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Los Angeles
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Theater Review: TINY FATHER (Geffen Playhouse)
GOOD LESSONS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES Sometimes life throws you for a loop when fun times take a turn in unexpected ways, changing your whole life in an instant. Such is the story at the center of the 90-minute two-hander tiny father, written by Mike Lew (Tiger Style!), and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel at…
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Theater Review: SUCK MY TONGUE (Catharsis Theatre Collective at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
A PREMISE THAT DOESN’T SUCK I have dealt with PR firms for 15 years now, both in (mostly) and out of the arts world. Some may say that public relations is a strategic communication practice that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses or individuals and their audience. Sounds good, but advisors, pollsters and media consultants,…
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Highly Recommended Theater: BBC – BIG BLACK COCKROACH (REDCAT)
What Happens When a Right-Wing White Woman Wakes up Trapped in the Body of a Black Man? LA’s beloved and acclaimed writer and theatre performer Paul Outlaw presents his latest work BBC (Big Black Cockroach) at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. This outrageous and provocative world premiere begins tomorrow June 20 and runs through June 22,…
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Opera Review: THE COMET/POPPEA (MOCA and The Industry at the Geffen Contemporary Museum at MOCA)
BOTH YOUR HEAD AND THE STAGE WILL BE SPINNING When The Industry’s new opera, The Comet / Poppea, a smash-up between Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Busenello’s 1643 L’incoronazione di Poppea and George Lewis and Douglas Kearney’s The Comet began, I developed a sinking feeling. Both operas are performed simultaneously, but I was seated on the side…
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Highly Recommended Concert: WILLOW WITH ORCHESTRA (presented by LA Phil at The Ford on October 25, 2024)
Hey, Los Angeles, a trailblazer is coming to town. An L.A. native and the child of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Camille Reign Smith, also known mononymously as Willow, is coming to The Ford with the Color of Noize Orchestra conducted by Derrick Hodge to reimagine hits like “Whip My Hair,” “Wait a…
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Opera Review: THE COMET/POPPEA (MOCA and The Industry at the Geffen Contemporary Museum at MOCA)
What do you do when the world is on fire and you are only one of two people seemingly left alive? How do you learn to survive when your backgrounds pull you apart? Or how does a powerful woman survive the patriarchy of ancient Rome? No, it’s not an episode of The Twilight Zone; it’s…
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Theater Review: FOXY LADIES LOVE BOOGIE 70s EXPLOSION! (Three Clubs Stage Room as part of Hollywood Fringe)
GET DOWN … TO THE HOTTEST REVUE IN TOWN Created and directed by Fritz Brekeller, this feminocentric musical revue of 70s hits, Foxy Ladies Love Boogie 70s Explosion!, celebrates an amazing array of songs from the smiley face decade, but does so with a tilt towards feminist empowerment. Using entire songs, themes (disco) and medleys…
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Opera Review: IPSA DIXIT (Long Beach Opera and Martha Graham Dance Company)
WHISTLING DIXIT Last week, Long Beach Opera concluded the west coast premiere of its new production of Kate Soper’s 2016 lecture with musical notes, Ipsa Dixit, self-described in the program as “an artistic revelation,” “profound,” “bold,” and “mesmerizing.” Smart critics lavished praise on previous productions of it. It got nominated for a Pulitzer. Therefore, it…
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Highly Recommended Dance: ANNA KARENINA (Joffrey Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler in L.A.)
