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      Christine Farnon, ‘Guiding Light’ of the Grammys, Dies at 97

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      Present at the creation, she guarded the awards’ independence and integrity but “never received the recognition she deserves,” one record producer wrote.Christine Farnon, a quiet force behind the Grammy Awards who was credited with shepherding the event from a private black-tie affair to a telecast seen by tens of millions, died on Oct. 24 in Los Angeles. She was 97.The death was confirmed by her daughter, Joanna Shipley.The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Grammys, was conceived partly in Ms. Farnon’s kitchen in Hollywood Hills. That was one place where her husband, Dennis Farnon, a musician who became a music producer and record executive at Capitol and RCA Records, met with other musicians and music executives in founding the Recording Academy. While they deliberated, Ms. Farnon took notes.She was eventually promoted from unpaid volunteer to paid staff member, the first, and from local to national executive. She organized the first Grammy ceremony, on May 4, 1959, which included a black-tie dinner with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin at the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. She remained with the organization until 1992.The Recording Academy is the music industry equivalent of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which puts on the Oscars, and it similarly performs a number of professional functions. But it’s best known for its annual awards ceremony.Bill Ivey, who held high-level positions with the Recording Academy, including president, for more than 20 years, and who later ran the National Endowment for the Arts, said in a phone interview that the Recording Academy’s history could be defined by a division into “two eras.” There was Ms. Farnon’s tenure, when the Grammys were a fledgling event, and there was everything that came afterward, with the Grammys now the music industry standard for achievement.In the early years, “Chris was the person who internalized the values of an artist-driven academy and created a set of rules that were applied vigorously,” Mr. Ivey said.She ensured that voting privileges for Grammy Awards were restricted to those who had substantial credits as musicians, and that the same criteria were applied to presenters of the awards on TV. To honor all nominees, she fought successfully for the presenters to say, “The Grammy goes to…,” and not, “The winner is…,” arguing that the former phrase better captured excellence among equals.Ms. Farnon was just as watchful about how Grammys were used outside the ceremony itself. She scrutinized the backgrounds of movie scenes for any unauthorized appearances of Grammy trophies. When she heard that Willie Nelson was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, she made sure that he knew that his Grammy trophies were technically owned by the Recording Academy and thus could not be seized as his. Mr. Nelson kept his trophies, Mr. Ivey said.As the Grammys became more prominent, record companies and television producers sought to exert greater influence on the awards show, but Ms. Farnon stood firm in trying to protect the Grammys’ independence.“She built an asset that was incredibly valued because it was very legitimate,” Mr. Ivey said. “It was the kind of leadership that succeeded by tapping the brakes more than by pushing on the throttle.”Pierre Cossette, the producer who first persuaded television executives to broadcast the Grammys, described Ms. Farnon similarly in a 2003 memoir, “Another Day in Showbiz,” writing, “Christine has never received the recognition she deserves for everything she did to make the Grammy Awards show the huge success that it has become.”Toward the end of her tenure, in 1984, the Grammys attracted its largest-ever audience, more than 51 million viewers, according to Billboard.When she retired, Ms. Farnon became the first woman to receive a Trustees Award, the highest honor the ceremony bestowed on non-performers. A tribute to her in the program book for that year’s ceremony was titled “The Recording Academy’s Guiding Light.”Christine Helen Miller was born on June 24, 1925, in Chicago. Her father, John, was a businessman, and her mother, Caroline (Caspar) Miller, was a homemaker.The family moved to Los Angeles when Christine was a teenager. She graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1941 and attended a public business school in the city.She and Mr. Farnon divorced in 1960. Her daughter is her sole survivor.When she received the Trustees Award, Ms. Farnon retained her characteristic modesty.“I thank God for staying so close to this wonderful organization through the years,” she said, “and for being such a good listener.” More

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      The ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Creative Team on Assembling Their Quirky Puzzle

