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Los Angeles
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Dance Review: S.O.S. SIGNS OF STRENGTH (DIAVOLO & The Veterans Project at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
LIKE A ROCK To name S.O.S. SIGNS OF STRENGTH just a dance piece is like calling a geode just a rock, since there are many elements that make up the masses of mineral matter secluded within. As with war, there’s hardness on the outside, but there is beauty to be found deep inside. At The…
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Theater Review: TRAYF (Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles)
SCHISM BUDDIES “Are you Jewish?” Spoken by the leading players in playwright Lindsay Joelle’s Trayf, the question could also be relevant for the audience itself. Before you walk away dejected, know this: if you’ve never greeted anyone with “shalom” or heard of a “Mitzvah tank,” you’re probably (surprisingly) the play’s target audience – or at…
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Music & Dance Review: ST. MATTHEW PASSION (LA Opera)
THE LATEST PASSION IS NOT THE GREATEST PASSION It’s been a busy time in Los Angeles for the visiting dance company Hamburg Ballet. First, its company debut performance at The Music Center, Bernstein Dances, based on the music and spirit of the multi-talented composer Leonard Bernstein, was a truly enjoyable evening. But last Sunday, the…
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Dance Review: ABT FORWARD (The American Ballet Theater at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
WITH TWO WINNERS OUT OF THREE WORKS, ABT’S PROGRAM STILL SOARS AT SEGERSTROM Bursting with happiness, joy and beauty, The American Ballet Theater opened its program last night at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa. The opening number, Bernstein in a Bubble, was set to Leonard Bernstein’s rarely performed Divertimento (1980) — eight bagatelles, mostly running…
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Theater Review: ASSASSINS (East West Players)
THANKS TO SONDHEIM’S SONGS, THIS MUSICAL WILL NEVER DIE The cast is quite terrific with some extraordinary standouts in East West Players’ revival of Assassins, but it is Snehal Desai‘s awesomely inventive staging (and Preston Mui & Jasmine Rafael‘s movement direction) that betters John Doyle and his recent Off-Broadway outing. Not withstanding the company’s incredible…
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Theater Review: THE PLAY YOU WANT (Road Theatre)
THE PLAY WE NEED What starts as a joke ends in a laugh — all the way to the bank! — in The Play You Want, a world premiere comedy by Bernardo Cubría. Directed by Michael John Garcés, the play is a product of The Road Theatre Company’s playwriting workshop, Under Construction. I don’t know…
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Music Review: JAY CAMPBELL + INTI FIGGIS-VIZUETA (LA Phil New Music Group at Disney Hall)
Concerts in the L.A. Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella new music series are always an adventure. Typically curated by the (often young) contemporary musicians and composers whose work is featured in the performances, these programs offer an eclectic array of unpredictable encounters with the avant-garde art music of our moment. Some of them are highly engaging; others…
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Music Review: PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH (LA Phil; Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Sergio Tiempo, piano)
Best known as the successful former Music Director of the Seattle Symphony, French conductor Ludovic Morlot led one of Shostakovich’s greatest symphonies last week, depicting the despair in his Tenth with an uplifting mournful passion. The opening movement can feel ponderous in the wron g hands, but here it exuded constant momentum. Even with a…
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Theater Review: SLAVE PLAY (Mark Taper Forum)
MORE LIKE POWER PLAY THAN SLAVE PLAY Boy, if you want audacious theater — even one with higgledy-piggledy results — than I’ve got one for you: Slave Play, which opened last week at the Mark Taper Forum after a Broadway run. Frankly, I can’t even say that I recommend it. The show is messy and…
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Theater Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY (Ahmanson Theatre)
DON’T MISS AT ANY COST… BANK ON IT Recently I saw a play which forced me to ask: with the amount of stellar entertainment available to us at home, why would anyone spend this much money to trek across town and see this drivel? Whatever “supporting the arts” or “supporting live theater” means shouldn’t feel…
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Theater Tour Announcement: YEMANDJA (Angelique Kidjo)
