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Michael M. Landman-Karny
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Theater Review: INTO THE WOODS (Musical Theatre West)
THE FAIRY TALES BREAK– AND THAT’S THE POINT The stories are still here. Cinderella. Jack. Little Red. Rapunzel. A Baker and his Wife, tangled in a curse and each other. Into the Woods has always worn its source material like a costume—but it keeps a blade tucked underneath. Musical Theatre West’s new production doesn’t sharpen…
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Concert Review: ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (Lahav Shani, conductor, at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
COMING HOME TO THE ISRAEL PHIL The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) lives in my blood. Not metaphorically. This sentiment springs from actual circumstance—a birth story twined around orchestral strings like umbilical cord. On December 6, 1966—that annus mirabilis—my mother was in her 8th month with me in Tel Aviv’s main concert hall while the Israel…
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Concert Review: HÄIM LEADS HANDEL & BACH (The Handel Project, LA Phil)
VOICES OF ANTIQUITY, REAWAKENED Historically informed performance is no longer a specialty. Period practice vocabulary has entered the mainstream, influencing how modern orchestras perform baroque repertoire. Yet Emmanuelle Haïm‘s recent Los Angeles Philharmonic program—Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Magnificat—had more to offer than expertly researched performance practice. It was baroque music with life in its…
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Theater Review: ONE FOR MY BABY (Broadway-Bound World-Premiere Musical at El Portal in North Hollywood)
SWINGS BIG, SHINES BRIGHT All Roads Theatre Company just set the bar sky-high with One for My Baby, a slick, jazz-soaked tribute to the music of Harold Arlen. This is old-school showbiz at its best—big voices, big orchestrations, and enough high-voltage talent to power a city block. With a Broadway-caliber cast and an 11-piece band…
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Concert Review: VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, pianist; Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa)
The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt. — Karl Kraus Of the world’s major orchestras, few are more traditional than the Vienna Philharmonic, which performed its first concert in 1842. It has had no music director for many years, another of its distinguishing features. The outcome is…
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Opera Review: COSI FAN TUTTE (Los Angeles Opera)
THE JAZZ AGE MEETS OPERA IN LA OPERA’S SEXY COSI Mozart’s Così fan tutte started with royal scandal. In 1789, Emperor Joseph II commissioned the opera after a partner-swapping scandal shook Vienna’s high society. He knew just who could turn this juicy drama into reality. Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote an entirely new libretto—not, as many…
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Theater Review: SUCH SMALL HANDS (Chance Theater)
A WHISPER THAT ECHOES There are plays that knock you over with intensity. And there are those that seep in, settle under your skin, and stay there long after the lights come up. Adam Szymkowicz‘s Such Small Hands falls firmly in the latter category. This quiet but devastating meditation on memory, mortality, and devotion opened…
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Highly Recommended Theater: REGENCY GIRLS (Pre-Broadway World Premiere at The Old Globe)
YOU GO, GIRLS! San Diego’s theater scene is about to get a jolt of excitement as The Old Globe prepares the pre-Broadway world premiere of Regency Girls, a bold and hilarious new musical comedy opening on April 2, 2025. Featuring an all-star creative team and a powerhouse cast, this electrifying production promises to be one…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Carnegie Hall, Segerstrom and Zellerbach Hall)
WANT TO HEAR ONE OF THE GREATEST ORCHESTRAS THAT HAS EVER EXISTED? VIENNA PHILHARMONIC MAKES ONLY THREE U.S. APPEARANCES: COSTA MESA, BERKELEY & NEW YORK For California classical music lovers, a delight is in store. Vienna Philharmonic, one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, comes to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley March 5-7, followed…
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Theater Review: DESPERATE MEASURES (International City Theatre in Long Beach)
A SHAKESPEAREAN WESTERN MUSICAL? DON’T WORRY, IT MEASURES UP The wild west sizzles with song and chaos in Desperate Measures, the rootin’-tootin’ Wild West musical shinin’ bright at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Peter Kellogg (book and lyrics) and David Friedman (music) convert a Shakespearean problem play into a hootenanny of moral quandaries, mistaken…
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Concert Review: LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Yunchan Lim, piano; Antonio Pappano, conductor; Philharmonic Society of Orange County)
A NIGHT OF THUNDER AND ELEGANCE Presented by Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the London Symphony Orchestra, among the most disciplined and savagely expressive classical orchestras in the world, arrived in Costa Mesa at Segerstrom Concert Hall on Feb. 19, 2024, with Antonio Pappano conducting and a young firebrand at the keyboard. Yunchan Lim, the…
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Theater Review: ANNIE (2024/2025 NationalTour)
