ON CÉLINE DION | Music commentary for Le Journal de Montréal in Canada

QUEBEC |  Canadian journalist Raphaél Gendron-Martin of Le Journal de Montréal interviewed me about my views on the release of Céline Dion's new album Loved Me Back to Life. It was her first English-language studio album since Taking Chances in 2007, so naturally it's big news.

Raphaél published a thoughtful and well-researched article, in which he interviewed various members of the English-language media (including Robin Leach).

I very much enjoyed being interviewed about Céline for this French-language Canadian newspaper. I did actually say a lot more about her and her new album. Scroll down to read the complete text of the interview I gave Le Journal de Montréal.

Raphaél's «Le retour d’une valeur sûre» article appeared in French on November 6, 2013 in the Canadian publication. It was subtitled «Les médias étrangers saluent l’arrivée d’un nouvel album de Céline». 

See more at http://www.journaldequebec.com/2013/11/05/le-retour-dune-valeur-sure.

I was happy to help Gendron-Martin, who charmingly tweeted his article as soon as it was published online.

Des médias étrangers (Nouvel Observateur, Billboard), m'ont parlé du retour de @celinedion. http://t.co/tjDqRuA8Nz
— Raphaël G.-Martin (@raphmontreal) November 6, 2013

To prepare his article, Raphaël asked me these questions:

• What's the importance of a new Celine Dion's album in today's industry?
• How can Celine Dion be still relevant compared to the other pop artists?
• When you hear the name "Celine Dion" today, what do you first think of?
• How do you think being "permanently" in Las Vegas had changed her career compared to a touring artist?

It turns out that Raphaël is quite an expert on Céline Dion, as evidenced by this tweet where he is writing at a junket while surrounded by Céline's glamorous photos.

En pleine rédaction au junket de Céline. #floride pic.twitter.com/xhDivsrNK4
— Raphaël G.-Martin (@raphmontreal) October 3, 2013

As is often the case, I offered the U.S. perspective on cultural matters, just as I recently offered an Irish radio the U.S. perspective on the conviction of Bradley Manning.

In «Le retour d’une valeur sûre», Raphaël quoted me as saying:

Selon Randy Gener, critique new-yorkais pour Critical Stages et ­ancien contributeur du New York Daily News, l’arrivée d’un nouvel album pour Céline Dion apportera de la nouveauté au public qui ne pense à elle que pour ses spectacles à Las Vegas et pour les reprises du Titanic à la télévision. 

«La question est maintenant de voir si sa réputation sera suffisante pour créer du profit dans une industrie maintenant dominée par les ­extravagances de Lady Gaga ou encore un rappeur coréen. L’image de Céline dépend entièrement de sa merveilleuse voix. Mais je me ­demande si ce sera assez pour se traduire en immense succès de vente pour l’album.»

Man, he made me sound so trenchant!

Raphaël was courteous and professional. I am thrilled that he got a cover story for his work. That's super-cool.

Notre gros spécial sur @celinedion dans le cahier week-end du @JdeMontreal disponible aujourd'hui. pic.twitter.com/b2wQqDDLqG
— Raphaël G.-Martin (@raphmontreal) November 2, 2013

MY INTERVIEW FOR LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL
Like I said, I enjoyed being interviewed about Céline for this French-language Canadian newspaper. I did actually say a lot more about her and her new album, so I am posting here the entire interview I gave Le Journal de Montréal.

Raphaël G.-Martin of Le Journal de Montréal: What's the importance of a new Céline Dion's album in today's industry?
RG: Céline Dion has not released an English-language album in six years. "Loved Me Back to Life" is going to be a novelty in an entertainment industry that has relegated her to Las Vegas concerts at Caesars Palace and the occasional TV re-run of the movie Titanic. The question is whether Céline's brand of talent will ultimately make a huge profit in a music industry where wild Lady Gaga-like antics or Korean rappers on YouTube typically make a big splash on the top 10 list. Celine's image depends entirely on her golden voice, and I have to wonder whether that will be enough to make her album a huge success.

