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Theater Review: THE OUTSIDERS (National Tour)
STAY GOLD, GREASERS This gripping musical adaptation honors its beloved source while finding an emotional life all its own S.E. Hinton’s first novel, The Outsiders, written while she was still in high school and published when she was just 18, has inspired artists across multiple mediums for nearly six decades. It became a cult film…
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Theater Preview: MYSTIC PIZZA (National Tour)
A FRESH SLICE OF NOSTALGIA The cross-country tour is ready to win over a whole new crowd When Mystic Pizza played La Mirada Theatre in 2024, Stage and Cinema found it charming, energetic, and heavy on laughs, buoyed by a terrific trio of leading ladies and a soundtrack packed with irresistible ’80s and ’90s hits….
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Concert Review: YOSHIKI: CLASSICAL 2026 WORLD TOUR (“Violet Night” / Disney Hall / LA)
PURPLE REIGN An evening of symphonic rock, devoted fans, and restless creativity celebrated an artist still refusing to slow down Under doctor’s orders to leave the drums behind following his third cervical-spine surgery in 2024, Yoshiki did what one might expect from a musician whose career has been built on grandeur, defiance, and theatrical risk:…
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Theater Review: & JULIET (North American Tour / Chicago)
POP GOES THE BARD A jukebox musical that thrilled its fans while leaving this critic wishing the story mattered as much as the songs As I was settling into my seat at the gorgeous Auditorium Theatre, awaiting the start of the touring production of & Juliet, I noticed the person next to me watching a…
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Theater Review: SUFFS (First National Tour)
VOTES FOR WOMEN… AND A VICTORY FOR MUSICAL THEATER History marches forward with intelligence, heart, and exhilarating conviction The national tour of Suffs, Shaina Taub‘s Tony Award-winning musical about the fight for women’s suffrage, arrives in Chicago with its urgency, humor, and emotional power fully intact. More than a history lesson, it presents the movement…
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Theater Review: CHAMPIONS OF MAGIC (Tour at Studebaker Theatre / Chicago)
TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS A large-scale illusion show that never loses its personal touch Most of the magic shows I’ve been to have been small, intimate affairs, with an audience of fifty or less watching one magician perform an array of card tricks and sleights of hand. Champions of Magic, now on…
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Theater Review: HELL’S KITCHEN (North American Tour at Hollywood Pantages)
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND A rare jukebox musical that finds fresh life by letting the songs tell the story A jukebox musical is an inheritance. Someone else wrote the songs, lived the life, banked the meaning, and the show arrives to spend it. Most of them spend it badly, doling out hits like an allowance…
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Theater Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Civic Theatre / Broadway in San Diego)
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE AND WELL This polished national tour reminds audiences why the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic still resonates The national touring production of The Sound of Music is playing through May 31 at the Civic Theatre, and what a joy it is! Name your pleasure—brilliant singing, dancing, or acting—and it’s served up with…
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Review: CHICAGO LINE CRUISES ARCHITECTURE TOUR (Chicago River)
A CITY BUILT TO BE SEEN FROM THE WATER Chicago’s celebrated architecture tour transforms familiar landmarks into a living history lesson For tourists, cruising the Chicago River on a top-rated architectural tour brings together history and the majesty of spectacular buildings to tell the story of a great city. For Chicago residents, the same tour…
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Highly Recommended Show: HOT COMBINATION: BRYCE EDWARDS, MIKE DAVIS & BAND (Sunday, June 7 at Birdland)
OLD SONGS GET NEW LIFE FROM TALENTED YOUNG GUYS WHO ARE OLD SOULS Zip and zing with musical fizz and sparkle Hooray! They’re back!! Bryce Edwards—the mercurial, merry multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist and sassy singer—reunites with brilliant brass player Mike Davis, debonair dazzler, along with some top-drawer colleagues for a repeat of the sensational show they premiered…
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Theater Review: PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble / Los Angeles)
