Lewis Whittington writes about the performing and film arts for many publications. He is a renegade dance, theater and opera queen, a jazz-head and a civil activist.
MusicPhiladelphia,
The Academy of Vocal Arts’ mounts Mozart’s "Don Giovanni" every few years and it always seems to show them at their best. Their 2011 production, directed by the Tito Capobianco, and had the lusty Don Giovanni, in flagrante delicate all ...
TheaterPhiladelphia,
“Don’t Speak," commands theater diva Helen Sinclair in "Bullets Over Broadway," Woody Allen’s 1994 movie set in the roaring twenties with flappers, gangsters, molls and bohemians on the make. It was full of Allen's comedic shtick, placed in ...
TheaterPhiladelphia,
Attis Theater director Theodoros Terzopoulos’s adaptations of ancient Greek theater look modernist, but actually aspire to recreate the ritual and theatricality of antiquity. The approach resonates with contemporary audiences. His riveting production of Sophocles’ “Ajax” was ...
TheaterPhiladelphia,
Director Doug Hara was in the original cast of Mary Zimmerman’s 2002 Tony Award winning play “Metamorphoses” and he directs a fine revival to kick off the Arden Theater’s 2015-16 season. Zimmerman tells the mythic stories of Greek gods and ...
Books & CDs
In his New York Times op-eds, Charles Blow sometimes single-mindedly elevates discourse of volatile topics to sane discussion. He punctures long held cultural narratives about race, religion, politics, poverty, class, gender, sexuality. Now, in his first book "Fire ...
TheaterPhiladelphia,
Stages around the world are observing Shakespeare’s upcoming 450th birthday, and what better way to join in than to be able to catch a sterling production of one of his masterpieces by Shakespeare's Globe. At Philly's Annenberg Center for the ...
MusicPhiladelphia,
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s outdoor concert series at the Mann Center (pictured above) kicked off in grand style with British conductor (and droll wit) Bramwell Tovey conducting showpieces by Beethoven and Britten. Tovey, musical director of Vancouver Symphony and in ...
TheaterPhiladelphia,
The lights are dimmed. On a balcony, a woman comes through a smoky spotlight in a blinding diamond-white gown. As the strings swell, she belts out "Don’t Cry for Me Argentina." It is one of the iconic moments in pop-opera ...
MusicPA,
Opera Philadelphia director Nicholas Muni took a gamble last year at the Academy of Vocal Arts, setting Mozart’s "Cosi fan tutte" in the 1960s with soldiers deploying to Vietnam and interpreting the already couple-swapping libretto to the "make love, not ...
DancePA,
Philadanco played to sold-out houses in the Perelman Theater in Philly for their spring concert series in the Easter weekend. Danco is coming off a high profile year with the premiere at the Apollo Theater of Get on the Good ...