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      The toilets wouldn’t stop flushing. The playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was trying to talk about his collaboration with the composer Jeanine Tesori and the director Jessica Stone on their musical, “Kimberly Akimbo,” and in the background, the janitorial staff members of the Booth Theater were cleaning the bathrooms.“I said to Jeanine,” he said, trying to keep a straight face as another toilet flushed, “I wish we could write a musical the way that I write a play, where there’s not a team of other people involved.”Another flush.Tesori stood up, muttering, “I have to close that door myself.” Which prompted Stone to bend over in laughter.“Thank you,” Stone said, as Tesori returned to her seat in the basement lounge of the Broadway theater.“It is on theme,” Lindsay-Abaire said. “Nothing better.”“Isn’t that enough?” Tesori responded. “Doesn’t that say everything?”For the creative team behind “Kimberly Akimbo,” the chaotic energy of this morning fit the musical itself, whose concept seems — on the page, at least — too off-kilter for a shiny Broadway marquee.Victoria Clark, center, as Kimberly with Alli Mauzey, foreground left, and Steven Boyer, foreground right, who play her parents.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesA musical dramedy set in New Jersey, “Kimberly Akimbo” tells the story of a teenager named Kimberly (played by Victoria Clark) who has a disease akin to progeria, which causes her to age at a hyperspeed. At 16, she looks 72.It’s far from a tragedy, though, thanks in part to the quirky characters: Kimberly’s pregnant mother is a hypochondriac; her best friend, Seth, loves anagrams and plays the tuba; and her aunt is trying to persuade her to commit some white-collar crimes. Through it all, even though people with her condition have an average life expectancy of 16 years, Kimberly learns to be young and unafraid after years of taking on adult responsibilities.“I love stories that weave together pain, and hilarity and absurdity. And that, to me, is David and Jeanine, and their work and their sensibility,” said Stone, 52, who has been attached to the musical since 2019. “It’s exhilarating.”When the show premiered Off Broadway last winter at Atlantic Theater Company, Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, called it a “funny and moving new musical.” Led by the producer David Stone (no relation to the director), the show sold out its run, and a Broadway transfer was quickly announced. (As the producer of musicals like “Next to Normal” and “If/Then,” Stone is no stranger to an out-of-the-box concept.) Now “Kimberly Akimbo” is in previews, and scheduled to open on Nov. 10.Tesori, 60, and Lindsay-Abaire, 52, first worked together on “Shrek the Musical” in 2008, and for the past seven years, transforming Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 play “Kimberly Akimbo” into a musical was their passion project. The focus and intimacy of that partnership, he said, made the musical “the easiest thing I’ve ever written.”He compares writing a musical to working on a puzzle. (He loves puzzles and word games; the show’s title is an anagram.) “It is like dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces onto the table,” he said. “It’s hard when you say, ‘Hey, 20 people, come on in and let’s do this puzzle together.’ But if it’s just the two of you — ‘I have this corner’; ‘I’m working on the edges; let’s get to the middle’ — then it comes into focus. And seldom does that happen with a musical.”Stone, Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire gathered to discuss their process on the first day of previews. These are edited excerpts from the discussion.Clark and Justin Cooley, who are reprising their roles on Broadway. “The two of them give each other really beautiful gifts,” the show’s director said of the actors.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesDavid, what were the instincts that led you to write “Kimberly Akimbo” 20 years ago?DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE I was writing what I hoped would be a great part for an actress that I loved and adored: Marylouise Burke [who starred in the play Off Broadway in 2001]. I wrote a part for her because she and now Vicki [Victoria Clark] have such an amazing young spirit about them, even though they’re actresses of a certain age. And so I wanted to write an amazing part for a great actor. But I also wanted to explore mortality and what it means to truly live in the moment. What I probably didn’t know at the time was that I was also writing about my family in many ways, and things that I was afraid of and angry about.How do you mean?LINDSAY-ABAIRE Uh oh …JEANINE TESORI I don’t know if you can open that door.LINDSAY-ABAIRE Look, I love my family very much. And they messed me up just enough for this play to be what it is. [Tesori pats Lindsay-Abaire’s arm, remarking, “Wow.”] I don’t feel messed up by them. But I feel messed up just enough to be the writer and be the person that I am.TESORI That’s what makes you a storyteller. Healthy enough to write, damaged enough to want to write.The play didn’t have monologues for Kimberly, but it did have monologues for her parents. Was creating the musical a way to create more interiority for her?LINDSAY-ABAIRE During “Shrek,” I said to Jeanine, “I would love to write a musical the way that I write a play, where it would just be us figuring it out for as long as we needed to figure it out.” And then Jeanine said, “Well, how about one of your plays? I think ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ could be a musical. It has a really deep, complicated inner life. Those characters want to sing to me, their emotions are deep. And I like how funny it is.”By making it a musical, we had a way into the characters that the play did not have. We could crack open Kimberly’s heart, and let her express all of those feelings and emotions and fears and desires and longings, that are only subtext in the play.TESORI I feel it in my body when something sings, I can’t put it into words. And these characters, they reminded me of people I grew up with, they reminded me of people in my family — and not always people who are center stage, especially in a musical.Jessica, how did you direct Victoria Clark, who is 63, and Justin Cooley, who plays her boyfriend, Seth, who’s now 19? They come across as being the same age.STONE: It actually is thrilling because you have two people on opposite ends of the spectrum. The skill that Vicki brings to the process of exploration can’t be created in Justin. I watch him being elevated by the discipline and skill, and her surgical approach to figuring out Kim and mapping out Kim’s world and behavior. He starts to sort of mimic that work ethic and he starts to explore and basically copy that approach.His complete honesty, tabula rasa, complete truthful, youthful, wide-eyed innocence and sweetness — it’s really hard to create that once you’ve lived, you know, 35 more years. So the fact that she’s in his orbit, this beautiful, innocent, youthful presence also washes over her. So the two of them give each other really beautiful gifts.Speaking of teenagers, there’s a duality to the show. It’s about youthfulness, but it’s also about mortality. As experienced artists, how do you keep that youthful tone intact?TESORI It’s part of being of a certain age, and what we have all experienced at this age. I’m older than these two. We share the same sensibility of humor. But there’s also this sense, like, we’ve been through some [expletive]. And our friends have been through some [expletive], and we’ve lost people. And if you’re lucky, you’re able to bring both of those things to an audience so they can recognize it. Because I think sometimes because musicals have artifice, they can seem artificial. And they’re not. They are the greatest art form.STONE We’re all parents. And we all have been close observers to adolescents. That adds a little bit to the glaze of authenticity, and a little understanding of the behavior, needs and pitfalls.LINDSAY-ABAIRE The first time in, I was really accessing my teenage years and stuff about my parents and my family, but really homing in on the Seth character who is very close to me in very many ways. I’m now the father of teenage boys, and I just had access to the parents in a way that I didn’t have when I wrote it. I understand much more acutely the fear of losing a child. The whole dynamics between parents and teenagers that I was sort of making up 20 years ago, now I know it deeply and personally. And I also got the chance to put all of my high school friends up onstage. Those four kids in the show choir were not in the play.“If you can have a gaggle of teenagers skipping out of the show, and then this grumpy old man with tears in his eyes — that’s victory,” said Lindsay-Abaire, right.Victor Llorente for The New York TimesDo you imagine this as the kind of show that parents can take their teens to?STONE ​​My kids, 13 and 15, were here, and they loved it. Because I’m so invested in the parent side of the story, and in the mortality side of the story, and in the how-do-you-choose-to-live-your-remaining-days-on-this-planet side of the story, I forget about the delight, the tremendous luxury of hope and time, that teens have. And that enables so much in terms of imagination and promise. [My sons] think it’s hilarious. They love Deborah [Kimberly’s aunt, played by Bonnie Milligan], because they love a rule breaker. They also thought it was really moving. They were really intrigued by the relationship between Kim and Seth, not because it’s a traditional love story. But they really responded to that deep friendship.LINDSAY-ABAIRE Nothing has made me happier than seeing gaggles of teenagers really love the show. But at the same time, at the end of the Atlantic run, a grumpy old man was walking up the aisle and he looked at me and I thought he’s going to criticize the piece. And he said, “I just want you to know that I’m going to go out and live life more fully tomorrow.” My eyes welled up and then he was gone into the night. If you can have a gaggle of teenagers skipping out of the show, and then this grumpy old man with tears in his eyes — that’s victory.In the musical, Kimberly’s aunt sings an upbeat number about how to commit mail fraud. Jeanine, how did you write a catchy song about white collar crime?TESORI [laughs] It’s exposition, which is generally not great for a song. But then I thought, “Oh, if we make it really sort of furtive, and it’s got a little bit of a muted guitar thing, and it’s sort of like Peggy Lee, but maybe on a very, very off day …” It’s having it be fun, so that she can convince the teens to be part of it.LINDSAY-ABAIRE It’s a teaching song. We were talking about “The Rain in Spain” [from “My Fair Lady”], but it’s about check washing. It’s just messed up enough. More

