Los Angeles

IS THERE A SHOW DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? There is a method of political activism called a “zap.” Basically, zaps are militant but non-violent face-to-face confrontations with persons in positions of authority, but when used in tandem with a media alert, they can be powerful weapons when furthering a cause. Since gay activists in the…

MINIMALIST JUKEBOX OFFERS MAXIMUM JOY Minimalism. The very notion of this form of music can send some musical lovers running for the hills, while others see it the most exciting and wholly refreshing form of music in the world today. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is presenting an opportunity for you to decide for yourself. Through…

I’LL TAKE ASTAIRE’S WAY TO PARADISE The great ballet choreographer George Balanchine compared Fred Astaire to Bach, and Baryshnikov claimed Astaire gave him in inferiority complex. On April 5 and 6, the second program of the DANCE+DESIGN series will examine the beloved Fred Astaire and his extraordinary talent as a dancer and choreographer. This installment…

NEWS FLASH! CIVIL WARS HITS LOS ANGELES! As part of LA Phil’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival, Jacaranda and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be presenting two sections of Robert Wilson’s vast, ambitious, and unfinished opera, the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down. On April 5 in Santa Monica, the Minneapolis Section’”a…

HAVING A “‘S WONDERFUL” TIME It should come as no surprise that the song catalog of George and Ira Gershwin’”according to Los Angeles Times’”generates about $8 million a year.  The treasure-trove of tunes created by the Gershwin brothers between the early 1920s and 1937, when George died, include “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” “Shall We…

SHAKESPEARE WISHES HE WERE THIS FUNNY Mistaken identities, cross-dressing, puns, fart jokes and dick jokes and pussy jokes.   You know where you can find these?   Movies starring Saturday Night Live alumni.   That’s about how funny they are: they’re not.   And they’re about as funny as Shakespeare ever got.   The only people who buy tickets to…

HELL COMES TO THE GARMENT DISTRICT Melbourne-based Four Larks is performing their ghostly junkyard opera, Orpheus, in a secret space on the outskirts of the Fashion District. Workshopped at Getty Villa Theater Lab, Four Larks narrates the mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice, navigating the Grecian hero through an ancient underworld as he attempts to resurrect…

MUSIC OF THE MOMENT “There is a season for everything: a time for losing, a time for keeping: a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace” (Eccl. 3:1ff.) There is also a time for singing about time, and…

KISSIN BLISS If you haven’t heard, Evgeny Kissin is positively the best pianist alive. In the sense of the grand pianistic tradition that some say died with likes of Arrau, Cliburn, and Rubinstein, Kissin is a living legend who, basically since infancy, has been caretaker to the “Golden Age” of the piano. Though his hair…

I CAN’T CAVE ENOUGH In 1917, Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins discovered Crystal Cave. Located in the same area as Mammoth Cave’”the longest cave system known in the world’”the site operated as a tourist attraction by his family. In 1925, while searching for a new entrance to the hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, Collins…

REVEL IN RAVEL AND BASK IN BEETHOVEN I’m so excited about LA Phil’s upcoming program this weekend (March 28 – 30) that I don’t know where to start. Well, actually I do. Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. In 1909, impresario Serge Diaghilev commissioned Ravel to write a score for a new ballet which would be based…

A FISHY MONSTROSITY What is it about the story of Jonah that has so captured the world’s imagination? Is it the stupidity of a man trying to run away from God, as if that were even possible? Is it the preposterous idea of a man living for three days inside a whale? Or perhaps it…