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Nick McCall
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Theater Review: THE VERY BEST PEOPLE (IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre)
BLOOD AND RANCH DRESSING In December of 2020, the world was still in the grip of COVID-19’s unpredictable terror. Moderna and Pfizer had just released their vaccines, but supply was scarce and available only to a few high-risk groups. Physical distancing, masking, and sanitizing were all top of mind, as were, shall we say, “competing”…
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Theater Concert Review: DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING? (The Music of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and More by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg at the Hollywood Bowl)
YOU COULD HEAR THESE PEOPLE SING, ALL RIGHT First performed in Shanghai in 2013, the Hollywood Bowl hosted a new installment of The Music of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and More: Boublil and Schönberg’s Do You Hear the People Sing? on Sunday, July 28, 2024. This tribute to the team of lyricist Alain Boublil and…
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Music Review: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: THE PAINTINGS OF BOB PEAK (Walt Disney Concert Hall)
PICTURE THIS: ASTOUNDING NEW MUSIC On Friday, June 14, music producer Robert Townson fulfilled a 25-year dream, premiering in partnership with Abu Dhabi Festival a new symphony, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak, at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Film Orchestra and conductor Leonard Slatkin. It was a sprawling evening…
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Opera Review: THE COMET/POPPEA (MOCA and The Industry at the Geffen Contemporary Museum at MOCA)
BOTH YOUR HEAD AND THE STAGE WILL BE SPINNING When The Industry’s new opera, The Comet / Poppea, a smash-up between Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Busenello’s 1643 L’incoronazione di Poppea and George Lewis and Douglas Kearney’s The Comet began, I developed a sinking feeling. Both operas are performed simultaneously, but I was seated on the side…
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Opera Review: IPSA DIXIT (Long Beach Opera and Martha Graham Dance Company)
WHISTLING DIXIT Last week, Long Beach Opera concluded the west coast premiere of its new production of Kate Soper’s 2016 lecture with musical notes, Ipsa Dixit, self-described in the program as “an artistic revelation,” “profound,” “bold,” and “mesmerizing.” Smart critics lavished praise on previous productions of it. It got nominated for a Pulitzer. Therefore, it…
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Opera Review: MAGDALENE (Beth Morrison Project at REDCAT)
MEHDALENE On Tuesday, REDCAT hosted the west coast premiere of Beth Morrison Projects’ 2020 one-woman opera, Magdalene. A collective all-female endeavor, it has Morrison as creative producer, Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore as “creators,” Marie Howe as poet, and 14 different composers. If that sounds messy, then gird your loins. Magdalene is yet another…
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Music / Film Review: PHOTOPLAY MUSIC: NEW WORKS FOR THE SILENT FILM ERA (HOCKET, Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff at The Nimoy)
NEW MUSIC FOR SILENT FILMS COULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT BOTH MUSIC AND FILM On May 21, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) hosted Piano Spheres and the piano duo HOCKET as they premiered three new scores for a trio of unannounced French silent films at The Nimoy. Sarah Gibson, one half of…
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Music Review: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS HARRY POTTER (John Williams Spotlight, LA Phil)
COMPARED TO FANTASIA, NOT SO FANTASTIQUE Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic concluded its orchestral season and its Spotlight on John Williams series on May 19 with a family-oriented program: Dudamel Conducts Harry Potter. Williams’ music is always an exciting proposition, but the program, the first half of which was dominated by another composer,…
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Theater Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS (The Sierra Madre Playhouse)
THE LAST FIVE YEARS AT SIERRA MADRE CAN BE SEEN IN DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS Last weekend, Sierra Madre Playhouse opened what seems like a bewildering number of performance configurations of their new revival production of Jason Robert Brown’s 2001 musical The Last Five Years. The two-hander is double cast and also offers two types of accompaniments:…
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Concert Review: ANNA LAPWOOD (Organ Recital at Disney Hall)
LAPPING UP LAPWOOD British organist Anna Lapwood brought gold sparkles to her LA Phil debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the final stop of her 2024 US tour (her international tour continues). She could hardly contain her excitement, calling the hall’s organ “so much more than I ever hoped it could be!” Lapwood, the 28-year-old…
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Music Review: BERNSTEIN AND WOOTEN (LA Phil; Thomas Wilkins, conductor; Victor Wooten, bass)
WOO-HOO, WOOTEN The idea behind this past weekend’s program at the Los Angeles Philharmonic was the influence of jazz on the orchestra, featuring three pieces that cover a span of nearly 125 years. For these two performances, the Phil brought in Thomas Wilkins, Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, to conduct. First up was…
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Theater Review: SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
ATTEND THIS TALE: IT’S MURDER When A Noise Within, one of LA’s best companies, which specializes in classical theater, announced its current season, what most excited me by far was their decision to do Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler. Being able to see…
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Opera Review: ISOLA (Long Beach Opera)
MUST ALL NEW OPERAS HAVE TO BE PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL AND JOYLESS? I was in no shape to see Isola, by composer Alyssa Weinberg and poet J. Mae Barizo, presented by Long Beach Opera in its world-premiere run. My apartment had been burglarized the night before and I just wanted to stay home and lick my wounds….
