Areas We Cover
Categories
Los Angeles
-
Theater Review: SEVEN GUITARS (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
TURNING LYRICAL INTO A MIRACLE In emphasizing the “musical lyricism” of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, A Noise Within’s promotional copy for its new production echoes the numerous commentaries devoted to this play. Covering its 1995 Broadway premiere, The New York Times described it as “moving and lyrical,” while Los Angeles Magazine called it a “lyrical…
-
Concert Preview: AN EVENING WITH BRANFORD MARSALIS (The Soraya)
MARSALIS IN WONDERLAND Exactly a year before the COVID shutdown, the Branford Marsalis Quartet had just released their new album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. The new album finds the celebrated ensemble at a new peak, addressing a kaleidoscope of moods with inspiration and group commitment. This quartet that saxophonist Branford Marsalis…
-
Opera Review: TANNHí„USER (Los Angeles Opera)
IF BEING WRONG IS A VENUSIAN SEX ORGY, WHO WANTS TO BE RIGHT? Being Japanese, I am innately programmed to keep clutter to a minimum. Not much adorns my computer desktop screen, save the bare essentials ’” amongst which is the full score to Tannhåuser, some of the most inventive, majestic music constructed to date,…
-
Dance Review: BODYTRAFFIC (Ethan Cohen “Recurrence”; Micaela Taylor “SNAP”; Hoffesh Shecter “Dust”; and Alejandro Cerrudo “PACOPEPEPLUTO” at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
THAT’S AMORE! L.A.’s amazing dance company BODYTRAFFIC returned to The Wallis’s gorgeous Bram Goldsmith Theater in Beverly Hills last weekend with a three-night engagement of four outstanding works that proved why this L.A.-based contemporary company has continually taken the dance world by storm, easily surpassing LA Dance Project as our greatest homegrown modern dance company….
-
Theater Review: THE MINEOLA TWINS (Moxie in San Diego)
DOUBLE TROUBLE IN MINEOLA Paula Vogel, likely best known for her Pulitzer prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, isn’t afraid to tackle tough themes. In The Mineola Twins, she does so by drenching sensitive topics in a twisted, surrealist comedy that is more a series of connected moments than an actual plot. Everything is fair…
-
Theater Review: A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
AMERICA’S BEST NOTES Beginning its first season since the COVID shutdown, Musical Theater West has, true to its name, celebrated musical theatre with A Grand Night for Singing, a heartfelt, if sometimes overwrought, salute which happily honors and delightfully reprises the glorious, all-American (in the best sense) Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and their inexhaustible legacy…
-
Music Review: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS STRAUSS (LA Phil)
CONSIDER YOURSELF TRANSFIGURED Americans are weary. We remain as divisive as ever, a situation fueled by social media, news, and other white noise. We are working harder and longer yet struggle to pay bills — at the same time quitting jobs in record numbers. Instead of being inspired to do more to combat the speed…
-
Theater Review: MOTHER ROAD (San Diego REP)
ROUTE 66 WAS ONE MOTHER OF A ROAD In John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, we follow along Route 66 the sad travels of Tom Joad and his family, who flee the desperation of Oklahoma’s dustbowl calamity hoping for a safe farming life in California. In Octavio Solis’s Mother Road, there is one…
-
Theater Review: MY FAIR LADY (National Tour)
STILL THE FAIREST I’m rather certain one cannot visit enough productions of My Fair Lady. The 1956 musical, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, tells the tale of Professor Henry Higgins, a puffed-up upper-class grammarian, and Eliza Doolittle, his lower-class, flower girl protégé whom Higgins turns into a lady by changing her speech. With one of the most…
-
Theater Review: ASCENSION (Echo Theater Company)
THE ASCENSION OF L.A. THEATER The community of small theater groups in Los Angeles has taken so many debilitating blows over the past several years — before, during and since the COVID shutdown — that it amazes how some continually clamber to re-open. This month the Echo Theater Company forges ahead with two new shows….
