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Los Angeles
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Theater Review: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY: A THEATRICAL CATASTROPHE (Henry Murray Stage at the Matrix Theatre)
LOOK AT WHAT THE CATASTROPHE DRAGGED IN He’s funny. He’s avuncular. He’s unpretentious. He’s loveable. He’s dry and urbane. And, he’s a decent person. But Nick Ullett is an actor by trade, so you may wonder if he’s that decent offstage (hint: he is). Upstairs at The Matrix Theatre, all you’ll want to do is…
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Theater Review: FATHERLAND (Fountain Theatre)
FATHER V. SON Over 2,000 people stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Within two years, more than 1,200 attackers would be charged. One such perpetrator, Guy Reffitt from Texas, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in federal prison. Who handed him over to the FBI? His 19-year-old son, Jackson. Patrick Keleher and…
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Theater Review: SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
ATTEND THIS TALE: IT’S MURDER When A Noise Within, one of LA’s best companies, which specializes in classical theater, announced its current season, what most excited me by far was their decision to do Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler. Being able to see…
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Theater Review: THREE (Playwrights Arena and the Los Angeles LGBT Center at The Davidson/Valentini Theatre)
A FASCINATING DIVERSE UPDATE TO CHEKHOV’S THREE SISTERS In 1900, Anton Chekhov wrote the play Three Sisters, centering around siblings both very similar and remarkably different who grew up in Moscow but now reside out on a country while longing to return to the more exciting lives they led in the big city. Told over…
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Theater Review: ARROWHEAD (IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre)
THERE’S GOLD IN THE HILLS OF ARROWHEAD Move over, Bluefish Cove, you’ve had your last summer. Now, a modern-day retreat of lesbians is here, only this one isn’t by the ocean, it’s by a lake. Arrowhead, actually. But this is no summer retreat. It’s a gathering of two, maybe three, lesbians (what is the plural…
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Music Review: Mí„LKKI CONDUCTS BRAHMS (Susanna Målkki, conductor | Daniil Trifonov, piano | LA Phil at Disney Hall)
A NIGHT OF ELEGANCE AND VIRTUOSITY The February 23, 2024 Los Angeles Philharmonic concert at the Walt Disney Hall was an opportunity to see two renowned classical musicians, conductor Susana Målkki and pianist Daniil Trifonov. Witnessing Målkki’s conducting is a captivating experience. Her technique is characterized by swift arm movements that allow her to maintain…
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Opera Reviews: THE DWARF & HIGHWAY 1, USA (LA Opera)
AN OPERATIC RARITY DOUBLE-BILL ONE FASCINATING FAILURE AND ONE MASTERPIECE LA opera presented a unique double bill of relative rarities, Alexander Zemlinski’s Der Zwerg and William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA. Zwerg’s Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) was suppressed by the Nazis due to his Judaism, and Still’s opera Highway 1, USA is little known due…
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Opera Review: ISOLA (Long Beach Opera)
MUST ALL NEW OPERAS HAVE TO BE PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL AND JOYLESS? I was in no shape to see Isola, by composer Alyssa Weinberg and poet J. Mae Barizo, presented by Long Beach Opera in its world-premiere run. My apartment had been burglarized the night before and I just wanted to stay home and lick my wounds….
