Twenty-fifth anniversary show brings together classical orchestras and Warner Bros. cartoons (photo © 2012 by George Daugherty)
Who: New York Philharmonic, conductor George Daugherty, and special guest Whoopi Goldberg (May 15-16)
What: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II
Where: Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway between West 62nd & West 65th Sts.
When: May 14-16, $55–$145, 7:30 (plus 2:00 matinee on May 16)
Why: Tickets are going fast for the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” in which the New York Philharmonic plays live scores to classic Warner Bros. cartoons projected behind the orchestra on a big screen. Among the Looney Tunes favorites, all featuring classical music, of course, are What’s Opera, Doc?, Rabbit of Seville, A Corny Concerto, and Rhapsody Rabbit. We learned everything we know about classical music from two sources, Merrie Melodies and Stanley Kubrick films, so we were thrilled when we saw “Bugs Bunny on Broadway” back in 1990, and now we’re even more thrilled that it’s coming back our way for four shows at Avery Fisher Hall May 14-16.
“I suppose it would be nice if I knew the age and social structure of my audience,” Chuck Jones explained in his 1989 memoir, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, “but the truth is, I make cartoons for me.” Perhaps that was the secret of his success in a storied career that comprised more than three hundred films, from 1938’s The Night Watchman to 1980’s Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½ Century. Jones created such Warner Bros. stars as Pepé Le Pew, Henery Hawk, Marvin Martian, Sniffles the cat, Ralph Wolf, Sam Sheepdog, and both Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote while also helping develop such favorites as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig, mixing in sight gags with classical music (and other genres) in revolutionary ways, giving life to unique animal characters while commenting on the state of the nation and the human condition. Jones, who passed away ten years ago at the age of eighty-nine, would have turned one hundred this year, and BAMcinématek is celebrating the centennial of his birth with the holiday weekend festival “Chuck Amuck,” highlighted by three programs of Jones shorts in 35mm along with screenings of Robert Zemeckis’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jean-Pierre Gorin’s Routine Pleasures, and Joe Dante’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The November 23 Jones program includes such greats as Robin Hood Daffy, Rabbit Fire, Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century, Ali Baba Bunny, For Scent-i-mental Reasons, and the amazing, surreal Duck Amuck. The hits just keep on coming on Saturday, with such shorts as Abominable Snow Rabbit, A Star Is Bored, Bear for Punishment, Rabbit Hood, Stop! Look! Hasten!, Duck! Rabbit! Duck!, and the epic Rabbit of Seville. And Sunday’s lineup rolls right along with The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Little Beau Pepé, Rabbit Seasoning, No Barking, the ingenious One Froggy Evening, and one of the greatest cartoons ever made, What’s Opera, Doc?