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Theater Review: WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (South Coast Rep)
A CLASSIC THAT STILL CUTS DEEP A perfect cast brings Albee’s brutal masterpiece roaring to life—if with slightly less bite than usual There’s a reason Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? refuses to age: it’s one of the greatest plays ever written, a savage autopsy of marriage, illusion, and the lies we need to survive. South…
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Theater Review: THE SHARK IS BROKEN (Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach)
THREE MEN IN A BOAT, WAITING FOR A FISH At Laguna Playhouse, the making of a blockbuster becomes a chamber piece about ego, craft, and survival Gildart Jackson, Will Block, and Adam Poole The mechanical shark that tormented Steven Spielberg during the filming of Jaws in the summer of 1974 was nicknamed Bruce, after the…
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Concert Review: FROM MOZART TO MAHLER (Pacific Symphony)
INTIMACY AND ENORMITY: MOZART AND MAHLER IN COSTA MESA Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, is a peculiar piece to a classical program. It omits oboes entirely, replacing them with clarinets for a softer, more inward blend, and there are no trumpets or drums at all, no means of making a…
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Theater Review: GOD OF CARNAGE (South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa)
CIVILITY CRUMBLES, BUT THE COMEDY NEVER BUILDS South Coast Rep’s revival exposes how thin satire needs sharper direction to truly sting Melinda Page Hamilton and Kim Martin-Cotten The first time I saw Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage was at The Ahmanson Theatre with an all-star cast, one so good that they practically hid that the…
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Dance Preview: STILL/HERE (Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company on Tour at Royce Hall)
STILL HERE, STILL ESSENTIAL The tour of Bill T. Jones’s landmark dance comes to Royce Hall with undiminished force The first time I saw Still/Here, it was at BAM. It was 1994, the year of Stonewall’s 25th Anniversary and The Gay Games in NYC. So, yes, there was celebrating, but the AIDS epidemic was still…
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Opera Preview: RIVERSIDE LYRIC OPERA (Grand Re-Opening Gala Concert on March 7)
OPERA RETURNS TO RIVERSIDE, AND IT’S BRINGING A 54-PIECE ORCHESTRA The Riverside Lyric Opera’s gala concert on March 7 marks a rare moment for the Inland Empire: a full-scale operatic event with world-class talent, right in its own backyard. Riverside has one of the largest collections of Mission-style architecture in Southern California, a university campus…
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Theater Review: MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT (North American Tour)
HOLY GRAIL, WHOLLY DATED A high-energy tour packed with talent, nostalgic chaos, and humor that doesn’t always land in 2026 Risking impalement by a heavily armored knight, and death by cheeky British puns, I joined a lively crowd at Segerstrom Hall for Monty Python’s Spamalot. Shockingly, I am a virgin—to the musical, that is. The…
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Theater Review: BABY (Hollywood Fringe / The Elysian)
WHEN CLOWNING, THERAPY, AND TRAUMA COLLIDE Rachel Troy’s fierce, genre-breaking solo triumph is fully realized, ferociously smart, and genuinely exhilarating. I receive thousands of invitations every year to see one-person shows—solo works popping up everywhere from major U.S. cities to international Fringe festivals, where artists travel circuit to circuit chasing audiences, awards, and momentum. With…
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Concert Preview: THREADS OF GOLD—DOLLY PARTON GOES SYMPHONIC (National Tour)
THREADS OF GOLD—DOLLY PARTON GOES SYMPHONIC Her songs get the orchestral treatment in a cross-country concert experience Dolly Parton has never been one for half measures. When she says the threads of her life run through her songs, she means it. That idea is taken literally with Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony, a…
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Theater Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (National Tour, Emerson Colonial Theater)
SPECTACULARLY CONFUSING You don’t need me to tell you that J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has tapped into something deeply elemental for many people. Her stories about a young wizard and his education at Hogwarts, a school that teaches the magical arts while bearing a strong similarity to a traditional British public school, have…