-How can Céline Dion be still relevant compared to the other pop artists?
Have you noticed that pop stars do not just sing anymore? Lady Gaga sang her new song on a London stage while completely naked. Miley Cyrus, the nasty little twerker who shouldn't, exploits Twitter to post photos of herself sticking her tongue out and proclaiming her promiscuity.

In Brazil, Justin Bieber has been visiting brothels in between performances where people throw water bottles at him. Courtney Love revealed her drug addiction problem in a magazine because she wants to make a comeback. Guys like Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stipe and Bono act more like politicians than rock stars; they use their music as a platform where they score political points. Madonna recently packaged her latest song inside a short film and a free speech web project.

When you compare Céline to these pop artists, you would not be so far off if you thought she were a nun! She has a stable home life. Her French albums kick ass in the French market and sell very well. She's not a songwriter, so she's an interpreter of songs. She's a mother. She does not smoke. She does not do drugs. She does not drink. She always thanks her husband and her family. Maria the nun in The Sound of Music was a bigger troublemaker than Celine. She's from another planet of Music Star.

-When you hear the name "Céline Dion" today, what do you first think of?
As a Broadway critic in New York, I always put a great premium on a singer/entertainer's sound. The golden voice that comes out of her just wins me over, no matter how overly cutesy her image has become and how shockingly thin her body looks and how mannered her vocal style can be when she sings. She has a powerful voice that is beautiful to listen to. Nobody can take that away from her.

-How do you think being "permanently" in Las Vegas had changed her career compared to a touring artist?
Céline minted herself as a different kind of star by being permanently in Las Vegas. If you want to hear her sing in person, you have to go to her. She does not have to go to you. That's a game changer, a real testament to how she has positioned herself in an orbit that is closer to the genuine old-fashioned pop artists of the previous century like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin or Sammy Davis Jr.

Of course, Céline is also selling spectacle by staying rooted to Las Vegas. But she does not have to constantly trick out or twerk her ass or do nasty attention-getting antics, the way other touring artists do. An argument could be made that she has become a kind of singing statue: that she runs the risk of becoming a too-comfortable, immovable fixture in Las Vegas. She attracts an older demographic of audiences, for example. I bet it is difficult for her theatrical collaborators to stage her in every new Las Vegas concert just because there is a level of out-sized spectacle that people have come to expect from her Las Vegas shows. The challenge is always to re-design the spectacular effects in ways that do not overpower her singing voice.

I have heard some tracks from her new album, "Loved Me Back to Life." The voice I heard there is practically difficult to recognize. It's stripped down, almost pure in its sound, restrained, elegant, more beautifully controlled. Going this direction is quite likely the logical next artistic step for a pop icon who has become so closely associated with a certain level of Las Vegas spectacle.

That's where my interview ends.

BONUS FOR DION FANS:  Two days after the Le Journal de Montreal article was published, on Friday, November 8, Céline showcased her excellent Loved Me Back To Life with an intimate gig at New York’s Edison Ballroom.

See her wow the fans and music critics with a resonant rendition of the album’s Sia-penned title track in this YouTube recording of her live performance:

JOURNEY TO LAND'S END | Who's Afraid of Jane Bowles?

PROVINCETOWN |  You've likely not heard of Jane Bowles, but she wrote a cock-eyed, mesmerizing play that was one of the signal achievements of postwar American drama. It's right up there with the classic works of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, late Eugene O'Neill, Lillian Hellman, and Sam Shepard.

This post is about that unjustly neglected play: In the Summer House.

It's not that difficult to become a literary expert on Jane Bowles. She wrote one novel, one play (two if you include a six-page puppet play), and seven meticulously crafted short stories. Her total output was tiny. Yet what she did leave behind was beyond brilliant.

