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Theater Review: ALADDIN (National Tour)
A BROADWAY AMUSEMENT PARK THAT FLIES LIKE A CARPET “Open sesame” indeed. It’s “Abracadabra” times ten as the arrival of Aladdin in Hollywood feels as triumphant as Prince Ali’s magnificent entrance into Agrabah at the top of the second act. A theme park of a musical, Disney Theatrical Productions’ eye-popping transformation of the 1992 film…
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Theater Review: LUZIA (Cirque du Soleil on tour)
MEMORIES OF MEXICO, LUZIA UNLEASHES A RAIN OF JOY The Cirque du Soleil just made a run for the border ’” and not the Canadian one — as the Montreal-based human circus lavishes its unstoppable imagination on our neighbor to the south. Luzia, the latest (ad)venture under the redesigned white-and-gold Grand Chapiteau (its tent planted in the…
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Dance Review: SOFT GOODS (Karen Sherman)
SOFT GOODS’ SMOOTH SELL Karen Sherman’s Soft Goods presents the audience with a new perspective on dance by focusing on what happens behind the curtain. The show is set up like a play that explores the stagehands’ job, the dancers’ rehearsals and the less-than-pleasant interactions between the two groups as they come together to create a…
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Theater Review: BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL (National Tour)
MAKING YOUR MUSIC MATTER If notes make joy, these 150 minutes are the elixir of happiness. Spanning only 13 years of its creator’s career (1958-1971), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical balances life against art. Magnificently. Its wonderful songs both stand on their own and preserve the pain and pleasure that went into their making. Douglas McGrath’s…
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Theater Review: SOMETHING ROTTEN! (National Tour reviewed in Los Angeles)
SOMETHING SILLY; NOT QUITE ROTTEN BUT HARDLY FRESH What is it about William Shakespeare that inspires lesser authors (namely, everyone else) to try to take him down? George Bernard Shaw spent his life seeking to supplant or at least discount that other playwright. In Shakespeare in Love, Tom Stoppard imagines the world’s greatest writer as an opportunist who…
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Tour Music Review: IN MY MIND: MONK AT TOWN HALL 1959 (Jason Moran and The Big Bandwagon)
A CONCERT THAT WILL STAY IN MY MIND There are certain experiences involving the arts that stay with you forever. A seamless meld of spiritual and artistic experience, Jason Moran’s tribute piece to Theolonius Monk’s legendary 1959 concert at Town Hall achieved something I rarely witness in the arts: As with a séance, Moran’s octet—rivaling…
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Theater Review: SCHOOL OF ROCK THE MUSICAL (National Tour at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago)
WEBBER RETURNS TO HIS ROCKIN’ ROOTS “Out of the guitars of babes”: The 2003 film was a four-star charmer: Jack Black, a screen actor with the chops to be richly ordinary, depicted a slob who saves himself by freeing others. He was, indelibly, Dewey: This substitute teacher rose, unexpectedly and magnificently, to an unearned occasion, liberating privileged…
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Music Preview: MARIINSKY ORCHESTRA (North American tour with Valery Gergiev at Disney Hall)
THE TRIFECTA OF MARIINSKY, GERGIEV, AND MATSUEV AT DISNEY HALL Beginning tonight, October 29, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will undertake their greatest tour of the season, presenting sixteen concerts in cities in the USA and Canada though November 15. During the tour, the orchestra will be appearing alongside such stunning pianists of the present day as Behzod Abduraimov, Denis Matsuev, Daniil…
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Music Preview: ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (North American tour with Zubin Mehta)
ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC; ZUBIN MEHTA; YEFIM BRONFMAN; AND A U.S. PREMIERE AT DISNEY HALL Beginning tonight in New York, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is beginning its six-city North American tour. This highly anticipated but very short tour—they’re only on the road for two weeks through November 9—includes Toronto, San Francisco, West Palm Beach, Miami, and, happily,…
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Los Angeles Dance Preview: DORRANCE DANCE (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
TAPPING TROUBLES AWAY Michelle Dorrance, founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance, is one of the most sought after tap dancers of her generation. Her imaginative work, which continually pushes the boundaries of this time-honored form, made her a MacArthur Fellow. Beginning tonight, her company is coming to the Wallis in Beverly Hills through October…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: BRAHMS SYMPHONIES No. 2 and 3 (Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Disney Hall)