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Theater Review: MARILYN, MOM & ME (International City Theatre in Long Beach)
HOW I WISH MARILYN MONROE WAS MY MOM In Luke Yankee‘s Marilyn, Mom & Me, the playwright-director takes the audience on a ruminative journey based on the complex relationship with his mother, character actress Eileen Heckart, and her recollection of the unique friendship she forged with America’s timeless sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, on the set…
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Music Review: SCHUBERT & BEETHOVEN (Jukka-Pekka Saraste with the Los Angeles Philharmonic)
GOOD MORNING, L.A! As part of its popular Friday Middays series in a program that plays until Sunday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought over Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director, for two favorites: Schubert’s 6th and Beethoven’s 7th. Franz Schubert began writing his Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589…
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Highly Recommended Theater: MACK & MABEL IN CONCERT (All Roads Theatre Company at El Portal in North Hollywood)
LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO MACK & MABEL Rare, fully staged and choreographed presentation comes to El Portal with a 40-member cast and an 18-piece orchestra, Feb. 16-18, 2024 Some of the most charming musical experiences are fully staged and choreographed “in concert” presentations of revivals from Broadway’s heyday, the 1930s through the 1960s, and a…
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Theater Review: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (Chance Theater in Anaheim)
WIG SNATCHED! 1998 Genderqueer Musical Still Slays in 2024 In the pantheon of (so-called) rock musicals, Hedwig and the Angry Inch holds a distinct and unparalleled position, merging raw energy with emotional depth in a way that few other shows can claim. Witnessing its 1999 iteration with Michael Cerveris in the lead role was a…
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Highly Recommended Dance: COMPAÑÍA NACIONAL DE DANZA, SPAIN (Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA)
COMPAÑÍA DE SUEÑOS The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA is hosting Compañía Nacional de Danza in their Luckman debut, the last stop in the U.S. as part of an International Tour. The Madrid-based “Spanish National Dance Company” will perform a mixed repertory program featuring varied and representative styles, recognizable inside and outside…
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Recommended Dance: ACB JAZZ (American Contemporary Ballet at Bank of America Plaza)
Speak easy. Dance hard. Music from deep down. The best jazz musicians in L.A. live, a comedian or two, sixteen dancers, and the kind of dangerous, incendiary entertainment you didn’t think was around anymore. At the hottest underground club in the city, audiences may be mesmerized, but they won’t sit still. When you’re tired of…
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Dance Review: COMMON GROUND(S) / THE RITE OF SPRING (Pina Bausch International Tour at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
RITE ON! As part of an international tour, the weekend-long dance program that opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday — an extra-added night due to ticket demand — gave us a taste of the neo-expressionist work of trailblazer Pina Bausch, whose company The Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch made its American debut here in…
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Theater Review: STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills)
YOU MIGHT WANNA MISS THIS TRAIN Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 psychological film noir thriller Strangers on a Train, which he directed and produced to mixed reviews, was based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. But since then, the film has been regarded much more favorably; and in 2021 was selected for preservation…
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Dance-Theater Review: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (North American Tour)
A SHOW THAT SENDS OUT AN S.O.S. Set to 28 songs of pop icon Sting, newly arranged and recorded with Beverley Knight and Lynval Golding (of The Specials), Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince (So You Think You Can Dance, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and her Zoo Nation company have a story to tell about the refugee…
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Interview: ANN HEARN TOBOLOWSKY (Director of MERCURY at Road Theatre Company)
ANN HEARN TOBOLOWSKY RAISES THE TEMPERATURE ON LOS ANGELES THEATER I have been following the work of extraordinary director Ann Hearn Tobolowsky at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills for quite some time, including The Half Light, Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Silent Sky, Good People, As Good As Gold, Bus Stop, Holy Days, Driving Miss Daisy, and Another Part of…
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Theater Opening: YBOR CITY (The Actors’ Gang in Culver City)
THE ACTORS’ GANG PRESENTS YBOR CITY, A HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL NEW PLAY Ybor City tells the story of overworked Cuban cigar factory immigrants in 1931, who find themselves inspired by the spirit world toward revolution. Ybor City in Tampa, Florida which dates from the 1880s, was founded by Vincente Martinez-Ybor, who moved his cigar factory from…
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Theater Review: MYSTIC PIZZA THE MUSICAL (National Tour)
A TASTY SLICE OF 80s NOSTALGIA In the ever-evolving landscape of film-to-stage musical adaptations, the latest entrant Mystic Pizza emerges as a charming addition. Based on the eponymous 1988 cult-classic film delight, we are brought back to the quaint environs of Mystic, Connecticut, and the intertwined lives of three young Portuguese-American women, childhood friends working…
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