It's not that difficult either to be enamored with her biography. She lived an out-sized life, an unhappy one, if you believe the conventional wisdom, but it's the stuff dramas are made of. She was Jewish, homosexual, alcoholic, a communist, a cripple, the platonic wife of the gay writer and composer Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky), a cult figure, and a fascinating pole star in a literary coterie that included Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes and later such Beat Generation types as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg.

Like Gertrude Stein (the formalist who altered the face of the American drama), Bowles had for years enjoyed an underground reputation among artists. When she died in 1973, the poet John Ashberry classified her in a New York Times obit as "a writer's writer's writer." It's the accursed designation that stuck, even though Ashberry did go further. He wrote, "It is to be hoped that she will be recognized for what she is: one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language."

Her friend Tennessee Williams had long been hitting the drumbeat for Bowles. He called her "the most important writer of prose fiction in Modern American letters."

Bowles was so much more than a fiction writer raised to the third power. She was a maverick. On the strength of one full-length play, In the Summer House, she had set her own place in the pantheon of post-war American drama. She did it in her own highly individualistic way. This play, although rarely produced today, is so exquisite and so original that it has taken us (well, it is still taking us) a long time to catch up with its odd dazzle.

The idea of acknowledging In the Summer House as a singular work of postwar American theater is, in part, why I came to the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. As moderator, I joined the festival's curator David Kaplan in a post-performance discussion on Sunday, September 29. Kaplan devised this year's festival theme of "Williams and Women." His contribution? He himself staged Act Two of In the Summer House on the pool deck of the Boatslip, facing the Atlantic Ocean, on Friday Sept. 27 and on Sunday Sept. 29.

Why not stage the whole play? I journeyed to America's land's end to find out.

Me and David Kaplan

It was very much a workshop production. In our public conversation on the pool deck of the Boatslip, Kaplan said that for him, a question hangs over the Bowles's text. Tennessee Williams loved this play. Why?

Williams read the first act in 1940. He helped Bowles obtain a grant to get the second act written. He traveled in 1956 to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see the play performed. He gave it blurbs and consistent praise in interviews and in his Memoirs. Why?

Kaplan's answer was to stage an experiment. Viewing In the Summer House through the prism of Williams's sensibility, this workshop production tries to answer Kaplan's quizzical questions by picking up the play's story in Act 2 and then doubling back on a fragment of Act 1. To help him explore, the rabbinical director used actors from past festival productions of Orpheus Descending (TW Fest 2010 and 2011): Irene Glezos as Mrs. Eastman-Cuevas, Brenda Currin as Mrs. Constable and Beth Bartley as Ines.

What Kaplan has been doing is to lay bare (for himself and his actors) the narrative structures and character motivations of a text that he confesses seems inscrutable. That's because In the Summer House is full of idiosyncrasies.

Stylistically Jane Bowles resembles her own heroine, Miss Goering, in Two Serious Ladies. At one point in this strange, entrancing novel, a character complains to Miss Goering, "You can never sit down for more than five minutes without introducing something weird into the conversation. I certainly think you have made a study of it."

So does In the Summer House. It makes a screwball study of being wild and peculiar. Dramaturgically, it balances a refined, decorous naturalism with a modernist attentiveness to the incongruous or repressed inner life. In the Summer House does not work in the conventional sense. Its dialogue lures you to dig deeper into the characters' inner workings even as it refuses to yield anything further. It vibrates within that kinetic space.

It was not for nothing that Bowles had felt that perhaps Charlie Chaplin might have been the only director capable enough to stage her play. With its odd involutions and surprising turns, her sense of the dramatic relies a great deal on unresolved ambiguity in both character and action. What makes her play theatrical and highly original is that it challenges audiences to create a narrative logic that avoids reduction to common cliches.

Writer and playwright Jane Bowles (1917-1973)

In the Summer House is a play about mothers and daughters: about "serious ladies" who are frequently nervous or uncomfortable in their own skin, even when they are domineering. Bowles was 30 years old in 1947, the year she completed Act 1 of In the Summer House and published it in Harper's Bazaar. By then, she had been writing fiction for at least a decade. Her fictional narratives repeatedly returned to relationships between women. She was "an expert on strangeness," as the writer Janet Mason observes, adding:

Most of her stories, if not all, explore both the entanglements and estrangement inherent in the claustrophobia of intimacy. In the introduction, Truman Capote refers to this as "human apartness." 

