Los Angeles

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE WHEREVER IT LEADS Evidence, A Dance Company  is recognized nationally and internationally for its fusion of African dance with contemporary choreography and storytelling that combines Cuban, Caribbean, West African and modern American dance movement. A selection of signature works from its repertory will be performed to tell the story and mark the extraordinary…

YOU WANT  THE SLEUTH..? The kind of intimate theater I saw Sunday is targeted for elimination by Actors’ Equity Association: Low-tech projects, produced of donated resources without hope of profit. One of Equity’s arguments, repeated recently by its president, is that a proliferation of tiny nonprofits puts the development of commercial theater at a disadvantage. The…

THERE WILL BE BUZZ ABOUT THIS PLAY, BUT IT’S ALL STING AND NO HONEY As honey bees gather pollen and nectar for their survival, they pollinate crops such as cranberries, melons and broccoli. “A World Without Bees,” Time’s cover story in August of 2013, brought to light a frightening occurrence: In recent years, there have…

A FUNHOUSE NOT MEANT TO PRODUCE You must run to the Fountain Theatre to see the delightfully quirky oddity, Tennessee William’s last play A House Not Meant to Stand. Fasten your seatbelts, slam down a mint julep, and keep all arms, legs and gaping mouths inside the McCorkle’s Southern Gothic living room at all times….

THE THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM When Mahler visited Sibelius in 1907, the two composers talked about “the essence of symphony.” Mahler rejected his colleague’s creed of severity, style and logic, saying that “a symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.” 12 years earlier, at work on his Third, he had remarked that…

I’LL BE THERE WITH BELL ON Many know that Academy of St Martin in the Fields is a touring and recording chamber orchestra founded by Sir Neville Marriner in 1958. But did you know that since 2011 the world-renowned virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell has been their Music Director? Next to Marriner, who turns 92 in…

TRIFONOV’S DEBUT RECITAL AT DISNEY HALL All it took was one performance from Daniil Trifonov (dan-EEL TREE-fon-ov) to resoundingly validate for me why he is the current Big Thing of the piano world. The Liszt-like master’s rendition of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (followed by a…

TOWARD A SAFE THEATER In 2015 Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex opened to mixed notices Off  Broadway, which seems to be the exact pipeline for shows to get produced at L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum a year or so later. It fits the bill for new-millennial regional theater production in pretty much every way:…

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE STAGE Every time I see Leon Russom I wish I had his body. Lean like a dancer, he uses the solidity of his shoulders, the slimness of his hips to create character and emphasize moment. The Coen Brothers like to cast him as movie cops, but I first saw him onstage…

TAKE A TRIP TO POCATELLO Since this is a Samuel D. Hunter play, its setting is a nondescript town in Idaho whose business district is beseiged  by big-box stores and chain restaurants — in this case  a pre-fabricated eatery laden with  temperamental  technology. But unlike his previous studies in isolation, this group portrait of hinterland culture represents the author’s…

THE CRASH OF SYMBOLISM As part of its City of Light: A Century of Music From Paris series, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is presenting Debussy’s one-of-a-kind opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, in its entirety. Helmed by the rightfully popular Esa-Pekka Salonen, the LA Phil and Los Angeles Master Chorale  will be joined by  Kate Burton as the narrator,  Stéphane…

SOMEWHAT FORCED, WE STILL GET THE  GLORY OF WEST SIDE STORY Strangely enough,  West Side Story  feels more dated than  Romeo and Juliet, its 500-year-old inspiration. Compared to Shakespeare’s dedicated tragedy, the musical is less violent, claiming only three lives to the Bard’s five (although, in the second act,  one character  barely escapes being raped). And while these juvenile delinquents are…

ONE NERDY, ANAL AND SINGULAR SENSATION The first two weeks of June, 2001, was a very good time to attend Broadway shows. On one day alone, I saw The Producers at 2:00, The Rocky Horror Show (with Dick Cavett, Lea Delaria & Raúl Esparza) at 5:00 and The Music Man (with Eric McCormack, the greatest…

JUST ADD WATERS It’s edifying how much of practical value you can learn at the theater. I found out last night, for example, that if John Waters invites you over, you’ve got some work to do first: “You’re not taking a shit at my house. Dinner guests should eliminate before arriving. I don’t want you…