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Tony Frankel
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Dance Review: ABT FORWARD (The American Ballet Theater at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
WITH TWO WINNERS OUT OF THREE WORKS, ABT’S PROGRAM STILL SOARS AT SEGERSTROM Bursting with happiness, joy and beauty, The American Ballet Theater opened its program last night at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa. The opening number, Bernstein in a Bubble, was set to Leonard Bernstein’s rarely performed Divertimento (1980) — eight bagatelles, mostly running…
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Theater Review: ASSASSINS (East West Players)
THANKS TO SONDHEIM’S SONGS, THIS MUSICAL WILL NEVER DIE The cast is quite terrific with some extraordinary standouts in East West Players’ revival of Assassins, but it is Snehal Desai‘s awesomely inventive staging (and Preston Mui & Jasmine Rafael‘s movement direction) that betters John Doyle and his recent Off-Broadway outing. Not withstanding the company’s incredible…
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Music Review: PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH (LA Phil; Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Sergio Tiempo, piano)
Best known as the successful former Music Director of the Seattle Symphony, French conductor Ludovic Morlot led one of Shostakovich’s greatest symphonies last week, depicting the despair in his Tenth with an uplifting mournful passion. The opening movement can feel ponderous in the wron g hands, but here it exuded constant momentum. Even with a…
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Theater Review: SLAVE PLAY (Mark Taper Forum)
MORE LIKE POWER PLAY THAN SLAVE PLAY Boy, if you want audacious theater — even one with higgledy-piggledy results — than I’ve got one for you: Slave Play, which opened last week at the Mark Taper Forum after a Broadway run. Frankly, I can’t even say that I recommend it. The show is messy and…
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Album Recommendation: COYOTE (Joe Purdy)
A PURDY DAMN GOOD THING With the goal of visiting all of our National Parks, I’ve spent much of my life hitting the back roads of America. It’s a stunning feeling spending so much time alone, away from the conveniences of modern life. There is always a bittersweet experience when seeing the awesome vistas of…
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Theater Review: MARVIN’S ROOM (Actors Co-op)
A ROOM OF THEIR OWN Actors Co-op is reviving Scott McPherson‘s extraordinary play Marvin’s Room. While it has always been one of my favorite plays, it’s a daunting choice for any company. The play requires a delicate touch so the sentiment doesn’t turn into bathos and the black humor stumble into vulgarity. Under Thomas James…
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Music Review: ELGAR AND TCHAIKOVSKY (LA Phil; Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor; Camille Thomas, cello)
WAR AND PEACE LA Phil’s Associate Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli made sure that two of the best-known chestnuts in the repertoire were presented by the LA Phil players last weekend in such a way that they sounded completely different than any interpretation one has heard. And given Russia’s hateful invasion of Ukraine last week, Elgar’s Cello…
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Music Preview: ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS WITH JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN (The Soraya)
Thor Steingraber, the Executive and Artistic Director of The Soraya concert space in Northridge, has transformed this amazingly gorgeous hall from a college adjunct into a world-class location for the arts — one of the best in Southern California. On March 10, Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields return to the…
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Theater Review: NEXT TO NORMAL (Chance Theater)
FINALLY: NEXT TO PERFECT The first three times I saw Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next to Normal, it never truly floored me. There are many ingredients that validate the 2009 musical’s popularity: it is to be commended for a bold and daring new way of communicating the kind of subject matter that you would…
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Theater Review: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING (San Francisco Playhouse)
To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself. Simone Weil One of the best new plays to come down the pike in years, Will Arbery’s considered 150-minute one-act may seem to some a level-headed treatise on what it means to be a conservative in the age of Trump. Yet…
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Broadway Extension: AMERICAN UTOPIA (David Byrne and Band)
BRINGING BACK BYRNE Talking Heads superstar David Byrne re-opened his acclaimed rock spectacle American Utopia last September 17 at Broadway’s St. James Theatre after the pandemic shutdown. I caught this joyous and resilient concert last December and loved it (this show never closed during COVID’s Omicron surge). This is truly a community event, and the packed…
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Upcoming Music: FOG (premiere); BREATHING FORESTS (premiere); ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
When architect Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, he took into account how musicians would experience the building. He believed if the sound is good, the musicians would feel more confident and, in turn, would play better. With this in mind, Gehry worked closely with expert acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota and then-Los Angeles Philharmonic Music…
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Theater Review: EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAIME (Ahmanson Theatre)
WHAT WILL YOU TALK ABOUT? Red high-heeled shoes? Professional drag queens? Repetitive pop music? Overcoming homophobia? Yeah, the new-ish musical Everybody’s Talking About Jaime sounds a lot like Kinky Boots, because it is. (There are so many ways to glitter and be gay in modern Musical Theater.) Jaime is a musical about a 16-year-old boy…
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Music Review: MENDELSSOHN & BEETHOVEN (Igor Levit, piano; Elim Chan, conductor; LA Philharmonic)
COME FOR IGOR LEVIT: STAY FOR MENDELSSOHN’S FOURTH SYMPHONY Along with Daniil Trifonov, pianist Igor Levit’s concerts and CDs must recall what it first felt like to encounter Gilels and Richter, two other super-talented Russian pianists who brought excitement to classical music. When I saw Mr. Levit live, one of the most striking aspects for…
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Theater: THE PLAY YOU WANT (The Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood)
NEW PLAY BY BERNARDO CUBRíA COMES TO THE ROAD The Road Theatre Company returns to live performances with three plays performing in repertory, beginning and re-opening with the world premiere of The Play That You Want, written by Bernardo Cubría and directed by Michael John Garcés. THE PLAY YOU WANT will begin previews on Tuesday,…
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Theater: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING (SF Playhouse)
The Bay Area Premiere of Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery — the winner of the 2020 Obie Award for Playwriting, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, and a Pulitzer Finalist — is a riveting and witty play speaks to the heart of a country at war with itself. Now, this amazing play…
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Broadway News: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Play on Hiatus Until June; Re-Opens at The Belasco Theatre)
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD GOES ON HIATUS Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the best play I’ve seen on Broadway in years — and the most successful American play in Broadway history — will conclude the current leg of its incredible run at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre this Sunday, but it will reopen one block east at the Belasco Theatre…
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New York Cabaret: JUDY KUHN & ALEXANDRA SILBER (Valentine’s Day at Green Room 42)
BROADWAY HOTSPOT THE GREEN ROOM 42 CELEBRATES 5 YEARS WITH JUDY KUHN AND ALEXANDRA SILBER ON VALENTINE’S DAY The outstanding venue Green Room 42, which I had the pleasure of getting to know during my last NY trip, is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with special concerts from the most amazing Judy Kuhn (who rocked in…
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Off-Broadway Theater: A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING (Streaming from Irish Rep)
Relevant. Absorbing. Intense. Thought-provoking. Riveting. Ambitious. This is powerful theatre that plumbs the depths. It does not allow you to breathe. It’s rewards are rich and will stay with you. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing follows the inner narrative of a girl, played by Jenn Murray (Brooklyn, Maleficent,…
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Upcoming Music: SYMPHONIC ELLINGTON: NEW WORLD A-COMIN’ & SACRED CONCERTS (LA Phil/Thomas Wilkins)
DUKING IT OUT In 1943, Duke Ellington premiered two works about the experience of Black Americans’”one, Black, Brown, and Beige, traced their collective history and another, New World A-Coming, imagined a hopeful future. Ellington wrote about the latter in his biography, “I visualized this new world as a place in the distant future, where there would…
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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