Going Out
THEATRE Parker And Porter. From Tuesday, 8pm, Fringe Club Theatre, $150 Singer-actresses Teresa Norton and Andrea Miller, both of whom have recently been seen in one-woman shows, get together to present a celebration of two of the liveliest minds of the jazz age - Cole Porter and Dorothy Parker.
Parker was a leading light of the legendary Algonquin Round Table of New York wits and a noteworthy poet, reviewer and short-story writer. It was Parker who announced: 'If all the girls at [the Yale Prom] were laid end to end I wouldn't be at all surprised,' and - when given precedence on the way into another one with the remark 'Age before beauty' - responded 'Pearls before swine'.
Porter, almost her exact contemporary, stamped an era with his wit and melodic flair and has a strong claim for the title of greatest songwriter of the century. Porter wrote both the words and music to, among many, many others, Miss Otis Regrets, Night And Day, Love For Sale, I Get A Kick Out Of You and Every Time You Say Goodbye.
With words and music like this it is awfully hard to go wrong, and director Barry Bakker - who has directed several hit revue shows in Hong Kong and overseas - has an assured touch with material of this kind. This should be good.
Pygmalion. From Friday, 7.30pm, Saturday matinee 2.30pm, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Lyric Theatre, $290, $220, $140, Urbtix An unlikely exercise, this: a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. I know what you're thinking - My Fair Lady - but not on this occasion.
This has been translated into Cantonese and set in 1950s Hong Kong. After that much of an assault has been committed on Shaw's original social comedy of manners and phonetics, it is hard to imagine what, if anything, will be left, but it may be amusing to find out.
Friday is the charity premiere for Lifeline Express and it will be fascinating to see whether it warrants an extended run. Presented by Springtime Film Productions.
CLASSICAL MUSIC Dang Thai Son. Saturday 8pm, Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium, $80, $60, $40, Urbtix Dang Thai Son's career as a pianist would make a great movie.
He now lives in Canada but was born in Hanoi and his childhood studies were severely interrupted by the Vietnam War. It is not easy studying the piano when you and your family have had to flee into the mountains for one reason or another.
But diligence triumphed, and in 1980 - after being admitted to Moscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music - he won the Gold Medal at the 10th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the first Asian to win a major international contest.
Since moving to the West in 1991 his career has blossomed. This programme includes Four Scherzi by Chopin, Two Legends by Liszt, and Schubert's Allegretto In C minor and Sonata In A major.
CINEMA The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Friday 9.30pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, $70, students $40 What better way to mark Hallowe'en than with a special screening of the greatest camp horror flick ever made? The popularity of the recent stage revival here should ensure a good turnout for this, and the screen version with Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and creator Richard O'Brien is definitive anyway.
Time to do the Time Warp again and unspecified 'Extra Hallowe'en Treats' will be issued. Go on, go in costume.
EXHIBITIONS Masterpieces Of Western Oil Painting From The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Hong Kong Museum of Art, today 1pm to 6pm, weekdays 10am to 6pm A superb visitng collection of Western masters stretching from the Renaissance to the modern period. Works include famous masters such as Bellini, Van Dyck, Boucher, Chardin, Cezanne, Chagall, Hals, Monet, Sisley and Renoir.
Sixty-one paintings are displayed in all, and every one is worth lingering over. Catch it while it's here, which is only until November 30.
