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Tony Frankel
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Music Preview: CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT (The Soraya and Irvine Barclay)
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR Hooray and hallelujah! Long before her newest disc, Dreams and Daggers — a live double-CD set that won the 2018 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album — I have always been a fan of jazz vocalist and song interpreter extraordinaire Cécile McLorin Salvant. But seeing…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: GUYS AND DOLLS (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
A BEAUTIFUL DOLL It’s amazing. Were this masterpiece from Broadway’s golden age an actual guy or doll, he or she would be scoring Social Security. But make no mistake, this 1950 hoofer is no worse for the wear, thanks to Frank Loesser’s timeless score and Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ cheeky book about strippers and…
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Los Angeles Event Preview: THE LINCOLN LEGACY: THE MAN AND HIS PRESIDENCY (Tony Kushner and Sarah Vowell: In Conversation at UCLA)
HIS AND HERS HISTORY Looking for some inspiration? From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and lauded author Sarah Vowell comes a powerful examination of one of American history’s most singular figures: Abraham Lincoln. Presented by CAP UCLA, the dynamic duo will appear at Royce Hall this Thursday, February 22. Best known for his play Angels…
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Cabaret Preview: MY KINDA 60’S (Charles Busch)
MY KINDA CABARET ACT It was the decade that changed our nation forever. What began as nothing but promise — victors of a World War and a young forward-thinking President — suddenly shifted with JFK’s assassination. A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. Americans protested: End…
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CD Review: DER PERFEKTE MOMENT…WIRD HEUT VERPENNT [The Perfect Moment…Will Be Lost Today] (Max Raabe)
DREAMY PERFEKTION I have seen the charismatic German baritone Max Raabe and his 12-member Palast Orchester live three times; each time, the world-famous group — around since the mid-80s — embodies the high style and musical glory of the ‘20s and ‘30s as they perform songs from, and in the style of, that remarkable time….
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CD Review: THE POST (Original Soundtrack by John Williams)
FALTERED AT HIS POST The best thing I can say about John Williams’ score to The Post is that I don’t remember a thing about it after watching the movie, which means it supported the mood perfectly. Recently released on Sony Classical, the CD of the score is an entirely different matter — not that…
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Los Angeles Opera Preview: CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA (The Soraya in Northridge)
A MAGNIFICENT MARIACHI OPERA COMES TO THE SORAYA It was by sheer luck that I was in Chicago and happened upon the world’s first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon). Even though it immediately became one of my favorite operas, I knew that this type of…
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CD Review: HAMLISCH UNCOVERED (Various Artists on Broadway Records)
MARVIN’S GARDEN One of composer Marvin Hamlisch’s first gigs was that of rehearsal pianist and assistant vocal arranger for the original production of Funny Girl on Broadway in 1964, a job which he found through the aid of Liza Minnelli, who recorded one of Hamlisch’s early songs (“Travelin’ Man”) on her first album. It was…
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Book Review: MURDER IS FATAL (Barry Creyton)
NEO-NOIR NOVEL A FUNNY NOD TO CLASSIC FILM NOIR Author Barry Creyton has proven that film noir doesn’t die; it just goes from black-and-white to color. Part crime story and part love letter, the novel Murder is Fatal is a good-hearted epitome of all things film noir as well as an exaltation to its devotees….
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CD Review: MAD LIBS LIVE! (Original Cast Recording)
DRAWING A BLANK Coming direct from the Missed Opportunity Department is a semi-educational musical geared towards kids and prepubescent audiences which ends up as merely juvenile. Mad Libs Live! is an hour-long show about four high-school teens who, as a team, enter a singing group competition. The prize? The title of “Teen Superstars.” The modus…
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Los Angeles Music Review: BERNSTEIN’S MASS (Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel)
A MASSIVE MASS FOR THE MASSES It’s a happening in Disney Hall. And there’s no better way to salute Leonard Bernstein in his hundredth year than a humongous and awesome presentation of his rarely produced Mass. How did a secular humanist Jewish composer come to write a a modernized interpretation of sacred Mass texts, including…
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Concert Review: MEOW MEOW (with Pink Martini’s Thomas M. Lauderdale)
THE DIVINE MISS MM When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramovic 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 to jump-start their career? Well, prepare to…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: CANDIDE (LA Opera)
YES, WE CANDIDE There isn’t much I could say about the musical Candide that hasn’t been written about before. What I can say is never miss an opportunity to catch a production, especially when it’s a full-on spectacle like the one opening tonight with LA Opera. Leonard Bernstein created one of our greatest Broadway scores when he…
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CD Review: DARKEST HOUR (Soundtrack by Dario Marianelli)
A DARK HOUR FOR FILM SCORES There are film scores which multiply suspense, doing the job quite well for the film, but not transportive to someone merely listening. In the case of Darkest Hour — Joe Wright’s film about Winston Churchill and the early days of his Prime Ministership, when Hitler was closing in on Britain during…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: ASTAIRE DANCES (American Contemporary Ballet)
I’LL TAKE ASTAIRE’S WAY TO PARADISE The great ballet choreographer George Balanchine compared Fred Astaire to Bach, and Baryshnikov claimed Astaire gave him an inferiority complex. Katharine Hepburn once said about his partnership with Ginger Rogers: “He gives her class, and she gives him sex.” Astaire himself said, “I don’t make love by kissing, I…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: ARTURO SANDOVAL JAZZ WEEKEND (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
ARTURO SANDOVAL’S AMAZING JAZZ WEEKEND IS HERE! He moves easily across many varieties of jazz and instruments — using his trumpet to produce a fiery assortment of resonances, interchangeably stately, amusing and starry-eyed. The mighty, vibrant, effervescent Cuban trumpet player, big band leader, and composer Arturo Sandoval — a protégé of Dizzy Gillespie — is…
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Los Angeles Music Review: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS BRAHMS (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
A WEEKEND OF FIRSTS Gustavo Dudamel returns to the podium this weekend — Thursday through Sunday, January 25-28, 2018 — to lead the LA Phil in a concert easily predicted to be a stunner. Brahms First Symphony, on which he labored for so long (over 14 years), is an openly passionate work, the last great…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: A DELICATE SHIP (Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood)
THESE THINGS MUST BE DONE DELICATELY If you lose your way trying to navigate the enigmatic journey Anna Ziegler wants to take us in her well-written but thematically dense A Delicate Ship, keep your eye on Josh Zuckerman – it’ll be impossible not to – because he has found the human trajectory that Nate, one of…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: LOUISIANA PURCHASE (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
RARELY PRODUCED BERLIN SCORE COMES TO LIFE No doubt when folks hear “Louisiana Purchase,” they think of Thomas Jefferson’s gargantuan land acquisition from France in 1803, a purchase which resulted soon thereafter in Lewis and Clark’s expedition. So, is this the subject of the musical Louisiana Purchase? Nope. Wait… What..? You mean you’ve never even…
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Theater and Music Preview: IL RITORNO (Circa Contemporary Circus)
AN OPERATIC CIRCUS ODYSSEY The uber-innovative Australian performance troupe, Circa, returns to the States with its newest production, Il Ritorno, a unique production that melds circus arts with Baroque opera to explore themes of loss and displacement. This special engagement takes place one night only, Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at the gorgeous Musco Center for the…
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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