MUTI AND THE CSO BRING BRAHMS SYMPHONIES TO DISNEY HALL Endlessly frustrating his admirers, Johannes Brahms was well-known for his reluctance to begin symphonic works. Once he began—with the arrival of his First Symphony in 1876—the floodgates swung open. The First took about 15-21 years to finish (depending on which scholar you ask), but the…
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Theater Tour Review: PIAF! THE SHOW (global tour at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago)
THE ULTIMATE FRENCH KISS It was a one-off last night at the Athenaeum Theatre. But a long run on the road continues to beckon to Awesome Company’s bravura showcase Piaf! The Show (which will return to Chicago April 10, 2018). Embarked on a 400-performance world tour, with over half a million tickets sold in more than 30…
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Dance Tour Preview: MARIINSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA (All-Fokine program at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
THE MIGHTY MARIINSKY AND FABULOUS FOKINE For more than two centuries, the Mariinsky Ballet, formerly known as the Kirov, has created classical dance at its best, a tradition that continues to this day. This incredible company is coming to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for one weekend only, October 12-15, 2017, where they’ll pay tribute to…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: STATE OF SIEGE (Théâtre de la Ville at Royce Hall)
FANTASTIC, FRIGHTENING, FIERCE, FRENCH: THÉTRE DE LA VILLE’S STATE OF SIEGE AT UCLA Presented by CAP UCLA, Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville returns to Royce Hall with a new production of Albert Camus’ harrowing political allegory, State of Siege, on Thursday October 26 and Friday October 27, 2017. This incredible company premiered the astounding production…
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Theatre Review: THE TOAD KNEW (James Thiérrée’s La Compagnie du Hanneton at Chicago Shakespeare)
MORE PLAYS ON THE PIER Tuesday night’s “consecration of the house,” attended by Chicago’s Mayor Emmanuel, was a celebration that this care-ridden city badly needed. The big news is the grand opening of The Yard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s state-of-the-arts third theater on Navy Pier. (Its magnificent make-believe replaces the underused, open-air Skyline Stage where Cirque Shanghai…
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Chicago Theater Review: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (Goodman Theatre)
UNSTOPPABLE AND UNSPARING This week Goodman Theater’s season-opener, a landmark drama from 1955, exploded into relevance. A rarity worth a return, Arthur Miller’s original 120-minute, one-act Broadway version of an inevitable domestic tragedy focuses more on the family than the neighborhood (and shortchanges Beatrice’s anguish over her husband’s self-destructive passion for his niece). But the…
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Theater Interview: CLINTON LEUPP (MISS COCO PERU: THE TAMING OF THE TENSION)
SHE WHO CAN’T BE TAMED Clinton Leupp may not aspire to self-help guru status, but his upcoming appearance as Miss Coco Peru in The Taming of the Tension is driven by a definite sense of mission. “I want to unify people,†he says. “We can’t truly get together as human beings until we understand how…
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Theater Review: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (North American Tour)
DETECTING LOVE A 15-year-old math whiz, Christopher is an only child with Asperger’s Syndrome. The anomaly is enough to push adolescence way beyond awkward. His autism manifests in manic multi-tasking, an inability to focus (or to lie), attention deficits, a maddening literal-mindedness, and a disarming directness that both shames and irritates adults with secrets. Afraid…
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Theater Review: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (National Tour reviewed in Chicago)
PARIS AS A PAS DE DEUX The opening image’”a baby grand piano under the Arc de Triomphe’”suggests the rest. The hopeful harbinger of a new normality, the beloved 1951 film An American in Paris employed George and Ira Gershwin’s gorgeous songs and supple lyrics to celebrate a postwar romance that healed, well, whatever wounds musicals can fix….
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Tour Review: LUZIA (Cirque du Soleil)
MEMORIES OF MEXICO, LUZIA UNLEASHES A RAIN OF JOY The Cirque du Soleil just made a run for the border’”and not the Canadian one. Ignoring the United States (a favorite activity of many nowadays), the Montreal-based human circus lavishes its unstoppable imagination on our neighbor to the south. Luzia, the latest (ad)venture under the redesigned white-and-gold Grand…
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