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Barry Creyton
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Theater Review: A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN (Sonoma Arts Live Theatre Company at Andrews Hall)
JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for the psychedelic set), Libby Oberlin embraces the essence of Janis in Randy Johnson’s expertly-researched script, a stage version of what the film industry…
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Review: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE (American Contemporary Ballet in Hollywood)
DON’T SEE THE NUTCRACKER SUITE — LIVE IT There are certain new concepts in theatre of which one has learned to become wary: “color-blind casting”, “gender-blind casting” and most frightening of all, “age-blind casting” are now accepted and inescapable, if often confusing for an audience attempting to discern family lineage. But as the list grows,…
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Opera Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL (Pacific Opera Project)
HANSEL AND GRETEL GO POP Humperdinck began his career as an assistant to Richard Wagner; mercifully, this did not influence his composition of Hansel and Gretel, which is light and folksy throughout, and its unWagnerlike running time comes in at less than two hours. Perhaps the most commendable takeaway from his association with Wagner is…
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Music Review: MOZART AND RAVEL (Matthias Pintscher, conductor; Sunwook Kim, piano; Los Angeles Philharmonic)
RAPTUROUS RAVEL Of all the entertainment venues in Los Angeles denied us during the COVID years, perhaps the one I’ve missed most is the Disney Concert Hall. So it was a joy to be back there on Saturday, in a packed audience, to experience a splendid program presented by one of the finest philharmonics in…
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Film and Music Review: “GET OUT” WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA (LA Opera at The Theatre at Ace Hotel)
COME IN TO GET OUT In an immensely satisfying Halloween entertainment, Jordan Peele’s splendid thriller, Get Out, was accompanied by the LA Opera Orchestra playing the score live under the baton of the composer Michael Abels. Composer/conductor Michael Abels conducts “Get Out with Live Orchestra” (taken on opening night, October 29, 2021 by Lawrence K….
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Opera Review: LA CENERENTOLA (Pacific Opera Project at The Ford in Los Angeles)
WITTY CENERENTOLA POPS WITH CHARM After being starved of live opera in Los Angeles for more than a year and a half, there was no better way to celebrate its return to a stage than with the Pacific Opera Project’s splendid production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Rossini composed the opera when he was 25 years old,…
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DVD Review: EALING STUDIOS COMEDY COLLECTION (Blu-Ray in HD from Film Movement Classics)
FOUR VEDDY BRITISH COMEDIES There was a bright, shining moment in the history of British film and it wore the banner: Ealing. The Ealing studios have been in operation since 1902, making them the oldest, still operating studios in the world. Their most recent productions include the popular series Beecham House, and the remake of Murder on…
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Film Review: GAY CHORUS DEEP SOUTH (directed by David Charles Rodrigues; Debuts on Pop, Logo and Pluto TV 12/20, 2020)
HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES In 30 of the United States, LGBTQ people risk losing employment simply because of who they are. In Mississippi and North Carolina, laws have been passed to strip them of basic human rights. In this seriously divided nation, hatred is endorsed by the present administration. Far from encouraging love of one’s…
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Film Review: FRITZ LANG’S INDIAN EPIC (The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb)
EPIC LANG This 1959 diptych by the master director Fritz Lang is now released in splendid 4K restoration on two Blu-ray discs in a handsome package that includes documentaries and a twenty-four-page booklet with essays about the movies. The two parts, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb, each running at one hour, forty-one minutes, comprise what…
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Film Review: THE GODDESS OF FORTUNE [LA DEA FORTUNA] (directed by Ferzan Özpetek)
THE GODDESS OF FORTUNE SMILES ON THIS AMAZING FILM Two standout movies in this year’s Frameline Festival contemplate, each in its own way, men suffering mid-life crises. One, from Ireland, is the contemplative Rialto (review here). This one, The Goddess of Fortune from Italy, is an endearing comedy/drama set in Rome. Diverging from his Antonioni-like…
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Film Review: RIALTO (directed by Peter Mackie Burns)
ON THE RIALTO Two standout movies in this year’s Frameline Festival contemplate, each in its own way, men suffering mid-life crises. One is the terrific The Goddess of Fortune from Italy (review here). The other, from Ireland, is Rialto. Based on Mark O’Halloran’s play Trade, and directed by Peter Mackie Burns, this perfectly paced and…
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Film Reviews: VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA, MICHAEL, Mí„DCHEN IN UNIFORM (Pioneers of Queer Cinema from Kino Lorber)
