Cavalia's Odysseo

Photo courtesy of Cavalia

Last week we had the pleasure of attending a press event featuring portions of Cavalia's Odysseo, a horse spectacular by the creators of Cirque du Soleil, currently running in Burbank, California. Before the event started Artistic Director and creator of Odysseo, Normand Latourelle, explained that left Cirque behind because he "wanted to move to something different and horses give me the chance to express something different."

He stated, "It's all about sharing our space with nature. Horses, from my point of view, are representative of nature. They tell us what is true, what is not true, what is real and what is unreal." In what he calls "the biggest touring show in the world" 67 horses and 44 artists work together to create a stunningly breathtaking display of beauty and nature.

Cavalia has built a tent in Burbank that is 10 stories high with a 15,000 square foot stage — plenty of room for the horses to gallop from one end to the other. Acrobats perform jaw-dropping feats and musicians and artists create a masterfully beautiful experience that takes audiences around the world to African desserts, the Northen Lights, rolling hills and lush forests. The HD video backdrop, equal to the size of three IMAX screens, transports audience to the locales right alongside the cast of horses, riders and acrobats.

The Atherton Twins Fly High in Cirque du Soleil’s Iris

  Matt Beard © 2011 Cirque du Soleil

Here’s the thing about a show like Cirque du Soleil’s latest masterpiece, Iris, if we start to tell you too much it will ruin the element of surprise. So we’ll let the experience unfold for those of you lucky enough to be in Los Angeles sometime in the next ten years — the length of the show’s run.

But we will give you not one but two reasons to catch the latest Cirque extravaganza — Kevin and Andrew Atherton. After seeing the show recently we were able to be part of a press event with the twins who dazzle on the aerial straps routine. They were joined by Iris artistic director Denise Biggi and company manager Randy Meyer.

The Atherton brothers perform a poetically death-defying act in which they gracefully fling themselves above the audience on what look like giant rubber bands. Since this didn’t seem like a normal career path for two kids from Manchester, England, they recounted their unusual journey.

They explained, “We started gymnastics at the age of seven, artistic gymnastics, and we did gymnastics for over 17 and a half years. And then Cirque du Soleil has what they call casting scouts that come obviously to major events, gymnastics events, dancing events, everything that you can think of. Cirque du Soleil have casting scouts that go all over the world. And we were discovered at the world Championships in China at the age of 20 years old, asked if we would be interested in joining Cirque du Soleil.”

Surprisingly perhaps, the twins weren’t familiar with the fantastical franchise. They recalled, “We’d never really heard of Cirque du Soleil at the time. Obviously we did a bit of research. We went to see our first show, which was Alegria in the Royal Albert Hall in London. From that moment we fell in love with the company and what we saw.”

But they were immediately taken with this spectacular form of entertainment. They shared, “We knew we wanted to be a part of it. At the age of 24 we joined Cirque du Soleil, helped create the show called Varekai, which we went on the road with it for eight and a half years. Then we left that show and came to create this show and obviously we’re here now.”

The new show is a movie themed event permanently on display in the heart of Hollywood. Meyer revealed, “This is the only place in the world that you’ll see Iris. The plan is that we’re here for a long time — ten years plus… This is designed for L.A., designed for the Kodak Theater. We’re here to stay. This is an L.A. staple.”

And if Biggi has her way, the twins will be part of the show for a long, long time. She acknowledged, “Most of the show is going to remain the same. Hopefully enough Kevin and Andrew will never leave so we won’t have to replace them. But there will be inevitable and desirable evolution to the show. Time passes, we can’t help for something to evolve. Every time that an artist leaves and a new artist comes, all of a sudden there’s a new subtle difference that starts working into the show and a lot of subtle differences make evolution of the show. So no change per se but life continues. It is a living organism.”

To learn more about Iris visit the Cirque du Soleil website.

Rita Moreno: A True Hollywood Legend

Photo Credit Mike LaMonica

Hey you guys! Have we got a great interview for you today.