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      Toshi Ichiyanagi, Avant-Garde Composer and Pianist, Dies at 89

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      A former protégé of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono, he was part of a lively experimental music scene in New York and became a leading modern composer in Japan.Toshi Ichiyanagi, an avant-garde pianist and composer whose works mixed international influences, made unusual use of musicians and instruments, and combined music with other media, died on Oct. 7 in Tokyo. He was 89.The Kanagawa Arts Foundation, where he was general artistic director from 1996 until last year, said he died in a hospital. No cause was given.Mr. Ichiyanagi came to New York from Japan in the 1950s to study at the Juilliard School. While there he met Yoko Ono, whose parents had moved the family from Japan to Scarsdale, N.Y., in the early 1950s. Ms. Ono was also interested in experimental music and had studied briefly at Sarah Lawrence College.She and Mr. Ichiyanagi eloped in 1956 and immersed themselves in the experimental art and music scenes of the era, including the radical Fluxus movement. Mr. Ichiyanagi took a course taught by the composer John Cage at the New School (Ms. Ono sat in on the sessions), absorbing many of his Minimalist ideas.Mr. Ichiyanagi and Mr. Cage toured together, sometimes with Ms. Ono, and Mr. Ichiyanagi was instrumental in bringing Mr. Cage to Japan in 1962, introducing his music there. In the same period, Ms. Ono and Mr. Ichiyanagi hosted performances at their loft in TriBeCa that included music, dance and poetry. (“THE PURPOSE OF THIS SERIES IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT,” an announcement for one program said.)The marriage lasted until 1962. Ms. Ono later married John Lennon.In the early years of his career, Mr. Ichiyanagi staked out his claim as one of the most adventurous composers and performers of his day.In May 1961 he gave a recital at Carnegie Hall. His program included works by Mr. Cage, Morton Feldman and others, as well as one of his own pieces. Eric Salzman, describing Mr. Ichiyanagi’s performance of his work in a review for The New York Times, wrote that “a high, distant, cold glissando rubbed somehow out of the innards of the piano and a furious rumble of elbows and fists on the keyboard.”He was gaining attention beyond New York as well.“Tokyo music circles are buzzing about a recent concert which featured Toshi Ichiyanagi’s ‘IBM,’” The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported in February 1962, “an electronic composition which had several novelties: a boy striking matches and dropping them into a bowl, which he proceeded to smash with a hammer; a man kicking a chair and scraping it on the floor; and finally another man stringing paper tape about the stage and into the audience, making a giant spider web.”Later that year, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin covered Mr. Ichiyanagi’s performance at the University of Hawaii.“Toshi Ichiyanagi’s ‘Music for Piano No. 4’ explored the harmonics of hand-stroked piano strings,” the newspaper reported, “and apparently, though frequently inaudible, the sounds to be derived from thrumming on the instrument’s wooden framework.”In 1966 Mr. Ichiyanagi joined with the conductor Seiji Ozawa and the composer Toru Takemitsu to create Orchestral Space, an annual festival that introduced new, mostly experimental works in Japan.“The experience called ‘Orchestral Space ’68’ mapped some new territory for the audiences,” Edmund C. Wilkes of The San Francisco Examiner wrote of that year’s festival in Tokyo. “Not all of it is habitable, but there were prospects that pleased.”Mr. Ichiyanagi’s works were not all experimental. As his career advanced he wrote operas, orchestral and chamber pieces, and other more conventional works. He also took an interest in traditional Japanese music, and in 1989 he began touring with his Tokyo International Music Ensemble — the New Tradition, a group that performed contemporary compositions played at least in part on instruments like the koto, an ancient member of the string family.The group became less active as its members aged and gave its last performance in about 2000, according to Tokyo Concerts, Mr. Ichiyanagi’s management agency.He continued to create new works into his 80s. His Ninth Symphony, which had its premiere in 2015 in Tokyo, was a meditation on the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan in 2011 and on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.Mr. Ichiyanagi received numerous honors throughout his career, including Japan’s Order of Culture in 2018.The Asahi Shimbun via Getty ImagesMr. Ichiyanagi was born into a musical family on Feb. 4, 1933, in Kobe, Japan, and grew up in Tokyo. His father, Shinji Ichiyanagi, was a cellist, and his mother, Mitsuko, gave piano lessons in their home and was Toshi’s first piano teacher.He later studied composition, first in Japan and then at Juilliard.After several years in New York, Mr. Ichiyanagi returned to Japan in 1961. He stayed there for most of his life.In 1963, he married Sumiko, a writer, and they had a son, Kei, in 1964, who survives him. Ms. Ichiyanagi died in 1993.Mr. Ichiyanagi composed more than 200 works and made a number of recordings for Japanese record labels.He often composed with his own notation system, spurning the traditional five-line Western sheets, and his imaginative scores could be considered artwork. Several are collected in the Museum of Modern Art.Having studied piano as a child, he first turned to composition as an inadvertent consequence of World War II.The family had to evacuate Tokyo when it was under bombardment, and young Toshi did not touch a piano for three years. When the family returned to the city after the war ended, they found that much of their property had burned down but the piano was still standing.“We had virtually nothing else left — no scores, nor anything else for studying music,” Mr. Ichiyanagi said in a 2016 interview for an oral history project conducted by the Kyoto City University of Arts. “So I just played it on my own in whatever way, and that turned my interest to music composition. It wasn’t like I started it with any clear ideas or plans.”Hisako Ueno More

