Los Angeles

a poem about a play This critic, this poet this pinch faced sailor Blueblack eyes like wet rocks icy sharp nose like a dagger screams I AM A PLAGIARIST this poem MY poem paraphrased from actual script of different words for the same thing The same thing by Kimber Lee The same thing Playing at…

A BLAZING-HOT PRODUCTION As Los Angeles heats up to sizzling temperatures this week, there is a cool, refreshing theatrical breeze blowing down the pike. It may be wise to avoid the 110-in-the-shade weather outside, but the musical 110 in the Shade at Actors Co-op in Hollywood is not to be missed. With a libretto by…

DAZZLING DOMINGO IN MASSENET’S MASTERPIECE What do world-renowned singers do once they have reached the age of retirement? On the strength of their name, they fill cabarets and concert houses across the land with nostalgia-filled patrons who seek a glimpse of their heroes live. Recent years have seen both opera and Broadway stars in just…

HAS THE BLOOM WORN OFF THE LILY, OR IS IT ME? Dear Lily: I’ve adored you ever since you burst into my consciousness – and the nation’s – way back in 1969 on Laugh-In. Who could forget your Ernestine, the irascible telephone operator? Your Edith Ann, the precocious and deep-voiced 6-year-old? Your weirdly insightful homeless…

THE GHOST OF GERSHWIN: SONGS 10, BOOK 3 There is a lot to sing about in the Group Rep’s season closer The Ghost of Gershwin. It contains a bevy of freshly penned ditties by Wayland Pickard (music) and Laura Manning (lyrics co-written with Pickard) that are nostalgic in tone and capture the style and essence…

THE OLD SONG-AND-DANCE Full of vitality, eagerness, and joie de vivre, the indefatigable, cheerful, and fast-talkin’ showman Maurice Hines is offering a walk-down-memory-lane with song, big band, and a few special dance guests. For the nostalgia-starved and their parents, Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life at the Wallis is just the ticket. Basically an “And…

THEATRICAL ANTHRAX In Ellen McLaughlin’s 2011 play Ajax in Iraq, a heroic American soldier, A.J., is raped by her sergeant.   Her Iraq War story parallels that of the Trojan War hero in the Sophocles play, Ajax (elements of which are plonked down atop the contemporary thread): contempt for one’s fellow man in the horrors of…

A PROGRAM WHICH IS AN ARGUMENT FOR LIVE CONCERTS LA Phil’s concert last night offered more than enough reasons to validate why live music is far preferable to recordings. The evening’s centerpiece, pianist Lang Lang’s buttery and strong interpretation of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, was a sight to see. Prokofiev trademarks’”bursts of mischievous jocularity,…

ALL THAT CHAZZ Actor Chazz Palminteri returns to the Los Angeles stage in the world premiere of Unorganized Crime, currently shooting up the joint at the Elephant Theater in Hollywood. He first hit the boards in 1990 with his highly acclaimed one-man autobiographical outing A Bronx Tale which catapulted him into a successful movie career…

GOING WHERE NO FESTIVAL HAS GONE BEFORE Writer and actor David Dean Bottrell came up with a swell idea for Los Angeles’”a science fiction theater festival. Consisting of two different programs, the event known as SCI-FEST opened at the ACME Theatre last Tuesday with Program A, consisting of four one-act plays from the genre (Evening…

INDELICATE AND OUT OF BALANCE When Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 it was no doubt a theatrical revelation. Although it didn’t pack the emotional wallop of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962), the story of an aging couple, upper-crust empty nesters forced to confront the ramifications of both their…

INTO THE WORDS For his production of Into the Woods, director T.J. Dawson notes that Stephen Sondheim’s score is often revered as genius. “However, many of his incredible lyrics rush by most of us before we can fully take them in.” Unfortunately, this accurately describes the experience watching 3-D Theatricals’ version of the popular 1987…

JUST DANCE I recently read an email from a dance mentor whose advice for performing was simply, “Let it all go and Dance, Motherfuckers!” I couldn’t help but think back to the email as I watched L.A. Contemporary Dance Company’s closing performance of YOUTH, its Spring Repertory Concert. After three Dance Theater works’”which included social…

29 IS THE NEW 19 “If you ever feel stuck in your life,” Broadway, TV, and film heartthrob Jeremy Jordan told the adoring throng at his L.A. debut last night, “go back to your childhood and remember your dream.” The 29-year old was near the tail end of his 85-minute cabaret act, basically a travelogue…

OOPSY DAISY With enough comic personality to rival Fanny Brice, the droll, deft, dirty, daffy, derisive, delirious, and delightful Daisy Eagan, best-known for being the youngest female Tony Winner (The Secret Garden, 1991), has created a new solo show which I caught at Rockwell Table & Stage in Los Angeles. Having already played San Francisco,…

BAROQUE AND LOVING IT It begins innocently enough with two nymphs singing, swinging and blowing bubbles’”until the gods intervene and mayhem ensues. There are transvestites, lusty satyrs, and phalluses galore. There is a blonde bimbo, an ice queen, and a goddess scorned. There is mischief, ribaldry, cuckoldry, tomfoolery, and slapstick. Underscoring it all are Francesco…

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BACHS It is more than satisfying to see what has become a fetish of the solo piano community performed with historical acuity and depth by (lo!) a conductor. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) music director Jeffrey Kahane played Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Colburn’s Zipper Hall in the final installment of LACO’s stellar…

NOT PREMEDITATED ENOUGH Despite playwright Evelina Fernández’ ability to take clichéd problems about marriage and turn them into humorous complaints about men tossing underwear on the floor and women nagging, her divertingly silly but disappointingly trite Premeditation doesn’t elevate past the conceit: A woman hires a hit man to off her husband of 25 years….