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Tony Frankel
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Recommended Cabaret: SEVEN LOVES (Getty Villa)
A CABARET TO LOVE SEVEN TIMES MORE THAN ANY OTHER Getty Villa Museum presents Seven Loves, a Valentine’s cabaret that brings together well-known, amazing performers singing songs from Broadway, based on Greek and Roman myths, to explore the full range and complexities of love. Songs will be performed from musicals including The Boys from Syracuse, Hedwig and…
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Highly Recommended Cabaret: MELISSA ERRICO & THE TED FIRTH QUINTET (A Noir Romance, Birdland)
WHERE THERE IS MELISSA ERRICO, THERE IS LOVE In the Valentine’s no-brainer department, you can’t do better than celebrate your love (whether it’s you or someone else), by attending A Noir Romance. a cabaret with the great Melissa Errico at Birdland Theater in NYC February 10-14, 2023. The evening features classic standards including Harold Arlen,…
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Highly Recommended NYC Cabaret: JULIE BENKO AND HER BAND EUPHONIC GUMBO (Birdland)
JULIE BENKO BIRDLAND CONCERT SOLD OUT BUT A LIVESTREAM IS AVAILABLE FOR $25 BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB brings back Julie Benko – direct from Broadway’s smash hit revival of Funny Girl – with her band “Euphonic Gumbo” on Monday, February 6 at 7pm (4pm PST). Benko will march her band out to celebrate Mardi Gras with six instrumentalists, including her jazz-pianist spouse Jason…
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Highly Recommended Album: IN THE KEY OF WTF! (Journos)
WTF, INDEED! I put this on for a spin, and wasn’t just immediately hooked, I’m on my third listen in a row. Bursting with originality and old-fashioned, hard-driving songs of activism and pure joy — and I can understand every lyric. Award-winning journalist and lyricist Bryan Russo teamed up with workhorse punk-rocker Ryan Abbott to…
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Theater Review: THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI (The Old Globe in San Diego)
Boy, did I feel numb leaving The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci at the Old Globe. This co-production with Goodman Theatre is a creation of Chicago’s own Mary Zimmerman, who has perfected dazzling theatrical innovations throughout her career. She is best-known for her trademark cheeky and humorous twists on the classics: The Arabian Nights (my favorite); The…
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Highly Recommended NY Theater: BROADWAY BARES 2023 (Hammerstein Ballroom, Pride Week)
THE HOTTEST SHOW ON EARTH The incomparable sass, class and full-out dance of Broadway Bares will once again kick off Pride week in New York City with two sizzling performances featuring more than 150 of the city’s most delectable dancers on Sunday, June 18, 2023, at Hammerstein Ballroom. “Passing the Torch” Broadway Bares 2022. Photo by…
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Album Review and Obituary: CAROL SLOANE: LIVE AT BIRDLAND (Club 44 Records)
[Editor’s Note: It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Carol Sloane, one of America’s greatest jazz vocalists, on January 23, 2023, at the age of 85. We reprint our review of her final album, CAROL SLOANE – LIVE AT BIRDLAND. Here is the narrative of a new documentary, which is in…
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Music Review: RAVEL, DAWSON & PROKOFIEV (LA Phil, Guest Conductor Roderick Cox)
DAWSON GETS HIS DUE IN LA PHIL’S FIRST PERFORMANCE OF HIS NEGRO FOLK SYMPHONY The swellegant Maestro Roderick Cox returned to Disney Hall with the LA Phil last weekend. Even knowing the talent of the conductor, players, and guest violinist Karen Gomyo, there were some surprises at this stupendous program. The first came before the…
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Off-Broadway Recommendation: WHITE GIRL IN DANGER (Second Stage and Atlantic at the Tony Kiser)
GIRL, YOU IN DANGER: THIS WILL DEFINITELY SELL OUT Beginning March 15 (with an official opening on April 10, 2023), you can tune in to the epic and viciously funny new musical White Girl in Danger from Michael R. Jackson creator of Tony-winning Best Musical A Strange Loop (read Stage and Cinema‘s review). Director Lileana Blain-Cruz (The…
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Theater Review: GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER? (Theatre 40)
GUESS WHAT SHOULD BE ON BROADWAY? A hit at their home theater on the Beverly Hills High School campus, Theatre 40’s production of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? has been remounted at the gorgeous Greystone Mansion on a Beverly Hills bluff overlooking L.A., a choice setting for the Bay Area hilltop home of a wealthy…
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Theater Review: BROTHERS PLAY (Legacy LA)