Unlike Williams, who was himself a poet of human apartness, Bowles's focus was not always with her women characters's sexual lives. Invariably she explored women's conflicting experiences to bind themselves to and escape from one another -- to serve and to command.

In Summer House, there are three sets of mothers and daughters. Each pair struggles to maintain the emotional closeness between them and to separate from one another's clutches. Whereas in Williams's The Glass Menagerie the smothering mother comes across as a kind of sacred monster, in Bowles's Summer House, mothers take control and domineer, but the true power rests with their daughters.

Seeing Act 2 alone turns out to be quite a fascinating exercise for those of us who have seen the entire play with the scenes in their original order. It forced me to look at Act 2 anew and with fresher eyes. In the past critics have generally found the second act to be less successful than the first act. To prove their point, they point to the fact that Bowles had devised three endings for the play. (The published ending is the classic scenario in popular melodrama where the young woman runs out with the man.) During the original Broadway production in 1953, according to Bowles's biographer Millicent Dillon, "a psychiatrist was brought in to explain the motivation of the play."

The surprise in Kaplan's entertaining presentation is that Act 2 (with a little help from a piece of Act 1) stands on its melodramatic own. Staged around a pool at the Boatslip and making wonderful theater out of the yawning distance (both literal and psychological) between characters, Act 2 works as a great teaser. It whetted mine and the audiences' appetite to see more of the play.

Next year Kaplan will return to Provincetown. He will stage a site-specific production of In the Summer House. He said he will push forward with his idea of reversing those two Acts, although he did quickly add that he will give Bowles her due by offering some performances that preserve the original order.

"I owe it to her to do it the way she wrote it," Kaplan told me.

The prospect of participating in what promises to be an innovative new take of In the Summer House was the other great reason to go the annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. Bowles's unpredictable work has never received significant popular attention. Here was an opportunity to get involved in this unique festival's stronghold: its ardent mission of offering fresh new discoveries from the Williams canon.

Eight years since it was first established, the festival has rejuvenated Williams's later plays and his more experimental works, those commercially unsuccessful plays which the critics have consistently relegated to the dustbin of the work of a failed drug-addled alcoholic.

What this festival has done and is continuing to do in terms of revivifying the late, strange Williams works, perhaps it can do as well to Jane Bowles's strange, singular In the Summer House.  --rg

WATCH THIS VIDEO | My conversation with director David Kaplan about Jane Bowles and her play "In the Summer House"

Me and David Kaplan at Provincetown's The Boatslip

PROVINCETOWN |  You've likely not heard of Jane Bowles, but she wrote a cock-eyed, mesmerizing play that was one of the signal achievements of postwar American drama.

I think it's right up there with the classic postwar works of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, late Eugene O'Neill, Lillian Hellman, and Sam Shepard.

That unjustly neglected play is called In the Summer House.

In the Summer House (Act Two) 

by Jane Bowles

Directed by David Kaplan

Friday Sept. 27, 1:00 – 2:00
Sunday Sept. 29, 10:30 – 12:00 (with discussion moderated by Randy Gener)
The Boatslip (161 Commercial Street | $15) 

A Festival Workshop Production at Provincetown, MA 

A year after Mrs. Constable’s daughter Vivian died they both hang around the Lobster Bowl Restaurant. Did Vivian fall? Or was she pushed by Mrs. Eastman-Cuevas’s daughter, Molly. Adding to the melodrama set-up, another question hangs over the text: Tennessee Williams loved this play. Why? He read the first act in 1940, helped Bowles obtain a grant to get the second act written, traveled in 1956 to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see the play performed, gave it blurbs and consistent praise in interviews and in his Memoirs. Why? 