THE MINOTAUR IN THE MIRROR A powerful performance anchors a portrait that never fully reveals its subject The journey of Picasso: Le Monstre Sacré to the Odyssey Theatre in L.A. is both convoluted and tragic. It began with Terri D’Alfonso (also spelled “Terry” in the program). An American with a long career in Italian Swiss…
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Theater Review: MJ THE MUSICAL (National Tour / San Diego)
MAN IN THE MIRROR, SHOW ON FIRE A dazzling tour delivers the spectacle and the moves, even if the storytelling stays surface-level The national touring production of MJ the Musical is completing its short run at the Civic Theatre through May 10. The show portrays episodes from the life and career of Michael Jackson and…
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Theater Review: HAMLET (National Theatre Company at BAM in Brooklyn)
THE DANISH PRINCE, DECODED Focused staging and strong performances bring Hamlet’s inner life into view at BAM. The National Theater’s Hamlet at BAM follows in the tradition of other fine productions of the play at the esteemed Brooklyn institution going back as far as 1961, returning to the Harvey stage over a dozen times. With…
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Theater Review: THE NOTEBOOK (North American Tour at San Diego Civic Theatre)
LOVE, LOSS, AND LYRICS An earnest musical adaptation that leans into memory, even when it leans too hard The touring production of The Notebook arrives at the Civic Theatre with a built-in audience and a well-worn story to tell. Based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel and the beloved 2004 film, the musical adaptation leans into…
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Concert Review: LISE DAVIDSEN & FREDDIE DE TOMMASO (BroadStage, Santa Monica)
TWO VOICES, ONE VOLTAGE An evening of operatic power finds its charge in connection, not just scale BroadStage does not often present evenings of this ambition. A sold-out house, a freelance orchestra under Iván López Reynoso, and two singers at or near the summit of their respective careers: Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano who has…
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Dance Preview: PARSONS DANCE (BroadStage, Santa Monica)
HIGH VOLTAGE DANCE, NO SAFETY NET A company built on athleticism, musicality, and sheer momentum returns to BroadStage Few choreographers have maintained the kind of sustained, high-energy appeal that David Parsons has cultivated since breaking out as a star dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in the late 1970s. After founding Parsons Dance in…
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Dance Review: SYLVIA (American Ballet Theatre at Segerstrom Center)
DELIBES TAKES THE LEAD In ABT’s return of Ashton’s Sylvia, the best performance at Segerstrom wasn’t onstage Frederic Ashton’s Sylvia arrives at Segerstrom Center for the Arts after nine years away from American Ballet Theatre’s repertory, with the Pacific Symphony in the pit. Start there. Ormsby Wilkins conducted, and he set the terms of the…
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Dance Review: HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO PROGRAM A (The Joyce Theater, NYC)
THREE STYLES, ONE ELECTRIFYING COMPANY A vibrant program that moves effortlessly from sensual modernism to jazzy precision to kinetic abstraction Hubbard Street Dance Chicago returns to The Joyce Theater, bringing the springtime vibes we have all been craving. I caught Program A, and I can assure you it is a full-on, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it showcase of movement…
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Dance Review: ALVIN AILEY DANCE COMPANY (In Residence at the Music Center; Program B)
The Music Center’s exhilarating 2025–2026 Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center season includes the beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater which continued its exclusive Southern California multi-year residency with The Music Center with seven stupendous performances in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this weekend, March 25-29, 2026. This review covers the selections presented as Program B on…
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Cabaret Review: JULIE BENKO: EUPHONIC GUMBO (Birdland in NYC and West Coast Tour)
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL WITH A TWIST Julie Benko’s Mardi Gras–flavored cabaret delights with energy and polish: a tasty Gumbo On a Monday night at Birdland Jazz Club, with a twinkle in her eye, singer Julie Benko refers to her work the rest of the week as being involved in “a little show called…
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