Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Fun Things around Town

Have been to a couple of wonderful events around town. Last Tuesday saw this Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Telling Stories is the first major exhibition to explore in-depth the connections between Norman Rockwell’s iconic images of American life and the movies. Two of America’s best-known modern filmmakers—George Lucas and Steven Spielberg—recognized a kindred spirit in Rockwell and formed significant collections of his work. Rockwell’s paintings and the films of Lucas and Spielberg evoke love of country, small town values, children growing up, unlikely heroes, acts of imagination and life’s ironies.








































The other was at the Kennedy Center. The Reduced Shakespeare Company's Completely Hollywood (abridged). Absolutely hysterical.
























From the review in the Washington Post:
Even a jaded critic who winces a little at the irony -- the commercially shrewd RSC (CDs and DVDs on sale outside the theater!) skewering commercially shrewd Tinseltown -- has to admit that "Completely Hollywood" is both witty and appealingly goofy. The show, which premiered in 2005 but is making its D.C. debut, consists of 90 minutes of skits and shtick lampooning or referring to 197 films (according to a numbered list in the program). Whether original cast members Reed Martin, Austin Tichenor and Dominic Conti are donning bonnets for "Darcy's Angels," a Pride & Prejudice action-flick spinoff ("It is a truth universally acknowledged that one of you has been kidnapped," a deep voice-over intones), or simply tossing out punning suggestions for sure-fire celluloid hits (how about a double-dose of epic: "Gandhi With the Wind"? Or a Robert De Niro-Jessica Tandy collaboration, "Taxi Driving Miss Daisy"?), the tone is one of gleeful absurdism.
A most enjoyable evening.

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