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Los Angeles
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Dance Review: DANCE OF ORIENTAL (Oever; World Premiere at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles)
Southern California hosts one of the largest Sino diaspora communities in the United States. Approximately 4% of the population—over 5,000 first-generation immigrants—centers around the 626 Asians, a celebrated food haven in the San Gabriel Valley (area code: 626) for authentic Chinese regional cuisine. Angelenos, fortunate to enjoy a diverse cultural landscape, have developed a taste…
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Theater Review: SANTASIA: A HOLIDAY COMEDY (Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks)
A LETTER TO SANTA Dear Santa: Well, what a year 2024 was. With the way things are going, I decided to count my blessings. So I’m writing to thank you for that pair of tickets to see Santasia: A Holiday Comedy — it was the sweetest Kids in the Hall-type, holiday-themed Vaudeville show ever! Managing…
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Theater Interview: RON HARNER (Director and Playwright of Union Station at The Broadwater in Hollywood)
ON THE RIGHT TRACK Prior to his new play Union Station, playing at the Broadwater Main Stage Jan 23-26, Ron Harner wrote and directed three other plays: The Ones Who Leave (2019), Spitting Feathers (2022) and On The Rocks (2023). Union Station, featuring the songs of Joni Mitchell, is billed as “a celebration of music,…
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Music Interview: CODY FRY (Appearing in Concert with The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at Disney Hall)
CAUGHT YOU AT A GOOD TIME [Editor’s Note, Jan 8, 2025: Due to the Los Angeles fires, the January 10 concert referenced in this interview has been postponed. It has been rescheduled for Saturday, April 19, 2025. Tickets for the January 10 concert will be valid for the new date.] When Cody Fry is asked…
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Highly Recommended Theater: ELEANOR (Laguna Playhouse)
“You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Laguna Playhouse has announced that Mary Roosevelt, a direct descendant of Eleanor Roosevelt, will share personal stories and reflections on the life and legacy of one of the 20th century’s most iconic women following the 2pm performance on…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: THE MUSIC GUILD (2025 Season at St Alban’s Church, Westwood)
GUILD TO PERFECTION There is an outstanding music outfit in Los Angeles which offers a series of chamber music concerts, introducing world renowned artists to Los Angeles audiences. Having seen presentations of repertoire played at its premier level by sparkling chamber musicians for over 10 years now, it seems unthinkable to me that The Music…
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Concert Review: NOON TO MIDNIGHT (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
DOUG AITKIN’S LIGHTSCAPE, THE CENTERPIECE OF LA PHIL’S DAY-LONG NEW MUSIC PROGRAM, OPENS AS AN INSTALLATION AT THE MARCIANO ARTS FOUNDATION THIS WEEK Noon to Midnight, a daylong festival of new music, is my favorite LA Phil program of the year. What’s playing? No clue. Is the music good? Unlikely. Is the centerpiece performance going…
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Theater Review: PRICE: A REPRESSED REPERTOIRE (SEQUENCES) (New Theater Hollywood)
ACTS, REPETITIONS AND REPRESSIONS There’s a new theater in town, Los Angeles, aptly named New Theater Hollywood, run by artists Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff. I discovered it quite by accident in an article in the LA Review of Books, which described it as “sceney.” I simply had to go. I checked out the first…
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Concert Review: GURRELIEDER (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
In an era when orchestral programming often shies from excess, the Los Angeles Philharmonic last weekend plunged unapologetically into the extravagant labyrinth of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. Under the baton of Zubin Mehta—paying homage to his tenure as the orchestra’s lionized music director emeritus—the performance resuscitated Schoenberg’s early, sprawling epic, a two-hour monument to the late-Romantic…
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Concert Review: KRISTIN CHENOWETH HOLIDAY CONCERT (LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
SMALLTOWN ROOTS, BIGTOWN PERFORMER Personable Kristin Chenoweth – the original Glinda in the Broadway musical Wicked – was a delight last night in L.A. This is Kristen as a regular gal from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, but her stage presence is phenomenal and her vocals are stratospheric. She dazzled us with holiday classics old and new…