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE SUN DOESN’T COME OUT, SEE THIS NATIONAL TOUR OF ANNIE If the sun will come out tomorrow, somebody better tell this production. The national tour of Annie, playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 23, is a two-and-a-half-hour exercise in endurance, proving that while…
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Theater Interview: ALEXANDER ROBERTSON (Broadway and West End Producer)
ALEXANDER ROBERTSON. HIS NAME IS ALEXANDER ROBERTSON. At the tender age of 26, Alexander Robertson has made a mark on Broadway as a co-producer with his current show roster including Cabaret at the KitKat Club, Gypsy, and the upcoming Smash and Boop!, both opening this spring. His past credits have included Appropriate, The Wiz, New York,…
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Theater Review: BACON (Rogue Machine at The Matrix)
BACON SIZZLES If you’re in search of a play that simmers with tension before scorching the stage with raw, emotional fire, English playwright Sophie Swithinbank’s Bacon, currently searing audiences at the tiny Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix, will leave you thoroughly singed—and perhaps a little brittle. Bacon is less a coming-of-age story and…
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Dance Review: ALONZO KING LINES BALLET (“Mother Goose” and “Tribute to Alice Coltrane” at Segerstrom Hall)
Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Double Bill of Ravel’s Mother Goose and King’s Tribute to Alice Coltrane presented a fascinating study of how two musical worlds—one rooted in French impressionism and the other in American jazz spirituality—can be bound together through movement. King’s choreography bridged these contrasting styles, creating an immersive experience of transformation. The evening…
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Theater Review: EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING (Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles)
THE END OF THE WORLD COMES WITH A COFFEE BREAK There’s something eerily familiar about the way Michael Redfield and Hugo Armstrong zip and unzip their parkas in Will Arbery’s haunting new play Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Rogue Machine Theatre. Like characters in a Samuel Beckett fever dream reimagined for our climate-addled era, these…
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Cabaret Review: JASON ROBERT BROWN WITH ANIKA NONI ROSE (Samueli Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts)
A MUSICAL PAIRING WRITTEN IN THE STARS AND THE MOON Jason Robert Brown, the revered composer-lyricist who is considered by many as the natural successor to the late great Stephen Sondheim, graced Samueli Hall at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts with a three-night cabaret engagement that felt as intimate as it was grand….
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Opera Review: LA SCUOLA DE’ GELOSI (Pacific Opera Project)
SALIERI’S COMIC GEM IS A MUST-SEE U.S. PREMIERE As fires ravaged areas of Los Angeles last Friday, many companies were wondering whether to postpone, cancel or go on as planned. Pacific Opera Project (POP), “after much thought and deliberation with artists and staff,” decided to proceed with the their production of Antonio Salieri’s La scuola…
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Concert Review: GURRELIEDER (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
In an era when orchestral programming often shies from excess, the Los Angeles Philharmonic last weekend plunged unapologetically into the extravagant labyrinth of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. Under the baton of Zubin Mehta—paying homage to his tenure as the orchestra’s lionized music director emeritus—the performance resuscitated Schoenberg’s early, sprawling epic, a two-hour monument to the late-Romantic…
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Theater Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Pasadena Playhouse)
LA CAGE: STRIPPED OF ITS FEATHERS In Sam Pinkleton‘s well-intentioned but ultimately discordant revival of La Cage aux Folles at the Pasadena Playhouse, that old showbiz maxim about the show must going on feels less like a triumph than a duty. This production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s landmark 1983 musical about love, family,…
Theater Review: THE PRODUCERS (Ogunquit Playhouse / Maine)
by Lynne Weiss | September 10, 2026
in Regional, TheaterConcert Preview: KUKIEL–LAMCELLARI–GLICKLICH PIANO TRIO (The Music Guild / Los Angeles)
by pwsadmin | September 9, 2026
in Los Angeles, MusicTheater Review: THE ARSONISTS (Skylight Theatre / Los Angeles)
by Michael Landman-Karney | September 9, 2026
in Los Angeles, TheaterTheater Review: SAFE HOUSE (Theatre Row / New York)
by Paola Bellu | September 9, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM (A Noise Within / Pasadena)
by Michael Landman-Karney | September 9, 2026
in Los Angeles, TheaterTheater Review: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (National Tour / San Diego)
by Milo Shapiro | September 7, 2026
in San Diego, Theater, ToursTheater Review: JOAN CRAWFORD GOES TO HELL (Hell in a Handbag / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | September 6, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (Kokandy / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | September 5, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterMusic Preview: AMERICAN SOUND TAKES FLIGHT (MUSE/IQUE / Beverly Hills & Pasadena)
by Gregory Bernard | September 5, 2026
in Los Angeles, MusicTheater Review: COME FROM AWAY (Marriott Theatre / Lincolnshire, IL)
by Emma S. Rund | September 4, 2026
in Chicago, Theater-Chicago
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