A LOST TRIBE OF BROTHERS Because a child who has been sexually abused often knew and trusted the perpetrator, only about a third of the cases are reported. Many remain silent. As if the act itself wasn’t traumatic enough, childhood abuse often has a wide range of effects in adulthood — drug use, impulsive risky…
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Theater Review: TO THE BONE (Open Fist Theatre Company Remount at Theatre 68 Arts Complex)
WICKED GOOD [Editor’s Note: TO THE BONE will be remounted at Theatre 68 Arts Complex, 5112 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood March 4 – March 26, 2023. Tisha Terrasini Banker, Alice Kors, Kacey Mayeda, Jack David Sharpe and Amanda Weier reprise their roles in Butterfield’s dark comedy about family, baseball and genetics. We reprint our…
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Music Review: SHEKU PLAYS HAYDN (Sheku Kanneh-Mason & Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)
SHEKU INHABITS HAYDN I hear an old soul in his playing. English cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, aka Sheku, is a decent, heartfelt, unpretentious performer, and his music follows suit. He evokes some kind of sacred spirit in his cello playing, which is dreamy and soothing while being exhilarating. He does Casals, Du Pre & Rostropovich proud,…
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Recommended Theater: INTO THE WOODS (Pasadena Unified School District and Pasadena Unified School District at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium)
DON’T MISS GOING INTO THESE WOODS The kickoff event for Pasadena Playhouse’s six-month celebration of Stephen Sondheim begins next week with Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, January 26 and 27, 2023. For six months now, the Playhouse has been collaborating with all of the high schools of Pasadena…
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Recommended Theater: EXTRA YARN (Lifeline Theatre)
One of my favorite theater companies is also one of the best at putting on what we used to call “Children’s Theater.” I was hooked almost 10 years ago with my first: The Emperor’s New Threads: A Fashion Statement. Sure, the “KidSeries” is great for the younger ones, but great theater is great theater. And…
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Opera Review: ERCOLE SU’L TERMODONTE (Pacific Opera Project at the Highland Ebell Club)
AMERICAN PREMIERE OF VIVALDI’S HERCULES IN THERMODON: A WINNER PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT’S JOSH SHAW: THE HERCULES OF OPERA PRODUCTIONS The Four Seasons composer and violin virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi reckoned to have written 94 operas, yet only 49 have been identified by musicologists; of these, a mere 22 survive, most found in the Library of Turin….
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Music Review: DEBUSSY AND MESSIAEN (Michael Tilson Thomas and the LA Phil at Disney Hall)
Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) walked quickly to the podium at Disney Hall and when he arrived, he stood, frozen, for an extended period of time, as if he were calling upon a moment of silence and so, when the first bars of Claude Debussy’s Prélude í L’Après-midi d’un faune were heard, they seemed to emanate from the…
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Theater Review: THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK (International Tour)
IT’S OK TO GET SAUCED FOR STUNNING SAUCY STRIPPERS AND SPECTACULAR SAUCERS, OR MAY THE TORSO BE WITH YOU Forget about Broadway or the latest Marvel Comic movie. The fun, hip and cool burlesque Star Wars parody ’” which isn’t just for fans of the franchise ’” is the show to see live onstage. Since the…
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Film Festival Recommendation: FILM MAUDIT 2.0, 2023 (Highways Performance Space and Online)
The fourth edition of Film Maudit 2.0, a showcase and celebration of outré films, is coming to Highways Performance Space and also online @ watch.filmmaudit.org. Starting January 12, 2023, and running through February 11, 2023, you’ll find a treasure trove showcase of genre-driven cinema, inspired by the legendary artist Jean Cocteau’s 1949 festival, Festival Du Film Maudit, which…
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Theater Recommendation: YOUR OWN THING (Red Bull Theater at Peter Norton Symphony Space)
RED BULL THEATER’S ALL-STAR BENEFIT PERFORMANCE OF YOUR OWN THING PLAYS THIS MONDAY DECEMBER 12 This Monday, December 12, 2022 at 7:30 at the Peter Norton Symphony Space — FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY — Red Bull Theater is set to rediscover the 1968 hit Off-Broadway rock musical Your Own Thing — suggested by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night —…
Theater Review: MEN OF SOUL (Black Ensemble Theater / Chicago)
by Mitchell Oldham | July 1, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterWHY A BOX OFFICE HIT CAN STILL LOSE MONEY
by Leslie Rosenberg | July 1, 2026
in Extras, FilmTheater Preview: PROOF (El Portal Theatre / North Hollywood)
by pwsadmin | June 30, 2026
in Los Angeles, Theater
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