Areas We Cover
Categories
Los Angeles
-
Los Angeles Cabaret Review: ABSINTHE (Spiegelworld Tent at L.A. Live)
TITS AND SASS My only problem with 20 year old acrobats and showgirls is that they’re not going to date me while I’m in Las Vegas to catch a show. The casinos that hire them aren’t stupid; sexual frustration is the foundation of the gambling followed by cocaine followed by hookers tourism industry. I personally…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: RULES OF SECONDS (Los Angeles Theatre Center)
GOOD FORM AND OTHERS Most playwrights look like they’d rather kiss an ass than kick it. I like John Pollono because he looks like he came expressly to throw a beating, and so it is facile of me to observe that Pollono’s fun new play opened Thursday with the intention of knocking its audience around….
-
Los Angeles Music Review: TETZLAFF PLAYS DVOŘíK WITH ESCHENBACH (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
TETZLAFF PLAYS DVOŘíK There was atmosphere galore in Christian Tetzlaff’s intense interpretation of the Dvořák Violin Concerto last night at Disney Hall, but something was amiss’”or rather missing. This is precisely the type of performance that perplexes this critic: Everything is handled right by a soloist, well-steered by conductor, and executed perfectly by well-balanced players….
-
Los Angeles Theater Photo Preview: CAROUSEL (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
COME RIDE THE CAROUSEL The photos are in for Musical Theatre West’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical masterpiece Carousel, which opens tonight and plays through April 9, 2017 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. Truly one of the greatest musicals ever written, Carousel explores the timeless message of message of love,…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR (The Wooster Group at REDCAT)
BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER Having complained more than once that postmodern deconstruction often a) picks on literature that can’t fight back and b) discourages dialogue by speaking in and to a closed system, I am ecstatic to find that the new Wooster Group show dissects a text so dense and fraught that cutting it up only…
-
Los Angeles Music Preview: HE HAD IT COMING (Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles)
COMING AND CUMMING Gay men and show tunes? I know this sounds shocking, but I wonder how many of you know what a swell fit that is. And to prove it, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA) continues its super-spectacular 38th Season with He Had It Coming, a showcase of Broadway’s best songs for…
-
Los Angeles Music Feature: MAX RAABE & PALAST ORCHESTER (on tour, stopping at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
HEAVEN, YOU’LL BE IN HEAVEN One could scrutinize the reasons that an apotheosis of songwriting appeared early in the twentieth-century, but there was something magical floating through the air that surrounded the world of popular music, not just in America but in Europe as well. Baby Boomers and Millennials have enjoyed a glimpse of this…
-
Los Angeles Theater Preview: INTO THE WOODS (Fiasco Theatre at the Ahmanson)
INTO THE SOUL OF INTO THE WOODS When I first saw Fiasco Theatre’s production of Into the Woods, it was without reservation that I told friends it was worth the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego’s Old Globe. Now, there is no excuse. Uniquely the most emotionally hard-hitting of any of the dozen or so…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: THE OFFENDING GESTURE (Son of Semele Ensemble)
DEFENSIVE ACTION Richard Brinsley Sheridan learned the consequence of gesture earlier than most of us. At 21, he fought two duels with the same man over the same woman; having once spared his opponent’s life, he was skewered in their second duel and had his face pulped with the butt of a sword besides. At…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: ANTIGONÒN (Teatro El Público at REDCAT)
HIT AND MYTH In Sophocles’ Antigone, the titular character has returned to Thebes to warn her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, about a prophecy that predicts they will kill each other in a battle for the throne of Thebes. But she’s too late. Both brothers are dead. Antigone’s uncle Creon, who inherited the throne, gave Eteocles a proper burial,…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: TWELFTH NIGHT (Filter Theatre at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
