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Tony Frankel
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Album Review: CLIQUE (Patricia Barber on Impex Records)
I WANNA BE IN HER CLIQUE Flying by at 45 minutes, Patricia Barber’s new album is everything I want when a great vocalist rethinks songs that have been covered over and over. Daring, rhythmic, warming, exciting, and immediately accessible, Clique (Impex Records August 6) has Barber completely reinventing a tracklist of tunes, including classics by…
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Upcoming Concert: DYLAN GOES HOLLYWOOD (MUSE/IQUE at The Huntington Library and The Skirball Cultural Center)
MUSE/IQUE PRESENTS L.A. COMPOSED: A FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES MUSIC: “DYLAN GOES HOLLYWOOD” August 18 & 19 at The Huntington; August 22 at The Skirball For those who have never been to a MUSE/IQUE concert, it’s assemblage of transplendent talent, founder and curator Rachael Worby’s historical annotations, and a wide-ranging selection of music and spoken…
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Concert: BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the LA Phil and Gemma New at the Hollywood Bowl)
DO NOT MISS BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL THIS WEEK Pianist Behzod Abduraimov is coming to the Hollywood Bowl this Thursday, August 5, 2021, so prepare yourself for one of the world’s greatest pianists. In fact, the in-demand, rightfully popular 30-year-old Uzbek pianist, who was born in Tashkent in 1990 just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, may…
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Broadway Opening: FLYING OVER SUNSET (Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont)
PREPARE FOR ONE HELLUVA TRIP 1950s Hollywood. You are at a beautiful beach house overlooking the Pacific with Cary Grant, Clare Boothe Luce and Aldous Huxley: and they are on an acid trip. Together. A scene from Flying Over Sunset Let the buzz begin! The most stunning array of Broadway stars and creators imaginable is getting ready to fly into the…
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Theater: LIZASTRATA (Troubadour Theater Company, Getty Villa)
THE TROUBIES ARE PUTTING OUT Tickets are now on sale for this hilarious musical retelling of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, one of history’s greatest theatrical offerings. Lizastrata takes on the establishment, storms the Acropolis, and holds the treasury hostage until the long-warring men of Athens and Sparta commit to declaring peace. Her strategy? All the women go…
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Chicago Theater Opening: A RECIPE FOR DISASTER (Chef Rick Bayless and Windy City Playhouse at Petterino’s)
TASTY THEATER James Beard Award-winning Chef Rick Bayless and Windy City Playhouse Artistic Director Amy Rubenstein and Associate Artistic Director Carl Menninger are teaming up to create A Recipe for Disaster, an outrageous farcical experience set in the frenetic world of restaurants beginning October 6, 2021 at Petterino’s, located in the heart of the Chicago theater…
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Album Release: ARETHA (New Boxed Set From Rhino)
ARETHA 4-CD And Digital Collection Dedicated To The Queen Of Soul Features 81 Tracks, including 19 Previously Unreleased Alternate Versions, Demos, Rarities, and Special Live Performances 2-LP And Single CD Versions Feature Highlights From The Boxed Set; All Formats Available Today, July 30, 2021, From Rhino See ARETHA FRANKLIN performing (YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE)…
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Virtual Opera: TWILIGHT: GODS (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
PARK YOURSELF AT HOME WITH PURE GOLD Leave it to Yuval Sharon (pronounced you-vahl sha-rhone). I’ve seen all of the L.A.-born wunderkind’s Los Angeles productions, and this opera re-thinker stages better and with more imagination than most opera directors combined. I found a few of his pieces musically inaccessible, but man oh man, can this…
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Concert Review: LEDISI WITH THE L.A. PHILHARMONIC (Conducted by Thomas Wilkins at the Hollywood Bowl)
FEELING GOOD, INDEED! Man, what a party! The Hollywood Bowl and Los Angeles Philharmonic hosted the grand dame of soulful fun, Ledisi (pronounced LEH ·duh ·see), for her tribute to Nina Simone. The air was thick with jubilant socializing as guests were more charming, friendly and generous than I have seen in years. Yes, yes, yes, there…
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Theatre: RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S SOUTH PACIFIC (Streaming from Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex, England)
CHICHESTER’S SOUTH PACIFIC GOES INTERNATIONAL Chichester Festival Theatre’s hugely acclaimed new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific will be streamed internationally on eight dates in August and September. Recorded live in front of an audience at CFT in July, the same performance will be broadcast on each of the stream dates. While tickets are…
