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Theater Review: THE STAIRCASE (South Coast Rep)
MEMORY LOOPS AND ECHOES IN GARDNER’S THE STAIRCASE Rain doesn’t fall in The Staircase. It lingers, heavy and waiting. Like a secret no one asked to hear. Like a mother halfway between a lullaby and a memory she can’t put down. In the hands of Noa Gardner, this first-time playwright turns weather into something far…
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Theater Review: YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE END OF THE WORLD! (South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa)
END-OF-WORLD TRAGICOMEDY CRACKS, BLEEDS AND THRIVES The end arrives not with a sob, but with a drag queen in a glittering black pantsuit, standing in a celestial spotlight, grinning like they’re about to host the universe’s weirdest game show. Keiko Green’s You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! doesn’t so much begin…
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Dance Review: THE WINTER’S TALE (ABT at Segerstrom)
EXIT, PURSUED BY MOVEMENT THAT CUTS DEEP Jealousy doesn’t sneak in. It bursts. You can see it take hold of Leontes the second doubt flickers behind his eyes. His body folds in. Hands clutch at air. His spine locks. His stare slices across the room, scanning for proof that isn’t there. This isn’t some vague…
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Concert Review: ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (Lahav Shani, conductor, at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
COMING HOME TO THE ISRAEL PHIL The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) lives in my blood. Not metaphorically. This sentiment springs from actual circumstance—a birth story twined around orchestral strings like umbilical cord. On December 6, 1966—that annus mirabilis—my mother was in her 8th month with me in Tel Aviv’s main concert hall while the Israel…
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Concert Review: VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, pianist; Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa)
The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt. — Karl Kraus Of the world’s major orchestras, few are more traditional than the Vienna Philharmonic, which performed its first concert in 1842. It has had no music director for many years, another of its distinguishing features. The outcome is…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Carnegie Hall, Segerstrom and Zellerbach Hall)
WANT TO HEAR ONE OF THE GREATEST ORCHESTRAS THAT HAS EVER EXISTED? VIENNA PHILHARMONIC MAKES ONLY THREE U.S. APPEARANCES: COSTA MESA, BERKELEY & NEW YORK For California classical music lovers, a delight is in store. Vienna Philharmonic, one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, comes to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley March 5-7, followed…
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Theater Review: ANNIE (2024/2025 NationalTour)
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE SUN DOESN’T COME OUT, SEE THIS NATIONAL TOUR OF ANNIE If the sun will come out tomorrow, somebody better tell this production. The national tour of Annie, playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 23, is a two-and-a-half-hour exercise in endurance, proving that while…
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Dance Review: ALONZO KING LINES BALLET (“Mother Goose” and “Tribute to Alice Coltrane” at Segerstrom Hall)
Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Double Bill of Ravel’s Mother Goose and King’s Tribute to Alice Coltrane presented a fascinating study of how two musical worlds—one rooted in French impressionism and the other in American jazz spirituality—can be bound together through movement. King’s choreography bridged these contrasting styles, creating an immersive experience of transformation. The evening…
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Theater Opening: BAD DOG (World Premiere, Miami New Drama)
A Bold & Hilarious New Play Exploring Art, Identity, and Power Miami New Drama in Miami Beach is presenting the world premiere of Bad Dog, a wildly entertaining and provocative play written by Harley Elias and directed by Miami New Drama’s Artistic Director, Michel Hausmann. The production will open at the historic Colony Theatre on…
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Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour)
A SHUCKING DELIGHT The Broadway tour of Shucked by Robert Horn will be cracking up audiences in Chicago’s CIBC Theatre through January 19th before it continues on its national tour. If you look too closely this corny little musical starts to wilt with an aimless protagonist and too many ballads for a lighthearted comedy, but…
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Recommended Dance: THE RITE OF SPRING (World Premiere with Live Orchestra by Atlanta Ballet)
ATLANTA BALLET DOES THINGS RITE One hundred and twelve years ago, a new ballet took place at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. This highly controversial work – for both its music and choreography – would revolutionize dance and thrust ballet and classical music into the modern era. As if the avant-garde nature of the dance was…
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Highly Recommended Concert: FOUR SEASONS AND STRAUSS (Pacific Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
MORE STRAUSS, LESS STRESS, INDEED Pacific Symphony rings in the New Year January 9-11 at 8 with Four Seasons and Strauss, featuring two inspiring masterpieces that are sure to uplift and calm the spirit. First, Concertmaster Dennis Kim takes the virtuosic solo role playing plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius to lead Vivaldi’s 1720 composition of…
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Highly Recommended Theater: ELEANOR (Laguna Playhouse)
“You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Laguna Playhouse has announced that Mary Roosevelt, a direct descendant of Eleanor Roosevelt, will share personal stories and reflections on the life and legacy of one of the 20th century’s most iconic women following the 2pm performance on…
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Theater Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL (National Tour at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
THE DELOREAN IS THE ONLY THING THAT FLIES IN THIS DUMPSTER FIRE Since the release of the Stranger Things television series in 2016, the public appeal of all things ’80s has left very few stones unturned. From the lady wrestler phenomenon reimagined in the Netflix TV series GLOW to the surreal neo-noir film Drive, the…
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Highly Recommended Concert: A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS (National Tour at Walt Disney Concert Hall)
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CHANTICLEER I may be enamored by the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Messiah, I may be enthralled by Pasadena Symphony’s Holiday Candlelight, I may be excited by the Gay Men’s Chorus’s Holiday Spectacular, but A Chanticleer Christmas, which plays Disney Hall on Dec. 17, is always the best choral show of…
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Theater Review: PAW PATROL LIVE! A MIGHTY ADVENTURE (International Tour by Nickelodeon at Hobby Center, Houston)
PAWFECT FOR THE KIDDIES I have often felt that anything that gets children exposed to live theatrical productions is such a gift. A staged show can have such an enormous impact on both creativity and cognitive development. With that said, Nickelodeon’s PAW Patrol Live! A Mighty Adventure certainly had an impact on all the little…
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Theater Review: ARMS AROUND AMERICA (Dan Froot & Company; World Premiere at The Nimoy Prior to Tour)
VOICES INSTEAD OF BULLETS Although Arms Around America, which opened last night at The Nimoy in Westwood, is about guns and their people (or “ammo-sexuality,” to steal a wonderful phrase from the show), it is also a feast of sounds, a display of musical bravura and an all-around fabulous evening of unconventional live theatre. Serving…
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Concert Review: VENETIAN SPLENDOR: Vivaldi Four Seasons & Gondola Songs (Avi Avital and SF’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, SoCal Tour: Soka, Granada Theatre, The Soraya)
BRAVO, AVI! As part of a SoCal tour, Israeli Mandolinist Avi Avital and San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra stopped at at Soka University Concert Hall on Sunday, Nove 10, 2024. The concert’s main feature was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with the solo violin part transcribed to Mandolin by Avital himself. The program repeats tomorrow night Nov…
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Theater Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (starring Jason Alexander at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts)
JASON ALEXANDER ISN’T FIDDLING AROUND — HIS POIGNANT PERFORMANCE GROUNDS THIS REVIVAL In Lonny Price’s revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Jason Alexander’s performance as Tevye stands out as the production’s defining accomplishment. Alexander, well known for his comedic prowess on television, surprises here by sinking into the rich, layered pathos of Tevye — a…
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Theater Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL (National Tour)
TIME I’LL NEVER GET BACK Without hyperbole, I can say that Back to the Future is the worst musical I have ever seen. Any time I see a show that truly knocks it out of the park, it fills me with so much joy to be able to review it. Nothing quite compares to the…
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