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Los Angeles Theater Review: THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY (Antaeus Theatre in Glendale)
THE TRAGIC COMEDY OF LOVE Antaeus Theatre closes its season with a terrific production of Three Days in the Country, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Turgenev’s A Month in the Country. Turgenev was said to be Chekov’s inspiration to become a playwright, yet my affection for the latter has never extended to the former. Chekov feels…
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Theater Review: BIG FISH (Chance Theater)
FRIED, STEWED OR BROILED, THIS FISH WILL NEVER TASTE GOOD So here’s what baffles me: A show which is middling at best is suddenly showing up at regional, community and high school theaters with alarming regularity around the country. Well, maybe not so alarming. The show was, after all, on Broadway. Musical Theatre West in…
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Theater Review: ON YOUR FEET (National Tour)
DANCE DELIRIUM As jukebox musicals go, the rags-to-riches bio On Your Feet! definitely earns its exclamation point. No question, the upbeat tunes, with their irresistible Cuban-fusion street beat, would justify this 2015 tribute to the flashdance fervor of Gloria and Emilio Estefan and their Miami Sound Machine. But their lives warrant a work too: Alexander Dinelaris’s predictable and…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: THE SUMMER OF LOVE (Michael Feinstein Sings the Hits of the ’60s with the Pasadena POPS at the Arboretum)
FEINSTEIN & THE SUMMER OF LOVE: COME ON BABY, LIGHT MY FIRE Of all the Michael Feinstein Pasadena POPS concerts so far, my favorites were his solo presentations of both Gershwin and the two Frank Sinatra concerts, celebrating Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 100th birthday. That’s because Feinstein handed over the conductor’s baton to Larry Blank, who…
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Music Preview: BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV (Rachmoninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl)
DO NOT MISS BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL THIS WEEK Pianist Behzod Abduraimov is coming to the Hollywood Bowl this Thursday, July 12, 2018, so prepare yourself for one of the world’s greatest pianists. In fact, the in-demand, rightfully popular 27-year-old Uzbek pianist, who was born in Tashkent in 1990 just before the collapse…
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San Diego Theater Review: SPAMALOT (Cygnet Theatre)
THE HOLY GRAIL OF SILLY MUSICALS The tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table stand as icons of literature, leaving them ripe for outrageous parody in Monty Python’s 1975 cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Spamalot walks the line of being a musical version of Holy Grail and being (as…
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Opera Review: LA GAZETTA (Pacific Opera Project)
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! — Unearthed Rossini opera about newspaper ad hits L.A. after sitting around doing practically nothing for 200 years. Los Angeles — Detectives are trying to determine why one of the greatest opera composers of all time seemingly tossed his delightful but very very silly work La Gazzetta to the back…
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Los Angeles Film Review: THE 2018 MONTALBíN SUMMER MOVIE SERIES (The Montalbán Theatre)
THE MONTALBíN MIXES MOVIES, MINGLING AND MERRY MASTICATING Always fun, outdoor cinema hits the summer ether like the smell of fresh cut grass and smoked meat (or is that fresh cut meat and smoked grass?). There’s nothing quite like a balmy evening under the stars to experience that collective joy of watching a movie. And…
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Theater Review: TAR (Playwrights’ Arena at Atwater Village Theatre)
TARANTINO IN THE STICKY SWAMPS OF SADNESS Tom Jacobson’s Tar is from his The Ballad of Bimini Baths, a triad of works playing concurrently in Los Angeles. For half a century (1902-1951), the hot springs resort actually existed here in L.A., and Jacobson means to examine how far society has, or hasn’t, come by setting…
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San Diego Theater Review: ROMEO, ROMEO & JULIET (The Roustabouts Theatre Co. at Moxie Theatre)
PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW AFTER A PLAY THIS GOOD “What’s in a name?” Juliet famously asks. A lot, if the name is Ruff Yeager. Yeager, co-founder of The Roustabouts Theatre Co., has been a long-time staple of fine directing and powerful acting in San Diego, particularly chilling as the central character in Roustabouts’ debut…
