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Tony Frankel
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Highly Recommended Theater: TITANIC: THE MUSICAL (London’s Southwark Playhouse; Streaming on BroadwayHD)
PRIDE COMETH BEFORE AN ICEBERG London’s Southwark Playhouse’s total triumph is a strange success. It’s odd that a more intimate version of a musical called Titanic can so succeed. Director Thom Southerland‘s production was first seen in 2013 and has regularly played the West End since, recently completing its 10th-anniversary tour. The cast may be…
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Highly Recommended Off-Broadway: LIFE AND TIMES OF MICHAEL K (St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn)
St. Ann’s Warehouse will present the American premiere of Life & Times of Michael K, the Baxter Theatre Centre / Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus puppet theater production adapted from J.M. Coetzee’s 1983 award-winning novel. The show will run November 29-December 23. South African director Lara Foot adapted the novel in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company (War Horse). Life…
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Highly Recommended Off-Broadway: MAKE ME GORGEOUS! (Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s)
A GORGEOUS SHOW! Make Me Gorgeous! is the reworking of Mr. Madam by Donald Horn (aka Donnie) that premiered in Portand, Oregon, at triangle — one the oldest queer-identified theaters in the US — starring triple-threat Wade McCollum as Kenneth/Kate Marlowe. It now has a new name, but the same playwright and actor have brought…
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Theater Review: FROZEN FLUID (Coeurage & L.A. LGBT Center)
CRYOGEN ME A RIVER The subtitle of Fly Jamerson‘s Frozen Fluid, which opened Saturday night at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre, is “An Antarctic Gender Non-Conforming Creation Myth.” Don’t say you weren’t warned going in. I wasn’t bored, and there were even some sweet moments, but what started as a deconstruction of three scientists working at the…
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Concert Review: CANTO EN RESISTENCIA (Dudamel & the LA Phil & Silvana Estrada)
THERE’S NO RESISTING SILVANA ESTRADA My mind was thinking about the strange beast that programming is as Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil continued their contribution to a celebration of new music, the California Festival, with a program entitled Canto en resistencia. While the two-week CalFest mission states that it is showcasing works written in the…
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Highly Recommended Album: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (New Broadway Cast Recording)
IT’S MERRILY‘S TIME It’s here today! Sony Masterworks Broadway has released the digital version of the New Broadway Cast Recording of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, alongside the official music video for the title track – watch here. The physical CD is set for release on January 12, 2024 and available now for preorder here. The show is a big,…
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Theater Review: FREIGHT: THE FIVE INCARNATIONS OF ABEL GREEN (Fountain Theatre)
THE FREIGHT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM How fascinating that two bookending one-man shows opened in Los Angeles this past weekend. The first, Just for Us at the Taper, is a play with universalisms and stories through a Jewish lens to largely comedic effect. The second, Freight, contains universalisms and stories told through a Black lens…
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Highly Recommended Jazz Album: EL ARTE DEL BOLERO: VOLUME 2 (Miguel Zenón, sax, and Luis Perdomo, piano)
AH, PERFECTO I know when you hear “Latin Jazz” you think congas and dancing rhythms, but this beautifully produced and played album is — and I say this in a good way — cocktail jazz done as dreamy New Age on a breezy afternoon sipping a mojito. It’s not sappy Easy Listening Jazz, but a…
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Theater Review: JUST FOR US (Alex Edelman on Tour at the Mark Taper Forum)
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE WHITE SUPREMACIST MEETING If you’re looking for great night of humor about white supremacy and anti-Semitism (and who isn’t?), this is the show for you. Alex Edelman, Boston-born and -bred but now located in New York, brings his one-man show to the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles….
