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Los Angeles
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Theater Review: INHERIT THE WIND (Pasadena Playhouse)
LIKE HENRY DRUMMOND, I’M AN AGNOSTIC, BUT THIS PRODUCTION OF INHERIT THE WIND SENT ME TO THEATRICAL HEAVEN Inherit the Wind, a theatrical warhorse authored in 1955 by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, emerges as an eloquent narrative, artfully crafted around the historical backdrop of the infamous 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial.” This legal saga…
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Cabaret Review: MANDY PATINKIN IN CONCERT: BEING ALIVE (Segerstrom and on Tour)
FINE AND MANDY! Mandy Patinkin, a venerable artist of 71years, known for his remarkable presence on the stage, in television, and on the silver screen, graced the esteemed Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa with his latest production, Being Alive. The title, a nod to the Stephen Sondheim song from the legendary…
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Film and Event Review: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (The Ford)
ROCKY HORROR: THE PICTURE AND THE SHOW “IT’S ASTOUNDING” that a close to fifty-year-old movie about a transvestite from a planet Transexual in a galaxy Transylvania, replete with elbow sex, a dance called the “Time Warp,” and an act of cannibalism, should draw a full house in an outdoor venue on a chilly autumn night in…
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Music & Film Review: THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA (Theatre at the Ace Hotel)
STITCHED TOGETHER WITH BRILLIANCE For Halloween this past weekend, LA Opera‘s hugely popular annual celebration of horror and live music at the breathtaking Theatre at Ace Hotel featured James Whale’s 1935 gothic horror classic The Bride of Frankenstein, accompanied by the LA Opera Orchestra. The Bride of Frankenstein with Live Orchestra was another resounding success…
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Theater Review: SLOW THUNDER (The Emerson at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex)
SO, WHERE’S THE THUNDER? What a strange and unsatisfying evening. As baffling as the title of the producing company, bAfA TheatreWorks, Suse Sternkopf’s Slow Thunder is all slow and no thunder. Even with the presence of two of my favorite actors — Ann Noble and Rob Nagle — Sternkopf as director fails to create the undercurrent…
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Music Review: HADELICH AND MENDELSSOHN (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)
It’s always fascinating to come for a headliner and be completely bowled over by other parts of the program. The draw for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s two performances last weekend was Augustin Hadelich, one of the world’s greatest violinists, performing Mendelssohn’s melodic Violin Concerto in E minor at The Alex Theatre. I have seen the…
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Concert Review: SHEENA EASTON (Pepperdine Malibu)
THE SHEEN IS OFF Grammy Award-winning Pop and Broadway musical star Sheena Easton gave a disarrayed performance at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts on the Pepperdine University Campus in Malibu last night, Thursday, October 26. Wearing a form-fitting short sparkling teal dress, she shared the stage with four musicians and a male…
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Dance Review: JUNGLE BOOK REIMAGINED (BroadStage, Santa Monica; U.S. opening of Global Tour)
MOWGLI, GET YOUR GUN Brilliant dancing gets waylaid by a chaotic and illegible narrative in this multimedia eco-morality play. Two words are redefining the medium of dance: Video Projection. In lieu of expensive and unwieldy portable sets, a new generation of traveling productions requires only a theater’s built-in scrim and cyclorama – and an animator…
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Theater Review: DEATHTRAP (International City Theatre in Long Beach)
CAUGHT IN A TRAP Without spoiling, there’s only so much I can say about Deathtrap. Written by Ira Levin, this 1978 Tony-nominated play is an imperfect, though relatively delightful thriller now getting an even more imperfect, though relatively delightful production at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Best known for Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford…
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Highly Recommended Theater: TACOS LA BROOKLYN (Los Angeles Theatre Center)
Extended through Nov. 5: Multilingual comic dramaTacos La Brooklyn is quintessential L.A. at The LATC Appropriation: or appreciation? Latino Theater Company has extended its world premiere, multilingual production of Joel Ulloa‘s Tacos La Brooklyn for three additional performances through Nov. 5, 2023 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Sayaka Miyatani and Paul Dateh Esperanza America Chino, a young and ambitious Korean…