-
Theater: REDCAT’S 18TH ANNUAL NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL (Roy & Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Disney Hall)
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts’ downtown center for contemporary arts, presents the 18th annual New Original Works (NOW) Festival, a celebration of Los Angeles’ vibrant community of artists creating new contemporary performance work, over three weekends this fall: Oct. 7-9, Oct. 14-16, and Oct. 21-23. This year’s festival returns to in-person performances with nine new…
-
Theater Review: ZOMBIE JOE’S URBAN DEATH (Zombie Joe’s Underground in North Hollywood)
ZOMBIE JOE’S URBAN DEATH RISES FROM THE GRAVE After all the horrors of the last few years, it seemed only fitting that we should return to Urban Death, the signature production of Zombie Joe’s Underground theater company in North Hollywood. Last weekend we checked out its latest installment, this year subtitled “Tour of Terror” and…
-
Theater Opening: POOR CLARE (Echo Theater Company)
The Echo Theater Company’s world premiere production of Poor Clare will open in October, 19 months after the originally scheduled March, 2020 opening that was shuttered by the pandemic. Echo associate artistic director Alana Dietze (Dry Land) is back at the helm of Chiara Atik’s powerful and very funny modern spin on the medieval story of Saint Clare of Assisi. Poor Clare will open…
-
Concert Review: HERBIE HANCOCK & ESPERANZA SPALDING (The Hollywood Bowl)
The Hollywood Bowl’s Shortened Jazz Season Ends on a High Note! What a wonderful jazz fusion double-bill at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, September 26 featuring four-time GRAMMY Award-winning bassist Esperanza Spalding accompanied by her long-time cohort, Argentinian Leo Genovese on keyboard, sax and accordion, opening up for the great pianist/composer, and one of the…
-
Los Angeles Theater: SALVAGE (Revival at Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Hollywood)
A popular country-infused musical reviewed by Stage and Cinema is being remounted October 9, 2021, after two previews October 7-8 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Hollywood. The revival of Salvage retains original cast members DAVID ATKINSON as Preacher and LEONARD EARL HOWZE as Johnson, plus two exciting additions, NATALIE LLERENA as Destiny and SAM O’BYRNE as Harley. Musical…
-
Upcoming Concert: FANDANGO AT THE WALL (Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at The Soraya)
The Soraya’s 10th Anniversary Gift to the Community – The First of Five Free Events Opens the 2021-22 Joy-Filled Season! Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Fandango at the Wall with Special Guests the Villalobos Brothers and the Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective Opening Night Saturday, Oct 16 at 8pm The Soraya celebrates both its 10th Anniversary and Opening…
-
Festival Preview: MÉXICO DE NOCHE (The Ford in L.A.)
OH, WHAT A NIGHT! México de Noche, which plays October 9, 2021, at The Ford (2580 Cahuenga Boulevard East) in L.A., explores the energetic and eclectic music of Mexican nightlife. Whether it’s listening over a romantic dinner to a special serenade by the iconic duo Pepe Martinez Jr. and Susie Garcia, or walking through a…
-
Theater Opening: ASCENSION (Echo Theater Company)
Ascension is an interactive, sci-fi, futuristic cyber play Do you know about it? The Second Sun? It’s real. It’s going to take you home. The Echo Theater Company presents the world premiere of Ascension a sci-fi mystery thriller written by D.G. Watson and directed by Echo associate artistic director Ahmed Best. Performances take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays Oct. 6 through Nov. 18, 2021 at Atwater Village Theatre. One preview…
-
Theater Opening: UNDER CONSTRUCTION READINGS (The Road Theatre Company)
North Hollywood’s The Road Theatre Company is back with in-person readings on its Magnolia stage. It’s been over 18 months since the theatre doors have been closed but The Road Theatre – led by Founding Artistic Director Taylor Gilbert, together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director – is leading the charge with 2 weeks of new…
-
Theater Review: THE SECRET WORLD OF DANNY LOPEZ (Two Roads Theater in Studio City)
WELCOME TO HIS SECRET WORLD OK, mini caveat: I am friends with Samuel Garza Bernstein, whose new one-man 70-minute show, The Secret World of Danny Lopez, opened last week at Two Roads Theater in Studio City. While I never tire of the ever fascinating Mr. Bernstein, the thought of another solo show written by and…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
