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Los Angeles
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Theater Interview: EURIAMIS LOSADA (appearing in WINK at Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre)
LOSADA COLADA! Looking at photos of Euriamis Losada, it’s no wonder the female (and some part of the male) populace goes gaga at his looks on his muscular 6’ frame. Cuban-born and USA-raised since age six, this talented actor and singer has been performing since his teenhood in Miami, Florida. After years of singing in…
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Review: COME FROM AWAY (North American Tour)
A NEWFOUND(LAND) WAY OF LOOKING AT MUSICAL THEATER This intimate ensemble piece may only have one stand-alone song, and it may not even be the best-crafted musical or have the emotional impact it could have, but it’s a cultural blessing when a show comes along that melts away the coldness of our polarized times by…
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Theater Review: A VERY MERRY MAGIC MANIA (Santa Monica Playhouse)
THIS REALLY IS HOLIDAY MAGIC I can’t think of more entertaining way to spend the holidays then to see A Very Merry Magic Mania at the Santa Monica Playhouse. This intimate showcase of the best magicians around was created by Albie Selznick, creator of the theatrical smash hit, Smoke and Mirrors. Albie, who hosts as well,…
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Music Preview: CALLING ALL ANGELS (Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Holiday Spectacular)
MAKE THE YULETIDE GAY Attending GMCLA’s Holiday Spectaculars is more like a pilgrimage for me, and is a no-brainer when choosing my wintertime concerts. The musical extravaganza this year, Holiday Spectacular: Calling All Angels, plays at Glendale’s gorgeous Alex Theatre for four performances Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15 & 16, 2018. What better way is there…
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Dance Preview: GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER (Miami City Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
CRACK AWAY Miami City Ballet’s new redesign of the magical George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, featuring enchanting new costumes and sets by the Cuban-American artist/designer power couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Balanchine’s glorious choreography, and Tchaikovsky’s beloved timeless score, returns to The Music Center, having had its world premiere in Los Angeles last year. Running November 30 through December…
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Art Exhibit Review: KING TUT: THE TREASURES OF THE GOLDEN PHARAOH (California Science Center / Los Angeles)
THE PHARAOH-EST OF THEM ALL One of the most famous people who has ever existed isn’t well-known because of his life, but his death. Over 5,000 perfectly preserved artifacts were discovered along with this young king’s mummified remains by English archaeologist Howard Carter on November 4, 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. As the…
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Album Review: COR CHRISTMAS (Cally Banham)
YOU’LL FEEL IT TO THE COR At first glance, I assumed this album from the assistant principal oboe — and Solo English horn position — of the Saint Louis Symphony (SLS), Cally Banham, would be flat-out Muzak. Boy oh hautboy, was I ever wrong. Intimate, warm, plaintive, whimsical, fresh, and full of heart, this holiday…
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Review: DAVID SEDARIS (Royce Hall at UCLA)
BALLGOWN AT A URINAL Bestselling author David Sedaris provided evidence Friday night that he has not exaggerated in the stories he has written about shopping in Japan with his sisters Amy and Gretchen. The three of them (or sometimes just two) giddily, and with acknowledged codependence, buy clothes that are outrageous and often outrageously expensive….
