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Event Review: HINOTORI – THE WINGS OF PHOENIX (Yamato Drummers of Japan)
HUBBA HUBBA! YAMATO LIGHTS THE STAGE ON FIRE Have you ever attended a performance where you felt like you ran a marathon? Still, all you did was sit on the edge of your seat from the sheer awesomeness on the stage. The Yamato Drummers of Japan’s HINOTORI – THE WINGS OF PHOENIX tour landed in…
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Music Review: AX –¢ KAVAKOS –¢ MA (Disney Hall)
A QUEST FOR MUSIC AND HUMANITY On a delightful Saturday afternoon, January 28th, Los Angeles was graced by three masters at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Billed simply as Ax ’¢ Kavakos ’¢ Ma, the eponymous concert title did little to convey the content of the concert because, let’s face it, whatever these three will be…
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Music Recommendation: KODO ONE EARTH TOUR: TSUZUMI (North American Tour)
A POUND OF CURE Since 1981, KODO, Japan’s taiko performing arts ensemble, has brought the gloriously life-affirming art form of taiko to 46 countries around the globe. Under the banner of One Earth Tour, Kodo exemplifies why percussion is the primal source of all movement and rhythm. The newest production, Tsuzumi, is touring North America…
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Theater Review: MEAN GIRLS (National Tour)
STILL TRYING TO MAKE FETCH HAPPEN The musical adaptation of the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls opened on Broadway in April 2018 and was one of the many victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an early closure on March 11, 2020. The musical book and the original film are written by veteran comedian…
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Theater Review: THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK (International Tour)
IT’S OK TO GET SAUCED FOR STUNNING SAUCY STRIPPERS AND SPECTACULAR SAUCERS, OR MAY THE TORSO BE WITH YOU Forget about Broadway or the latest Marvel Comic movie. The fun, hip and cool burlesque Star Wars parody ’” which isn’t just for fans of the franchise ’” is the show to see live onstage. Since the…
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Theater Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR (New Cast for 2022-2023 Tour)
ROCK ON I still have the soundtrack album that I bought when I was 14. I saw the movie when I was 16. I saw the Broadway Revival in my late teens. Today, just over fifty years after Jesus Christ Superstar premiered on Broadway, I had the pure pleasure of seeing it again at the…
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Theater Review: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (North American Tour)
THIS MOCKINGBIRD SOARS To Kill a Mockingbird is an American masterpiece that has transcended time and medium, and which will continue to impact our cultural zeitgeist, reflected by the opening night sold-out crowd for this 2018 theatrical wonder, a sell-out for its Broadway run and now on tour at Segerstrom Hall. Patrons responded audibly and…
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Theater Review: MOULIN ROUGE! (North American Tour at SCFTA)
A GOOD TIME WITHOUT MUCH TO SAY In 2001, Baz Luhrmann co-wrote and directed the jukebox musical movie, Moulin Rouge! The film was especially praised for its highly stylized costumes and production values. In 2019, retaining much of the flamboyance and style, the Broadway production adapted by John Logan and directed by Alex Timbers opened,…
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Theater Commentary: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (National Tour)
TO READ A BOOK. TO SEE A PLAY. TO CORROBORATE LESSONS LEARNED. I have been an avid reader my whole life beginning at the age of eight. I can’t remember the exact year that I read Harper Lee’s book, To Kill A Mockingbird, sometime around high school, after which I saw the film. Last night…
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Recommended Dance: THE LOOK OF LOVE (Mark Morris Dance Group World Premiere at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
A NEW DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF BURT BACHARACH The Look of Love reunites Choreographer Mark Morris and jazz composer Ethan Iverson to create a new work showcasing the music of Burt Bacharach. Co-commissioned by BroadStage, the world premiere of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Look of Love, an evening of dance to the music…
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Theater Review: HAMILTON (North American Tour)
OUR FUNKY FOUNDING FATHERS A hip-hop Alexander Hamilton? A beat-box Father of His Country? A jumping James Madison and a jiveass Jefferson who disses bigtime in a poetry slam? The ten-dollar bill will never be the same (or the dollar note for that matter). A sassy-spunky 2015 blast from the past set to irresistible rhythms, Hamilton is…
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National Tour Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL (Hollywood Pantages)
JAGGED LITTLE SHOW You’re going to need more than a pill to relieve your aches after seeing this dreck. From what I’d heard, the Broadway success of Jagged Little Pill, a hyper-woke jukebox musical built around the songs of Alanis Morissette, was a bit of a revelation given the story is about issue-packed angst-ridden millennials…
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Theater Review: OKLAHOMA! (National Tour)
OKLAHOMA! AS WOKELAHOMA NOT SO OK ON TOUR This ain’t your mama’s Oklahoma! While Daniel Fish’s completely rethought and stripped-down production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 watershed musical comedy Oklahoma!, now at the 2000+-seat Ahmanson as part of a national tour, has moments which will provoke post-theater discussions, I can’t help but believe that something…
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Theater Review: THE PROM (North American Tour)
PROM-COM Dust off the Mylar balloons and wrist corsages and head over to The Ahmanson Theatre, where The Prom just landed as part of its national tour. Forget smelly gymnasiums or dated themes, as this prom is full of high-energy dance numbers, colorful characters, theatrical in-jokes and a litany of Broadway-style tunes that divert even as…
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Theater Review: THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK (Great Star Theater)
MAY THE TORSO BE WITH YOU Forget about Broadway or the latest Marvel Comic movie. The fun, hip and cool burlesque Star Wars parody — which isn’t just for fans of the franchise — is the show to see this summer live onstage in San Francisco. No stranger to SF, Burlesque started in the nineteenth…
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Theater Review: MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL (North American Tour)
MOULIN “ROGUE”! It wasn’t just the powerhouse romance between Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. With its frenetic theatrics and killer soundtrack (virgin ballads locking lips with re-imagined pop hits), Baz Luhrmann’s epic, high-octane love story, Moulin Rouge! (2001), was always destined for the stage. But Broadway, it appears, is the Duke in disguise here, promising…
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Dance: SW!NG OUT (National Tour’s West Coast Premiere at The Ahmanson in Los Angeles)
Acclaimed choreographer & Dance Magazine cover star Caleb Teicher brings the best of the swing dance world to the concert stage when the The Music Center welcomes the West Coast premiere of The Joyce Theater’s SW!NG OUT, directed by tap phenom Caleb Teicher (June 24-26, 2022).. With live music by Eyal Vilner’s Big Band, Lindy Hop champions bring the joy, fire…
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Dance Review: MOZART DANCES (Mark Morris Dance Group at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
MO’ MOZART DANCES, PLEASE What a tough day I had last Thursday. No details necessary, but I was so spent it was with worry when I attended Mark Morris’s Mozart Dances at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica that I thought sleep and ennui would be my only partners. Set to three exquisite Mozart piano…
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Theater Review: STOMP (National Tour)
STILL BANGING FOR THE BUCKS The incredibly basic concept behind Stomp, a phenom now in its third decade, remains: “Make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound.” (Luke Cresswell, co-founder/director). The result: four global productions, including permanent venues in New York and London’”and the rousing tour now playing…
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Attraction Reviews: SUMMIT ONE VANDERBILT | ONE WORLD OBSERVATORY (New York City)
A TALE OF TWO TOWERS The area around the erstwhile World Trade Center towers may have transformed slowly, and still under construction, but the transformation is astounding around the new high-rise replacement tower, One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, and which is now the focal point of the Lower Manhattan skyline….
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