Let’s face it, there are very few stars in the same class as Rita Moreno. First of all she’s one of only ten people in history to EGOT, winning the Emmy (twice), Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Add to that the fact that she’s starred in shows ranging from children’s television to edgy, dark comedy. She does it all. And let’s not ever forget that she played Anita in West Side Story, hence the “O” in EGOT.

We were honored to get to speak to her exclusively about her role in the new Fran Drescher sitcom Happily Divorced and her upcoming one-woman show Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup. At 79 the legendary actress is doing it all. No wonder she calls herself “this year’s Betty White — Latino style.”

It would be easy for a star of Ms. Moreno’s caliber to be jaded but it was refreshing to hear her take on her almost 70-year stint in show business. She confessed, “The breadth of my career is kind of stunning. Sometimes I get amazed. It is [overwhelming at times].”

The scope of her experiences even hit home to her during a recent event. She recalled, “One time I was being honored this year somewhere, I forget where, and they showed a film clip of a lot of film clips from my career and it was hilarious to watch what was going on. There was The Electric Company, the children’s show. Then they would show something from Oz. Then they showed something from West Side Story. And then they showed something from something else. And I’m one of those dinosaurs that still does everything. I sing. I dance. I act. Have tap shoes will travel.”

But the multi-talented performer is very clear on how she defines herself. She revealed, “I think of myself as an actor who dances and does musical things, because even when I sing, I really sing as an actress. I view the song as a monologue set to music.”

So with all those skills, it’s no wonder that Ms. Moreno is on the EGOT short list. But there are two honors that stand out above and beyond all the others. She admitted, “It’s really the Oscar [for West Side Story] because it was the very first. It was quite a first. And right alongside that, not second but alongside it, is the medal of merit that I got from President Obama a couple of years ago. That’s pretty spectacular. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous medal.”

But beyond all the Hollywood glitz and AWARDS, there’s a real depth to Ms. Moreno’s story. That’s why she’s bringing her one-woman show, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California, this fall.

She described the upcoming production, “It’s the story of my life starting literally with the very beginning when I came to this country on a ship. In those days if you were a poor Puerto Rican, or a poor any kind of immigrant, you didn’t fly. Who could afford that? We came by ship, on a ship called the S.S. Carabobo, which to everyone’s astonishment translates to the S.S. Stupidface. Do you believe that? Carabobo. That’s what it was called. Carabobo.”

The startling revelation was one that Ms. Moreno had just recently. She added, “I didn’t know the name of it until we started doing research to do the show. And I was sent a picture of the ship. And sure enough it says, in Spanish, S.S. Stupidface. Not an auspicious way to start your life in a new country.”

But as the big Broadway hit goes, “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.” And although her beginnings may have been humble, the journey she would embark upon has been no less that extraordinary.

She explained, “It starts with a big picture of the ship and it really goes through my life in Puerto Rico and then into New York and then to Hollywood. And the first act ends with Marlon Brando… It’s the only way to end the act.”

The show doesn’t slow down after intermission. She continued, “In the second act we go full force into my career and my marriage and the birth of my beautiful daughter, Fernanda, and to date up to now.”

Now includes not only the autobiographical show but her new hit series “Happily Divorced.” The sitcom chronicles Fran Dresher’s real-life experience, when her husband of 18 years announced that he was gay. Ms. Moreno called the experience, “sheer happiness and laughter and fun.” 

And that’s an emotion that seems to permeate the icon’s career. When asked to recall her favorite moment on the set of West Side Story she choose one that seemed filled with joy. “When we were filming ‘America.’ What George [Chakiris] and I didn’t realize at the time is that our costumes were going to make a very big difference in the very end when all the girls land on the boys’ shoulders. His costume was made of silk. It was silk mohair, that beautiful black suit that he wore. And my costume was made of silk. Four things that loused up that last thing — the costumes and then the fact that his shoulders sloped and my behind was wider than his shoulders. So every time we did a take and I had to land on his shoulder, I’d start to slip off. I mean I was just trying to hang on for dear life and I would start to ooohhhhhhh. God I think we did about 28 takes. I just could not get my behind… When we were rehearsing he was wearing a t-shirt, I was wearing either jeans or a cotton skirt. How did I know what was going to happen? It was hilarious really.”

