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Los Angeles Theater Preview: A SHAKESPEARE JUBILEE (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
JUBILATION! It promises to be one of the most enchanting nights of theater in a long time. On Saturday April 28 at 8:00, some of London and Hollywood’s greatest names will gather at The Wallis in Beverly Hills to revive the Shakespeare Jubilee with excerpts from some of Shakespeare’s greatest hits. But don’t just expect…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: GROUNDLINGS ROYAL WEDDING (The Groundlings Theatre)
A ROYAL TREAT For almost 40 years, The Groundlings has proved itself to be one of the premiere comedy troupes in the nation, creating more stars than the Big Bang (and creating more Big Bangs than stars; have you ever been backstage during a performance?) Performers showcase material that arises from improvisation workshops; their weekly…
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Music Preview: JEREMY DENK, PIANO (The Wallis)
DENK FOR THE MEMORIES His academic lucidity, enchanted virtuosity and musical acumen make him one of the most exciting and accomplished pianists of our age. Now, Jeremy Denk is coming to The Wallis in Beverly Hills for a one-night only recital this Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30. This is a rare opportunity to see this…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: NATIVE SON (Antaeus Theatre in Glendale)
BLINDING SON I’m half Latino, half Eastern-European Jew, and I’m gay. But I know nothing of what it means to be African-American in a country founded on hating the color of your skin’”a country still defined, possessed even, by that hatred. I want to say that up front. No false equivalencies. That said, I will…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: STARDUST (Complexions Contemporary Ballet at The Music Center)
BOWIE’S BACK … AND FORTH Founded in 1994 by a pair of former Alvin Ailey dancers and frequent contributors to the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance, New York-based Complexions Contemporary Ballet has wowed critics and audiences alike with their boundary-breaking style of ballet. Now Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden bring their acclaimed…
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Music and Dance Preview: TAO: DRUM HEART (International Tour)
TAIKO ME AWAY Ever since man could bang a stick on a rock, percussion has been a way for humans to express themselves. From the battlefield to the theater to your teenager’s bedroom, percussion has evolved from communicative and ritualistic purposes into an art form. We take for granted the use of percussion — primitive,…
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Tour Theater Review: SOUL DOCTOR (Lyceum Theatre in San Diego)
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED: A JOYFUL MESSAGE There is an ancient Chinese proverb: “The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.” In the musical Soul Doctor, the Jewish Orthodoxy apparently aren’t big on such Chinese wisdom. Based on the true story of Shlomo Carlebach, often known as “The Singing…
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Music Review: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS SALONEN & SHOSTAKOVICH (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
A WONDERFUL WORLD PREMIERE BY SALONEN There’s nothing more wonderful than witnessing a world premiere and craving to hear it again immediately as an encore. Such was the experience with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s brand new 12-minute tone poem, composed this year. If the Symbolist Debussy and Modernist Salonen had a love child (Debusalonen!), it would be…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: SIGNIFICANT OTHER (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood)
TOGETHER ALONE Keilly McQuail and Will Von Vogt are absolutely riveting in Significant Other, Joshua Harmon’s mostly funny, sometimes sad take on the pitfalls of being the GBF (gay best friend). Both actors fearlessly explore their characters’ self-obsessions so fully and so believably, that behavior and dialogue which might grow irritating, instead stays fresh and…
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Dance Review: GISELLE (Dada Masilo & The Dance Factory at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
WILIS AT THE WALLIS First staged in 1841, Giselle is one of the oldest surviving ballets still in the international repertory, especially because the lead role is a showcase for the world’s leading prima ballerinas. Since its inception, the Romantic story ballet has had several revisions, but most companies follow Marius Petipa’s fin de siècle version. Now, South African…
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Theater Review: SAINT JOAN (Bedlam Theatre Company on tour at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
