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Tony Frankel
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Album Recommendation: WHISPER DARKLY (Concept Album)
SHOUTING ABOUT WHISPER In Whisper Darkly, it’s once again 1928 and the audience are patrons of Manhattan’s notorious speakeasy, the Hush Club at the height of Prohibition, circa 100 years ago. The proprietress who runs the joint, Topeka McShane, leads her cast of chorines, comics, and dancers with an iron fist, while teaching her niece, Evie, about…
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Theater Review: SANTASIA: A HOLIDAY COMEDY (Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks)
A LETTER TO SANTA Dear Santa: Well, what a year 2024 was. With the way things are going, I decided to count my blessings. So I’m writing to thank you for that pair of tickets to see Santasia: A Holiday Comedy — it was the sweetest Kids in the Hall-type, holiday-themed Vaudeville show ever! Managing…
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Album Review: THE OLD COUNTRY: MORE FROM THE DEER HEAD INN (Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian)
MORE DEER HEAD HIGHLIGHTS The Deer Head Inn is an historic jazz club in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Water Gap region, and it played a significant role in Jarrett’s early career. In the 1950s, pianist Keith Jarrett performed at Allentown, PA’s Deer Head Inn as a teenager, a venue pivotal to his musical growth. In 1961, it…
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Highly Recommended Concert: FOUR SEASONS AND STRAUSS (Pacific Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
MORE STRAUSS, LESS STRESS, INDEED Pacific Symphony rings in the New Year January 9-11 at 8 with Four Seasons and Strauss, featuring two inspiring masterpieces that are sure to uplift and calm the spirit. First, Concertmaster Dennis Kim takes the virtuosic solo role playing plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius to lead Vivaldi’s 1720 composition of…
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Highly Recommended Theater: ELEANOR (Laguna Playhouse)
“You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Laguna Playhouse has announced that Mary Roosevelt, a direct descendant of Eleanor Roosevelt, will share personal stories and reflections on the life and legacy of one of the 20th century’s most iconic women following the 2pm performance on…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: THE MUSIC GUILD (2025 Season at St Alban’s Church, Westwood)
GUILD TO PERFECTION There is an outstanding music outfit in Los Angeles which offers a series of chamber music concerts, introducing world renowned artists to Los Angeles audiences. Having seen presentations of repertoire played at its premier level by sparkling chamber musicians for over 10 years now, it seems unthinkable to me that The Music…
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Jazz Preview: BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL (Hollywood Bowl)
LEGENDARY BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB TO OPEN IN L.A. ANNOUNCING THE BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL IN 2025 Well, if this isn’t the best news for all of us jazz fans. The iconic Blue Note Jazz Club is expanding to Los Angeles, bringing the legendary reputation of its renowned New York flagship…
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Highly Recommended Theater: ANYTHING GOES IN CONCERT (Wayne Brady, J Harrison Ghee, Jinkx Monsoon; Pasadena Civic)
YOU’LL GET A KICK OUT OF THIS [EDITORS NOTE, January 10, 2025: Given the extensive impact of the fires on Playhouse staff, artists, and audiences, Pasadena Playhouse has cancelled the upcoming In Concert productions of Anything Goes and Follies at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. No remount dates have been announced.] Oh, no, no, no. A musical in…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (The Streetcar Project Tour in LA, NY, SF, DC & more — Highly Recommended)
NOW, THERE’S OH SO MUCH MORE TO DESIRE Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director and co-creator Nick Westrate would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times. But wait til you hear…
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Highly Recommended Concert: A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS (National Tour at Walt Disney Concert Hall)
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CHANTICLEER I may be enamored by the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Messiah, I may be enthralled by Pasadena Symphony’s Holiday Candlelight, I may be excited by the Gay Men’s Chorus’s Holiday Spectacular, but A Chanticleer Christmas, which plays Disney Hall on Dec. 17, is always the best choral show of…