That’s not to say it’s been a life without its ups and downs. As she noted, “There’s also an enormous amount of humor in failure and I had a lot of those.” And according to the actress, that will all come through in Life Without Makeup. As Ms. Moreno acknowledged, “It’s poignant, it’s very sad at times and it’s also extremely funny.”

She reflected on the first workshop that she did for a small group of donors. “There were about ten of them and… at the end of it people were in tears and laughing and applauding. And I said to [Berkeley Rep’s Artistic Director Tony Taconne], ‘You know, that’s quite a life.’ What a life I’ve lead. I’ve never thought of it as anything but a life. Everybody has a life and their story. But I didn’t realize, probably because of the way he has put it together, that it is a very interesting life. And if nothing else for the fact that I came here as an immigrant and had to fight the worst kind of discrimination in films and all that kind of stuff and somehow came through that. And here I am still. Like the song goes, ‘I’m still here’… and working — happily employed.”

Watch Happily Divorced on Wednesday nights at 10:30 p.m. EST/9:30 p.m. Central on TVLand. And see her one woman show, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, this fall at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

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Act in a Shakespearen play with Tom Hanks and Kenneth Branagh

Hollywood royalty Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are co-chairing this year's Simply Shakespeare Fundraiser. Each year the annual event, which raises awareness and funds for the The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, features some of the biggest celebrities reading one of the Bard's works.

This year Christina Applegate, Kenneth Branagh, Faith Hill, Eric Idle, Arte Johnson, Eugene Levy, Tim McGraw, William Shatner, Martin Short and Tracey Ullman will join Hanks and Wilson in a reading of The Merry Wives of Windsor. The one night only performance takes place on May 9 at UCLA's Royce Hall.

As part of the fundraiser, the SCLA is auctioning off a speaking role (just one line, but it still counts) to the highest bidder. The lucky winner will get limited rehearsal with the cast, billing in the program, admission to the VIP after party and inclusion in the cast photo. The current bid is only $1,029. The eBay auction started on April 21 but runs through May 1, so don't miss your chance at Shakespearean greatness.

Tickets for the performance are already on sale and range in price from $95 and to $500. The Merry Wives of Windsor will be performed on Monday, May 9 at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, California. For more information visit the SCLA website. For tickets visit uclalive.com or call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.


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Stephen Schwartz Headlines the Festival of New American Musicals

The Fourth Annual Festival of New American Musicals kicked off at the beginning of April, but the best stuff is yet to come. The five-month event takes place all over Southern California and features premieres by unknown artists as well as some of the biggest names in theater.

It began on April 1 and runs through August 28 and includes more than 30 pieces ranging from staged readings and workshops to concerts and full productions. It also includes programs for elementary, middle, secondary and college students providing educational outreach in this era of decreased arts spending in schools. Twenty performing arts organizations in the area are participating, each presenting a new American musical during the run of the festival.

While we completely get behind supporting new artists in musical theatre, the two events we most look forward to involve the theater royalty. On May 7 and 8 at Sony Pictures Plaza a yet-to-be-revealed all-star cast will perform the Tony-Award winning 1776 concert-style at a Gala Benefit. If William Daniels, Ken Howard and Betty Buckley show up it will be a good day in L.A.

Also on the agenda is the American premiere of My Fairy Tale, about the life and writings of Hans Christian Anderson with music provided by Stephen Schwartz. The composer, best known for Godspell, Wicked and Pocahontas, worked on the musical to honor the bicentennial birthday of Anderson and it premiered in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2005. This will be the U.S. debut of the show, which starts in a realistic world of the Royal Danish National Theater in 1846 but transcends into the imagination of the beloved author. It's a sort of an Alice in Wonderland with a dash of Pippin experience. It will be performed at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California, on August 12 to 19 and move to the Solvang Festival Theater from August 26 to September 25.

