Los Angeles

FLARE DONE WITH FLAIR Unlike Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight (1936), Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path (1941) is not an anti-war play. Both take place in a hotel and have a rich variety of characters, but while Sherwood’s Pulitzer-winner is a clear commentary on mankind’s fear, idealism, self-indulgence, and foolishness, Flare Path is a slice-of-life period piece whose…

THIS WOODS DELIVERS THE GOODS Somewhere between “Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” there is a very adult world of tests, losses, disappointments, and grief. Despite this, we assert our agency; or as the baker’s wife sings in Into the Woods, “If you know what you want, then you go and you find…

CROSS OVER INTO IMPRO’S TWILIGHT ZONE After last year’s crop of run-of-the-mill Christmas plays, I swore off any theater that even alludes to the holidays. Now, I must eat my words. Opening tonight and running through Dec. 21, those daringly innovative  long-form improvisers, Impro Theatre, bring Twilight Zone UnScripted: Holiday Version to The Carrie Hamilton Theatre….

A REALLY GOOD LIFETIME MOVIE ON STAGE Chicago Theater comes to L.A. lock, stock and barrel with the Goodman production of Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale.   A winning cast’”led by the remarkable Mary Beth Fisher’”and Robert Falls’ taut direction validate how Chicago artists can turn a problematic (though certainly engaging) script into a likeable and at…

TESTED AND APPROVED Whether amateur or professional, containing sacred pieces or hummable traditionals, a cappella or accompanied by orchestra or just piano, the list of worthy chorale holiday concerts in the Los Angeles area numbers more than 40 this year. Allow me to whittle down your choice of choral affairs by offering the Stage and…

WHAT DIDN’T HE Joe Orton was a loudly subversive English playwright who, before his murder in 1967, helped rip out the loud, inefficient plumbing of kitchen sink social drama and replace it with something really dangerous: comedy. In a series of black farces, Orton substituted the Socialist Rape Victim for John Osborne’s Angry Young Man….

COME BE IMPRESSED BY WHAT’S EXPRESSED For the third concert of Le Salon de Musiques’ fifth season, Masters Rediscovered, French-American Pianist/Melodist and Artistic Director François Chouchan has selected the works of four composers, three of whom are mostly unknown but not because they lack genius. Chouchan’s carefully selected programs have proved time and again that…

KANDER & EBB’S DANCE MARATHON MUSICAL FINALLY ARRIVES IN LOS ANGELES I can understand why you hear about a “Staged Reading” and want to bolt in the opposite direction. Don’t let that title fool you. Indeed, in the last year, some of the best nights in the theater can be found at these events. Especially…

A NOCTURNE BY ANY OTHER NAME To those of you who don’t know (or think that everything hip is only happening now), Piano Spheres has for nearly twenty years been one of the country’s few serious and consistent concert series focusing on new piano repertoire. Its Satellite Series offers recitals by four emerging L.A. pianists,…

AWAKENED AND REFRESHED Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the Renaissance. The rich interchange of ideas in Europe, as well as political, economic, and religious events in the period 1400–1600 led to major changes in styles of composing, methods of disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of…

SILVER DOESN’T EVEN GET A BRONZE It took fifteen actors, two writers, two directors, and three designers to create a Working Theater’s one-hour interactive theatrical experience, a Silver Lining (Matt Soson is co-director, co-writer, actor, and composer, so I assume it’s his baby somehow). With mannered acting, poor narrative-free writing, cheap-looking design elements, and bemusing…

THE LASERIUM OF THE 21ST CENTURY While the result of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s first in/SIGHT offering last weekend was mixed, the experimentation itself was a resounding success. Visual Artist Refik Anadol’s brand new multi-media fantasia accompanied Esa-Pekka Salonen’s vigorous and explosive rendition of Edgard Varèse’s Amériques, the final piece of an eclectic program titled…

COMPLETELY SMART The exciting and insightful writer  Itamar Moses may be one of our brightest playwrights, yet he has astoundingly been given short shrift by the L.A. theater community. With over 10 produced plays (Bach at Leipzig) and musicals (Nobody Loves You and the upcoming The Fortress of Solitude with Michael Friedman at The Public), Moses…

GREEN IRELAND, HANDSOME HANSON, AND A BRIDGE TOO FAR Le Salon de Musiques, the most cultivated, accessible, pleasant, exciting and educational chamber concert outfit in, well, anywhere I have been, opened its fifth season with a concert of its usual riches: contextual insight, perfect performances, rarely heard but astounding selections, hobnobbing, and gourmandizing. The three…