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Highly Recommended Cabaret: MEOW MEOW: FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY (The Wallis, Beverly Hills, & Stanford U)
SANTA’S FUR IS GONNA FLY WITH MEOW MEOW’S FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramović allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? And when you hear the term “cabaret,” do you think of tired patter, same-old showtunes, and folks who’re trying…
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Highly Recommended Dance: TURING TESTS, APPLES AND QUEENS (Invertigo Dance Theatre at Caltech in Pasadena)
A FUSION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MATHEMATICAL GENIUS AND FAIRY TALES CaltechLive’s Opening Doors is a themed series of dance, music, and theater events on campus that showcase artists whose work engages with both the history of science and cutting-edge scientific research. In October, they presented the wonderful Tesla: A Radio Play for the Stage with…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE BLOOD QUILT (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center)
A QUILT BLANKETED BY PREDICTABLE STITCHING Quilts always intrigued me; for millennia, women took scraps of fabric from discarded items and made quilts to be used for warmth or decorative purposes. Most of us had one made by a Grandma or a Great Aunt: they stored the patches of material until they had enough to…
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Music | Film Review: STAR WARS IN CONCERT (LA Phil)
THE STAR WARS COME OUT AT DISNEY HALL The force of the LA Phil is definitely with you. When Star Wars in Concert began last night, fittingly, with the iconic “Star Wars (Main Theme)”, it filled Disney Hall with a palpable excitement (so did the deep-note sound of the THX trailer). The crowd roared and…
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Theater Reviews: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES; JOAN; FIRST DATE; CAROL COOKE DIED FOR MY SINS; BEING PIAF; RENT; A GOING AWAY PARTY PLAY (various theaters throughout L.A.)
WHAT’S YOUR STORY? In the “It’s Not the Story, It’s in How You Tell It” Department, an incredible number of shows I saw in the last month have incredible tales to tell, but falter in their context. Listen, storytelling is in our genes ever since cavemen told their friends how they caught a mammoth. From…
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Off-Broadway Review: SLEEP NO MORE (Punchdrunk Theatre Company at McKittrick Hotel; Closes on January 5, 2025)
SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES No plague can kill a great show. It came back after COVID. In a rare clash of film noir, performance art, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is the ultimate voyeuristic thrill. Audience members don Venetian masks and explore the depths of the 1930s-style McKittrick…
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Cabaret Review: EMILY GOGLIA PRESENTS THE LIMELIGHT CLUB (The Moon Room on Melrose)
TOO DARN HOT, EMILY! Hello, all you cabaret junkies. Have I got a surprise for you. And in Los Angeles of all places. I happened upon a true cabaret, the kind I go to New York for — ya know, Birdland, Green Room 42, The Duplex — but I found a lovely locale called The Moon…
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Concert Review: RUFUS-RETRO-WAINWRIGHT-SPECTIVE (Rufus Wainwright at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
A RUFUS CONVERT During Rufus Wainwright‘s homey, intimate concert last night at the packed 500-seat theater at The Wallis in Beverly Hills, he chuckled that he didn’t really want to do A Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective again. Constantly appearing in different shows, he noted that the three-night engagement here was “a lot.” And he ain’t kiddin’. Over three nights,…
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Highly Recommended Concert: WE ARE VERY BIZET (The Verdi Chorus Fall 2024 Concert Celebrating Verdi and Bizet)
“VOTRE TOAST” TO THE VERDI CHORUS The Verdi Chorus’s 41st season begins with its Fall 2024 show, We Are Verdi Bizet, led by Anne Marie Ketchum, who is has been, well, very busy as the Artistic Director for 41 consecutive years. The Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily…
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Highly Recommended Screening: NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (Disney Hall on Halloween)
A SILENT SCREAMS One of the spookiest horror films ever made was completed before most of today’s audiences were born. Nosferatu, a 1922 German Expressionist horror film about the vampire Count Orlok directed by F. W. Murnau may be far better known for its creepy-ass make-up given to the vampire, but horror buffs understand that…
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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