Other highlights of the festival include:
• Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings by Eric Whitacre at Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 25.

• The world premiere of Lonesome Traveler by James O’Neil at the Rubicon Theatre from April 13 to May 8.

• The world premiere of The Boy in the Bathroom by Michael Lluberes and Joe Maloney at the Orange County Chance Theatre from April 15 to May 22.

• The first reading of Cloudlands by Adam Gwon’s at South Coast Repertory’s 14th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival on May 1 and a concert of the composer's work on May 4 at the Show at the Barre in Hollywood.

•  In addition there are dozens of readings, workshops and productions of new musicals all throughout Southern California from April through August. For a complete list visit the festival’s website.

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Rock of Ages Does Not Sound Like a Solid Idea

We’ve been skeptical of the musical extravaganza Rock of Ages for a long time. Let’s face it — ‘80s hair metal wasn’t really the height of rock and roll history, and this show picks some of the decades cheesiest including Styx, Journey and Asia. So we haven’t rushed out to the theater to check it out.

Still whenever there’s a movie musical to hit the big screen, we like to lend our support of the genre. But director Adam Shankman has added another obstacle that makes it even more difficult for us to lend our support.

In a very risky move, the Hairspray helmer has cast Tom Cruise in the movie’s lead role. His character, Stacee Jaxx is the frontman for the band Arsenal, and he belts out power ballads like “Sister Christian,” "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "I Want to Know What Love Is." To date Cruise’s only movie related music moment involved sliding around in his tighty-whities and Rayban shades to “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” in Risky Business — hardly a musical theater worthy resume moment.

Cruise aside, we’re intrigued by some of the other members of the cast. Russell Brand proved he could carry a tune in Get Him To the Greek and we’re convinced that Alec Baldwin can do anything he sets his mind to. 

Dancing with the Stars alum Julianne Hough takes on the female lead in a role of Sherrie. The dancer’s had moderate success as a recording artist and made her acting debut in Burlesque. But does she have the chops to take on a role that was originated by Laura Bell Bundy, who’s gone on to be a Broadway star in shows like Hairspray and Legally Blonde?

That original production must have been an interesting one. Bundy’s co-stars included Chris “Web Soup” Hardwicke in the Jaxx role and Kyle “The Guy in Tenacious D That’s Not Jack Black” Gass in the part that Baldwin’s taking on.

All in all in just sounds like a shaky idea. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

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Rosie O'Donnell - A Lot of Irons in the Fire

Photo by Peter Morrison/NBC 

Rosie O’Donnell is a busy lady these days. Tonight she’s featured on Lisa Kudrow’s genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing the ancestry of her mother who died when she was just a child. And she’s preparing to relaunch her talk show career on OWN in September. In a recent conference call interview she told us, “I’m thrilled to be going back to do a new Rosie show for the Oprah Winfrey Network. And you know Oprah Winfrey is an epic talent and for her to ask me was a huge honor, and I can’t wait to start.”

Rosie will be taking a page out of her new boss’ book when it comes to the style of her series. She divulged, “It’ll be much more like [Oprah’s] show than it is like my old one. So it’s not going to be a bunch of guests coming in to promote a movie. It’s going to be a single topic, one hour, similar to hers. Although nobody can come close to doing what she actually did. That will be the format that we’re copying… We’ll do single topics and one hour delving into social issues and Broadway shows and some celebrities and books and movies and documentaries. But it won’t be four or five celebrities an hour.”

Luckily Rosie has TV to focus on considering that she doesn’t really see many movie parts in future. “I would love to but acting roles for women who are 50 and older are hard to come by and they’re hard to come by for Kathy Bates and Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon. So I don’t have any illusions about the desire for me to run back and get these huge parts that are simply waiting. There really aren’t any parts like that… I think that when I get to be in my 60’s there will probably be a lot of roles for me as the grandmother or older mother of the Geraldine Page kind of Trip to Bountiful roles… And that’s what I think I’m waiting for. So until then if they need me for anything they call.”