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Jazz Preview: BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL (Hollywood Bowl)
LEGENDARY BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB TO OPEN IN L.A. ANNOUNCING THE BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL IN 2025 Well, if this isn’t the best news for all of us jazz fans. The iconic Blue Note Jazz Club is expanding to Los Angeles, bringing the legendary reputation of its renowned New York flagship…
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Concert Review: SARAH BRIGHTMAN’S A CHRISTMAS SYMPHONY (International Tour)
A CHRISTMAS SYMPHONY? MORE LIKE A TRIBUTE TO A SELF-ANOINTED OPERA DIVA QUEEN Now an annual tradition, the international tour of Sarah Brightman’s A Christmas Symphony first began in 2022. Then she visited 22 cities in Canada and the US in 2023. This year, the tour includes 14 new cities in the Western United States…
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Theater Review: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (Broadway Production at The Ahmanson Theatre)
ONCE UPON A MATTRESS LIVES HAPPILY EVER AFTER Almost two hundred years ago, Hans Christian Andersen penned a quaint story about a lonesome prince in search of a woman who can prove to his mother she is a real princess and thereby become his wife. The queen devises a plan for the woman to sleep…
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Highly Recommended Theater: ANYTHING GOES IN CONCERT (Wayne Brady, J Harrison Ghee, Jinkx Monsoon; Pasadena Civic)
YOU’LL GET A KICK OUT OF THIS [EDITORS NOTE, January 10, 2025: Given the extensive impact of the fires on Playhouse staff, artists, and audiences, Pasadena Playhouse has cancelled the upcoming In Concert productions of Anything Goes and Follies at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. No remount dates have been announced.] Oh, no, no, no. A musical in…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (The Streetcar Project Tour in LA, NY, SF, DC & more — Highly Recommended)
NOW, THERE’S OH SO MUCH MORE TO DESIRE Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director and co-creator Nick Westrate would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times. But wait til you hear…
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Theater Preview: EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON (World Premiere Musical in Pasadena)
Karen, a young woman, is offered the chance to rescue her impoverished family from its dire straits if she agrees to become the companion of an enchanted bear for a year. Within the body of the bear resides a handsome prince destined to become Karen’s true love, but the Evil Queen of the Trolls has…
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Highly Recommended Concert: A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS (National Tour at Walt Disney Concert Hall)
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CHANTICLEER I may be enamored by the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Messiah, I may be enthralled by Pasadena Symphony’s Holiday Candlelight, I may be excited by the Gay Men’s Chorus’s Holiday Spectacular, but A Chanticleer Christmas, which plays Disney Hall on Dec. 17, is always the best choral show of…
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Theater Review: HOME ALONE-LY HEARTS CLUB BAND (The Troubies at the Colony in Burbank)
Accompanied by the rockin’ 4-piece Troubadorchestra led by music director Ryan Whyman, the always-entertaining, hip and sassy Troubadour Theater Company (The Troubies) is generating tons of fun with their latest mash-up, the world premiere of Home Alone-ly Hearts Club Band at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, areThe premise is familiar to fans of the group: The…
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Review: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE (American Contemporary Ballet at the Bank of America Plaza in Downtown L.A.)
THE NUTCRACKER SUITE IS SWEETER THAN THE NUTCRACKER American Contemporary Ballet’s advertising for their annual production of The Nutcracker Suite, now playing Downtown in Bank of America Plaza, is misleading. Their scant imagery suggests that it would be an austere and intellectual outing for adults ̶ theatrical vegetables, if you will. However, it turned out…
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Highly Recommended Cabaret: MEOW MEOW: FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY (The Wallis, Beverly Hills, & Stanford U)
SANTA’S FUR IS GONNA FLY WITH MEOW MEOW’S FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramović allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? And when you hear the term “cabaret,” do you think of tired patter, same-old showtunes, and folks who’re trying…
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