IF PIZZA BE THE FOOD OF LOVE… Well, that was frustrating. Now at the Wallis in Beverly Hills is England’s Filter Theatre, which deconstructs Twelfth Night to the bare walls (literally there’s no set). This isn’t even a deconstruction, really. It’s a slice-and-dice fringe affair with velcro hats and sticky balls, a real pizza delivery, tequila shots,…
-
Interview: JUDY COLLINS (on tour and A Love Letter to Stephen Sondheim CD release)
THIS PRETTY WOMAN IS A WONDER She was just nominated for a Grammy for the folk album Silver Skies Blue (a collaboration with singer-songwriter Ari Hest); last year, she headlined a PBS special A Love Letter to Stephen Sondheim, and is releasing a CD this week with extra material not on the special; she’s currently…
-
Los Angeles Music & Theater Preview: NIGHT AND DREAMS: A SCHUBERT AND BECKETT RECITAL (Disney Hall)
A NIGHT THAT WILL BE A DREAM Franz Schubert, the quintessential Romantic composer of the 19th century, was loved by Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, poet and director Samuel Beckett above all others. Writing to his cousin John Beckett on May 11, 1975 about the experience of listening to records of Schubert’s song-cycle Winterreise, Beckett described himself as “shivering…
-
Los Angeles Theater Preview: FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE (Ebony Repertory Company)
HERE COMES MR. JORDAN Get ready, cats. The best musical revue since Ain’t Misbehavin’ is coming to Los Angeles, and I’m warning you well in advance: I promise you–yep, promise–that you will kick yourself if you miss Five Guys Named Moe, which plays Ebony Rep  May 18 – June 11, 2017. The joint’s gonna jump in…
-
Dance Review: ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET (on tour at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge)
FINDING HAPPINESS IN DANCE Just before Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s (ASFB) program, Valley Performing Arts Center’s Executive Director Thor Steingraber announced that the outfit was signed to be in residence for two more years. Based on last night’s offering, the company’s second visit here, I hope to see much more of this 20-year-old company. Even with a world…
-
Los Angeles Opera Review: NIXON IN CHINA (Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall)
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR Prior to yesterday’s matinee, the last of a two-performance run of Nixon in China presented by LA Phil, I wondered who would make up the audience for a revival of John Adams’ first opera: Opera fans who would see anything labeled “opera”?; those who enjoy that 80s’ minimalist style, perfected by…
-
Los Angeles Cabaret Preview: CHARLES BUSCH: THAT GIRL/THAT BOY (Rockwell Table and Stage in Los Feliz)
THAT GIRL, THAT BOY…HELL, THAT STAR It was well over 30 years ago that I first saw writer, actor and drag legend Charles Busch. Not only was he hi-larious in his long-running Off-Broadway hit Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, but he looked stunning. Over the years, it has been impossible to avoid this genius as he has become most…
-
Los Angeles Music Preview: THE LYRIS QUARTET with ROBERT DEMAINE, CELLO (The Music Guild)
LYRICAL LYRIS COMES TO THE MUSIC GUILD How many times have I seen The Lyris Quartet perform? I’ve actually lost count. But each time, whether in an intimate space or a grand hall, whether mastering old masters or modern music, this Los Angeles-based string quartet  always wins my heart. The Lyris Quartet also travels frequently, so…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: HALLELUJAH, BABY! (Musical Theatre Guild at the Alex Theatre in Glendale)
COME ON, BABY I wanted so badly to say “Glory, Hallelujah!” after seeing Musical Theatre Guild’s staged concert version of the 1968 Tony-winning musical. While it’s easy to forgive a lead actress who was not her usual self vocally, the spread-out staging, line screw-ups (and they’re on script!), and minuscule orchestra (five pieces!), I am…
-
Los Angeles Dance Preview: ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATER (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
AILEY IS ALWAYS A REVELATION(S) After many happy visits to the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater returns to unleash a sumptuous, three-program showcase for a five day engagement (March 8-12, 2017) with new glories (four west coast premieres) and the restoration of golden memories (five classic works). Program A will ignite three west coast premieres:…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