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Music Review: Conductor ENLUIS MONTES OLIVAR & Pianist LUKíŠ VONDRíÄŒEK (Los Angeles Philharmonic; Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninoff at The Hollywood Bowl)
OLIVAR TWISTS While it’s fair to say that last night’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl saw Venezuelan conductor (and Gustavo Dudamel fellow) Enluis Montes Olivar in virtuosic splendor, it’s also fair to say that the three works came off more like a technical achievement than an emotional marvel. Which isn’t to say the rather well-attended…
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TV / Film: BROADWAY: BEYOND THE GOLDEN AGE (PBS)
New Great Performances Documentary Explores 1959-1983 Broadway Shows Through Stars’ Personal Stories. Begins August 14, 2021 on PBS. Great Performances – Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age explores the world of Broadway from 1959 through the early 1980s as recounted by a diverse cast of Broadway stars who lived through it, creating a first-hand archive of personal backstage stories and…
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Virtual Theater: URINETOWN THE MUSICAL (MSD Productions)
URINE FOR A GOOD TIME Stage and Cinema has received the first six minutes of a virtual production of URINETOWN The Musical that looks more-than-intriguing. MSD Productions clearly has a full-EQUITY, pitch-perfect cast on hand — selected from around the country — and the vocals are superior quality. But what’s this?! One Night Only? Sunday,…
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Virtual Theater Review: JUDGMENT DAY (Barrington Stage)
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF Go figure. Just as I declared, “No More ZOOM plays,” along comes the wittiest — no — most hilarious play I’ve seen since COVID shut down live performances. No, before that. I tuned in because of the amazing cast members, each of whom turned in an amazing performance, but found the play…
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Concert Review: CHRISTINA AGUILERA (The Hollywood Bowl)
THE POP DIVA AND THE ORCHESTRA The excitement and playfulness was palpably flowing among the patrons at the recently reopened Hollywood Bowl last night, July 16. I’d like to say that it was due to finally being released from the COVID stay-at-home restrictions, but I’m rather certain the sold-out house (over 17,000 seats) was reverberating…
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TV Film: THE WAR WIDOW (UCLA Film & Television Archive)
RARE SCREENING OF TRAILBLAZING LESBIAN TELEPLAY I highly recommend you view the 1976 teleplay The War Widow online on Thursday, August 5, 2021, at 4pm PT. There will be an introduction for this free one-time live screening (register HERE) by May Hong HaDuong, director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the world’s largest university-held collection…
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Theater Opening: THE WAKE OF DICK JOHNSON (Hollywood Fringe Festival)
GORY, FREAKY AND DOWNRIGHT ALARMING The West Coast Premiere of the Off-Broadway production, The Wake of Dick Johnson, performed live and in person by writer and director Luke Walker, will be part of the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival. In this pitch black one-man comedy, Dick Johnson lies in an open casket, surrounded by flickering candles,…
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Film Opening: CAN YOU BRING IT: BILL T. JONES AND D-MAN IN THE WATERS (directed by Rosalynde LeBlanc & Tom Hurwitz)
OPENS TODAY, JULY 16TH IN SELECT THEATERS & VIRTUAL CINEMAS New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Seattle *Expanding to Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco, Toronto on July 23* Bill T. Jones in rehearsal doing Astaire steps with students Brandon and Nicole. The final toss during D-Man in the Waters performance. Can You Bring It:…
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Reopening: GROUNDLINGS THEATRE (Sketch & Improv Comedy)
THEY’RE BA-A-A-A-A-A-A-CK L.A.’s home-grown Groundlings in-person programming returns with all of the best they got beginning July 23, 2021. An evening at the Groundlings means a packed theater containing a community of folks whose only desire is to laugh — and laugh you will. Friday, July 23 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. PST “Groundlings Light Up”…
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Virtual Theater: WORD FOR WORDCAST (Word for Word’s Second Podcast Season)
NOW THIS IS HOW YOU TELL A STORY Over the last 28 years, San Francisco’s Word for Word theater company has performed short stories of over 100 writers, ranging from Alice Munro to Amy Tan, Tobias Wolff, and James Baldwin. Word for Word believes in the power of the short story to provide solace, compassion,…
Theater Review: MEN OF SOUL (Black Ensemble Theater / Chicago)
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by pwsadmin | June 30, 2026
in Los Angeles, Theater
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