Los Angeles

YOU’LL FALL IN LOVE WITH AMOUR “I wanted to write an opera-bouffe, an intimate evening with light, lyrical singing and delicate charm,” wrote composer Michel Legrand. “Marcel Aymé’s delightful story of an ordinary little man who suddenly finds himself gifted with extraordinary powers seemed to be the perfect material for such an amusement.” Perhaps too…

A PERFECT TENN The Pasadena Playhouse is currently presenting God Looked Away,  an ode to Tennessee Williams at the end of his career. As an adjunct to this world premiere development production –which stars Al Pacino and Judith Light — the Playhouse is offering readings of four of Williams’ best plays on four consecutive  Monday nights, Feb….

  A BIRDIE THAT TAKES WING Having no intention of reviewing, I bought a couple tickets to a  non-union production of Bye Bye Birdie, but the entire affair had me so damn giddy that I can’t be quiet about it — and you have until April 1 to catch it.  It’s as welcome as flowers that bloom in…

MORE THAN JUST VARIATIONS ON A THEME “Why did the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven write 33 variations on a trivial little waltz by a mediocre amateur composer?” On the surface, the question itself may seem trivial, but playwright Moisés Kaufman expands the mystery of the 33 variations into a drama that makes us…

ELIXIRICIOUS At first it seemed as though a tragic circumstance had befallen Pacific Opera Project’s production of  The Elixir of Love last night. One hour before the show,  at the height of a heavy storm, a transformer blew in front of the Highland Park Ebell Club; there  would definitely be no electricity for the show. A stroke of…

SHE’S BA-A-A-CK AND SHE’S FA-A-A-ABULOUS Charles Busch’s Die, Mommie, Die! is equal parts comic melodrama, Greek tragedy and Hollywood kitsch’”and all campy noir classic in the vein of 1960s gothic horror films like Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I saw the first production at the Coast Playhouse back in 1999 starring the playwright, the great Wendy Worthington,…

A GUY WALKS INTO A CUCKOO’S NEST… Jazz pianist, TV personality, actor, author, film composer and arranger Oscar Levant (1906-1972) was quite possibly one of the quickest wits on record. His sophisticated and often vicious put-downs (a style made famous by members of the Algonquin Club), whether self-deprecating or shot bow-and-arrow style at others, were  a…

ALTERNATIVE FACTS Eugene O’Neill is one of those gigantically influential artists whom it is often difficult for later generations to enjoy. The innovations he cribbed from Ibsen and Chekhov can feel very dated now; they were a throwback even in 1956, when contemporary critics saw past the mean realism of Long Day’s Journey into Night…

ZOOT SUIT  FITTED FOR A NEW GENERATION When Zoot Suit  was originally commissioned and developed by  Center Theatre Group in 1978, it  played for nearly a year in Los Angeles’”first at the Mark Taper Forum, then at the Aquarius in Hollywood. It went on to become Broadway’s first Chicano play, was made into a major motion picture and became…

LANG LANDS IN  LA LA LAND Jessica Lang has no doubt made a name for herself in the dance world as an independent choreographer, but dance patrons in Los Angeles may find this in-demand dancemaker difficult to place. Because the majority of troupes that visit here offer programs by the company’s namesake (Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch,…