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Theater Review: BLOOD AT THE ROOT (Open Fist)
THE ROOT OF THE MATTER Hooray and hallelujah, for Open Fist‘s taut 80-minute production of Dominque Morisseau‘s Blood at the Root, dynamically directed by Michael A. Shepperd, and choreographed by Yusuf Nasir, has been extended until November 6, 2023 at Atwater Village Theatre. Easily the most powerful play on any L.A. stage right now, Blood…
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Highly Recommended Concert: AN ALPINE SYMPHONY WITH SALONEN (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
A WORLD PREMIERE AND ONE OF THE GREATEST TONE POEMS EVER WRITTEN I never knew this until researching the upcoming LA Phil program this weekend, but the connection between Nico Muhly and Philip Glass became established in the mid-2000s, when Glass employed Muhly as an assistant! Muhly certainly soaked up minimalism but he has never…
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Highly Recommended Concert: 40! (The Verdi Chorus Fall 2023 Concert in Santa Monica)
The Verdi Chorus’ 40th Anniversary season continues with its landmark Fall 2023 Concert, 40! Led by Anne Marie Ketchum, who is celebrating forty consecutive years as Artistic Director of the organization (now THAT deserves an exclamation point!), the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music…
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Recommended Dance: THE NUTCRACKER (Inland Pacific Ballet, December 2-23, 2023)
Inland Pacific Ballet’s The Nutcracker comes to life this season with beautiful sets, dazzling costumes, Tchaikovsky’s classic score, and more than 80 dancers on stage. This annual holiday favorite tells the story of a young girl named Clara who receives a magical nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve and sets out on a wondrous journey to the…
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Opera Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (LA Opera)
LA OPERA’S THE BARBER OF SEVILLE MORE THAN MAKES THE CUT In the world of opera, few works shine as brightly and endure as enduringly as Gioachino Rossini’s comic 1816 masterpiece, The Barber of Seville. The Barbiere di Siviglia score is a marvel of musical composition. Its lively and effervescent melodies, intricate vocal lines, and…
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Music Review: SIBELIUS AND SWAN LAKE (LA Phil; Hilary Hahn, violinist; Alpesh Chauhan, conductor)
Yesterday at Walt Disney Concert Hall conductor Alpesh Chauhan, making his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut, began with Saad Haddad’s new piece, Aysheen (عايشين), or “living” in Arabic, an LA Phil commission which received its first performances over the weekend. Aysheen begins with the bass drum thumping a soft heartbeat, soon joined by droning cellos and basses,…
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Theater and Dance Review: HEART OF BRICK (International Tour)
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S CHIC CLUB ODYSSEY Choreographer Raja Feather Kelly elevates backing dancers to high art in serpentwithfeet’s musical tour In Heart of Brick, presented yesterday at the Ford Theater, the musical artist serpentwithfeet (Josiah Wise) begins the evening by gliding onstage in an enormous red-orange snuggie. He speaks to us about his desire to…
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Theater Review: OLIVER! (5-Star Theatricals)
WHO WILL BUY IT? Endearing and sometimes exhilarating in its zest to please, 5-Star Theatricals‘ heartfelt but uneven revival of Oliver!, staged like community theater on steroids by Kari Hayter, only occasionally earns its exclamation point. The good news is that even with all-over-the-map dialects, so-so choreography, milquetoast drama, and mixed performance styles from Broadway…
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Recommended Event: GRAND AVE ARTS: ALL ACCESS (Downtown Los Angeles Sat. Oct. 21, 2023, 11am – 4pm)
FREE DAY OF ARTS EXPERIENCES FOR ANGELENOS It’s just a couple of days away from Grand Ave Arts: All Access, a day like no other where Downtown Los Angeles’s cultural corridor becomes a giant open house for Angelenos of all ages to experience free art opportunities with 14 of LA’s most iconic institutions on Saturday…
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Theater Review: THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY (The Geffen Playhouse)
A MOST ENGAGING PARTY Going into the west coast premiere production of Samuel Baum’s The Engagement Party, currently running at the Geffen Playhouse, I was aware of two things. First, a spilled glass of wine is the instigating action that causes everything to collapse. Two, the poster bore a striking resemblance to imagery used in…
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