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Opera Preview: HANSEL AND GRETEL (LA Opera)
ONCE UPON A TIME: : An intrepid pair of siblings took a dreamlike journey to unexpected places. The iconic Brothers Grimm story leaps from page to stage with a production pocked with perky puppets created by director Doug Fitch. Sure, a witch wants to bake some kids into gingerbread and eat them, but this deliciously…
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Theater Review: HUGHIE / KRAPP’S LAST TAPE (Geffen Playhouse)
BEAUTIFUL DESPAIR BY A MASTER THESPIAN The river of lost souls can be found in Westwood, and your magnificent tour guide is Brian Dennehy. In this coupling of one-acts by Eugene O’Neill and Samuel Beckett, Dennehy supplies the concentrated crux of regret by embodying how time shreds our delusions. At the same time, with brilliant…
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Theater Feature: GREAT THINGS ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES THEATRE
Los Angeles, dubbed as the City of Angels, is truly a magnificent destination that holds some of the most beautiful architectural buildings in the world. One of the biggest attractions in LA is most assuredly The Los Angeles Theatre and its rich history. This luxurious spot hosts some of the biggest Broadway shows, and based…
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Music & Theater Review: THE TEMPEST (LA Phil and The Old Globe at Disney Hall in Los Angeles)
TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT An ill wind hit Disney Hall last weekend with this collaboration between LA Phil’s Guest Conductor Susanna Målkki and Old Globe Theatre’s Artisitic Director Barry Edelstein. Pairing edited versions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Jean Sibelius’s incidental music is a great idea, but the waste of talent and energy and money was…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: VALLEY OF THE HEART (Mark Taper Forum)
VALLEY OF THE HEART ON ITS SLEEVE Captivating stagecraft and a winning, although not always authentic, cast fuel this epic tale of war-time love. But the riveting aspects of a relationship between two American citizens — one Mexican, one Japanese — are diluted when didacticism dictates drama. Writer/director Luis Valdez has his heart in the…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: FINKS (Rogue Machine Theatre at Electric Lodge in Venice)
SAVING YOURSELF At the opening performance of Rogue Machine’s presentation of the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Joe Gilford’s Finks, artistic director John Flynn welcomed the audience and drew comparisons between Finks and Rogue Machine’s other current offering, Oppenheimer. The two plays do complement one another. It could be said that the creation of the…
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Theater Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood)
A GHOSTLY CAROL TO REMEMBER A Christmas Carol keeps the lights on at theaters across the country, filling their coffers every year and helping underwrite their other productions. It usually is done as a rather jolly affair, along the lines of British panto, where nothing bad ever seems to happen. Sometimes the ghosts are funny…
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Theater Review: DEATH AND COCKROACHES (Chalk Repertory Theatre at Atwater Village Theatre)
LOVING THE COCKROACH WITHIN Playwright Eric Reyes Loo wisely observes that the messiness of love and grief does not easily coexist within the binary world of Facebook. In his new play, Death and Cockroaches, a Chalk Repertory Theatre presentation at the Atwater Village Theatre, he explores the tectonic changes his family experienced in real life…
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Theater Review: A BRONX TALE (North American Tour)
CULTURE CLASH Narratively, there are two cultural clashes at the center of A Bronx Tale, now at the Pantages as part of its North American Tour. Italians and African-Americans are on opposite sides, as are the mafia and law-abiding citizens. There is also a third clash, though, and it’s the one that matters most: The clash…
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Music Review: JONI 75: A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION LIVE (Various Artists at the Chandler in Los Angeles)
SOMETHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE FOR THIS BORDERLINE CONCERT A blindingly colossal line-up of some of music’s greatest stars offered their interpretation of Joni Mitchell songs last night in Los Angeles. With names including James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Seal, Chaka Khan, and Joni’s fellow Canadians Diana Krall and Rufus Wainwright, the excitement was palpable from the sold-out crowd…
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Opera Review: SATYAGRAHA (LA Opera)
A NONVIOLENT REVIEW What is it about Philip Glass’s operas that have completely captivated me? You would think that all of that minimalism — the spellbinding reiterating arpeggios, unhurried modulations and almost uniform orchestrations — would bore me to tears. Perhaps there’s something mathematical or perfectly in harmony with nature (or in nature with the…
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Theater Preview: ZORBA (Musical Theatre Guild)
GREEK ACTIVE It only seemed natural that Michael Cacoyannis’s 1964 film, Zorba the Greek, about a happy-go-lucky fisherman on the isle of Crete, should one day become a musical. It took John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss Of The Spider Woman and many more) to make this a reality, with Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof,…
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