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      Seymour Press, a Behind-the-Scenes Fixture on Broadway, Dies at 98

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      He started playing in Broadway orchestras in 1957, and eventually he began recruiting those orchestras as well.Seymour Press, who for more than 60 years served an important role — though one that went largely unnoticed by audiences — in dozens of Broadway and Off Broadway shows, first as a member of pit orchestras and later as the person who assembled those orchestras, died on Monday at an assisted living facility in Hackettstown, N.J. He was 98.His daughter, Gwynn Press Anidjar, said the cause was advanced myelofibrosis, a bone marrow cancer.Mr. Press, known as Red because he had red hair in his younger days, played multiple instruments, including saxophone; he first sat in a Broadway pit for the 1958 musical “The Body Beautiful,” one of the first shows to feature music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. In the mid-1970s he began taking on the demanding job of musical coordinator (also called music contractor), although he continued playing in orchestras well into the 2000s.His primary duty as coordinator was hiring orchestras for shows. But he also scheduled rehearsals, made sure musicians were paid, handled issues between their union and management, and ironed out all manner of problems.“The guy who waves his arm is the music,” he said in a 2018 episode of the podcast “Behind the Curtain: Broadway’s Living Legends,” referring to the conductor. “Everything else that has to do with the orchestra is me.”For 28 years, he filled that role for the Encores! revival series at New York City Center; he announced his retirement only this spring. He was also working on Broadway until just a few months ago, receiving the coordinator credit on the current productions of “The Music Man,” “Funny Girl” and “Into the Woods,” all of which opened this year.In 2007, he received a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater, which recognizes outstanding achievement in theater by those who do not qualify in a traditional Tony Award category.Mr. Press in 2016. He was the music coordinator for the Encores! series at New York City Center for 28 years before announcing his retirement this year.Walter McBride/Getty ImagesSeymour Press was born on Feb. 26, 1924, in the Bronx. His mother, Rose (Guttman) Press, was a homemaker, and his father, Arthur, was a salesman and “a frustrated musician,” as Seymour Press put it in the podcast. His father’s cousin, he said, played the saxophone and introduced him to the instrument; Mr. Press later added flute, clarinet, piccolo and others to his arsenal.Mr. Press graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. In his second year at what is now the City University of New York, he enlisted in the Army. He had expected to be drafted, he said, so when he saw a poster recruiting for the Army band, he bit.He spent his service playing for troops as they shipped out of Newport News, Va. It was, he said, both a safe assignment and good music training.“I went in an amateur saxophone player,” he said on the podcast. “I came out a professional.”After mustering out in 1946, he toured with various bands, small-time ones at first and eventually those of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. But by the mid-1950s, big-band music was fading; “the musical style I thought would last my lifetime was gone,” he said. He married Nona Gwynn Holcomb in 1957 and began looking to trade life on the road for something at least somewhat more stable.“The Body Beautiful” didn’t last long, but in 1959, Mr. Press found himself in the pit for a show that did: the original production of “Gypsy.”“Not only was it the first hit show I had,” he said, but it was also “the first time I could look at myself and say, ‘I’m going to be working 52 weeks a year,’ which was a big thing.”Mr. Press’s wife died in 2021. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a stepson, Edward Finkenberg, and two grandchildren.In his decades as a pit player and musical coordinator, Mr. Press saw lots of change: orchestra sizes and instrumentation varied, the pits moved (often to create more seats), and sound engineering became more sophisticated. He also fielded his share of odd requests. On the podcast, he recalled being asked to recruit a trio for one production: cello, violin, piano. But, the director told him, not just any players would do.“He wanted one to be tall and thin, one to be overweight and one to be very short,” Mr. Press said. “That was a problem.”Mr. Press got an insider’s view of countless shows, but his tastes weren’t infallible. He remembered working on “Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge,” a sequel to the 1977 smash “Annie.” He first heard it at a backers’ audition.“I left that and I called my wife and said, ‘It’s going to be a giant hit,’” he said.Audiences at the pre-Broadway tryout in Washington in 1990 disagreed.“I watched them walk out — in throngs, not just four people, not just five people,” he recalled, adding, “We opened in Washington and closed in Washington.” More

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      Avant-Garde Theater, or a Musical: Who Says You Need to Choose?

