Los Angeles

A RARE TREAT SERVED PIPING HOT The Stephen Schwartz/Joseph Stein musical The Baker’s Wife never made it to Broadway. The musical folded in Washington. D.C. in 1976 before reaching New York City but has since gained something of a cult status in both the United States and England (listen to the “original cast” CD starring…

WATCH WHAT UNFOLDS AND BE STUNNED In DIAVOLO’s dance/text hybrid piece Transit Space, author Steve Connell writes, “The only way to get there is to go.” The same can be said for what is arguably the most exciting event of the new season: The U.S. premiere of DIAVOLO’s L’Espace du Temps, three individual pieces originally…

RAVE ON Almost a month ago, I went to Rogue Machine’s storytelling night for the first time. You know storytelling nights – they’re like poetry slams, only whiter and less political, and you can be incapable of a rhyme scheme and still do okay. Storytelling nights have replaced karaoke at hipper-than-thou bars, and public radio…

RETURN OF A SMART IDIOT It’s always satisfying to see a show that really works get a remount. DOMA, which presented the best version I have ever seen of Green Day’s  American Idiot is bringing back their extraordinarily successful production for a limited run next month.  Inspired by a 2004 rock album by the American punk rock…

DOUBLE DUTY DOMINGO The biggest names in opera, cinema, and classical music converge for the opening of LA Opera’s impressive 30th anniversary season. The double bill which opens Saturday is one of the fastest selling events in memory, and with good reason: The program begins with director Woody Allen’s riotous staging of Giacomo Puccini’s only…

AMERICAN CLASSICS WITH AUDRA MCDONALD & AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE The last time I saw  the captivating singer and actress Audra McDonald in concert, she sang the Bernstein/Comden/Green tune “I’m a Little Bit in Love” from  Wonderful Town: “Mm–mmm! / It’s so nice to be alive / When you find someone  who bewitches you.” And when you see  her upcoming…

A FOND FAREWELL Back in the 1990s, Buena Vista Social Club took the world by storm. The album, inspired by the music played at a Havana members club, both celebrated and cemented the fluid formidability of popular pre-revolution Cuban music performed by Cubans. It sold over five million units worldwide, and notched a Grammy Award…

COMEDY TONIGHT More like side-splitting by side-splitting by Sondheim, Impro Theatre–the masters of long-form improvisations in the style of famous authors and genres–are gearing up for an opening night the likes of which you will never see again. Literally. In fact, every night during Â the run of Sondheim UnScripted at the Falcon Theater will be opening…

DISILLUSION ON DEMAND In Rob Mersola’s Luka’s Room, Nick Marini plays a blithe, typical, technology-addicted college sophomore who has a rough summer after his father stops paying Arizona State tuition. Luka has to move in with his senile grandmother (Joanna Lipari) and pot-dealer ex-con uncle (Alex Fernandez). The kid’s fall from an upper-middle-class dorm to…

TIS THE SEASONS Not unlike Timothy Leary and LSD, I have been turning people on to ACB for similar reasons. In an increasingly complicated world, one needs a stimulant to reinforce a sense of what is important. American Contemporary Ballet’”with its original programming, live accompanying chamber music, sterling dancers, and the best corps de ballet…

REAL THING I hate it when people talk about the need to “support” a good cause. Guilt is simply bad salesmanship. It kills it for me. It killed Save-the-Whales, and it sure didn’t work in time for Cecil the Lion. I heard part of a KPFK pledge-drive recently that demanded a weep-track to underscore its…

UNWIELDY TRIAD The trifecta of performers at the Hollywood Bowl last night was given a strange reaction by the well-attended crowd. Whether it was during the sets of soulstress Lisa Fischer, funk/jazz trio Soulive, or big-band innovator Jaime Cullum, the inordinate amount of talking, moving, boisterous, and cell-phone playing patrons astounded me. I think that…

AND NOW, WITH FURTHER ADO: Not only is it one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, but Much Ado About Nothing contains a favorite character: Dogberry. This bumbling constable arrives much later in the play than the famous sparring couple’”Beatrice and Benedick’”and adds an enormous amount of comic energy to a play that is already awash…