Los Angeles

EUROPEAN ELEGANCE IN LOS ANGELES Once while in Salzburg, I happened upon a chamber concert in a private home (well, they called it a home, I called it a tiny palace). Our host explained that piano trios’”compositions for two stringed instruments and a piano’”were designed for intimate spaces such as the luxuriant parlor we sat…

LIKING THIS LIKENESS Writer/producer/director Daniel Rover Singer’s A Perfect Likeness imagines a meeting between Charles Dickens and Charles Dodgson–better known by the alias, Lewis Carroll. Had Dickens taken up amateur photographer Mr. Dodgson’s request to meet him and have his portrait taken, this would be the scenario. The ninety-minute two-person drawing-room play is set somewhere…

THE HAM IN WINTER Here’s a show that means well, but which somehow falls a little short of expectations.   It’s actually somewhat difficult to put one’s finger on why:   By rights, the play should astound.   It’s written by William Luce, considered one of the great writers of solo biographical shows, whose works include the transcendent…

AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED On  a website which attempts to list every Anton Bruckner orchestral recording offered to the public (abruckner.com), the discography collector and annotator John F. Berky states that the Austrian composer “expanded the concept of the symphonic form in ways that have never been witnessed before or since. When listening to…

BLOATED SCORE OR A BIG FAT MUSICAL TRIUMPH? LA Opera’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff, his last opera which premiered in 1893, fascinatingly elucidates why his one successful comic romp has both detractors and ardent admirers. Those who crave memorable arias will be disappointed, but those who appreciate evocative orchestral music which expresses character and blazes…

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE INTENT BEHIND PROJECTILE MILK? ONE CAN ONLY GUESS. Highways Performance Space is a venue that is both historic and very intimate. For the past 24 years, it has served as a Los Angeles cultural center in Santa Monica where artists of all genres come to create and perform. It also prides…

SIRRAH, NO Cyrano de Bergerac is the story of a fearless, witty, charismatic romantic whose grotesque nose prevents him from pursuing Roxanne, the woman he loves. Roxanne is smitten by Christian, a handsome man whose only fault is not being equipped with Cyrano’s wit. When Cyrano decides to write missives to Roxanne as Christian, the…

WAITING FOR GODYSSEUS Consider the last four suitors of Odysseus’s grass widow, Queen Penelope of Ithaca.   Clad in Speedos, the men have gathered their dwindling numbers for the last twenty years at the Trojan War hero’s palace to feast themselves pudgy while their rival performs Homeric feats on his way home to kill them all.  …

ROGUE MACHINE’S PRODUCTION KEEPS SCRIPT FROM FALLING In Deanna Jent’s Falling, a mom is reaching burnout: Her 18-year-old autistic son is consuming her time, her marriage is shaky, her mother-in-law is visiting, and she has a resentful daughter. With so much tension in the house, all it takes is an unseen barking dog to heighten…

THIS SHOULD BE A YEARLY INSTITUTION It seems a shame to fawn over Los Angeles Master Chorale’s splendid rendering of Carl Orff’s pagan-fest, Carmina Burana, because I can’t tell you to mark your calendar now for the next time. Even though LAMC has visited it before under all four of their music directors, who knows…

ROCK AND ROLL DREAM (MAYBE, IF YOUR DREAM IS VERY SMALL) Becoming a rock star is a uniquely American dream.   And who wouldn’t want to live a life of rock and roll excess and decadence?   When you think about rock, and in particular about this fantasy of the rocker life, the mind drifts inescapably to…

OF KNOTS AND TANGLES Johnna Adams’ 2012 play Gidion’s Knot, now receiving its premiere Los Angeles staging by the Furious Theatre Company, lends itself to spoilers.   To know much about the fragile plot will reduce the thrill of watching it play out, so avoid reviews (except this one) and synopses (I don’t include one here)…

A DANCE PIECE THAT’S A KEEPER The frequency of site-specific events continues to grow exponentially in the City of Angels, but Heidi Duckler has been doing it for many years, creating unique dance performances in spaces as disparate as Laundromats, museums, churches, civic buildings and even a vintage 1961 Oasis trailer. Now she takes us…

HIT THE WALLIS A brand new theater has opened its doors in Beverly Hills, but nothing could have prepared me for its magnificence in contemporary construction and design. The 500-seat Bram Goldsmith Theater opens to the public this week with the Martha Graham Dance Company, but the state-of-the-art theater is just one part of The…

ZAPPED ZAPPA Any live performance of 200 Motels is bound to bear a degree of disappointment since its mastermind, Frank Zappa, is not alive to conduct the evening’s program, shred on guitar, or entertain audiences with his fiery passion. Musically more challenging, and arguably more ambitious than the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper or the Who’s Tommy…

DREADFUL AT ANY PRICE Back in the1800s, the Industrial revolution was in full swing in merry ole England. The working class was becoming more educated and printing was becoming more affordable. To quench the thirst of the masses for every day diversions, “penny dreadfuls” hit the scene. These serialized fictional publications, sold for a penny,…

ITZHAK PERLMAN PLAYS DUAL ROLE OF CONDUCTOR AND SOLOIST AT DISNEY HALL Surely it’s no mere coincidence: On a recent road trip, I played over and over the 1979 recording of Itzhak Perlman playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. I own several recordings of the piece, but this is my favorite. The Israeli-born violinist not only brings…