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Los Angeles
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Highly Recommended Theater: DAVID DEAN BOTTRELL: THE DEATH OF ME YET (Rogue Machine at Matrix Theatre)
David Dean Bottrell returns to Rogue Machine on January 10, 2024 with his latest critically acclaimed, recently off-Broadway solo show, David Dean Bottrell: The Death of Me Yet. An uplifting evening about biting the dust. Bottrell, a versatile actor and accomplished storyteller, is set to grace the stage once more with an enthralling one-man show…
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Music Review: BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES WITH ZUBIN MEHTA (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
The Los Angeles Philharmonic audience loves conductor Zubin Mehta. When he entered the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall, many people in the audience stood to applaud. He then conducted two LA Phil favorites: Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No. 6) and Heroic Symphony (No. 3). Up first, No. 6., Beethoven’s symphony about idealized and romanticized rural…
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Music Review: MAHLER 1; SCHUMANN’S PIANO CONCERTO (LA Phil; Zubin Mehta, conductor; Seong Jin-Cho, piano)
Last weekend, Angelinos had the chance to see the 87-year-old grande eminence Zubin Mehta conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which he served from 1962 to 1978 as music director. During his tenure, the orchestra developed the signature Mehta style, emulating the Vienna Philharmonic. (The Los Angeles Philharmonic is unique among the top orchestras in the…
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Theater Review: LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE, DIOS INANTZIN (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels)
A PAGEANT OF PEACE AND PERSEVERANCE Since 2002, Latino Theater Company has been presenting La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin, a holiday pageant re-enacting the story of the appearance of the Virgin to an Aztec peasant named Juan Diego. She instructs him to go to the Spanish Catholic Bishop and tell him she wants a…
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Concert Review: COMING HOME: THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATION (Michael Feinstein at the Mark Taper Forum)
IT’S LIKE KOSHER EGGNOG What better way to start the holiday season than to spend a Sunday evening with the man with the music, cabaret legend Michael Feinstein, who has single-handedly revitalized the Great American Songbook. Hearing of the pause in subscription programming for the 2023/24 Center Theatre Group season, he asked the new CTG…
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Concert Review: AUDRA MCDONALD IN CONCERT
A living musical theater legend at the peak of her vocal and interpretive powers In the realm of musical theater, Audra McDonald stands as an unparalleled luminary. Possessing an extraordinary vocal prowess, an arresting stage presence, and an unrivaled artistic gift, she has etched her name as the preeminent diva within this art form. McDonald’s…
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Theater Review: THE RUB (Anzu Lawson)
A HIDDEN HOLLYWOOD CAREER AS A MASSEUSE FOR CELEBRITIES For years, Anzu Lawson’s managers and friends had been urging her to write about her own life after performing as Yoko Ono and writing Dear Yoko, one of several of her own original plays and musicals. And though she had been pitching The Rub as a…
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Jazz Concert Review: PAT METHENY (Dream Box Tour at Royce Hall, UCLA)
PAT ON THE BACK When one thinks of the always-inventive and distinctive guitarist Pat Metheny, it is generally of the great bands he has had (including the Pat Metheny Group with the late Lyle Mays on keyboards and the Unity Band with Chris Potter), his recordings with bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist John Scofield, and…
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Opera Review: EL íšLTIMO SUEôO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO (LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
YOU’LL HAVE SUEôOS, ALL RIGHT If you happen upon L.A.’s Music Center on a night when El íšltimo Sueí±o de Frida y Diego has a scheduled performance, be sure to check out the beautiful glowing ofrenda designed by artist Aldo Cruz just to the right of the Dorothy Chandler entrance. I met a patron who…
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Opera Review: SCALIA/GINSBERG & TRIAL BY JURY (Pacific Opera Project at the Highland Park Ebell Club)
JUDGING THE TRIALS On Friday, Nov. 17, Pacific Opera Project opened its Los Angeles premiere of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg in a double bill with a new version of Gilbert and Sullivan‘s Trial by Jury, updated by Josh Shaw for Pacific Opera Project at the Highland Park Ebell Club. Scalia/Ginsburg is about the late Supreme Court…
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Theater Review: FROZEN FLUID (Coeurage & L.A. LGBT Center)
