Los Angeles

WOULD YOU LIKE COFFEE, TEA OR THE AMERICAN DREAM? Sometimes we take a short vacation just to get away from it all. A few days. No big tourist attractions or monumental natural sites are necessary. Just a pleasant little excursion with the benefits of some local color, even in a far-off land, where you can…

A CULLED CORRAL OF CHORALISTS You think that deciding which Nutcracker to see this holiday season is daunting? Selecting which vocal concert to attend is an even tougher nut to crack. Whether amateur or professional, containing sacred pieces or hummable traditionals, accompanied by orchestra or just piano, the list of worthy contenders in the Los…

TO BE! (TRAPPED INSIDE YOUR OWN PRODUCTION) The explosion of solo performance pieces in the 1970s and 80s extended the creative lives of fine artists like Lily Tomlin and made stars of social philosophers like Eric Bogosian.   A show along the lines of Bogosian’s Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead avoided the ostentation…

I WOULD, BUT I HAVE TO GET TO THE SALON I had attended chamber music concerts in intimate salons before, but until last year I had never seen one in Los Angeles. Le Salon de Musiques changed all that. Now in their fourth season, this sterling outfit continues to offer nine programs a year. The…

WITHOUT TRUTH, EXISTENTIALISM IS INCOHERENT The premise of Colin Mitchell’s Breaking and Entering, which just ended its seven-performance run, is the best element of an existential play that ends up being far less profound and accessible than intended. Milly, a young woman and obsessive fan, breaks into the mansion of WJ Trumbull, a hermetic novelist…

JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS:   A DARK CARNIVAL OF DEATH AND TERROR! This tour de force of trickery from creators Todd Robbins and the magician Teller (the traditionally silent half of the famous magician duo Penn and Teller) is a magic show.   However, be warned before attending:   This is not a cheerfully sweet show…

MUSICAL THEATRE GUILD GOES TO TOWN “Charming” doesn’t begin to describe Musical Theatre Guild’s offering of the 1953 musical Wonderful Town. Even with a recent 2003 Broadway outing starring Donna Murphy, this breezy and buoyant musical comedy is rarely produced, making it perfect for a company whose mission it is to present concert staged readings…

EXPERIMENT SANS CONTROL GROUP In 2012, Tokyo-based company Faifai decided to bring its 2009 movement-and-language assembly Anton, Neko, Kuri to international audiences.   In a move she revealingly describes as “marketing,” director Chiharu Shinoda (with the help of stage designer Ayami Sasaki) imposed a huge projection screen dwarfing the four performers, upon which to project animated…

TWEE OF KNOWLEDGE New York downtowner Young Jean Lee’s 2011 rock concert-with-monologues We’re Gonna Die begins very well – at Wednesday’s Los Angeles premiere, a horrifyingly sad story had the audience breathless within a couple of minutes.   The show ends with a thoughtful flourish, choreographed with disarming physicality by Faye Driscoll and enthusiastically directed by…

THE WORDS BEHIND THE MUSIC Just like anyone else, I occasionally turn to critics when choosing to attend a particular concert. The reports about German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann playing Antonín Dvořák’s seldom-heard Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra last year were so stellar that I have no choice but to see him perform…

CHEAPENED BY THIS DOZEN Words such a “tolerance” and “acceptance” are bandied about as America continues a national dialogue on race, oversimplifying the subject of prejudice. Sadly, political correctness has tainted our conversation, and I believe as a white man that the freedom to express my honest feelings on the subject has been restricted, even…

MUSICAL NATURE It isn’t so uncommon when an up-and-coming piano player has all the right moves but has yet to incorporate personality into their work. Making his Los Angeles premiere with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra last night, Italian pianist Alessio Bax demonstrated a youthful command of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, but lacked the oomph…

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU, SKID You want to hear some of the freshest, funniest dialogue in town? Head over to Cornerstone’s world premiere of Love on San Pedro. James McManus’s script was developed via personal interviews he had with Skid Row denizens, so the stories in the play take place in this one square mile…

TOVEY SLAMS DOWN THE FIFTH A funny thing happened on the way to witty raconteur and conductor Bramwell Tovey’s presentation of his Songs of the Paradise Saloon featuring trumpet soloist Alison Balsom at Disney Hall last Sunday: I came for this newer concerto but ended up being blown away by his ecstatic interpretation of Shostakovich’s…