She does plan to return to comedy at some point, which is obviously still near and dear to her heart. She admitted, “Sometime in the future I would love to be able to do stand-up again. I toured with Cyndi Lauper for a couple summers opening for her and playing the drums and doing stand-up, and it was really so thrilling and so much fun. And I enjoy live performance probably the most out of all forms of entertainment.”

That’s not to say she hasn’t done the impromptu gig in recent years. Rosie noted, “I do stand-up sometimes. I walk by a comedy club in New York and go in and sometimes they say, ‘Hey, you want to do ten minutes?’ And I get up there and try and I remember how hard it is and how it’s like being a boxer and you need to be in shape. You just can’t sort walk into the ring and expect to not get knocked out. So I would eventually like to do stand-up again, have another HBO special. But it takes the kind of dedication and nightly performance ethic that right now is not possible for me.”

There is a project that she’d be willing to commit to if the opportunity presented itself. She revealed, “There’s talk of James Lapine directing Annie on Broadway in 2012, and I have let it be known rather loudly that I would like to play Miss Hannigan. So if they go on tour… I would definitely do whatever they need to do in order to get that show up on Broadway.”

In the meantime Rosie has another theatrical undertaking on the horizon. She described her very personal venture , “I’m working with a playwright, Dick Scanlan, doing a show about my mother to do a one woman show.”

She added further detail, “Michael Mayer’s set to direct and [Tom Holtz] is producing… We’ve been working on it for over three years and we have no idea when we’re going to do it. We just had a reading a few months ago and we need to work on it some more. But these things take a very long time to do and I’m hoping one day in the next year or so we’ll be able to do our first public [backers] reading and see how that goes. But that’s an amazing team of people. Dick Scanlan wrote Thoroughly Modern Millie. And Michael Mayer, Tony Award winner and [Tom Holtz] is [Tom Holtz], who’s phenomenal. And so I think I’m in good hands. And hopefully someday soon we’ll get to put it up on the [boards]."

In addition to the facts she gathered about her Mom during her Who Do You Think You Are?, Rosie’s also unearthed info working on the play. She explained, ‘[Dick]’s been pretty good at finding some people that she went to Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School with and some friends that she had when she was younger. And so I’ve been able to sit down and talk with some of them and that’s been really interesting to try to see her through adult eyes as opposed to… a child’s eyes.”

The experience has helped her evaluate her own relationship to her mother. Rosie admitted, “I think it’s been helpful. It’s weird for me to be 49 years old, a decade more than she lived. In March I’ll be 49 and she died at 39 in March. So it’s very odd to me to have lived ten more years than she got to. And get to do things that she never did like raising teenagers, which she never had to go through and in some ways she’s lucky. But to get to experience all that now and not have a mother to call and talk to about it and then to just think of how sad it was that she never got to live to see it or to do it.”

Rosie can connect with other people who lost their mothers at a young age. She remarked, “People will come over to me and tell me that their mom died… and the devastation is just as raw and real. I think no matter what age, when you lose your mom, it’s your mommy… That’s the bottom line is that everybody has that kind of natural base primal wound connections, and if it’s severed it becomes a wound, right, the mother-child connection? And when you do something like this show it does help… heal it a little bit. But I’ve found that the most helpful thing I could tell anyone to do who’s lost their mother is to get the Hope Edelman book, ‘Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss.’”

O’Donnell connects to the material so strongly that she said she regrets not being a part of Edelman’s project when she had the opportunity. “When she wrote that book in ‘95 she had written me and asked if I would do an interview. And I remembered thinking it was going to be a violin story, violin background music… poor, poor celebrities whose mothers died when they were young. And had I known what the book was really going to be, I would have participated and I would have begun my healing so much earlier.”