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      In Germany, a sonically daring Chekhov adaptation and a post-apocalyptic western “opera” are breaking down barriers between genres.FRANKFURT — Ever since Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill served up “The Threepenny Opera,” their “play with music,” in Berlin in 1928, the dividing line between spoken and musical theater in Germany has been remarkably porous.Music is everywhere in contemporary German theater, often used to heighten or subvert emotional effects. Some of the credit or blame goes to Frank Castorf, the influential East Berlin director, whose long, demanding productions at the Volksbühne owed much of their unique, frenetic energy to the eclectic soundtracks devised by the theater’s longtime music director, Sir Henry.The quota of live music on dramatic stages here also seems to be increasing. Recent memorable examples have included the furious drumming that provides a rhythmic backbone to the Trojan War segment of Christopher Rüping’s monumental “Dionysos Stadt” and the dronelike chanting in Ulrich Rasche’s takes on classic works.And two of last year’s most discussed shows — Bonn Park’s “Gymnasium” and Yael Ronen’s “Slippery Slope” — were bona fide musicals, with impressive scores and singing, although they were a far cry from your typical Broadway or West End fare. Watching both productions, I felt we might be on the cusp of a breakthrough, with serious theater makers here channeling the vulgar and gleeful tunefulness of “Avenue Q” or “The Book of Mormon.”Such thoughts swirled in my head as I sat down to watch “Burt Turrido. An Opera” in Frankfurt this month. A four-hour post-apocalyptic western, it will travel to Hamburg and Berlin in the coming weeks.Behind the show is Nature Theater of Oklahoma, an influential American avant-garde theater collective that was founded in New York in 2006 and has become increasingly prominent on European stages in the past decade. The troupe’s co-founders, Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska, are serious artists whose shrewd approach and mischievous creative drive combine elements of European and American avant-gardes. Formally daring, energetic and unpredictable, their work is hard to pin down precisely because it encompasses so many genres and styles.From left, Bence Mezei, Robert M. Johanson, Anne Gridley and Gabel Eiben in “Burt Turrido.”Jessica SchäferSadly, the theatrical exuberance and innovation that characterize Copper and Liska’s best efforts are in short supply in “Burt Turrido,” a loopy mock-opera whose silliness would be bearable if the meandering libretto had anything to say, or if the canned score was not a succession of immediately forgettable folk and country tunes.The title character (a bewildered-looking Gabel Eiben) is a red-bearded castaway with amnesia who washes ashore on a barren island. He is rescued by Queen Karen (a scene-chewing Anne Gridley) and King Bob (Robert M. Johanson, who also wrote the music), petty despots who seized control of the island after it was swept by waves of environmental catastrophe, war and genocide. Burt is pursued by Karen, who wants his child, and a lovesick ghost named Emily (Kadence Neill, the cast’s best singer). Oh, and there’s Joseph (Bence Mezei), Emily’s ex-husband and Karen’s ex-lover, who has more than a little in common with his biblical predecessor. (For starters, he’s thrown into a pit.)The characters circle one another in an endless dance of romantic intrigue, suspicion and shifting power dynamics. Copper and Liska keep the tone light, with some silly sci-fi and horror effects (ghosts in sheets; a chintzy U.F.O.) and only a handful of genuinely moving scenes.This is a show with legs: It has already been performed in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Greece. (So far, however, no U.S. dates have been announced.) And it does seem to have been devised and designed for maximum portability. Luka Curk’s set consists of little more than flat, hand-painted backdrops, cutout waves jerked back and forth by the performers, and a shimmering blue cloth to represent the sea.Of course, a certain level of flimsiness is precisely the point of this winking, knowing operatic sendup: It’s decidedly a bargain basement production, and Copper and Liska’s ability to create a convincing and clean theatrical aesthetic out of the bare-bones staging is their main achievement here. Yet at even half its current length, “Burt Turrido” would be excruciating. Its 14 scenes (and epilogue) feel like a goofy sketch that has metastasized to operatic proportions.I would have felt bad for the performers who needed to drawl, warble and dance their way through the overlong evening, except that they appeared to be having more fun than the audience, a large portion of which fled at intermission. Beyond the spirited performances, there’s little to recommend “Burt Turrido,” which mostly feels like a joke that goes on far too long. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is how little the music adds. Here, too, the constant singing registers mostly as a gimmick, and there is little flair to Johanson’s score. The result is an impoverished “opera” where neither the music nor the drama is enriched through their combination.The cast of “Waiting for Platonov,” directed by Thom Luz, at the Residenztheater.Sandra ThenFor a sly and haunting marriage of those two elements, turn to “Waiting for Platonov,” an arrestingly musical production by the Swiss director Thom Luz at the Residenztheater in Munich. The title character of Chekhov’s early play, a womanizing schoolteacher who broods on his life of failure, never materializes during the production’s two and a half hours. Instead, a troupe of 10 actors recite snippets of dialogue drawn from the Russian writer’s work and break out in song while performing an energetic choreography that is precisely timed to a witty, inventive sound design.The title, with its nod to Beckett, can be interpreted in several ways. First of all, it proposes the Russian dramatist as a sort of precursor to the Irish Nobel Prize winner in his examination of futility as an existential component of human life. Chekhov’s characters cavort in dachas, while Beckett’s take up residence in trash cans — but they all feel the stifling dread and purposelessness of existence. The title may also refer to the fact that it took over four decades for Chekhov’s 1878 work to be published. The actors’ excitement and increasing exasperation over Platonov’s impending arrival parallels the writer’s frustrations with the play, which was rejected by Maria Yermolova, the great Russian actress to whom he sent the manuscript.Luz, an in-house director at the Residenztheater, brings a compositional rigor to his work that is occasionally reminiscent of the style of Christoph Marthaler and Herbert Fritsch, two influential older directors with keen musical sensibilities and a penchant for absurdity, but his enigmatic and astringent style is entirely his own. The show’s soundscape, devised by Luz, is full of popping mics, uncanny reverberations, sustained clusters of discordant notes and an out-of-tune mechanical piano. As the actors ascend and descend two large onstage staircases (also designed by Luz), their footfalls describe musical scales.Luz balances between the production’s abstract, aural elements and Chekhov’s decontextualized dialogue, which takes on a musical function as well through chanting. Although it is as far from traditional musical theater as “Burt Turrido. An Opera” is from “La Traviata,” “Waiting for Platonov” is a fusion of music, sound and text that is hypnotic, compelling and utterly fresh.Burt Turrido. An Opera. Directed by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska. Oct. 27-29 at Kampnagel, in Hamburg; Nov. 3-5 at HAU — Hebbel am Ufer, in Berlin; Nov. 11-13 at Espoo City Theater, in Espoo, Finland.Waiting for Platonov. Directed by Thom Luz. Through Dec. 7 at the Residenztheater, in Munich. More

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      ‘Hound Dog’ Review: A Soul-Searching Journey Strays Off Course