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Theater Review: SWEET CHARITY (Reprise 2.0)
SWEETER THE SECOND TIME AROUND It’s like kicking a puppy dog to dislike Charity Hope Valentine. Charity is the heroine of the 1966 musical Sweet Charity — a strange amalgam of high hopes and low blows. The show once made famous by Gwen Verdon’s slinkiness and Bob Fosse’s choreography is pocked with terrific tunes by…
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Theater/Dance Preview: THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY PROJECT (The Big Show Co. at the Ford Amphitheatre)
“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” Author Lois Lowry On June 28 & 29, Ford Theatres, in association with choreographer/director Arianne MacBean and The Big Show Co., will present the world premiere of The Collective Memory Project — an original dance-theatre piece inspired by…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE HUMANS (National Tour at the Ahmanson Theatre)
ALL TOO HUMAN Stephen Karam’s remarkable Tony-winning play The Humans — which is winding up its national tour at the Ahmanson with members of the Broadway production — begins with Erik Blake (the excellent Reed Birney, reprising his Tony-winning performance) standing on the upper level of a shabby, half-dark basement/ground-floor tenement duplex, holding two bags of groceries,…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: PARADE (3-D Theatricals)
DON’T LET THIS PARADE PASS YOU BY With no intentions of reviewing, I attended 3-D Theatricals’ astounding rendition of Parade, bookwriter Alfred Uhry and composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown’s emotionally pile-driving musical that reprises an ugly tragedy. I have been begging folks to see this Broadway-caliber outing — it closes Sunday Jun 24 — but heard this…
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Music Review: DIANA ROSS SINGS MEMORIES WITH THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA
MISS ROSS REVIVED MEMORIES, BUT DIDN’T BOWL US OVER Last Saturday was an unusually grey and chilly night for June. Unfortunately, the program for the opening night of the Hollywood Bowl’s 2018 season was as mild as the weather. I suppose it’s enough that the event raised more than $1.75 million for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s educational…
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Theater Review: LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH Eugene O’Neill twice turned his troubled youth into all-absorbing drama. His family first appeared as a happy tangle of eccentric loved ones in Ah, Wilderness!, a halcyon 1933 comedy that revealed no greater family rifts than a generation gap and a father’s worry about his son’s preference for “decadent” poets….
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Theater Review: CULT OF LOVE (IAMA Theatre Company in Atwater Village)
ON CONFORMING AND CHRIST Ah, what better fodder for drama is there than the dysfunctional American family? You know the ingredients: accusations hurled back and forth by the walking wounded; recriminations for offenses committed years before; and — for good measure — a reunion with plenty of alcohol and mental illness. With her Cult of Love,…
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Theater Review: A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME (Hollywood Fringe Festival)
HALLUCINOGENS, MAN-WHORES & CHINA PEOPLE I’m not sure why Steve Chang chose to call his world premiere one-man show at the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival A Complete Waste of Time. It isn’t. He isn’t. And his aim doesn’t seem to be anything as trivial as what the title suggests. Chang tells a number of stories…
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Music Review: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD (Ford Amphitheatre)
BREAKING DOWN FENCES An American requiem, an oratorio, and a choral masterpiece elegantly and movingly performed, Considering Matthew Shepard, which closes tonight at the Ford Amphitheatre, is not to be missed. The full-length work — containing hymns, Western music, spirituals, and other Copeland-esque evocations of American compositions — certainly mourns and honors Shepard, the twenty-year-old…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: SKELETON CREW (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood)
MOTHER COURAGE IN MOTOR CITY The marvel of scenic designer Rachel Meyers’ work greets you when you enter the theater at the Geffen Playhouse, and draws the audience into Skeleton Crew, the third and final installment in playwright Dominique Morisseau’s award-winning three-play cycle, The Detroit Project. Then Meyers’ set does an extraordinary thing: During onstage…
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