Los Angeles

THE SHAPE OF THINGS After Bruce Norris’s A Parallelogram at the Mark Taper Forum, I overheard a few audience members describe the play as “cute.†For all of the play’s political incorrectness, ramblings about physics, a future plague, and fairly unlikeable (and unknowable) characters, it appears that the playwright was going for provocative philosophy, but…

MISGUIDED MELODRAMA Billy Wilder’s 1950 film masterpiece Sunset Boulevard starred Gloria Swanson as the washed-up-actress-turned-cougar Norma Desmond, and William Holden as her prematurely-jaded-Hollywood-writer-turned-boy-toy Joe Gillis.   Using the camera as an instrument to capture performances of discomforting intensity, it wove a psychologically intricate tale of seduction, jealousy and betrayal set, of course, in Hollywood.   It skirted…

THE NIGHT THEY INVENTED TINY BUBBLES After Marvin Hamlisch’s untimely passing, Michael Feinstein, who has singlehandedly reinvigorated the American Songbook for the 21st century, took over as principal conductor for the Pasadena POPS. His first concert, Michael Feinstein’s Songbook, saw the beguiling raconteur as a perfect fit for the POPS crowd which, let’s face it,…

AND NOW FOR A BRIEF INTERLUDE What’s hip these days? It’s the old tradition of taking idiosyncratic history or historical figures and putting the stories and details to music. Sufjan Stevens produced albums about the states Michigan and Illinois to wide acclaim in the indie circuit. Electronic duo Neon Neon released Stainless Style, based on…

BEAUTIFUL BOOTY Nearly 200 years ago to the day that Lord Byron published his poem The Corsair, ABT’s monumental 3-act ballet on which it is based came bounding into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday, offering sumptuous visuals, an enormous cast and orchestra, and crowd-pleasing virtuoso performances. Le Corsaire (“The Pirate”) premiered in 1856, but…

MIXED RESULTS FOR ABT’S MIXED REP As an introduction to American Ballet Theatre’s highly anticipated 4-performance weekend of the full-length Le Corsaire, the company presented a mixed repertory of the old and the new on Thursday. Surprisingly, the results were as mixed as the program itself. As ballet continues to redefine itself in the 21st…

IT IS WHAT IT IS Set your “expectation meter” in the mid-range and you will probably enjoy The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom starring comedienne Judy Gold. However, if you enter the theater high on anticipation expecting to be wowed you will more than likely be disappointed. The bottom line is that “it…

SUCCESSFULLY SIMPLE When the choreographer and Artistic Director of a dance company consciously makes the decision to eschew excess ornamentations such as costumes, lights, and recognizable movement vocabularies, one imagines how you would even go about choreographing a dance piece. I have seen minimalist-inspired pieces that either left me utterly appalled from the work’s pretentiousness…

SELFISHNESS AND SACRIFICE Alcestis is the old Greek story of a man who allows his wife to sacrifice her life for his.   As interpreted by Euripides, T.S. Eliot and others, it has much to say on the relationship between the mortal and the infinite. It is a reverie on egotism, love, mortality, personal redemption, and…

BLAKE: IN DELICACY AND DISTRESS Hollywood Master Chorale concluded their Songs of Experience concert series Sunday night at the West Hollywood Library. Since the concert was inspired by Poet-painter William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” the library was an an apt location to showcase his intimate, poignant poems set to song. The composers enlisted…

FOUNTAIN’S FANTASTIC FLAMENCO FIESTA While classic and modern dance seem to be continually reinventing themselves, Flamenco remains a bedrock of the moving arts. As Forever Flamenco! at the Ford proved last Saturday, age and body type have nothing to do with the soulful expressiveness inherent in this traditional dance form. There are many forms of…

THE VOICE IN THE SILENCE Raiford Rogers has been choreographing dance for over thirty years.   He co-founded (with Victoria Koenig) the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet in 1981, known since Koenig’s departure as the Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet.   He has designed everything from pop moves for superstars (he never tells for whom) to sophisticated classical compositions.  …

JEKYLL AND HYDE DIRECTION MAKES THE MAGIC DISAPPEAR IN WATSON AND THE DARK ART OF HARRY HOUDINI Writer/Director Jaime Robledo follows up his award-winning smash hit Watson: The Last Great Tale of the Legendary Sherlock Holmes (reviewed here) with a world premiere sequel Watson  and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini at the Sacred Fools Theater…

VERDI ON THE VERGE Hearing Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth is a rather disorienting experience, at least at the beginning. The difference is that we’re used to Shakespeare’s English, even if it is archaic. Translating his tragic play into Italian makes it seem like something else entirely. Then add to that the very Italian flavor of Verdi’s…

LITTLE MORTAL JUMP TURNS OUT TO BE THE BIGGEST THING OF THE NIGHT The lineup at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion begins with the respected and always impressive Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as they converge with the San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet. When combined, the crowd-control extravaganza which closes the program, Azimuth, features a sprawling…