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Theater Review: BANANAS? (The Town Hall in NYC)
QUINTUPLE THREAT NYMPHIA WIND HAS MORE THAN BANANA APPEAL I’m a bad gay. I’ve only seen one or two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race out of—how many seasons now? Seventeen! But after seeing Nymphia Wind’s pride-month blowout at Town Hall last night, June 26, I get the hype. The reigning queen of Season 16 isn’t…
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Concert Review: BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL (Hollywood Bowl)
BLUE NOTE’S INAUGURAL JAZZ FESTIVAL SLAMS INTO THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL Dubbed “summer’s biggest party,” the Hollywood Bowl has witnessed countless musical transformations since 1922, but Saturday’s inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival felt particularly significant—a symbolic passing of the torch that honored the venue’s jazz heritage while boldly stepping into the future. This rebranding of the…
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Concert Review: NIGHT OF A THOUSAND JUDYS (13th Annual Benefit at Joe’s Pub for The Ali Forney Center)
A FUN FUNDRAISER FOR THE GLORY OF GARLAND & GAY RIGHTS What a night! So very, very varied – even though there was a specific theme. Night of a Thousand Judys is a loving valentine to the legendary Judy Garland, timed for the second night of Pride Month. It’s a program stuffed with examples of…
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Theater Interview: ROB MADGE (“My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)” at New York City Center)
APPARENTLY, YOU CAN DO A LOT My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?) is a joyous, autobiographical solo show from social media sensation Rob Madge, charting their journey as a queer child with one dream: to stage a full-scale Disney parade in their living room. With wit, heart, and seven easy steps, Madge…
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Highly Recommended Concert: BROADWAY LEGENDS FROM GERSHWIN TO SONDHEIM (Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena POPS at LA County Arboretum)
BROADWAY STARS UNDER THE STARS If you’ve ever wanted to hear Michael Feinstein conduct an orchestra while a pulchritude of peacocks prance in the background, you’re in for one of LA’s most delightfully surreal summer experiences. The Pasadena POPS is back Jun 21, 2025, at the LA County Arboretum with their annual Broadway night, and honestly?…
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Concert Review: SAMARA JOY & HER BAND (Carnegie Hall)
FROM CASTLE HILL IN THE BRONX TO A DEBUT AT CARNEGIE HALL IN MANHATTAN, SAMARA JOY IN CONCERT AND IN THE GROOVE # # # Most jazz vocalists dream of rapid success: winning a major contest, dazzling critics with a first recording by age 21, snagging a Best New Artist Grammy, racking up a shelf…
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Concert Review: A QUIET CELEBRATION (Paul Simon on Tour With “Seven Psalms”)
A QUIET BENEDICTION FROM A MASTER SONGWRITER Paul Simon is not done speaking softly. At a time when much live music clamors for attention, his recent performance felt like a whispered benediction—one that asked the audience to lean in, listen closely, and reflect. The evening, A Quiet Celebration, was structured in two halves: the first devoted…
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Concert Review: VERDI’S REQUIEM (Pacific Symphony)
St. Clair’s Swan Song: Pacific Symphony’s Volcanic Verdi’s Requiem Last night, the walls of the Segerstrom Concert Hall didn’t merely vibrate. They braced. Verdi’s Requiem opened not with reverence but with rupture. What followed wasn’t a farewell so much as a reckoning. Carl St. Clair’s final appearance as Pacific Symphony’s Music Director arrived wrapped in…
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Concert | Cabaret Review: 54 SINGS COCO (Revisiting the 1969 André Previn / Alan Jay Lerner Musical)
MUSICAL ABOUT FASHION ICON COCO CHANEL STILL IN FASHION The scores of older Broadway musicals that don’t get revivals include those that many theatre fans never got to experience beyond listening to an original cast recording. And for those longer-in-the-tooth folks who’ve been attending theatre for more than half a century, memories offer only some…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: PICNIC PERFORMANCES (Bryant Park)
Bryant Park: A Perfect Picnic Performance Playground Whether you live in New York City or you’re visiting, one of the best places to be this summer is Bryant Park. Among the park’s many activities, one of the most outstanding is Bryant Park Picnic Performances, a series of 25 free concerts featuring live music, theater and…