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Highly Recommended Concert: FRAGMENTS 2 (Alisa Weilerstein, cellist; presented by LA Phil at Disney Hall)
I have been following Alisa Weilerstein for over fifteen years, but until about five ago it was only on recordings and YouTube. Having seen her perform live four times since I can assert that the phenomenal American cellist has attracted attention worldwide because her playing combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship and…
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Highly Recommended Theater: WHITE (ALBUM) CHRISTMAS (The Troubies at the Colony in Burbank)
WHY DON’T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD WITH THE TROUBIES? Well, we just finished Halloween, but you know what’s really scary — aside from Christmas items for sale at Costco before Halloween? By Thanksgiving, tickets will no doubt be sold out for The Troubies’ newest Holiday Show, White (Album) Christmas, which plays December 8…
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Highly Recommended Off-Broadway Theater: HELL’S KITCHEN (The Public Theater)
GREAT STUFF IS COOKING IN THIS KITCHEN The world premiere of new coming-of-age musical, HELL’S KITCHEN, with music and lyrics by New York’s own 15-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and playwright Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety), now in previews at The Public Theater with the official opening on November 19, 2023….
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Highly Recommended Concert: CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE CITY (Church of St. Paul the Apostle)
SO, YOU WANNA SEE STARS AT CHRISTMAS TIME… OK, Christmas is coming, New Yorkers! With choral performances, cabarets, Broadway singers, and music concerts playing all over the city, it can be tough to choose the best. Well, how about a night with all four? On Thursday, December 7, 2023, at 8pm, The Church of St….
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Highly Recommended Theater: THE BOY BAND PROJECT (Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs)
BOY, OH BOYS Are you ready for a non-stop 90 minutes of unsurpassed vocals, synchronized choreography, and sizzling interactions as four humpy boyz give it their all offering fan-favorite covers of chart-topping hits by NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, Jonas Brothers, One Direction, and more? Get to Revolution Stage Company on Thursday Nov. 2…
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Theater Review: SLOW THUNDER (The Emerson at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex)
SO, WHERE’S THE THUNDER? What a strange and unsatisfying evening. As baffling as the title of the producing company, bAfA TheatreWorks, Suse Sternkopf’s Slow Thunder is all slow and no thunder. Even with the presence of two of my favorite actors — Ann Noble and Rob Nagle — Sternkopf as director fails to create the undercurrent…
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Music Review: HADELICH AND MENDELSSOHN (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)
It’s always fascinating to come for a headliner and be completely bowled over by other parts of the program. The draw for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s two performances last weekend was Augustin Hadelich, one of the world’s greatest violinists, performing Mendelssohn’s melodic Violin Concerto in E minor at The Alex Theatre. I have seen the…
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Highly Recommended Theater: TACOS LA BROOKLYN (Los Angeles Theatre Center)
Extended through Nov. 5: Multilingual comic dramaTacos La Brooklyn is quintessential L.A. at The LATC Appropriation: or appreciation? Latino Theater Company has extended its world premiere, multilingual production of Joel Ulloa‘s Tacos La Brooklyn for three additional performances through Nov. 5, 2023 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Sayaka Miyatani and Paul Dateh Esperanza America Chino, a young and ambitious Korean…
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Theater Review: BLOOD AT THE ROOT (Open Fist)
THE ROOT OF THE MATTER Hooray and hallelujah, for Open Fist‘s taut 80-minute production of Dominque Morisseau‘s Blood at the Root, dynamically directed by Michael A. Shepperd, and choreographed by Yusuf Nasir, has been extended until November 6, 2023 at Atwater Village Theatre. Easily the most powerful play on any L.A. stage right now, Blood…
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Highly Recommended Concert: AN ALPINE SYMPHONY WITH SALONEN (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
A WORLD PREMIERE AND ONE OF THE GREATEST TONE POEMS EVER WRITTEN I never knew this until researching the upcoming LA Phil program this weekend, but the connection between Nico Muhly and Philip Glass became established in the mid-2000s, when Glass employed Muhly as an assistant! Muhly certainly soaked up minimalism but he has never…
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Highly Recommended Concert: 40! (The Verdi Chorus Fall 2023 Concert in Santa Monica)
The Verdi Chorus’ 40th Anniversary season continues with its landmark Fall 2023 Concert, 40! Led by Anne Marie Ketchum, who is celebrating forty consecutive years as Artistic Director of the organization (now THAT deserves an exclamation point!), the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music…
Off-Broadway Review: THE MAIDS (St. Ann’s Warehouse / Brooklyn)
by Gregory Fletcher | May 27, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (TimeLine Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 27, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: LE BAL (Trap Door Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 26, 2026
in Chicago, Theater
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