Instead, she continued, “I had to wait until the book was out and published, and then I bought the book and I bought the workbook. And it was probably the most healing thing that ever happened, in terms of losing a mother and to have all these collected stories of women who had survived it, and the feelings that are so similar and learning that you’re not alone. That’s what I would advise to anyone who lost their mom.”

Perhaps Rosie learned a valuable lesson by passing on the Edelman book. When Lisa Kudrow came knocking for her to appear on Who Do You Think You Are?, she didn’t let the experience slip away. And now she has her own tale to tell. “I almost feel as though I’m carrying all of the stories of my mother’s family that brought her to this country and brought me here as a result.”

And in turn, she wished that everyone could have a similar experience. “I hope that people look into their ancestry. I never thought it would change anything about me. I thought it would almost be boring and, I don’t know, I did not expect the emotional impact that the show had on my life.”

Watch Rosie’s journey when she appears on Who Do You Think You Are? tonight at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. Central on NBC.

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See Jim Henson’s Muppets Stuffed and Unstrung

 

As the official website for Henson Alternative Stuffed and Unstrung points out, “People used to say, ‘Puppets are lame. Improv usually sucks.’” And from that one simple slogan, the team behind the irreverent, live show wants you to know that this is not just another trip to Sesame Street.

In the show six comedians work with 80 Henson puppets, which they want to be clear are not Muppets, in a “100% uncensored show.”

You have two choices of how to watch the action unfold. You can keep your focus on two large TV screens on either side of the stage, which allows you to enjoy the illusion that the puppets are acting of their own free will. Or you can check out the action on the stage, and get a rarely seen view of the puppeteers driving the action. They’re out in full force, not hidden behind some face brick wall or pedestal.

In an interview on the Henson.com Podcast, Brian Henson explained the genesis of the show, “What we set out to do was develop a new comedic voice for puppets. And we started working with Patrick Bristow with comedic improv… improvising with puppets.”

The company’s early improv bits were initially performed for friends and industry insiders. And then they took to the road including gigs at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Big Laugh Comedy Festival in Sydney, Australia.

Henson continued, “We performed a little bit around the world and it was always very, very popular. So we thought it would be great to do a proper show in New York.” Produced by Westbeth Entertainment and Henson Alternative, Puppet Up! hit the Union Square Theatre in NYC for a couple of months this past spring.

Now Henson Alternative is bringing Stuffed and Unstrung home to Southern California for the holidays. And while it may not be what Muppet purists have come to expect from the franchise, Henson says the show is “going back to the roots of my dad, Jim Henson, where he started doing puppets for adults and then started working down into the family.”  

There are only six shows scheduled at the Irvine Barclay Theatre from December 29 through January 2, including two seatings at 7 and 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. What better way to ring in ’11? Tickets range from $38 to $55 and are going fast so book now. Buy online or call 949-854-4646 ext. 1. The Irvine Barclay Theatre is located at 4242 Campus Drive in Irvine, California.

If you can’t make it to Irvine, don’t be disappointed. There are lots of great clips up on the Stuffed and Unstrung site.

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Rock with You Blends Michael Jackson with a Latin Beat

 

Seaon Stylist Bristol grew up loving Michael Jackson and his music. So when the King of Pop died suddenly in July of 2009, Seaon set out to create a tribute to the star. That celebration of Jackson's music is coming to life in Rock with You at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California, starting on December 23.

But this is not just another Jackson tribute. This show fuses Michael's music with Latin beats and jazz stylings. The numbers are performed to Salsa, Cha-cha-cha, Merengue and even Latin Hip Hop rhythms. In a recent interview Seaon told us he got the idea while working on a Broadway show after Michael's passing. He recalled, "His death came as the ultimate shock and disbelief to me. I started to think of all the different tribute shows that were happening and they all seemed the same to me. I was working on a Broadway production at the time to fuse Latin and Jazz together, and then the idea hit me. I did not only want to pay him tribute, but I wanted to celebrate his music and his moves. Being of a heavy Latin and jazz influence, I noticed that no one had created a show of this nature, so I set out to make it a reality."