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      Melis Aker’s new play with music, presented by Ars Nova and PlayCo., follows a musical prodigy without drive or passion.The young woman nicknamed Hound Dog might have studied musicology at Harvard, but all the panel members at her Royal Academy of Music audition seem to care about is that she’s from Turkey.“It’s like if Joni Mitchell had a bit of an orgy with a few Turkish folk musicians, and then had a very confused baby,” one of the panelists says of Hound Dog’s song. Another detects an “Americana” influence, “which is … surprising.” The first one wishes that she’d use “the traditional Turkish instrument,” though it’s unclear what that would be.What’s jarring about this scene is not so much that educators at the Royal Academy of Music would have such clichéd assumptions, but that their phrasing would be so clunky and vague — they’re deciding on admission to a prestigious institution, not a neighborhood after-school program. Unfortunately, this lack of focus and attendant lack of bite are fairly representative of Melis Aker’s new play with music, “Hound Dog,” which is being jointly presented by Ars Nova and PlayCo.When we meet her, Hound Dog (Ellena Eshraghi) is back in her hometown, Ankara, pondering whether to attend the conservatory (yes, she ended up being admitted), though the reasons for her hesitation are unclear. Complicating matters is her fraught relationship with her widowed father (Laith Nakli), with whom she is staying.Intertwined with his frustration and impatience with Turkey as a whole, Baba is a big rock ’n’ roll fan, with a particular fixation on Elvis Presley. Hound Dog sniffs at his taste with the dismissiveness of the newly enlightened. “I took a class called ‘Sound in the Uncanny Valley’ with this crazy professor,” she informs her childhood bestie, Ayse (the crackerjack Olivia AbiAssi, making the most of an underwritten role), before deriding “the appropriation and commercial simplicity” of her dad’s favorite bands.The dogmatism is amusing and on point. It is also contradicted by what we hear from Hound Dog’s own music. Her folk-rock audition number, “Only in Time” (performed, like the others in the show, by a live band headed by the coolly composed singer Sahar Milani), does sound like a Joni Mitchell pastiche, complete with vocal mannerisms, so who’s appropriating what now?But it’s hard to tell why Hound Dog writes in any particular style or even what animates her in general: This supposed prodigy is portrayed as lacking drive and passion. Mostly Hound Dog gabs with Ayse over some joints, argues with Baba, visits her dopey high school music teacher, Mr. Callahan (Matt Magnusson), and mopes as she attempts to deal with her unresolved grief over her mother’s death a year earlier.Aker had a promising subject in a woman who is deeply ambivalent about her life’s calling, and, by extension, herself. Hound Dog tries to navigate notions of authenticity and identity as she looks for her place in her family and in the world. The last is evoked by brief references to the ways social, political and cultural forces have long hurled against one another in Turkey, including an encounter with a cop who asks Baba, “Your folks never tell you about playing foreign music outside ’round here?”Because Hound Dog’s soul-searching remains blurry, Aker and the director, Machel Ross, can never quite make her equivocations compelling to watch — an ambiguous situation since the character is partly autobiographical, with stage directions that use the first-person singular whenever Hound Dog (referred to as “Me” in the script) is involved.Yet more unfulfilled promise comes from the musical numbers, written by Aker and the brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour, who are credited as the Lazours. One wonders, for example, whose feelings the band’s frontwoman is meant to voice. She could be Hound Dog’s siren-like alter ego, or perhaps she is a half-fantasized vision of her late mother. Or a mix of both. No matter: It’s hard not to feel that Hound Dog is stuck on the outside of her own story, listening in.Hound DogThrough Nov. 5 at Greenwich House, Manhattan; arsnovanyc.com. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. More

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      Ahmed Alshaiba, Yemeni Music Master, Is Dead at 32

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      He taught himself to play the oud, a lutelike stringed instrument, and made a splash on social media with his cover versions of pop songs.Ahmed Alshaiba, who as a teenager in Yemen taught himself the oud, a fretless lutelike Arabic instrument, and who after immigrating to the United States built an online following with his cover versions of pop songs that deftly blended Western and Middle Eastern influences, died on Sept. 28 in a car accident. He was 32.His brother Ali Shibah confirmed the death, in New York State, but provided no other details. Working from a studio in his apartment in Mamaroneck, N.Y., in Westchester County, Mr. Alshaiba recorded videos of himself playing instrumental versions of popular songs, movie themes and Arabic music — sometimes with other musicians, sometimes unaccompanied — and posted them on his YouTube channel. He also played guitar and percussion instruments like the congas and the daf, a large drum.His oud playing added a distinctly Middle Eastern sound to his versions of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito,” which has had nearly 7.3 million YouTube views; Alan Walker’s “Faded” (6.9 million); Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” (6.8 million); and other songs. His oud seems to deepen the mood of alienation that Simon & Garfunkel brought to “The Sound of Silence” (nearly 1.8 million), and brings a different kind of energy to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” (1.4 million).In all, his YouTube videos have generated nearly 113 million views.A charismatic performer who interacted enthusiastically with his fans on YouTube and social media platforms, Mr. Alshaiba also produced his own takes on music from “Star Wars” (during which he wore disguises like a Darth Vader helmet and a Yoda mask) and “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”One of the last videos he posted before his death, on TikTok, was a snippet of his version of the music from HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” the prequel to “Game of Thrones.”“He was one of a kind,” Ravid Kahalani, a founder of Yemen Blues, a band that is influenced by Yemenite, West African, Latin and jazz music, said in a phone interview. Mr. Alshaiba, he added, “had a different intelligence on the oud and a special, soulful touch that was softer than other oud players.”Mr. Alshaiba occasionally played with or opened for Yemen Blues at Joe’s Pub, Brooklyn Bowl and Symphony Space in New York City. He also performed in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.But, his brother Ali said in an email, he also “did lots of charity shows; that’s why he remained broke.”Mr. Kahalani said that he once asked Mr. Alshaiba why he recorded so many covers.“He said to me something beautiful: ‘I want people to understand that the oud is not only Arabic, it’s everything.’ But the really special thing is how he played traditional Yemeni music, which really opened the gates of God.”Ahmed Alshaiba was born Ahmed Nasser Shibah on May 15, 1990, in Sana, Yemen. His father, Nasser, was a businessman, and his mother, Fanda Zeyad, was a homemaker.Ahmed had no musical ambitions until he was 14, when he watched his brother Hussein take lessons on an oud that their sister Malkah had bought him as a gift in Egypt.“When my other brother lost interest,” Ali Shibah said, “Ahmed picked up the oud and started his self-taught journey.”In an interview with The Times of Israel in 2018, Mr. Alshaiba said: “I would play for hours until my fingers hurt. I would listen to a song and could play it immediately after.” He skipped school to spend time in a music store where, he said, “I would help clean and tune every shipment of oud instruments, and in return the owner would let me stay in the store and practice.”Mr. Alshaiba moved to the United States in 2012 and worked for several years at his brother’s convenience store in Mamaroneck while starting to post cover songs online. In 2017, the Australian singer Sia posted his version of her song “The Greatest” which has more than 1.7 million views on Instagram“I was having doubts about succeeding in the U.S.,” Mr. Alshaiba told The Times of Israel, “but this gesture gave me the validation I needed.” Encouraged, he soon left his job to pursue music full time.A month before Mr. Alshaiba died, he released his first album, “Malahide,” which he produced himself and had been working on for several years. He wrote all the songs.In addition to his sister Malkah Shibah and his brothers Ali and Hussein Shibah, Mr. Alshaiba is survived by his mother; two other sisters, Fauziah and Thahaba Shibah; and two other brothers, Mohammed and Najib Shibah.In an interview and mini-concert at TED Studios in 2017, Mr. Alshaiba discussed his passion for the oud.“When you’re playing this instrument, you’re hugging it,” he said. “So you’re feeling the notes coming out in the body of this lovely instrument.” More

