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Los Angeles
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Theater Review: CHESS (Jaxx Theatricals)
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES I’m rather certain that most folks in the U.S.A. have no idea that Chicago is one of the best theater towns in the world. The reason for this is storefront theaters, which have given birth to amazing companies such as Steppenwolf. Los Angeles used to have these but, especially with Equity…
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Theater Review: THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Long Beach Playhouse)
IT’S SILLY BUT NOT KOOKY (SNAP, SNAP) Every generation, there is an iconic TV family that defines the era. From the perfect clan of The Donna Reed Show to the trashy hellscape of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, American audiences have always been enamored by family drama. After all, is anything more universal than having…
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Music Review: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: THE PAINTINGS OF BOB PEAK (Walt Disney Concert Hall)
PICTURE THIS: ASTOUNDING NEW MUSIC On Friday, June 14, music producer Robert Townson fulfilled a 25-year dream, premiering in partnership with Abu Dhabi Festival a new symphony, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak, at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Film Orchestra and conductor Leonard Slatkin. It was a sprawling evening…
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Theater Review: PSYCHO BEACH PARTY (The Matrix Theatre)
CAMPING ON THE BEACH Psycho Beach Party, a totally campy creation written by Charles Busch, is not your typical 50s and 60s beach blanket movie with Frankie and Annette innocently dancing and singing in the sand. With several cross-dressing cast members, mischief, madness, and the passionate pursuit of the perfect wave — or man —…
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Dance Review: ANNA KARENINA (Joffrey Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler in L.A.)
Like so many other little girls growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, my mother enrolled me in ballet lessons hoping her dream of me becoming a prima ballerina would be achieved. Of course, that was never going to happen, but it did teach me the difference between my right and left foot when…
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Theater Review: REEFER MADNESS (The Whitley in Hollywood)
AN EVENT TO MAKE YOU HIGH No doubt spurred by William Randolph Hearst’s yellow-journalism against pot (he invested in wood-pulp newsprint because he didn’t want paper made from hemp), a church group in 1936 sponsored a film aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. One of the worst films ever made, Reefer…
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Theater Review: FEMMINA SUPER (Broadwater Main Stage at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
SUPER FEMMINA SUPER To say that I was fascinated with Femmina Super is an understatement. The show is subtitled, “A New Opera,” which normally has me running in the other direction, as newer operas tend to be atonal and opaque and pretentious. Writer-composer-performer Bethany Hill offers just the opposite. I fear that subtitle may scare…
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Theater Opening: MEMNON (Getty Villa in Malibu)
This fall, the Getty Villa Museum and the Classical Theatre of Harlem will present the world premiere of Memnon for the 18th annual Villa Outdoor Classical Theater production. Memnon is directed by Carl Cofield, associate artistic director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and is written by Will Power. The Memnon cast includes Eric Berryman in the title…
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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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