This workshop production from Festival curator David Kaplan, tries to answer those questions by picking up the story after Vivian’s death and doubling back to the scene on the cliff. With stars from Orpheus Descending (TW Fest 2010 and 2011): Irene Glezos as Mrs. Eastman-Cuevas, Brenda Currin as Mrs. Constable, Beth Bartley as Ines. 

The idea of acknowledging In the Summer House as a singular work of postwar American theater is, in part, why I came to the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival.

Kaplan devised this year's festival theme of "Williams and Women." His contribution? He himself staged Act Two of In the Summer House on the pool deck of the Boatslip, facing the Atlantic Ocean, on Friday Sept. 27 and on Sunday Sept. 29.

Why not stage the whole play? I journeyed to America's land's end to find out.

Following the workshop performance on Sunday, September 29, Kaplan and I discussed the play’s many connections to Williams. More important: we explored Jane Bowles and her singular dramatic style.

Here is the video recording of our conversations:

Video Recording of My Q&A on "In the Summer House" with David Kaplan from LIPTV 2 on Vimeo.

ANNOUNCEMENT | Finalist for 2013 Plaridel Award for Excellence in Filipino American Journalism

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. | "A Song for My Mother," a personal essay I published in The FilAm, has been named a Finalist for the 2013 Plaridel Awards for Excellence in Filipino American Journalism. In the category of Outstanding Editorial Essay.

The annual Plaridel Awards was established last year as the first-ever coast-to-coast competition among the Filipino publishers, recognizing excellence among journalists from Los Angeles, New York and of course the Bay Area. Submissions came from publishers.

Led by Esther Misa Chavez, Philippine American Press Club President and Vice President for Sales of INQUIRER.net, the Plaridel Awards is a project of the Philippine American Press Club, and The Plaridel Awards Committee.

The winners will be announced and receive their trophies on Saturday, October 19, 2013 at Lucky Chances Casino/Rene's Fine Dining in Colma, California at 6:30 PM.  Gala dinner and awards will be emceed by Joey Guila and Fresca Eriarte. Intermission by Mitch Franco. Dance Music by Willie Santa Maria's Standard Time Band. Dress Code: Cocktail Dress

For tickets, visit: www.plaridelawards.eventbrite.com

Who was Plaridel?
Over a century ago, Marcelo H. del Pilar, a Filipino journalist and publisher went into exile in Europe. His fearless commentaries against the oppressive Spanish rule made his exile inevitable. Through it all, his desire to be a journalist never waned and he continued his writing while abroad. He was unrelenting in his pursuit of truth, fairness, and the upliftment of his constituents. Plaridel was his nom de plume, the anagram of his surname, Del Pilar.

In him the Philippine American Press Club, U.S.A. (PAPC) has found a hero – a person to emulate and an inspiration to Filipino-American writers and publishers everywhere who continue in their journalistic aspirations and in service to their constituents in the new land they now call home. The Philippine American Press Club, U.S.A wishes to honor our hardworking press corps, and the media agencies they represent. They have made the vibrant Filipino American community well-informed, entertained and involved through the years.

The Plaridel Awards was named after del Pilar, whose nom de plume was Plaridel. This annual award will be given to Filipino American journalists who have proven through the years his/her dedication to the ideals of Filipino hero, nationalist, publisher and writer, Marcelo H. Del Pilar. Plaridel dedicated his life to the highest journalistic standards. His near-Quixotic drive for the well-being of his constituents never waned. And whether he was in his hometown in Pampanga or exiled in Hong Kong or faraway Spain, he was unrelenting in his pursuit of the truth, fairness in reporting, and in the upliftment of his countrymen.

Philippine American Press Club, USA
PAPC,USA was established in 1988 by former members of the National Press Club of the Philippines who had immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area and saw the need for a US based Filipino American media group. All fierce advocates for truth, fairness, and excellence in journalism, they realized the vital role of media education and advocacy for the fast-growing Filipino population. A quarter of a century later, PAPC continues the legacy of the founding members and has grown its membership to include influential Filipino American publishers with a reach well beyond North America.The group’s combined total monthly circulation in the US alone is over 2-million.