YEMANDJA, ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO’S FIRST FORAY INTO THEATER After the world premiere at MASS MoCA this week, the co-commissioned Los Angeles premiere of Yemandja will take place at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica April 14, 15, and 16 at 7:30pm before the new work continues on tour to Cal Performances at UC Berkeley on April 23. Inspired…
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Recommended Concert: MUSE/IQUE & RACHAEL WORBY: SUNRISE ON SUNSET (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
Rediscover Los Angeles through a fabulous night of music and history… THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Saturday, March 12, 7:30 pm, and Sunday, 13, 2022, 3 pm and 7 pm. MORE INFO & TICKETS The program, MUSE/IQUE & RACHAEL WORBY: SUNRISE ON SUNSET, features an ensemble of L.A.’s finest instrumentalists and singers in a night of fabulous music…
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Theater Review: MARVIN’S ROOM (Actors Co-op)
A ROOM OF THEIR OWN Actors Co-op is reviving Scott McPherson‘s extraordinary play Marvin’s Room. While it has always been one of my favorite plays, it’s a daunting choice for any company. The play requires a delicate touch so the sentiment doesn’t turn into bathos and the black humor stumble into vulgarity. Under Thomas James…
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Music Review: ELGAR AND TCHAIKOVSKY (LA Phil; Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor; Camille Thomas, cello)
WAR AND PEACE LA Phil’s Associate Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli made sure that two of the best-known chestnuts in the repertoire were presented by the LA Phil players last weekend in such a way that they sounded completely different than any interpretation one has heard. And given Russia’s hateful invasion of Ukraine last week, Elgar’s Cello…
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Music Preview: ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS WITH JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN (The Soraya)
Thor Steingraber, the Executive and Artistic Director of The Soraya concert space in Northridge, has transformed this amazingly gorgeous hall from a college adjunct into a world-class location for the arts — one of the best in Southern California. On March 10, Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields return to the…
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Theater Review: ON THE OTHER HAND, WE’RE HAPPY (Rogue Machine at The Matrix Theatre)
THERE IS NO OTHER HAND: ROGUE MACHINE HAS A WINNER Another one of Los Angeles’s best theater groups got back on the boards last week, as Rogue Machine Theatre kicked off its first post-pandemic season in a new home at the Matrix on Melrose Avenue. Always a reliable importer of significant new plays to Los…
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Theater Review: NEXT TO NORMAL (Chance Theater / Anaheim)
FINALLY: NEXT TO PERFECT The first three times I saw Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next to Normal, it never truly floored me. There are many ingredients that validate the 2009 musical’s popularity: it is to be commended for a bold and daring new way of communicating the kind of subject matter that you would…
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Dance: THE VOICE WITHIN — FEATURING SEIBI LEE (Leela Dance Collective in SF, LA & Edmonton)
Leela Dance Collective presents The Voice Within, featuring veteran kathak artist Seibi Lee in an intimate performance exploring the themes of duality and paradox. Lee renders two ancient stories – Houyi and Chang’e, a heart-rending Chinese story about the love between a mortal hero and an immortal beauty, and Yuki no Onna, a Japanese tale evoking the mystery of the…
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Dance & Music: MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY (World Premiere: “The New Canticle for Innocent Comedians” composed and performed by Jason Moran at The Soraya)
A lost 1952 dance creation by Martha Graham herself — a primal artistic force of the 20th century — is reborn with the Martha Graham Dance Company’s World Premiere of The New Canticle for Innocent Comedians at The Soraya on Saturday, March 19 at 8pm. The program also includes two classic Graham works Lamentation (1930)…
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Dance: BALLET BC (New Program at The Soraya, CSUN)
This Saturday, February 26 at 8, The Soraya’s resident ballet company, Ballet BC, offers a program of unusual depth with two works: GARDEN (by the new Artistic Director Medhi Walerski) and The Statement from Crystal Pite, both originally created for Nederlands Dans Theatre (NDT). The program also includes a Pas de Deux from Walerski’s Romeo…
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