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Los Angeles
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San Diego Theater Preview: PIPPIN (San Diego Junior Theatre at the Casa del Prado Theatre)
DON’T BE SKIPPIN’ PIPPIN Here’s a can’t-miss opportunity: San Diego Junior Theatre is presenting the perky but dark 1972 musical, Pippin. Don’t be fooled by the moniker “Junior Theatre,” for these shows are just as slick as one with adult performers. For a small ticket price, head over to the beautiful Casa del Prado Theatre…
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Theater Review: PARADE (Chance Theater)
SEE IT BEFORE THIS PARADE PASSES YOU BY The emotionally pile-driving Parade by bookwriter Alfred Uhry and composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown reprises an ugly and evergreen tragedy. Their driven musical chronicles the reflexive racism that, a century ago, doomed a suspect stranger, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jew in 1914 Atlanta. Here the bigotry is anti-Semitism, a xenophobia…
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Los Angeles Theater/Music Review: SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM (Hollywood Bowl)
A GOOD THING GOING; GOING, GOING… Sondheim on Sondheim, which had a short run on Broadway in 2010, offers both songs and personal musings from one of Broadway’s greatest composer/lyricists. Roundabout Theater Company’s inside look is rich with the stories behind the songs, new arrangements for old favorites, a few medleys, and some obscure tunes….
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San Diego Theater Review: AVENUE Q (OB Playhouse)
IT MAY SUCK TO LIVE ON AVENUE Q, BUT NOT TO SEE IT In the right setting, irreverence is so jovial. Our era of thought-police and political correctness has made it delicious to pervert that which seems simple and pure solely for the sake of entertainment (The Producers and The Book of Mormon are still…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA – 25th ANNIVERSARY SHOW! (Hollywood Bowl)
SWINGIN’ AND ROCKIN’ THE BLUES AWAY AT THE BOWL Wait a minute. Hold on. If the Brian Setzer Orchestra’”which pumps joy into the blood of both rabid fans and newcomers thirsty for a good time’”is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl next week (August 2, 2017 at 8), then that means Setzer has…
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Tour Review: LUZIA (Cirque du Soleil)
MEMORIES OF MEXICO, LUZIA UNLEASHES A RAIN OF JOY The Cirque du Soleil just made a run for the border’”and not the Canadian one. Ignoring the United States (a favorite activity of many nowadays), the Montreal-based human circus lavishes its unstoppable imagination on our neighbor to the south. Luzia, the latest (ad)venture under the redesigned white-and-gold Grand…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: A STEADY RAIN (John Kirby Studio)
A STEADY PLAY What police personnel go through day-by-day isn’t really fully understood by civilians: the life-and-death tensions that alternate with the inevitable boredom and the public’s political vacillation between Protect Our Cops and Protect Our Citizens From Those Cops tends to get politicized and therefore ignored by all the oppositions. Keith Huff’s amazing play A Steady…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BORN FOR THIS (The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
THE MIRACLE OF LOVE: WINANS STYLE BeBe Winans was on-hand to enjoy a triumphant opening night for his coming-of-age stage musical Born For This, that takes him and his sister CeCe from young adulthood through several decades of their lives and legendary careers. The star-studded audience included Stevie Wonder, Cicely Tyson, Debbie Allen, Sidney Poitier,…
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San Diego Theater Review: GUYS AND DOLLS (The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage)
A FEW BLEMISHES CAN’T MAR THIS 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’…
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Los Angeles Music Review: ELLA AND DIZZY: 100 YEARS, 1,000 MEMORIES (Hollywood Bowl)
JAZZ SO HOT, IT MADE ME DIZZY The air was pure celebration at a crowded Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night as folks came from near and far to celebrate two of jazz’s greatest talents: Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, both of whom would be celebrating their 100th birthday this year. For the…
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Los Angeles Music Review: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH & COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN” & “LINCOLN PORTRAIT” (Gustavo Dudamel, LA Phil)
