Los Angeles

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…

THE HOLY GRAIL OF SILLINESS It’s been 40 years since the release of the landmark comedy film  Monty Python and the Holy Grail and 33 years since the British sketch comedy troupe  recorded Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The two events collided last night when the 2005  Broadway musical Spamalot, which original Python member Eric Idle “lovingly ripped…

THE FUTURE LOOKS LIGHT For almost 40 years, The Groundlings has proved itself to be one of the premiere comedy troupes in the nation, creating more stars than the Big Bang. Performers showcase material that arises from improvisation workshops; their weekly shows range from all-improv to all-sketches and anywhere in-between. The current sketch comedy offering…

FEINSTEIN & FRANK: THE BEST IS YET TO COME Of all the Michael Feinstein Pasadena POPS concerts so far, my favorite was last year’s presentation of Gershwin songs’”and it wasn’t because of the selections or Feinstein’s history with George’s brother Ira as friend and archivist. It was because Feinstein set aside the conductor’s baton and…

GIRLFRIEND, PLEASE! While it’s being sold as a rock musical, Todd Almond’s gay two-hander is really a play; the  songs from Matthew Sweet’s 1991 breakout album Girlfriend  are indiscriminately tossed into the script as filler. Take away the music and you’re left with a very small coming-of-age tale ideal for a Fringe Festival, maybe, but certainly not…

SUCCESS You have had at least one dream in which the universe of potential joy is realized in a moment. The moment is ethereal and tangible, in the way of dreams. For me this dream is always of a kiss. In the dream I am young and the girl I am going to kiss is…