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      How to Spend a Perfect Weekend in Santa Cruz

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      What once felt like a quirky California pit stop is now a popular getaway destination. Here’s a guide to the city’s beaches, bars, bookshops and beyond.Anyone who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s will almost certainly have the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk commercials stamped on their subconscious, alongside their best friend’s landline. But Santa Cruz is much more than a West Coast Coney Island. (The Boardwalk, incidentally, is California’s oldest amusement park and is a fine place to ride a historic roller coaster with an ocean view.)Santa Cruz, a city of some 60,000, defies easy categorization. A college town (go Banana Slugs!) and a world class surfing destination, it’s within commuting distance of Silicon Valley. And yet somehow it still manages to feel hidden away.Hugging the northern lip of the scallop shell-shaped Monterey Bay, travelers can reach Santa Cruz via a dreamy coastal drive on California’s Highway 1, or rounding vertiginous curves through the Redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Technically the beginning of the Central Coast, Santa Cruz has been influenced by Silicon Valley without actually becoming a part of it; it is its own county and decidedly has its own vibe. This is a place where, daily and unironically, you’ll see a vintage Volkswagen Vanagon parked next to a Tesla, with surfboards extending from both.As a former Bay Area kid, I’ve been coming to Santa Cruz for as long as I can remember: Memories of foggy summer days ambling alone the Boardwalk with a high-school best friend meld with images of late-night veggie burgers and shakes after backpacking trips in Big Sur. But what once felt like a quirky, crunchy pit stop is now one of my favorite weekend destinations from my home in San Francisco — for unbeatable outdoor adventures, both on land and in the water, a standout live music scene, and excellent food and drink options that can stand up to its higher profile neighbors to the north and south.A group of surfers prepares to enter the water.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSurf’s upReportedly one of the first places surfed on the mainland, Santa Cruz has spawned more than a few world-class professional surfers and boasts more than 10 surf breaks, with spots for all levels. Popular go-tos include Cowell’s, a cruisey, accessible break best for beginners and beloved by longboarders; Steamer Lane, a famous spot in both Santa Cruz and California at large; and Pleasure Point, a beloved local wave on the city’s sleepy eastern side.The Santa Cruz surf scene is somewhat notorious for a strong locals-only attitude, but tensions can be avoided by respecting the rules, which are helpfully inscribed on signage mounted atop the cliffs above Steamers and Pleasure Point — alongside monuments to fallen surfer comrades. (In brief: Respect the lineup and don’t be a kook.)A surfer rides a wave at Steamer Lane, a popular surfing location.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesA surfer walks past a sign explaining the rules of the waves at Pleasure Point.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesTake the opportunity to learn from local experts at outfits like Surf School Santa Cruz, which offers private surf instruction and group lessons (advanced booking is recommended). If you’re ready to shred on your own and are in need of a board, surf shops, many with rental options, abound, from Cowell’s Surf Shop, right off the water, to the Traveler Surf Club, on the Eastside. The Midtown Surf Shop + Coffee Bar is another worthwhile destination for your gear needs; in addition to boards, wet suits, leashes and fins, they’ve got a nice selection of clothing, gifts, a surfboard shaper (available to rent for $15 per hour) and a cafe serving Verve coffee.Inside Cowell’s Surf Shop, which sits right off the water.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesIf you’re more comfortable as a spectator, or looking for inspiration, then check out the O’Neill Coldwater Classic, a World Surf League qualifying competition that’s returning to Steamer Lane Nov. 15-19 for the first time since 2015.While surfing may be king in Santa Cruz, there are other great ways to get in the water, including stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking and swimming, plus ample beaches for beach volleyball, bonfires and, naturally, lounging. And don’t forget about the many opportunities for land-based adventures: Santa Cruz is a famous hub for mountain biking, with trails snaking along the coast and through the surrounding mountains, and is a hiking and camping destination, too, particularly in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and Big Basin Redwoods State Park, which is currently open for limited day-use access following 2020’s C.Z.U. Lightning Complex fires.The Rio Theater, one of the city’s many music venues.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesLive musicTempting as it may be to remain in the beautiful wilds of the area, it’s worth a return to civilization to catch a show. Santa Cruz has a wealth of live music venues and draws an impressive mix of indie bands and legacy acts, plus a thriving community of local musicians who often perform at cafes and bars around town. The Rio Theater in Midtown, housed in a converted movie theater, is an intimate venue that draws a range of acts, including Patti Smith, Little Feat and indie legends like Bill Callahan and Built to Spill. Other venues with calendars worth scoping include the Catalyst, which plays host to bands, karaoke nights and DJ events; Moe’s Alley, which has a spacious outdoor patio and food trucks; and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, a destination for jazz performances and educational programs. Up in the mountains you’ll find the Felton Music Hall, an intimate venue with a solid bar and restaurant attached for pre- and post-show food and drink.Brothel performs at the Catalyst in September.