September 30, 2008 – 6:32 pm
There’s something to be said for the old way of making records: rehearse a lot, bring everybody into the studio, and get it all down on tape as quickly as possible. That’s how the Beatles’ first album was recorded - something like 12 songs live to 2-track tape in a single day, starting with Paul’s [...]
August 27, 2008 – 8:16 am
This blog entry may bore some of you to tears. If you don’t have any interest in a discussion of song form, I suggest you visit some other part of the site, or go out and play in the sunshine.
For the rest of you — this came out of the comments that were posted last [...]
December 23, 2007 – 9:06 am
One of the better reviews that Striking 12 has ever received comes from SeacoastOnline.com, in which Jeanné McCartin writes about our two performances at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. She writes:
The lovely tale is not only well woven for the telling but for optimum impact. Moving you through time, two tales and the present, [...]
December 23, 2007 – 8:52 am
Yesterday morning we had the delightful experience of opening the New York Times Weekend Arts section and seeing our Jon Spaihts/Mark Sanders “band in a proscenium” photo staring back at us. Charles Isherwood, theater critic for the NY Times, has once again elected us “pick of the week” (for December 23-29, 2007). The print version [...]
November 19, 2007 – 9:44 pm
I have had the distinct experience - I was going to write “distinct pleasure,” but it’s pleasure mixed with a bit of squirm-inducing - of having two articles about me over the years in my college’s glossy, quarterly magazine. The first was shortly after I graduated in 1993, and it was a reprint of an [...]
Strings Magazine “Encore” Page
August/September 2007
Dream A Little Dream
Sometimes fairy tales don’t come true-and that ain’t bad
by Laurence Vittes
The world premiere of Deaf West Theatre’s musical Sleeping Beauty Wakes created a sensation when it opened in April at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California. It wasn’t only the high-energy, dazzlingly creative music and lyrics [...]
A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
Sleeping Beauty Wakes
By Laura Hitchcock
Scintillatingly directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, who also did the Deaf West award-winning production of Big River, this co-production of The Center Theatre Group and Deaf West Theatre is everything a dream ought to be. Rachel Sheinkin’s book begins with the classical fairy tale in which [...]
A thing of beauty
Deaf West awakens with adult-themed fairy tale
By Evan Henerson
Theater Critic
After more than four years of musical dormancy, Deaf West Theatre has heeded its wake-up call. The sign-language musical, pioneered by Deaf West and championed by Center theatre Group, has roared into exciting new life.
Sleeping Beauty Wakes
April 11, 2007
By Dany Margolies
Sleeping Beauty sleeps. She of the Charles Perrault fairy tale was born a princess centuries ago to a doting king and queen but was cursed by an evil fairy who was not invited to the princess’ christening. Under the curse, the princess fell into a deep sleep that could [...]
Sleeping Beauty Wakes
Bottom Line: The play awakes, dazzles and confuses the senses as if it were a musical comedy video game.
By Laurence VittesApr 10, 2007
Brilliant entertainment in three dimensions, with constantly changing centers of focus often unrelated to where they would be in a conventional production.