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Theater Review: HELL’S KITCHEN (National Tour)
HELL’S ON FIRE Hell’s Kitchen, a jukebox musical featuring the music of R&B superstar Alicia Keys (with several new songs) and a book by Kristoffer Diaz, took Broadway by storm in 2024, racking up thirteen Tony nominations. And now, a little over a year later, its first national touring production has arrived in Chicago at…
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Theater Review: BESIDE MYSELF (Laguna Playhouse)
A GREAT PREMISE GETS LOBOTOMIZED Laguna Playhouse offers a dazzling wall of doors and not much behind them Paul Slade Smith’s new play Beside Myself arrives with a knockout premise: Gemma, a therapist, is so consumed by anxiety that she undergoes an experimental “minimally invasive” brain surgery to excise her worry. But near the end…
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Theater Review: THE HEART SELLERS (South Coast Rep)
THE QUIET COST OF BELONGING Suh’s Thanksgiving duet is lovely and lived-in, but leaves one wishing for deeper stakes The Heart Sellers at South Coast Rep offers a focused, uninterrupted glimpse into the lives of two strangers on Thanksgiving Day, 1973, near the end of Richard Nixon’s reign. The story begins with Luna (Nicole Javier),…
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Dance Review: FRANKENSTEIN (San Francisco Ballet at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
When creation becomes choreography in Frankenstein, the laboratory turns into a stage of desire Mary Shelley’s creation continues to haunt not only literature but the stage, where movement and music conspire to make visible the tremors of his unnatural birth. The late choreographer Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein, brought vividly to life by San Francisco Ballet, joins…
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Concert Review: DANIIL TRIFONOV, PIANO (Season Opener at Soka Performing Arts Center)
STORMS, WHISPERS, AND THE SPACE BETWEEN Daniil Trifonov has become a figure around whom the current piano world seems to orbit. He is not only astonishingly skilled, he is unpredictable in the best way, always willing to risk fragility or silence rather than hide behind sheer volume. His playing has the uncanny quality of making…
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Theater Review: COME FROM AWAY (La Mirada Theatre)
A Town, a Tragedy, and the Triumph of Kindness The musical Come From Away — with book, music and lyrics by married couple Irene Sankoff and David Hein — tells the remarkable true story of the small town of Gander (population 9,000) in Newfoundland, Canada, about 1,500 miles from New York City. Nearly 25 years ago, in 2001,…
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Theater Review: A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER (Laguna Playhouse)
MURDER NEVER SOUNDED SO SWEET The gentleman killer returns to Southern California with a smile that could polish the silver. In a joint run between Laguna Playhouse and North Coast Repertory, this A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder arrives in Laguna looking eager to please and blessedly well cast, though the gilding runs somewhat…
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Concert Review: RACHMANINOFF & SIBELIUS (Pacific Symphony | Ludovic Morlot, conductor | Alessio Bax, pianist)
PACIFIC SYMPHONY OPENS ITS 48TH SEASON WITH RUSSIAN SOUL AND FINNISH SPIRIT Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is one of the most beloved works in the piano repertoire. Composed between 1900 and 1901, it marked a turning point in Rachmaninoff’s career, emerging from a period of deep personal and creative…
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Concert Review: CANDLELIGHT: THE BEST OF JOE HISAISHI (Richard Nixon Library & Museum, Yorba Linda)
THE MINIATURIZATION OF MAGIC At the Candlelight concert in The Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, devoted to Joe Hisaishi‘s Studio Ghibli scores, I found myself contemplating the curious alchemy by which music transforms, or fails to transform, when moved from one context to another. The evening, presented by Fever in a ballroom (replicating the…
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CHARLESTON: A CITY OF SOUTHERN CHARM AND OPPORTUNITY
Charleston, South Carolina, is a city that blends historic elegance with modern livability. Known for its cobblestone streets, pastel-colored houses, and waterfront views, it offers a lifestyle that’s both rich in culture and full of opportunity. People move here for many reasons—some for its historic charm, others for the thriving job market or its inviting…
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