still drawing both equally gay and straight crowds, NAKED BOYS has become a New York mainstay, while the London production, which recently opened to critical acclaim, announced it will soon transfer to the West End. Other productions are currently running in Las Vegas and Provincetown, and more will open within the next year, including a production in Lisbon, and another in Berlin.

Naked Boys Singing! is produced by Jamie Cesa, Carl D. White, Hugh Hayes, and Tom Smedes. It is directed and was conceived by Robert Schrock, and choreographed by Jeffry Denman. Schrock and a team of 12 writers — Stephen Bates, Marie Cain, Perry Hart, Shelly Markham, Jim Morgan, David Pevsner, Rayme Sciaroni, Mark Savage, Ben Schaechter, Trance Thompson, Mark Winkler and two-time Emmy Award winning Bruce Vilanch — have written a bouncy (pun intended) and fabulous musical revue that reminds us that clothes alone do not make the man. The show opened Off-Broadway at The Actors’ Playhouse in July 1999. The film version was released in 2008 by TLA Releasing and remains one of their top sellers on DVD.

Ticket prices are $69.50, which includes $1.50 facility fee. Tickets for Naked Boys Singing! are available through Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200 or at the New World Stages Box Office. For Group Sales, call 212-302-4848, ext 18. The show runs at a lean, hard 70 minutes, without an intermission.

Hollywood turns out for Loma Linda benefit
6:14 AM Tue, Jun 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted by: PE Features

Personnel from the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital rubbed shoulders with TV insiders and Melrose fashionistas Monday in a Los Angeles theater.

The occasion was “Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words,” a benefit for the hospital put together by actor Craig Bierko. He was part of a cast of 11 in the sold-out performance, in which actors read excerpts from other actors’ books to comedic effect.

It took place at Largo at the Coronet, a longtime Fairfax Avenue nightclub that recently moved west to a tiny, historical theater on La Cienega Boulevard near the Beverly Center. The Coronet is set back from the street behind iron gates and a fortune-teller storefront. Audience members waited on the sidewalk for nearly an hour for the gates to open.

The event was glittery enough to attract a few paparazzi and eBay autograph seekers. Attendees included JoAnne Worley from “Laugh In” and Lee Meriwether, who was Cat Woman on TV’s “Batman.”

Fred Willard (”Best in Show”) kicked off the show reading Mr. T’s account of auditioning with Sylvester Stallone for “Rocky III.” Ryan Reynolds, who opens in “The Proposal” this week, then read an erotic letter by Kenny Loggins to his wife.

Tracee Ellis Ross, star of “Girlfriends” and daughter of Diana Ross, shared Ivana Trump’s advise for child-rearing. Matthew Parry recounted David Cassidy’s conflicted feelings for Susan Dey. Bruce Vilanch took on Star Jones’ self-assessment of her multi-faceted personality. Laraine Newman, from the original “Saturday Night Live” cast, read three poems by Suzanne Somers.

“Celebrity Autobiography” creator Eugene Pack read Neil Sedaka’s description of his dietary habits, and Dayle Reyfel, who shares with Pack a developer’s credit for the show, read Marilu Henner’s too-much-information description of life with her husband.

The show ended with three longer pieces that Pack described as “Rashomon, and on and on.” Bierko, Vilanch, Ryan Reynolds and Jennifer Coolidge traced the failed marriage Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson through excerpts from three books that covered the topic.

Next, five actors played members of N Sync reading quotes about life on the road from their “official” book. Bierko was Justin Timblelake, Ryan Reynolds was Lance Bass, Willard was J.C. Chasez, Parry was Joey Fatone, and Vilanch was Chris Kirkpatrick.

Finally Bierko, Willard, Pack and Newman enacted the convoluted story of Elizabeth Taylor’s marriage to Eddie Fisher. Lesley Ann Warren (”Victor/Victoria“) played Taylor.

Bierko delivered a curtain speech urging support for the children’s hospital, and cast members lingered in the courtyard to meet audience members.

Bierko said he was pleased with the evening and praised Parry for showing up with a bad cold and Ryan Reynolds for arranging his publicity schedule for “The Proposal” around the performance.

The hospital’s next starry fundraiser is Thursday, the K-Frog Cares Golf Classic at Pechanga’s course. It includes a concert with Jack Ingram and Richie McDonald.

—Fielding Buck
fbuck@pe.com