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Concert Review: FATS AND THE DUKE (Dizzy’s Club / Jazz at Lincoln Center)
SONGBOOK SUNDAYS’ SWINGIN’ SALUTE TO TWO GIANTS OF JAZZ If you’re a student of British royals, hearing the names Thomas and Edward might make you think of brothers from the lineage; and if you grew up watching the children’s TV show Thomas the Tank Engine, you would know Thomas and Edward as faces of trains…
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Theater Review: ROLLING STONE PRESENTS: AMPLIFIED, THE IMMERSIVE ROCK EXPERIENCE (Chelsea Market)
THIS ROLLING STONE JUST OPENED, AND ALREADY IT’S GATHERING MOSS If Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified were a device, it would be the BlackBerry of rock retrospectives. It is an earnest, well-meaning tribute to music by an iconic magazine but ultimately out of sync with the moment. It’s not immersive, not penetrating, and certainly not capable…
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Concert Review: MYSTIC RHYTHMS & SACRED CHANTS FOR SEVEN BLACK MADONNAS (Cathedral of St. John the Divine)
EXALTING, EXCITING, EXULTANT & EXUBERANT Last night, May 16, Alessandra Belloni and John T. La Barbera led a transcendent 90-minute concert titled Mystic Rhythms & Sacred Chants for 7 Black Madonnas at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. More than a performance, it was a ritual journey—spiritual, historical, and profoundly musical—tracing the veneration of…
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Concert Review: VOCAL DIMENSIONS (LA Phil’s Green Umbrella New Music Series)
I admire the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella series. I really, really do. It’s adventurous and exciting in ways that regular programs rarely achieve. However, there are nights where it’s punishing and it hates me. The April 29 program, Vocal Dimensions, was one of those. At the end, in spite of the two brief bright spots,…
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Concert Review: WELCOME TO THE DREAM FACTORY (MUSE/IQUE)
AND WHAT A DREAM IT IS As part of its 2025 Season, “Make Some Noise: Music and Stories of American Defiance and Hope,” MUSE/IQUE presented Welcome to the Dream Factory, centering on the golden days of Hollywood where dreams were built on sound stages by composers, actors, and directors who lit up the world on…
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Highly Recommended Concert: CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT (Royce Hall at UCLA, May 8, 2025)
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR Hooray and hallelujah! Long before her CDs Ghost Song and 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….
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Concert Review: NEW YORK POPS’ 42ND BIRTHDAY GALA: WORDS AND MUSIC — DIANE WARREN (New York Pops’ 42nd Birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall)
Songwriter Diane Warren has won an Honorary Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Her songs have been recorded by the likes of Cher, Celine Dion and Aerosmith. It’s easy to see why she was a fitting honoree for New York Pops’ 42nd Birthday Gala, Words and Music at…
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Concert / Film Review: THE PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE: NAQOYQATSI (Town Hall in New York)
WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN? UNTIL WE DO, THERE’S ALWAYS THE MUSIC On Saturday, April 19, Town Hall presented Naqoyqatsi (2002), the third and final film in Godfrey Reggio‘s Qatsi Trilogy, and it was a triumph with a felt, deserved, long standing ovation at its conclusion. Edited by Jon Kane, with music composed by Philip…
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Concert Review: A TRIBUTE TO TOM JOBIM (Stacey Kent and Danilo Caymmi at The Town Hall)
BOSSA NOVA BEAUTY: MUSICAL PLEASURE WITH A BEAT THAT CAN’T BE BEAT Music historians surveying what impacted, influenced, and changed what was on the charts and in the ears of listeners during the 1960s talk about two happy “invasions” from other continents shaking up America—in a good way. And with lasting resonance. There was the…
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Concert Coverage: 2025 SONDHEIM AWARD GALA HONORING MANDY PATINKIN (Signature Theatre at the Anthem Theatre)
A Dazzling Night of Song and Tribute Broadway took up residence on the banks of the Potomac last night as the Anthem Theatre played host to the Signature Theatre’s annual Sondheim Award Gala, this year honoring the iconic Mandy Patinkin. It was an evening where legends mingled with rising stars, and the power of live…
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