The goals of the Press Club are: (a) To preserve freedom of the press and the free flow and exchange of information in society; (b) To promote the professional advancement of Filipino American journalists and media practitioners; (b) To provide a forum for the discussion of issues of interest to its members and to initiate programs beneficial to its members and the community at large; (c) to promote cooperation and understanding among its members and the community.

PAPC is composed of members active in the media; which includes publishers, editors, reporters, correspondents and columnists of newspapers, magazines and the internet; broadcast media owners, managers, producers, directors, writers and production staff; advertising representatives of media organizations, public relations and communication professionals; and invited community leaders.

ANNOUNCEMENT | 2013 Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts goes to...

NEW YORK CITY |  I am honored to share that I was named a Finalist for the 2013 Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts, given annually by the Asian American Arts Alliance.

According to the Alliance's website, the Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts "recognizes and encourages Asian American individuals who are making a significant contribution to the arts by demonstrating a commitment to outstanding service, advocacy and/or leadership."

It continues: "Selections are based on demonstrated and exceptional service to or participation in the field, the impact of the work and the potential for future contributions."

The actual 2013 Wai Look Awardee is Gladys Chen of 2G Theater. Congratulations, Gladys!

The Wai Look Award will be presented at the alliance's 31st annual gala evening. The gala will take place Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 6:30pm at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses St, NYC).

If you have the extra change to support the Asian American Arts Alliance, please come to the gala. You will meet visual artist and fashion designer Richard Tsao, as well as jazz musicians and 2013 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Vijay Iyer. Cindy Hsu and Phil Nee are the emcees.

The gala is a celebration of outstanding Asian Americans in the arts and an opportunity for audiences and patrons to significantly raise the level of support for artistic talent within our community.

To purchase tickets for the gala, visit http://aaartsalliance.org/page/31st-gala­

Past galas have attracted more than 1,000 artists, cultural and business leaders, philanthropists, elected officials, and community members. Honorees and presenters have included Margaret Cho, David Henry Hwang, Phillip Lim, Suketu Mehta, Mira Nair, SuChin Pak, Maulik Pancholy, Jeff Staple, BD Wong, and many others.

Wai Look Award
Established in 2011, the Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts is a tribute to the life and work of Wai Look, who served on the Asian American Arts Alliances board of directors from 1999 until her death in December 2010. She spent most of her career in the arts, as an administrator and in artist services, and devoted herself to helping others. Look also strongly believed in the importance of volunteering, which was reflected in her personal, as well as professional life. The award is given periodically to an Asian American who is making a significant contribution to the arts by demonstrating a commitment to outstanding service, advocacy and/or leadership.

Purpose and Criteria
The Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts is intended to recognize and encourage Asian American individuals working as an arts administrator, advocate, leader or equivalent whose active participation in or for the arts has made a considerable impact. The award aims to illustrate the potential of exemplary work in the field.

Past winners of the Wai Look Award are Christine Toy Johnson, actor, playwright and filmmaker (2012), and Deepa Purohit, co-founder of Rising Circle Theater Collective (2011).

About Wai Look (1969–2010)
Born in New York, Wai Look was one of five daughters in a Chinese American family. She grew up in Queens and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1991. Since that time, she held positions in management and development for the United Hospital Fund, the Arts & Business Council of New York, and the New York Pops. A longtime board member of a4, Ms. Look served on the executive committee as board secretary. She also served on the board of the Artists Community Federal Credit Union.

About the Asian American Arts Alliance
The Asian American Arts Alliance (a4) is dedicated to strengthening Asian American artists and arts/cultural groups in New York City through funding, promotion and community building. a4 helps support individual artists and arts organizations access and share resources online and in person. A4 builds community through programs that lead to peer-learning, collaboration, and professional development.