CRYOGEN ME A RIVER The subtitle of Fly Jamerson‘s Frozen Fluid, which opened Saturday night at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre, is “An Antarctic Gender Non-Conforming Creation Myth.” Don’t say you weren’t warned going in. I wasn’t bored, and there were even some sweet moments, but what started as a deconstruction of three scientists working at the…
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Theater Review: SPRING AWAKENING (East West Players)
SPRING HAS SPRUNG Distinguished by its raw emotional resonance, formidable musical composition, and a compelling narrative that plumbs the depths of adolescence, sexuality, and defiance, Spring Awakening, the rock opera adapted from Frank Wedekind’s provocative 19th-century German drama, has held global audiences in thrall since its inaugural performance in 2006. It remains a boldly audacious…
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Music Review: CHAPARRAL AND INTERSTATES: NEW MUSIC FROM CALIFORNIA (LA Phil New Music Group)
BEAUTIFUL BRUSH AND NOISY HIGHWAYS On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the LA Phil New Music Group performed Chaparral and Interstates, a Green Umbrella program of four new pieces by California composers, including two world premieres, at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the California Festival. The first piece, from 2021, was Dylan Mattingly‘s Sunt Lacrimae…
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Concert Review: CANTO EN RESISTENCIA (Dudamel & the LA Phil & Silvana Estrada)
THERE’S NO RESISTING SILVANA ESTRADA My mind was thinking about the strange beast that programming is as Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil continued their contribution to a celebration of new music, the California Festival, with a program entitled Canto en resistencia. While the two-week CalFest mission states that it is showcasing works written in the…
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Music / Concert Review: AMERICAN RAILROAD (Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens; U.S. Tour)
TUNNEL VISION In this first program post-Yo-Yo Ma artistic directorship, the American Railroad national tour by Silkroad Ensemble presents an evening of newly composed and arranged music with a slew of fresh faces joining the illustrious ensemble. Under the direction of banjoist, fiddle player, vocalist and multi-Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens, the ensemble features a cast…
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Theater Review: FREIGHT: THE FIVE INCARNATIONS OF ABEL GREEN (Fountain Theatre)
THE FREIGHT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM How fascinating that two bookending one-man shows opened in Los Angeles this past weekend. The first, Just for Us at the Taper, is a play with universalisms and stories through a Jewish lens to largely comedic effect. The second, Freight, contains universalisms and stories told through a Black lens…
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Theater Review: JUST FOR US (Alex Edelman on Tour at the Mark Taper Forum)
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE WHITE SUPREMACIST MEETING If you’re looking for great night of humor about white supremacy and anti-Semitism (and who isn’t?), this is the show for you. Alex Edelman, Boston-born and -bred but now located in New York, brings his one-man show to the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles….
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Highly Recommended Concert: FRAGMENTS 2 (Alisa Weilerstein, cellist; presented by LA Phil at Disney Hall)
I have been following Alisa Weilerstein for over fifteen years, but until about five ago it was only on recordings and YouTube. Having seen her perform live four times since I can assert that the phenomenal American cellist has attracted attention worldwide because her playing combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship and…
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Highly Recommended Theater: WHITE (ALBUM) CHRISTMAS (The Troubies at the Colony in Burbank)
WHY DON’T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD WITH THE TROUBIES? Well, we just finished Halloween, but you know what’s really scary — aside from Christmas items for sale at Costco before Halloween? By Thanksgiving, tickets will no doubt be sold out for The Troubies’ newest Holiday Show, White (Album) Christmas, which plays December 8…
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Film / Music Review: E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL IN CONCERT (Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil)
HEARING A GREAT SCORE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME The Walt Disney Concert Hall was the place to be the Friday after Halloween to experience the joy at a live screening of the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing the full score conducted by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel — in the…
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