Los Angeles

JOURNEY ON Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes comes to Disney Hall this weekend, October 9-12, to join conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in an assuredly uplifting program: The Beethoven Cycle Finale. By presenting Beethoven’s Fifth and final Piano Concerto, Andsnes offers the final leg of The Beethoven…

MORE OF A LOCAL THAN AN EXPRESS Written and conceived by Emmy-award winning producer Bill Borden (High School Musical, Desperado), Locals Only! is a new musical that follows the story of two star-crossed lovers who amorously pursue their blossoming love relationship amidst a culture clash that arises between their respective beach and Valley posses. The…

THIS CAPRICCIO IS NO CAPRICE The brooding romanticism of Capriccio’s opening sextet sets the tone for the introspection that is to follow. Instead of a dramatic overture and crowd-pleasing arias, composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) aims to say something meaningful about opera itself. In that sense, it’s an incredibly self-conscious and self-referential work’”postmodern even. Essentially an…

TRICKSTERS WHO ARE A TREAT From Vegas extravaganzas to intimate parlors, my favorite magicians are those with personality and humor. Even when tricks are well-rehearsed and mindboggling, slick illusionists tend to omit the magic that comes from a rapport with the audience. Regardless of impressive sleight-of-hand or how many animals emerge from a coat pocket,…

SWAN IN A MILLION Featuring a live orchestra, The Australian Ballet’s Swan Lake comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this weekend, October 9-12, 2014. While this is one of the world’s favorite ballets, expect this rendition’”created by Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy’”to be unlike any that have come before. This dazzling production is one of The…

A TRANS-PORTIVE EXPERIENCE AWAITS YOU When I saw the trio of headliners who will be performing for one night only at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, I had to do a Little Rascals double-take. I have considered myself lucky to have seen each one separately, but to have all three together is a confluence of…

SWEET SONGS UNSUPPORTED Tarell Alvin McCraney’s 2012 Choir Boy is a tantalizing, underdeveloped play-with-music not entirely improved by Trip Cullman’s direction, now at the Geffen a year after the production’s Manhattan Theater Club bow. Jason Michael Webb’s tasteful vocal arrangements sound terrific via Fitz Patton’s crisp sound design, but the very assurance and gravity of…

REAWAKENING In one of the bios for Deaf West’s production of Spring Awakening, actress Ali Stroker thanks the company for stepping out of the box, and turning what some may think as a ‘limitation’ into an opportunity. The “limitation” here refers to her wheelchair as well as deafness’”particularly, her cast mates who are deaf appearing…

COME HOME TO THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote’s plaintive 1953 teleplay (adapted for Broadway and for the 1985 film with Geraldine Page), paints a picture of rural America in the 1940s that gently reminds us that there was (and may still be) a place in this country where people tip…

POP DOES OPERA  BIG, INTIMATELY Under Artistic Director Josh Shaw’s hands-on guidance, Pacific Opera Project has become L.A.’s most exciting new opera company. In just three years since POP began with the teeny-tiny production of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, I sensed that this would be the company to make quality opera more accessible, approachable, and affordable….

COLD DEAD HANDS America’s bittersweet love-and-hate affair with guns is the target of playwright Victor Kaufold’s thought-provoking but lopsided satirical revue, which premiered in 2000 at the Blank Theatre’s Young Playwright’s Festival, their annual showcase of works by teen authors. The play was an immediate response to the massacre at Columbine High School, where a…

YOU’LL GET THIS GOAT Martin is an architect at the top of his profession; he and his wife Stevie and their son Billy live at, or on, the crest of civilization: rich, successful, smart, loving, happy. Their journalist friend Ross is, if not an Olympian, a dweller on the slopes; they are all cultivated, delightful,…

HERE’S CHARLEY This Sunday, September 21, Musical Theatre West will begin the Reiner Staged Reading Series fifth anniversary season with a one-time only performance of Where’s Charley? (1948), based on Brandon Thomas’s wildly successful Charley’s Aunt (1892), which had an original London run of 1,466 performances. Where’s Charley?, Frank Loesser’s first Broadway score, is one…

STRANGE BUT WATCHABLE BEHAVIOR Let’s see if I got this right. A tongue-in-cheek bio-musical and pseudo-adventure tale about John Broadus Watson’”wannabe preacher-turned-behavioral scientist-turned-ad man’”includes anthropomorphized barnyard animals, family drama, a love story, a talking lab rat, and a vaudevillian, Weill-esque score (from oompah and jazz to spirituals) : and this hydra-headed musical doesn’t suck?! Credit…

HEAVENLY DAY Samuel Beckett’s 1960 two-hander Happy Days presents a life in hell: Winnie, a middle-aged lady half-buried in an apocalyptic wasteland, is awakened and put to sleep by a harsh, ominous, unexplained buzzer; a lecherous and monosyllabic cripple, her husband Willie is little help; her day consists of finding ways to not go insane,…

BEYOND SAVING The title of the Loft Ensemble’s world premiere presentation asks the question, Will You Save Them? Unfortunately the answer is, “I can’t.” While the production is not completely lacking in positive attributes, without a complete rewrite of the script, this journey into the dark side of human nature will remain a lost cause….

ALL YESTERDAY’S PARTIES A projection reads “1,000,000 Years B.C.,” and the countdown (count up?) begins; that’s a lot of numbers to scroll on a stage bare of performers, and it’s a few minutes of tedium before the counter gets to the 200,000s and a naked man (Sean Patten, in a blond Glam wig and fuck-me…

HARD DRIVING COCK GOES DEEP Love may be “a many-splendored thing” but as Pat Benatar sang it’s also a “battlefield.” In Mike Bartlett’s Cock, making its Los Angeles premiere at Rogue Machine, the gloves are off and all the players come out swinging. For a riveting non-stop 90 minutes they counter and torment each other…

MORE D’OH THAN WOO-HOO The intelligent minds behind The Simpsons already had over 51,000 spectators (over three nights) in the palms of their collective hands before they sat down to write The Simpsons Take the Bowl, a hodgepodge of animated clips, anecdotes, guest star appearances, musical numbers, and fireworks’”all co-hosted by three voiceover artists: Hank…