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Tony Frankel
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Concert Review: LEA DELARIA (The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles)
DELIGHTFULLY DELIRIOUS DELARIA She’s butch, bold, brazen and brash. She’s riotous, raucous, ribald and rebellious. She scats with style and scurrilously scours political cads. And above all, she’s enormously entertaining. Since the mid-eighties, I’ve seen her on Broadway as well as her solo shows, some mostly singing and some mostly stand-up. Last Saturday night, January…
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Theater Review: VOLTA (Cirque du Soleil)
PLENTY OF WATTAGE, EVEN WITH AN OBSCURE STORY Cirque du Soleil is back with its latest touring show, which opened last night, January 21, at Dodger Stadium. At its best, Volta provides all the pleasures of a Cirque production — knockout acts of grace, athleticism, skill, creativity, and danger. The show does have difficulties associated…
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Film Preview: HUMP! FILM FESTIVAL (National Tour curated by Dan Savage)
SIT ON MY FACEBOOK Attending Dan Savage’s awesome HUMP! Film Festival is easy enough, but now you can take a stand against corporate fascism just by getting the word out. Then get yourself to a theater near you for the 15th annual Festival, which is on tour beginning January 30 and running through October of…
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Theater Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Mark Taper Forum)
WHAT WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME MEANS TO ME Given the barrage of nasty nightly news, I don’t doubt that Americans are champing at the bit for a large slice of patriotism as they watch America seemingly evolving and devolving at once. And there isn’t a document that represents our constantly changing America more…
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Opera Review: KING ARTHUR (Long Beach Opera)
KING ARTHUR DETHRONED If you’re a hardcore Henry Purcell fan, don’t expect anything resembling his original 1691 semi-opera, King Arthur, in Long Beach Opera’s production, which opened yesterday, Jan. 12, at the Beverly O’Neill. (A semi-opera is an unusual form of early opera that was half-sung and half-spoken.) Even in John Dryden’s libretto, there is…
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Theater Review: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (Greenway Court Theatre)
AN AMAZING INCIDENT Meet Christopher, a wannabe bloodhound who has significant social, behavioral and communication challenges; we assume the unnamed disorder is on the autism spectrum, but this magnificent play isn’t about his mental challenges. The British teen — the unlikely hero of Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel and Simon Stephens’ equally valued adaption, The Curious…
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Theater Review: THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre)
NOT A SEVEN-COURSE DINNER, BUT FILLING JUST THE SAME While on a Midwest lecture tour, arrogant and overbearing critic and radio commentator Sheridan Whiteside slips on an icy doorstep, injures his hip, and is confined to a wheelchair in a small Ohio town for six long weeks of recovery. He completely disrupts and unnerves the…
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Theater Review: PRIDE & PREJUDICE (World Premiere Musical at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto)
LOST IN AUSTEN All of Jane Austen’s novels are built on the same premise. A woman meets and marries an eligible man after a series of usually comic difficulties. But Austen extracts a remarkable amount of drama, comedy, and human interest from her domestic tales through her witty, ironic prose and her shrewd but forgiving…
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Theater Review: CLOUD 9 (Custom Made Theatre Company in San Francisco)
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SATIRE Has it really been 40 years since Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9 was first presented? The biting satire is so topical — containing cross-dressing, gay relationships, and patriarchal and colonial rule — that one would think it just arrived on the scene. It’s every bit as entertaining, contemporary, and downright…
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Operas Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL (SF Opera)
THIS IS ONE HANDSOME HARROWING HANSEL AND GREAT GOOEY GRETEL Well, how thrilling is it to see a brand new production in the world of opera. Especially given that this one is a winner replete with charm and cast with perfection. This new SF Opera co-production of Hansel and Gretel with London’s Royal Opera House…
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Theater Review: GROUNDHOG DAY THE MUSICAL (San Francisco Playhouse)
