celebrates the life of Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka. The outspoken painter was known for her daring art deco portraits. She had a storied life that seemed unacceptable for a woman at the time. Considered a radical, Lempicka was a survivor of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Nazis. While she was married and she had affairs with women and men.
Kreitzer wished she had learned about Lempicka when she was growing up. “She was a woman of incredible vision. She had the kind of appetite that is often considered monstrous in a woman," she says.New Apple ID Password Reset Issue Hitting iPhone iPad And MacBook UsersEarly in her life Lempicka was forced to flee Poland, was a refugee in Paris and managed to carve out a career as an artist. And through it all her unique angular painting style managed to be sensual and move people.
After discovering Lempicka Kreitzer met composer Matt Gould at the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. The program matches writers with composers as they collaborate on musical theater. After writing one song together they felt an instant bond.“We were so different in some ways, but very similar in our intensity, the way we threw ourselves into the work. And also into tremendous laughter,” says Kreitzer. “Cracking up Matt is still one of my favorite things to do.
“There's something about the perfectly glowing curation of the bodies in conversation with a fear/terror/passion behind the eyes of the people. It was that juxtaposition that felt so obviously like it would lend itself to musical theater,” says Gould about Lempicka’s paintings. He saw the rage of her subjects trapped within their beautiful veneer.
Director Rachel Chavkin and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly share the belief that the show is by no means a conventional biopic. “I believe it’s important for audiences to know that,” says Chavkin. “It offers the fusion of fashion, music videos and throbbing contemporary hunger at its heart while also having this glorious epic sweep.”.” She sees that kind of ambition present in its form. “But Raja and I are also downtown kids,” she says.