PIONEERS OF QUEER CINEMA ***********************Viktor und Viktoria UFA Pictures | in German with English subtitles | Germany | 1933 directed by Reinhold Schí¼nzel Long before Julie Andrews dropped an octave for Victor/Victoria, there was Viktor und Viktoria, the German movie that started it all in 1933. From this evolved a French version, George et Georgette, shot simultaneously by…
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Film Review: PANDORA’S BOX (directed by G. W. Pabst)
OUTSIDE OF THE BOX Norma Desmond‘s iconic pronouncement “We had faces then” might well have been written specifically for Louise Brooks. This is a face that defies time and period, and is as relevant today as it was in 1929 when she was lured to Germany by G. W. Pabst to play the doomed Lulu…
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Theater Review: IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU (Musical Theatre Guild at the Alex Theatre in Glendale)
YOU SHOULDA BEEN THERE Happy ever after is the stuff of fairy tales – yet, happy ever after is how we in the audience left the Alex Theatre on Sunday night. The show was It Shoulda Been You which enjoyed a respectable if modest run on Broadway in 2015. The New York critics, perhaps unused…
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Music Review: WEILL’S VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH SALONEN (The Weimar Republic: Germany 1918-1933)
ONCE IN A WEILL The Weimar Republic’s pyrotechnic explosion of the fine arts in the 1920s produced much “new” music before being deemed “decadent”, and dashed by the rising Nazi regime in the mid-1930s. Two programs by the LA Phil and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at Disney Hall — one last weekend and one upcoming —…
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Dance Review: ASTAIRE DANCES III (American Contemporary Ballet)
TOP HATS OFF TO ACB With Astaire Dances III, American Contemporary Ballet recreates several iconic routines evolved by the great Fred Astaire and his choreographer Hermes Pan, and executes them with charm and grace. But the evening is about so much more than presenting a few meticulously copied dance numbers; the audience is treated to…
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Opera Review: GIANNI SCHICCHI & L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES (Pacific Opera Project)
A DAZZLING DOUBLE BILL The laudable Pacific Opera Project gave us two sparkling gems of operatic joy this week: a double bill of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges. Director Josh Shaw has updated both operas to the mid-1950s, a period which suits both pieces well — old enough for temporal distance…
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Opera Review: DER RING DES POLYKRATES (Numi Opera at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles)
A RINGER Erich Wolfgang Korngold is best known for his grand scores of the golden age of movie music – principally for such swashbucklers as The Seahawk, Captain Blood, Anthony Adverse and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Andre Previn praised these great scores thus: “His wonderful melodies, orchestrated in the most gorgeous Richard Strauss-oriented manner, are a joy…
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Music Review: HANDEL’S MESSIAH (Los Angeles Master Chorale at Disney Hall)
HANDEL TO PERFECTION There’s little to say about Handel’s Messiah that hasn’t already been said. That this great work has been a seasonal favorite for two hundred and fifty years, assures us it will be performed at least annually for at least the next two hundred and fifty, and beyond. The scale of the piece…
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Theater Review: THE GOODBYE GIRL (Musical Theatre Guild at the Alex Theatre in Glendale)
HELLO TO GOODBYE The Musical Theatre Guild should be proud of this fine, coherent, splendidly cast reading of The Goodbye Girl, with principals Wendy Rosoff and Will Collyer charismatically suited to their characters, in great voice, and as a couple, exuding all the essential romantic chemistry. After a mere twenty-five hours rehearsal, and with only…
Concert Review: AN EVENING WITH LAURA BENANTI (Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92NY)
by Rob Lester | February 5, 2026
in Concerts / Events, New YorkTheater Review: CONFEDERATES (Redtwist Theatre)
by Croydon Fernandes | February 5, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: DESCRIBE THE NIGHT (Austin Playhouse West Campus)
by Leo Weiser | February 4, 2026
in Texas, TheaterChicago Opera Review: COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Lyric Opera)
by Barnaby Hughes | February 4, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: RISING WATER (Theatre L’Acadie)
by Croydon Fernandes | February 4, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: STEREOPHONIC (National Tour, CIBC Theatre Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | February 3, 2026
in Chicago, Theater, ToursOff-Broadway Review: ULYSSES (Elevator Repair Service at The Public Theater)
by Paola Bellu | February 2, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: PUNISH ME: A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER (Hudson Backstage Theatre)
by Nick McCall | February 2, 2026
in Los Angeles, Theater
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