DOES GROUNDHOG DAY BEAR REPEATING? At the center of San Francisco Playhouse’s first regional premiere of Broadway’s Groundhog Day the Musical is the brilliant, perfectly cast Ryan Drummond, playing local TV news weatherman, Phil. This arrogant, uncaring teaser must relive Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney until he learns to care about other people. This musical adaptation of the…
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Music Preview: SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY’S CHRISTMAS CONCERTS (Davies Symphony Hall)
HERE COMES SAN FRANCISCO’S STUPENDOUS SYMPHONY SERVING COLOSSAL CHRISTMAS CONCERTS We all know that San Francisco Symphony can easily be labeled one of our country’s best orchestras, but it’s a no-brainer to visit them this season given the amazingly diverse options you have this year. Here are my favorites. (And through Monday, Dec 2 at…
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CD Review: PICK UP MY PIECES (Gabrielle Stravelli Sings Willie Nelson)
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS The opening track of Gabrielle Stravelli’s latest CD Pick up My Pieces — which covers Willie Nelson originals and songs he’s covered — is delicious and delightful. Front and center in the medley of “Lady Luck” and “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” is that voice! I’m a huge…
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Film Review: SAFETY (directed by Fabrice Joubert)
THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY If you have ever thought, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in a situation as awful as a school shooting, this incredible new short film will show you. Without bloodshed, writer/director/producer Fabrice Joubert creates an effectively tense film with little more than a ten-minute run-time. There’s just…
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Theater Review: KEY LARGO (Geffen Playhouse)
NOT AS KEYED UP AS IT SHOULD BE The Geffen Playhouse has really been on a roll under the newest Artistic Director Matt Shakman. There are many more interesting scripts, and many more chances are being taken. And as always, both of Geffen’s playhouses are given Broadway-caliber production values. Shakman is also to be thanked…
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Theater Review: UNCLE VANYA (The New American Theatre in Hollywood)
CYNICS UNITE These days when directors revive a classic, they have to decide whether their approach will be either to modernize the play or mount it as a period piece, true to the spirit of the times in which it was created. Sometimes, as in the case of The New American Theatre’s Uncle Vanya, director…
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Music Preview: CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERTS (Los Angeles Master Chorale at Disney Hall)
HERE COMES L.A.’S COLOSSAL CHORALE WITH CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERTS AND CAROLS With the indefatigable Energizer Bunny of conducting, Grant Gershon, at the helm, Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) can easily be labeled one of the best choirs on earth, and you have a chance to see four separate holiday programs this year at Walt Disney…
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Jazz Preview: GERALD CLAYTON (Solo Piano at LACC)
GERALD CLAYTON SOLOS AT LACC ONE NIGHT ONLY There are few times in life that one witnesses an artist and knows immediately that something is different. I can even catch it on a recording. That specialness that can’t be replicated by imitation or study. Well, to quote Thelonius Monk: “Know it when you hear it.”…
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Theater Review: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY (Geffen)
THANKS BUT NO THANKS I can’t imagine a riper subject for satire than the chokehold that far-left liberal political correctness has on America. Playwright Larissa Fasthorse offers her 2015 comedy at The Geffen that is chock-full of the ridiculing we need, but satire without a story gets old fast. Instead of farce, which is grounded…
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Music Review: GARRICK OHLSSON IN RECITAL (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
GARRIFIC It’s been almost a half-century since Garrick Ohlsson won the International Frédéric Chopin Competition in Warsaw, so I attended his recital at The Wallis in Beverly Hills last Friday with a bit of trepidation. And seeing his large frame in person, I wondered at first that he should be hauling the piano not playing…
Theater Review: ST. NICHOLAS (Black Button Eyes / City Lit / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | July 3, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterFAST PAYOUT CASINOS USA 2026 — 5 BEST INSTANT WITHDRAWAL CASINOS RANKED
by Michael Carr | July 3, 2026
in ExtrasTheater Review: MEN OF SOUL (Black Ensemble Theater / Chicago)
by Mitchell Oldham | July 1, 2026
in Chicago, Theater
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