LEO TOLSTOY TURNED TO LEAPS AND TWIRLS IN THIS NARRATIVE BALLET MILESTONE FROM JOFFREY BALLET, COMING TO L.A. JUNE 21–23, 2024 With a brand new score created by 39-year-old wunderkind Ukrainian-born composer Ilya Demutsky, who replenishes the rhapsodic romanticism of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and genius choreographer Yuri Possokhov, who finds new depths in dance, Anna…
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Theater Review: DURAN DURANTONY & CLEOPATRA (Troubadour Theater Company at the Colony Theatre in Burbank)
NICE ASP! Troubadour Theater Company is a free-wheeling, no holds barred, commedia dell’arte-flavored, slapstick-driven Los Angeles based ensemble of actors, musicians, and comedians that has been performing for audiences throughout Southern California and beyond since 1995. Their fast-paced, laugh-filled, loose adaptations (some of the original lines are still there) of classic plays, literature, and film,…
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Opera Review: MAGDALENE (Beth Morrison Project at REDCAT)
MEHDALENE On Tuesday, REDCAT hosted the west coast premiere of Beth Morrison Projects’ 2020 one-woman opera, Magdalene. A collective all-female endeavor, it has Morrison as creative producer, Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore as “creators,” Marie Howe as poet, and 14 different composers. If that sounds messy, then gird your loins. Magdalene is yet another…
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Theater Review: A STRANGE LOOP (Ahmanson Theatre)
A STRANGE LOOP’S IDENTITY CRISIS See if you can guess which musical this is. “A young black man sets out on a spiritual journey to discover his art, love, and himself. Along the way, he encounters a wild assortment of characters who, by way of contrast and tribulation, guide him along his path. This quest…
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Theater Review: IT’S ONLY A PLAY (Torrance Theatre Company)
FRANTIC ANTICS FUEL THE HUMOR Terrence McNally updated his 1986 Off-Broadway comedy It’s Only a Play for Broadway in 2014 featuring an all-star cast including F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane, and Megan Mullally. It’s a farcical, devilishly witty look behind the scenes at the opening night party of a play whose cast,…
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Music / Film Review: PHOTOPLAY MUSIC: NEW WORKS FOR THE SILENT FILM ERA (HOCKET, Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff at The Nimoy)
NEW MUSIC FOR SILENT FILMS COULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT BOTH MUSIC AND FILM On May 21, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) hosted Piano Spheres and the piano duo HOCKET as they premiered three new scores for a trio of unannounced French silent films at The Nimoy. Sarah Gibson, one half of…
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Exhibit Review: HOLLYWOODLAND: JEWISH FOUNDERS AND THE MAKING OF A MOVIE CAPITAL (Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)
GIVING JEWISH IMMIGRANTS AND FILM FOUNDERS THEIR DUE — PERMANENTLY As its first permanent exhibition, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is presenting Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital which tells the origin story of filmmaking in early 20th-century Los Angeles, spotlighting the impact of the predominantly Jewish filmmakers whose establishment…
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Theater Announcement: SUGAR DADDY (Sam Morrison at The Wallis in Beverly Hills and Broadway)
Sugar Daddy, a new production of comedian and actor Sam Morrison’s hilariously funny, unexpectedly moving one-man show, will play the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills September 20-October 13, 2024 prior to Broadway in 2025. The production will be directed by Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Stephen Brackett (Broadway: A Strange Loop). One…
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Theater Review: JELLY’S LAST JAM (Pasadena Playhouse)
MUSIC, MEMORY AND MORTALITY: THE MAGIC OF JELLY’S LAST JAM In the resplendent realm of musical theatre, Jelly’s Last Jam has once again ascended to prominence. Recently produced as a concert version by Encores! in New York, Angelinos get an all-new full-out revival, now gracing the stage of the Pasadena Playhouse, where the show opened…
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Theater Review: THE SANDWICH MINISTRY (Skylight Theatre)
BUILDING BONDS OVER BREAD AND BUTTER In the evocative narrative of Miranda Rose Hall‘s The Sandwich Ministry, — which opened last Saturday at Skylight Theatre — the audience is invited to partake in a touching and contemplative journey through the lives of a trio of women, set within the humble confines of a church’s parish…
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Theater Review: FUNNY GIRL (National Tour at Segerstrom Hall)
THERE’S A STAR IN THIS DUSTY OLD COUCH OF A MUSICAL Funny Girl — the musical narrative of the ugly duckling turned Ziegfeld star turned tragic heroine — takes center stage once more. With beloved songs written by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, Isobel Lennart‘s 1964 book was updated by Harvey Fierstein for Broadway in…
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Cabaret Review: LUCIE ARNAZ: I GOT THE JOB! SONGS FROM MY MUSICAL PAST (Tour)
WHAT CAN I SAY EXCEPT, “I LOVE LUCIE” It has been said that the greatest art in the world is the art of storytelling and Lucie Arnaz is masterful at it. In her career of forty-five plus years in musical theater, Arnaz has amassed an impressive array of anecdotes and songs which she shared with…
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