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Theater Review: THE COLOR PURPLE (National Tour)
BLACK AND BLUE After winning a Tony last year for best revival of a musical, Oprah’s once and future movie-turned-musical has finally hit her home town, part of a national tour. As alive as the genre gets and as overwrought as the original Spielberg film, this sprawling saga of life for African-American women in the…
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Theater Review: ON YOUR FEET (National Tour)
DANCE DELIRIUM As jukebox musicals go, the rags-to-riches bio On Your Feet! definitely earns its exclamation point. No question, the upbeat tunes, with their irresistible Cuban-fusion street beat, would justify this 2015 tribute to the flashdance fervor of Gloria and Emilio Estefan and their Miami Sound Machine. But their lives warrant a work too: Alexander Dinelaris’s predictable and…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE HUMANS (National Tour at the Ahmanson Theatre)
ALL TOO HUMAN Stephen Karam’s remarkable Tony-winning play The Humans — which is winding up its national tour at the Ahmanson with members of the Broadway production — begins with Erik Blake (the excellent Reed Birney, reprising his Tony-winning performance) standing on the upper level of a shabby, half-dark basement/ground-floor tenement duplex, holding two bags of groceries,…
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Theater Review: THE COLOR PURPLE (National Tour)
WHILE HARDLY REVELATIONAL, A REVVED-UP REVIVAL BECOMES RELATABLE It’s a miracle. After seeing the original 2005 musical adaption, it seemed that nothing could fix this show. But then The Color Purple met director John Doyle, who made a name for himself by reinventing musicals by eliminating choruses and having actors often playing instruments in lieu of an orchestra,…
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Theater Review: WAITING FOR GODOT (Druid Theatre)
STOOD UP YET AGAIN: “Birth was the death of him”: Terse to the point of cruelty, Samuel Beckett here devours the human experience in six words. Waiting for Godot, his minimalist masterpiece, takes nearly three hours for the same result. But Beckett succeeds in his life-long task: to “find the form that will accommodate the mess”…
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CD Review: BILL WHELAN — RIVERDANCE: A SYMPHONIC SUITE (James Galway, David Brophy and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra)
NEW LIFE FOR RIVERDANCE MUSIC Mention the name Bill Whelan and you may get a blank stare, even though this Irish composer, arranger and producer (who collaborated with, among others, U2, Kate Bush, and Van Morrison) has been a successful artist since 1970. But mention the word “Riverdance” and eyes will light up. Whelan won…
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Los Vegas Concert Review: AUDRA MCDONALD IN CONCERT (The Smith Center for the Performing Arts)
MCDONALD’S CHARM The last time I saw the captivating singer and actress Audra McDonald in concert, she sang the Bernstein/Comden/Green tune “I’m a Little Bit in Love” from Wonderful Town: “Mm–mmm! / It’s so nice to be alive / When you find someone who bewitches you.” And when you see her upcoming concert at the Smith…
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Cabaret Preview: CHITA RIVERA and SETH RUDETSKY (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
WEST SIDE GLORY It’s a relief that Chita Rivera, one of the last great holdovers from the Golden Age of Broadway is still performing today, and you’ll get only one-night — Thursday May 10, 2018 at The Wallis in Beverly Hills — to see her as she reminisces and sings songs from her Broadway shows…
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Theater Review: SCHOOL OF ROCK THE MUSICAL (National Tour at the Hollywood Pantages)
KIDS RULE IN ENERGETIC ROCK There is an announcement before the start of School of Rock The Musical. After the expected exhortations against using electronic devices, we are assured that yes, indeed, the children are playing their own instruments live on stage. Cluing us in is smart, because once those kids get a chance to…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS BERNSTEIN & BEETHOVEN (LA Phil)
D AND B AND B Our city’s philharmonic will be going on tour next week to the Eastern seaboard (Boston, D.C. and New York), and then overseas to Barbican Hall, London, and the Paris Philharmonie. They are bringing some dazzling programs which include music from last week’s barn burner of a line-up — the Shostakovitch…
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Music and Dance Preview: TAO: DRUM HEART (International Tour)