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesWhere to eatAll of this activity is a fine way to work up an appetite, and Santa Cruz more than delivers with delicious options across a range of prices. I’m evangelical about the Point Market, an unassuming shop and cafe out by Pleasure Point that makes my platonic ideal of a breakfast burrito — perfect as pre- or post-surf fuel. (They’ve got a location near Cowell’s now, too, called the Pacific Point Market & Cafe.) Steamer Lane Supply, a low-key stand on the cliffs above Steamers, has a flavor-forward menu of quesadillas, breakfast tacos and bowls bursting with fresh, local ingredients. For a sit-down brunch, Harbor Cafe is unbeatable, with its hangover-busting breakfast platters and hair-of-the-dog cocktails. In Soquel, a small town northeast of Santa Cruz, Pretty Good Advice, a project from chef Matt McNamara (formerly of San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters), is slinging on-point breakfast sandwiches and burgers; the menu is entirely vegetarian and features produce sourced from Mr. McNamara’s farm in the nearby mountains.The breakfast burrito at the Point Market is perfect as pre- or post-surf fuel.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesInside Steamer Lane Supply, a low-key stand on the cliffs above Steamers.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesFried chicken at Bantam.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesElsewhere in Soquel you’ll find Home, a charming dinner option with fresh pasta and an excellent in-house charcuterie program. Other favorites include Bantam, a wood-fired pizza destination on Santa Cruz’s bustling Westside (the soppressata pie and fried chicken are must-orders); Copal, for outstanding mole and an encyclopedic mezcal selection; and Alderwood, where you’ll find a selection of high-end cuts of beef alongside local produce. While it’s tempting to splurge on a bone-in rib-eye, Alderwood is also an excellent place to grab seats at the bar for their gloriously messy burger and a cocktail. (The mezcal-based Director’s Cut is outstanding.) During my last visit, I ended up in conversation — and sharing bites of the restaurant’s signature maitake mushrooms, also known as also known as hen-of-the-woods, with my neighbors. (Oswald is another local favorite for a burger-cocktail combination.)Dan Satterthwaite, the co-founder and brewmaster of New Bohemia Brewing Co., showcases three of his brews: Festbier, the Hook and the Fizz.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesWhere to drinkWine has long been a fixture in Santa Cruz. (The Santa Cruz Mountains is a dedicated AVA, or American Viticultural Area.) More recently, though, spots dedicated to natural wine — wines made with minimal interventions and no added yeast — have been gaining a foothold. Bad Animal, a rare and used bookstore and natural wine bar, has wines from California and beyond, along with books ranging from $4 paperbacks to $40,000 antiquarian volumes. Dedicated to “the wild side of the human animal,” the shop opened in 2019 and plays host to a rotating roster of chefs-in-residence. (The most recent, Hanloh Thai Food, started this month.) Apero Club, a warm, funky wine bar and shop on the Westside, opened in August 2020 and hosts food pop-ups and, often, raucous dance parties with tunes spun on vinyl.Bad Animal, a rare and used bookstore and natural wine bar, has wines from California and beyond.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSanta Cruz’s craft beer scene is also outstanding, from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, an all-organic brewery founded in 2005, to New Bohemia Brewing Company, which focuses on European-style brews alongside I.P.A.s. Some of my favorites include Soquel’s Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, a destination for funky sours and farmhouse ales, and Humble Sea Brewing, which, in addition to standout hazy I.P.A.s and co-ferments, has some of the best can art around. For a wider array of beers, check out the Lúpulo Craft Beer House in downtown Santa Cruz for a regularly changing selection of brews and Spanish-style small plates, or Beer Thirty, a sprawling beer garden in Soquel with 30 rotating taps. If you’re with a group of beer enthusiasts, you can sign up for a Brew Cruz, a craft beer tour of the area aboard a vintage VW bus.A customer awaits her drink at Cat & Cloud Coffee.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesYour explorations may lead to a sluggish morning; thankfully, Santa Cruz is also a serious coffee destination. Verve, which has cafes around town (plus around California and in Japan), opened in 2007, focusing on equitable business practices and intentionally sourced coffee beans. Cat & Cloud has four cafes in the area; the sunny Eastside location is a particularly nice place to spend a morning. At 11th Hour Coffee, the excellent coffee is roasted in-house and best enjoyed in their plant-filled cafes both downtown and on the Westside. (Their chai is outstanding, too.)Where to stayThere are ample lodging options in Santa Cruz, including Airbnbs and low-key beach motels. The Dream Inn is the city’s only beachfront accommodation; renovated in 2017 in a retro surfer-kitsch style (the hotel’s Jack O’Neill Restaurant got a refresh in 2019), the hotel has 165 rooms (from $299), all of which have an ocean view. The pool deck overhangs Cowell’s Beach, with stairs leading directly to the sand, making for unparalleled ocean and surfing access. Hearing the waves (and the barks of sea lions) from bed is quite nice, too.For a mountainside retreat that’s still close to downtown Santa Cruz, Chaminade Resort & Spa has 200 rooms (from $359) and is on 300 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with direct access to hiking trails. Also on offer are tennis, pickleball, disc golf and Santa Cruz’s only full-service day spa, plus panoramic views of the Monterey Bay from the hotel’s restaurant — fittingly called The View. The property completed a major renovation in 2020 and completed a new pool area in 2022 that includes two pools, cabanas, a bar and a food truck on weekends.Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2022. More