SAVING FAITH Even with a few blemishes, Bedlam’s revival of George Bernard Shaw’s 1923 masterpiece Saint Joan is an immersive and ultimately gratifying theatrical experience. The story, told in six scenes and an epilogue, concerns the last two years of Joan of Arc’s life (1429-31): arrival at court and the discovery of the dauphin; leadership of sieges…
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Los Angeles Music Review: MAHLER’S SONG OF THE EARTH (LA Phil)
FANTASIA 2018 Coming in at a clean 68 minutes, LA Phil’s production of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) was short and sweet with plenty of meat. But through Saturday night, you get far more than just an orchestral rendering, which was also a mournful offering from conductor Gutavo Dudamel to…
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Dance Preview: ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET (on tour at The Soraya in Northridge)
NOW YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SANTA FE Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) celebrates the third year of its four-year residency at The Soraya with a program of three works that celebrate the company’s commitment to creating new contemporary dance. The entire evening, which plays only once — this Saturday April 7, 2018 at 8…
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San Diego Theater Review: KING CHARLES III (Coronado Playhouse)
WOULD SHAKESPEARE BY ANY OTHER PLAYWRIGHT SMELL AS SWEET? If the title King Charles III sounds rather Shakespearean, yet you cannot recall a “Charles” among all his Henrys and Richards, there’s a good reason. Mike Bartlett’s homage to the “Bard of Avon,” written just over 400 years later than Richard III, is about a king that Shakespeare…
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Music Review: LAGRIME DI SAN PIETRO (TEARS OF ST. PETER) (Los Angeles Master Chorale)
FEARLESS “TEARS” ELEVATES MUSIC TO A MIND-BLOWING EXPERIENCE At a gala performance honoring Los Angeles Master Chorale donors, Peter Sellar’s critically acclaimed staging of Lagrime di San Pietro returned to Disney Hall with an encore of such luminous majesty and originality that it’s an honor to have this version of Orlando di Lasso’s last work continue on…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: 57 CHEVY (Highways)
57 CHEVY: THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT ANTIDOTE, OR HOW BROWN WAS MY VALLEY? There’s palpable excitement surrounding the upcoming West Los Angeles engagement of Cris Franco’s autobiographical comedy, 57 Chevy. “We’re remounting the show because of the Trump administration’s full throttle attack on our families. It’s time to fight back!” says the play’s award-winning author. The true…
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Los Angeles Theater Feature: REPRISE RETURNS WITH NEW SEASON OF MUSICALS (Freud Playhouse)
REPRISE REPRISED It’s a strange sort of serendipity. Just when Musical Theatre West announced its final season after eight glorious years presenting rarely produced musicals in concert form (The Reiner Reading Series), along comes an organization that shuttered its doors years ago, but now returns. Reprise! Broadway’s Best, which presented nearly 50 productions of classic musicals between…
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Dance Review: ROMEO AND JULIET (Joffrey Ballet)
SUCH SWEET SORROW FOR THE WRONG REASONS It’s as if choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, director of the Polish National Ballet, gave Prokofiev the opportunity to protest Stalin’s tyranny that he never had in 1940. Pastor’s two-act treatment of the Russian’s celebrated three-act ballet carries no Renaissance finery, just real-world immediacy. Premiered by the Scottish Ballet in…
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Los Angeles Opera Review: ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE / ORPHÉE ET EURYDICE (LA Opera)
DON’T MYTH OUT, OR DANCING THAT’S ORPH THE CHARTS LA Opera’s gorgeous production of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice), featuring a welcome collaboration with the Staatsoper Hamburg and Chicago’s Lyric Opera (with the Hamburg and Joffrey Ballets), lives up to the hype, hope, and expectation it has generated since its announcement….
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Music Review: JOHN BEASLEY’S MONK’ESTRA & GERI ALLEN’S ERROL GARNER PROJECT (Disney Hall)
THE MAGICAL MONK LEFT HIS MARK Just when I thought nothing could touch Jason Moran’s recreation of Thelonious Monk’s 1959 Town Hall recording last November, along comes the great John Beasley with his take on the great jazz inventor. Beasley wasn’t trying to recreate Monk at Disney Hall last night; instead, he has come up with themes…
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