Los Angeles

MORE LANG FOR YOUR BUCK While Jessica Lang has made a name for herself in the dance world as an independent choreographer, dance patrons in Los Angeles may find this dancemaker difficult to place. Because the majority of troupes that visit here offer programs by the company’s namesake (Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Bill T. Jones),…

DEARTH OF DRAMA Steven Drukman’s Death of the Author takes its name, premise, and some of the devices in its dialogue from a Roland Barthes essay on postmodernism.   It’s wonderful to see Drukman adapt Gore Vidal’s riposte to William Buckley about crypto-Nazis and fold it into a pun on Marxist literary theory.   But there’s nothing…

A PRODUCTION FOR TUTTE TO COSíŒ UP TO For those who think that the “semi-staging” for Così fan tutte, which opens on Friday at Disney Hall, is simply a world-class orchestra accompanying opera singers holding a libretto in their hands, you are in for a surprise. Fully staged, fully memorized, and beautifully designed, the operas…

IF YOU GUILD IT, THEY WILL COME There is an outstanding music outfit which offers a series of chamber music concerts, introducing world renowned artists to Los Angeles audiences. Having seen some of its recent presentations of repertoire played at its premier level by sparkling chamber musicians, including the Borromeo and Avalon String Quartets (review),…

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…