He claimed that in the beginning he wasn't sure if the concept would work. But he said, "[The] musician and singer instinct in me kicked in, and I decided to trust and run with it. After the first two arrangements were completed, I couldn't stop dancing. It's truly addicting. I didn't know what to do to continue making this a reality. All I had was a vision, a dream, the love of Michael and some high-energy Latin rhythms. I figured, run with it, let's see how it flies. And boy, has it flown."

We thought it was unusual that the show was being promoted as a holiday event, but Seaon explained that the cast would be performing some of Michael's favorite Christmas songs that he sang with The Jackson Five. They also have added the Harmonies Girls Choir to join in on a Christmas medley and a "heal the world" medley of songs Michael sang with kids. Seaon commented, "This is a show about fusing cultures and rhythms, about coming together and feeling the joy of our humanity through music and dance. It crosses social, cultural, spiritual, ethnic, economic, language and age barriers. It promotes peace on earth simply by virtue of its existence and the positive energy it radiates. What better time of the year to debut this show? It's the ultimate non-Christmas, Christmas show. It's not only celebrating Michael's music it celebrates life. It's hot and spicy but always wholesome. It's emotionally and physically moving and always uplifting."

Season also said he is proud to present a show that honors his Latin heritage. He remarked, "Even in Los Angeles with our enormous Latino population, there are still, unfortunately, only a limited number of events that embrace the Latin community as an important constituency of the mainstream audience, and even fewer that actually dare to be innovative."

According to Seaon, Grammy nominated Latin musician and composer Rebeca Mauleon wrote most of the musical arrangements for the show. He related, "When we first met it was love at first sight... in the creation department that is. She saw my vision, and being a true MJ fan herself, she was already familiar with the music and fully understood the hybrid we needed between Michael's originality and intricate Latin rhythms. We worked day and night to get every beat and mood right, and I couldn't be prouder of the work we've accomplished together."

Seaon has been a Michael Jackson fan since he was a young boy in South America and his father would send him Michael's records and videos. He remembers the way he and his friends would feel when they would gather around to hear the latest song. He expressed, "This is precisely what I wanted to bring to the stage when I created this show Rock With You. I wanted to show the level of excitement that we felt as kids through his music, but also infuse it with our special Latin roots and culture… His music is infections. It just makes you want to dance and move and sing. And that's precisely what Salsa and most other Latin rhythms do to your soul and your spirit. Now can you imagine the combination? It's incredibly infectious and you just can't sit still."

Seaon thought back to the first time he ever saw Jackson. "I remember the exact moment I first saw MJ perform. Growing up in South America, we were raised really poor, and couldn't afford a television. One of my neighbors, however, did have a television and the kids and I would all stack around their outside window trying to peek in to get a view. Most often they were rather mean to us and would close their windows, but the first time they invited us in to sit down and enjoy a viewing was the most memorable time for me. This is because the first video I ever saw on live television was Michael Jackson's Thriller. How funny is that? The first thing I've ever seen on TV happened to be the biggest project of my life. I don't think that's a coincidence at all. Love it."

Although no members of the Jackson family have been to the show yet, many of Michael's colleagues and dancers have seen it. Season said they are "completely blown away by the originality of the concept. They have personally expressed interest in coming on board and assisting on certain details, since they obviously have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Michael. I accepted, of course, because this adds a unique overtone to the show. In some way I feel like we're getting MJ's approval and that's important... Just to imagine that MJ is smiling down on us, watching us as we celebrate his work the best way we know how — Latin style."

Rock with You is at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood from December 23, 2010 through January 2, 2011. For more information visit their website or call 818-508-4200.

For other theater stories check out:
An Interview with the Cast of Cinderella
he First Jo-el Rocks Bethlehem and Burbank


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Cavalia Thunders into Burbank

If you’re running those last minute Christmas errands near the IKEA in Burbank, California, you’ll see a new structure in the skyline. No that giant white tent isn’t a Christmas tree lot on steroids. It is soon to be the home of the biggest touring show in the world, “Cavalia.”