SOOTHING, ROARING AND CHIRPING: FROM VIN SCULLY TO BEETHOVEN Of all the actors who have embodied the voice of Abraham Lincoln, the one that sticks out for me is Royal Dano, who Walt Disney personally selected as Lincoln’s voice in Disneyland’s Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction; not only did Dano resemble the 16th POTUS, but…
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Dance Review: EZRALOW DANCE: PRIMO PASSO (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
PRIMA PARTE PASSA, SECONDA È MIGLIORE Primo Passo explores life’s first steps through a compilation of dance features from choreographer Daniel Ezralow’s 30-year repertoire in a hit-and-miss retrospective that ranged from trite to enthralling. The seven pieces fit the theme of “new beginnings” well, showcasing movements that reflected an air of childlike curiosity or enthusiasm…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE DEVIL’S WIFE (Skylight Theatre)
A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL Tom Jacobson’s latest play, The Devil’s Wife, is a droll take on old European tales regarding evil demons and feckless wives. Here, the Devil, in the guise of rich landowner Nicholas Mastema (Everette Wallin), invades the home of the three adult Ramirez sisters as they mourn for their newly passed…
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Los Angeles Music Review: I RISE (Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles at Disney Hall)
GIMME THAT NEW-TIME RELIGION I Rise was more than a concert. As shaped by artistic director and conductor Dr. Joseph P. Nadeau (below) it was a theatrical experience so provocative, so plaintive, so poignant, so palpable, so powerful and so profound that it devastated me. And when that happens in the arts, I’m inspired. Sadly, there were only…
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Dance Preview: THE RED SHOES (National Tour of Matthew Bourne’s Production)
MATTHEW BOURNE’S THE RED SHOES: U.S. TOUR BEGINS IN L.A. SEPTEMBER 15 Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved fairy tale and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s legendary 1948 film The Red Shoes, Matthew Bourne and company (New Adventures) adapted the breathtaking story and created a theatrical ballet which took the U.K. by storm last year. After winding up its tour across…
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Los Angeles/Regional Theater Preview: THE TEMPEST (Shakespeare Orange County in Garden Grove)
ENCHANTED FORGIVENESS Shakespeare Orange County (SOC) has used local community members alongside professional actors to reinvent Shakespeare as a way to offer thoughts about inclusiveness and Southern California’s astoundingly diverse population with creative results. This way, the classical English literature combined with cultural aspects actually influences storytelling. And the community pride behind these productions is…
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San Diego Theater Review: ANIMAL CRACKERS (Cygnet Theatre Company)
A SWEET SAMPLING OF ANIMAL CRACKERS, ALBEIT A BIT DAY-OLD One can easily see why Animal Crackers was a Broadway hit from 1928-1929, followed by a successful movie version. Start with the zany Marx Brothers, add a variety of vaudeville style acts, connect it all with a wacky little plot and it has “Roaring Twenties”…
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Los Angeles Theater, Music & Dance Preview: CULTURE CLASH’S OG SUMMER DESMADRE (John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood)
CURE YOUR POLITICAL HANGOVER WITH CULTURE CLASH Founded in 1984, L.A.’s very own veteran satirical Latino comedy troupe, “Culture Clash” (Herbert Siguenza, Ric Salinas and Richard Montoya) is headlining a one-night-only variety-extravaganza on Sunday, July 16, 2017 at the Ford Amphitheatre (newly revamped to the tune of $72.2 million), opposite the Hollywood Bowl. Now in their mid-to-late…
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Theater Preview: THE GRAND TOUR (Pageant of the Masters / Laguna Beach)
TAKE A GRAND TOUR WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR SEAT Pageant of the Masters, now in its 83rd year, is a singularly unique entertainment that has perfected the art of tableaux vivants (“living pictures”). With world-class designers and over 600 volunteers (including actors and a research team), this elegant and classy outfit—equal parts museum, play, concert, and…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: MARY POPPINS (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
MARY’S POPPIN’ OUT ALL OVER Not just the quintessentially “practically perfect” nanny, Mary Poppins is a kind of cosmic cure. Given the state of our disunion, we probably need to swallow helping and heaping spoonfuls of sugar. Courtesy of Musical Theatre West, Disney’s aggressively buoyant movie musicalization cavorts across the Carpenter Center stage, enchanted by director…
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