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Music Review: SCHUBERT & BEETHOVEN (Jukka-Pekka Saraste with the Los Angeles Philharmonic)
GOOD MORNING, L.A! As part of its popular Friday Middays series in a program that plays until Sunday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought over Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director, for two favorites: Schubert’s 6th and Beethoven’s 7th. Franz Schubert began writing his Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589…
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Theater Review: TINY LITTLE TOWN: A NEW MUSICAL (Theatre Movement Bazaar at Broadwater Theater)
TINY LITTLE TOWN OPENS WITH A BANG, BUT GETS CORRUPTED BY INCOHESIVE STYLES Theatre Movement Bazaar’s Tiny Little Town, a new musical comedy now playing at the Broadwater Main Stage, starts out with a bang. The entire company gathers to perform the opening title number, done in the style of a 1970s variety special, begging…
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Recommended Concert: CURRENT: [INTI]MATE (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at LA LGBT Center and the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach)
![Promotional poster for the CURRENT: [INTI]MATE art exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art.](https://stageandcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/current-intimate.png)
SATURDAY, JAN 20 | 7:30 PM | MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART SUNDAY, JAN 21 | 7:30 PM | LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER Curated by renowned composer inti figgis-vizueta, CURRENT: [inti]mate features a chamber program presented in collaboration with the LA LGBT Center and the Museum of Latin American Art. [inti]mate aims to create an inclusive and welcoming environment, where diverse communities come…
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Music Review: BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES WITH ZUBIN MEHTA (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
The Los Angeles Philharmonic audience loves conductor Zubin Mehta. When he entered the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall, many people in the audience stood to applaud. He then conducted two LA Phil favorites: Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No. 6) and Heroic Symphony (No. 3). Up first, No. 6., Beethoven’s symphony about idealized and romanticized rural…
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Opera Review: SCALIA/GINSBERG & TRIAL BY JURY (Pacific Opera Project at the Highland Park Ebell Club)
JUDGING THE TRIALS On Friday, Nov. 17, Pacific Opera Project opened its Los Angeles premiere of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg in a double bill with a new version of Gilbert and Sullivan‘s Trial by Jury, updated by Josh Shaw for Pacific Opera Project at the Highland Park Ebell Club. Scalia/Ginsburg is about the late Supreme Court…
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Music Review: CHAPARRAL AND INTERSTATES: NEW MUSIC FROM CALIFORNIA (LA Phil New Music Group)
BEAUTIFUL BRUSH AND NOISY HIGHWAYS On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the LA Phil New Music Group performed Chaparral and Interstates, a Green Umbrella program of four new pieces by California composers, including two world premieres, at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the California Festival. The first piece, from 2021, was Dylan Mattingly‘s Sunt Lacrimae…
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Music Review: SIBELIUS AND SWAN LAKE (LA Phil; Hilary Hahn, violinist; Alpesh Chauhan, conductor)
Yesterday at Walt Disney Concert Hall conductor Alpesh Chauhan, making his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut, began with Saad Haddad’s new piece, Aysheen (عايشين), or “living” in Arabic, an LA Phil commission which received its first performances over the weekend. Aysheen begins with the bass drum thumping a soft heartbeat, soon joined by droning cellos and basses,…
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