TAIKO ME AWAY Ever since man could bang a stick on a rock, percussion has been a way for humans to express themselves. From the battlefield to the theater to your teenager’s bedroom, percussion has evolved from communicative and ritualistic purposes into an art form. We take for granted the use of percussion — primitive,…
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Dance Review: GISELLE (Dada Masilo & The Dance Factory at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
WILIS AT THE WALLIS First staged in 1841, Giselle is one of the oldest surviving ballets still in the international repertory, especially because the lead role is a showcase for the world’s leading prima ballerinas. Since its inception, the Romantic story ballet has had several revisions, but most companies follow Marius Petipa’s fin de siècle version. Now, South African…
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Theater Review: SAINT JOAN (Bedlam Theatre Company on tour at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
SAVING FAITH Even with a few blemishes, Bedlam’s revival of George Bernard Shaw’s 1923 masterpiece Saint Joan is an immersive and ultimately gratifying theatrical experience. The story, told in six scenes and an epilogue, concerns the last two years of Joan of Arc’s life (1429-31): arrival at court and the discovery of the dauphin; leadership of sieges…
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Dance Preview: ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET (on tour at The Soraya in Northridge)
NOW YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SANTA FE Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) celebrates the third year of its four-year residency at The Soraya with a program of three works that celebrate the company’s commitment to creating new contemporary dance. The entire evening, which plays only once — this Saturday April 7, 2018 at 8…
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Theater Review: ON YOUR FEET (National Tour)
DANCE DELIRIUM As jukebox musicals go, On Your Feet! really earns its exclamation point. No question, the music alone, which won 26 Grammy Awards, would justify this 2015 tribute to the flashdance fervor of Gloria and Emilio Estefan and their Miami Sound Machine. Their irresistible Cuban-fusion street beat is more fun than we deserve. Two dozen numbers…
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Music Review: LAGRIME DI SAN PIETRO (TEARS OF ST. PETER) (Los Angeles Master Chorale)
FEARLESS “TEARS” ELEVATES MUSIC TO A MIND-BLOWING EXPERIENCE At a gala performance honoring Los Angeles Master Chorale donors, Peter Sellar’s critically acclaimed staging of Lagrime di San Pietro returned to Disney Hall with an encore of such luminous majesty and originality that it’s an honor to have this version of Orlando di Lasso’s last work continue on…
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Theater Review: LOVE NEVER DIES (National Tour at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago)
THE PHANTOM NEVER DIED, BUT SHOULD HAVE Gaston Leroux knew: The original author of The Phantom of the Opera concluded his horror romance with his disfigured serial-killer as dead as Lon Chaney, while Christine Daae, stalked and sexually harassed throughout the Paris Opera House, was safe in the arms of her trusting Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. In…
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Concert Review: MEOW MEOW (with Pink Martini’s Thomas M. Lauderdale)
THE DIVINE MISS MM When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramovic allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? And when you hear the term “cabaret,” do you think of tired patter, same-old showtunes, and folks who’re trying to jump-start their career? Well, prepare to…
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Music Preview: WELL-STRUNG (National Tour)
LOOKING GOOD FROM FRONT AND BACH The Los Angeles LGBT Center has announced a special one-night-only return of the internationally acclaimed singing string quartet Well-Strung. The four performers specialize in pairing universally recognized classical pieces while singing pop music hits by the likes of Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, and others. As part of their…
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Theater Review: SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (National Tour at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
YOU LEAVE SEEKING PEACE AND A PLOT When a play comes along that is entirely different from any play that has preceded it, especially in our era of over-informative white noise and copycatting creativity, it deserves attention. Even Small Mouth Sounds — Bess Wohl’s 2016 work, now stopping at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica as…
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