Tours

THE IMPORTANCE OF A BIG BROTHER When you hear of Billy Elliot being a phenomenal world-wide success, it is almost shocking that the popular musical (music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall) has never played Los Angeles. That all changes this week. The heart-warming story of a young boy from a coal-mining…

WHICH AMERICAN IDIOT ARE YOU? If you know and love Green Day’s studio concept album on which it is based,  American Idiot is the show for you. If, like me, you are a stranger to the original material and like to savor the lyrics in a theater and not have them turn to slush amidst the…

MAMMA MIA: TEN YEARS OF DIZZY, FIZZY DELIGHT The most essential elements of the Mama Mia! National tour, now in its tenth year, and visiting Los Angeles once again at the Pantages for the next two weeks, are people you have likely never heard of nor will ever see in person. It is production stage…

IF THIS IS THE CIRCUS, WHERE’S MY BREAD? In 1992, Guy Laliberté gentrified the big top with Saltimbanco, offering pure spectacle at Wagnerian prices, and in the process conflating art with acrobatics.   Millions of people have subsequently made the same adjustment to their definition of quality entertainment.   The change may be more significant than it…

PREPPY IS THE NEW SUBVERSIVE When the development of Bring It On: The Musical was announced, I rolled my eyes. The commercial viability of yet another mediocre movie-to-musical had lured Tony Award-winning talent from three refreshingly original musicals: In the Heights, Next to Normal, and Avenue Q. I doubted whether director/choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, librettist Jeff…

OCCASIONALLY, WHEN WE’RE LUCKY, IT FLIES In Come Fly Away, there are at least four dances – “I’ve Got A Crush On You,” “Body and Soul,” “I Like To Lead When I Dance,” and “Teach Me Tonight” – that have the old Twyla Tharp magic, and, since they are all danced by the amazing Cody…

CIRQUE DU CINEMA When Quebec-based artistic troupe Cirque du Soleil creates a new resident production, they typically design the building to fit the show. Not so with Cirque du Soleil’s IRIS. Although the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland has been around for only a decade, Cirque du Soleil still spent $100 million on renovations….

DOG GONE Having immersed myself in forty Fringe shows this year, I have become highly suspect of those shows that bounce from Fringe to Fringe across the land, cross-promoting like oversexed insects until they garner enough publicity to hype unsuspecting theatergoers into believing that their pablum is actually worth the attention – which, of course,…

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES Our planet is overpopulated and sick. Wars are raging. Telecommunication is  so rapid that we are losing the art of communication. Leaders and visionaries are being sacrificed for our own self-serving needs. Americans are in a permanent recession, yet  we’re fatter than ever. These are scary times. And what do people need…