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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles Theater Review: SELL/BUY/DATE (Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre in Hollywood)
SEX WORK/#METOO/FUTURE TENSE Sarah Jones is a prescient writer and an actor of rare gifts and remarkable range. It’s no wonder that an early patron and supporter was Meryl Streep, for like Streep, Jones goes in and out of accents and physical characterizations with precision in a way that appears effortless. In her engrossing new…
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Theater Interview: PAT KINEVANE (starring in three plays at The Odyssey Theatre)
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH AMBASSADOR Pat Kinevane, 51, is a native of rural Ireland — specifically County Cork — now living and working in Dublin, the capitol of Eire. A qualified spokesperson on Irish culture, he is on a month-long visit to Los Angeles with his three one-person shows which have garnered him a…
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Los Angeles Music Review: A TRIP TO THE MOON & THE PLANETS (Teddy Abrams and the LA Phil)
WHAT A TRIP Close on the heels of LA Phil’s behemoth production of Bernstein’s Mass comes another large-scale work with mind-boggling logistics. Co-commissioned with the London Symphony, A Trip to the Moon is Andrew Norman’s fanciful musical about a fin de siècle voyage to the Moon, whose inhabitants have trouble communicating with the Edwardian/Victorian astronomers…
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Los Angeles Music Review: THE OSCAR CONCERT (A.M.P.A.S. and LA Phil at Disney Hall)
HIGH SCORES FOR A CONCERT OF SCORES The logistics of putting together this terrific night, including an assemblage of Hollywood’s A-List composers and directors, must have been daunting. Indeed, so much work went into The Oscar Concert that it’s a shame it only played once. A co-production of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and…
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Los Angeles Music Review: DANIIL TRIFONOV & SERGEI BABAYAN (Two-Piano Recital at Disney Hall)
A WELL-MATCHED TEACHER AND STUDENT One of our greatest living pianists — if not the greatest — Daniil Trifonov (dan-EEL TREE-fon-ov) came to Disney Hall for a solo recital exactly two years ago. He played a gargantuan program lasting over 160 minutes. Included were the Brahms Chaconne in D minor for the Left Hand (after…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Boston Court in Pasadena)
A MODERNIZED STREETCAR Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director Michael Michetti would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times. A Southern Belle schoolteacher, Blanche DuBois, arrives in New Orleans needing the…
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Los Angeles Music Review: JOHN ADAMS CONDUCTS (McIntosh World Premiere with the L.A. Phil)
A JUICY MCINTOSH What used to feel like the LA Phil’s token new music series seems to finally be hitting its stride. Green Umbrella is trending up thanks to a massive new commission budget and Los Angeles’s sudden role as new music tastemaker. Last Tuesday’s concert was the latest in what seems like a constant…
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San Diego Theater Review: CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM (Lamb’s Players Theatre)
THREE GREAT MINDS MAKE FOR INTRIGUING THEATER There’s a game where you get to pick three famous people and go to dinner with all of them. In Mark St. Germaine’s Camping with Henry and Tom, it’s kind of like that game, except it’s based on a true story. And you only get to watch the…
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Music Preview: CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT (The Soraya and Irvine Barclay)
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR Hooray and hallelujah! Long before her newest disc, Dreams and Daggers — a live double-CD set that won the 2018 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album — I have always been a fan of jazz vocalist and song interpreter extraordinaire Cécile McLorin Salvant. But seeing…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: GUYS AND DOLLS (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
A BEAUTIFUL DOLL It’s amazing. Were this masterpiece from Broadway’s golden age an actual guy or doll, he or she would be scoring Social Security. But make no mistake, this 1950 hoofer is no worse for the wear, thanks to Frank Loesser’s timeless score and Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ cheeky book about strippers and…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY (Celebration Theatre)
SHORES ‘NUFF Texas-born playwright Del Shores, best known for his romp Sordid Lives (the hilarious play and movie that also introduced us to Leslie Jordan) is coming to the Celebration Theatre with the West Coast premiere of his one-man show, Six Characters in Search of a Play. In this 90-minute cavalcade of characters, Shores will introduce you to…
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Los Angeles Event Preview: THE LINCOLN LEGACY: THE MAN AND HIS PRESIDENCY (Tony Kushner and Sarah Vowell: In Conversation at UCLA)
HIS AND HERS HISTORY Looking for some inspiration? From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and lauded author Sarah Vowell comes a powerful examination of one of American history’s most singular figures: Abraham Lincoln. Presented by CAP UCLA, the dynamic duo will appear at Royce Hall this Thursday, February 22. Best known for his play Angels…
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Cabaret Preview: MY KINDA 60’S (Charles Busch)
MY KINDA CABARET ACT It was the decade that changed our nation forever. What began as nothing but promise — victors of a World War and a young forward-thinking President — suddenly shifted with JFK’s assassination. A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. Americans protested: End…
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Los Angeles Opera Preview: CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA (The Soraya in Northridge)
A MAGNIFICENT MARIACHI OPERA COMES TO THE SORAYA It was by sheer luck that I was in Chicago and happened upon the world’s first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon). Even though it immediately became one of my favorite operas, I knew that this type of…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: IRONBOUND (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood)
THE JOY OF SURVIVAL Marin Ireland is mesmerizing and deeply moving in Ironbound. She plays Daria, a Polish immigrant. To my ear, her accent is impeccable — and most importantly, entirely consistent. We believe she is searching for the best English words to express herself, and often her syntax has an authenticity of its own….
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Los Angeles Music Review: BERNSTEIN’S MASS (Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel)
A MASSIVE MASS FOR THE MASSES It’s a happening in Disney Hall. And there’s no better way to salute Leonard Bernstein in his hundredth year than a humongous and awesome presentation of his rarely produced Mass. How did a secular humanist Jewish composer come to write a a modernized interpretation of sacred Mass texts, including…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: BERLIN PHILHARMONIC WIND QUINTET WITH STEPHEN HOUGH (The Wallis)
HOUGH AND PUFF The glorious Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet is coming to The Wallis in Beverly Hills as part of a very short, nine-stop North American tour. As if having this prestigious ensemble on February 10 isn’t exciting enough, the great pianist Stephen Hough (pronounced “Huff”) will be playing with the Quintet here in Beverly…
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San Diego Theater Review: THE LAST WIFE (Cygnet)
THE LAST WIFE GETS IT RIGHT Historical fiction can be a dicey game, let alone a modernization of historical figures. When the results are as captivating as Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, be prepared for some stimulating theater while brushing up on your history lessons. When speaking of British History, Katherine Parr may not be…
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Concert Review: MEOW MEOW (with Pink Martini’s Thomas M. Lauderdale)
THE DIVINE MISS MM When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramovic allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? And when you hear the term “cabaret,” do you think of tired patter, same-old showtunes, and folks who’re trying to jump-start their career? Well, prepare to…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE HOTHOUSE (Antaeus Theatre in Glendale)
A TRAGI-COMEDY OF VIOLENCE Harold Pinter’s The Hothouse is exactly the kind of play I hope to see at the Antaeus Theatre Company. It is a classic to some but not to others, and there’s a lot of leeway in the text for bold choices, its themes are relevant ’” some might say eerily so…
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