At a recent rain-soaked press conference to commemorate the tent raising, the “Cirque du Soleil”-on-horseback fantasy’s creator Normand Latourelle explained just how a big a structure they’re erecting. “If you can envision a circus tent usually the middle part of the tent is the highest point. And here the lowest point is the middle because this is like four tents connected together… The tent peak is at 100 feet and we'll be welcoming 2,000 guests.”

A very big top for an enormous show. “Cavalia” employs over 100 people on a permanent basis and supplements their crews with 200 local hires. The cast features over 40 artists, acrobats, dancers, musicians and riders from around the world. Forty-five horses from 12 different breeds make the scene each night. French-Canadian artistic director Latourelle explained why so many types of horses were incorporated in the production, “Human[s] for the last couple of million year[s] have transformed the horse. So they have created different breed[s] for different purpose. So because in this show you get to see a lot of horse riding technique... You get to see bare back riding, trick riding, you get to see a lot of liberty, you get to see jumping... so we have different breed[s] for different purpose.”

One consistent factor with all the horses — there isn’t a girl among them. Latourelle continued, “All the horses we have are males and half of them are stallions... You understand with so many stallions we don't have mares. No[t] one. It's like a monastery. We keep them quiet.”

This isn’t a case of sexual discrimination, the males, he told us, just happen to give him the type of performance he’s looking for. “We like the stallions because they are more animated. They are very proud animal[s]. They are always in playful mode... Because half of the show the horse are totally free on stage, we like them to express themselves. Sometimes they disobey and I like that. This is the moment I prefer. When they're stubborn and say, 'No, I'm not doing that.' And that's a way for me to welcome the nature on stage because this show is a lot about nature.”

But “Cavalia” is also about heart. And that is why they have partnered with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation for a special event on January 20, 2011. Proceeds from ticket sales that night will go to the now-former CNN host’s charity. Larry King, Jr. was on hand at the tent raising to carry forth the organization’s mission, “My father started the Larry King Cardiac Foundation 23 years ago... He had quintuple bypass surgery and he's still doing great at 77. And what the foundation does is for people who do not have health insurance or don't have the money to pay for cardiac care that's what we do. We fund individual patient surgeries so the money.”

That’s why Latourelle feels “Cavalia” is the perfect fit for the foundation. He remarked, “’Cavalia’ is about love... and when you witness the show you see love between the people because that's the message I like to carry around. It's a love message... And it's also a love affair between the people and the horses. And love it's all about the heart from my point of view. And without the heart you don't get love. And the cardiac foundation is there to support the real heart.”

Unfortunately Larry King couldn’t make the tent raising last week. The event took place the morning after his final CNN show aired. And as King, Jr. addressed the crowd on the rainy Burbank morning, he said, “I think the heavens are crying today for my dad not being on CNN anymore. But we did have a great time last night with him. Sorry he couldn't be here but the Governor announced that today's Larry King day in Los Angeles so he had to do that and couldn't make this one.”

Larry Sr. will make it to the big top on the 20th. His son clarified, “My father will be here. He will not go on a horse. I don't think he's gonna do that. He did that once with Ted Turner for about a minute and a half and that was it. But he will be part of the event and my brothers and his wife, everybody will be here.”

That’s okay. A local luminary was more than happy to throw her hat in the ring. Governor Anja Reinke chimed in, “Unlike Larry King, I will go on a horse.” That sounds like a show not to be missed.

“Cavalia” opens on January 19, 2011 at 777 North Front Street in Burbank, California. Ticket prices range from $69 to $139 for regular seats. Customized packages including a tour of the “Cavalia” stables or a cocktail dinner reception before the show range from $159 to $219 per person. For additional information or to purchase tickets visit the “Cavalia” website or call 1-866-999-8111.

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