Areas We Cover
Categories
-
Chicago Opera Review: TURANDOT (Lyric Opera)
TURANDOT MISSES THE PLOT It’s difficult to know what to make of Puccini’s Turandot, much less to pronounce the title properly. (Is the final ‘t’ silent? Who knows?) The composer’s last, unfinished opera is so unlike anything he had done previously. Turandot seems to have the epic historical sweep and musical grandeur of Tosca, yet…
-
Chicago Theater Review: RED VELVET (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
BURNT BY THE TRAIL HE BLAZED What in theater is ever off limits? And, above all, who? Besides the probability of the part, are there bounds to the roles an actor can play? Believing that merit mattered more than credentials or cachet, Napoleon promised careers open only to talent. Color-blind casting is the logical extension…
-
Los Angeles Music Review: TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIRST PIANO CONCERTO (Sergio Tiempo, Xian Zhang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic)
TIEMPO’S TANTALIZINGLY TEMPESTUOUS TEMPO Sergio Tiempo is the real deal. When a pianist can take a work as familiar as Tchaikovsky’s 1874 First Piano Concerto and turn it into an exciting Olympic event, I’m more than sold. Appearing at a packed Disney Hall this morning (in a program that runs through Sunday), the very cool…
-
CD Review: I FALL IN LOVE TOO EASILY (Katherine McPhee on BMG)
TAKING IT MCPHEEASY It took a few spins of Katharine McPhee’s standard-drenched new CD to realize that not all interpretations of the Great American Songbook have to strike you over the head with originality and flair. Sitting in the producer’s chair is the great Don Was, who ensured that this languorous, lush, piano-lounge set puts…
-
Los Angeles Dance Preview: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE (American Contemporary Ballet)
BUSTING A NUTCRACKER Before you grumble and run screaming, “Not another Nutcracker Suite!” — trust me when I tell you that American Contemporary Ballet has something up its red-fur, white-trimmed sleeve with an all-new imagining that presents new choreography while putting you directly inside the Land of the Sweets. When I was told patrons will…
-
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…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
WE GET EVERYTHING BUT THE HEART Certainly one of the most gorgeous lavish sets ever seen at the Wallis, with gorgeous sumptuous costumes, and gorgeous talented athletic actors. With all of the boisterous shenanigans, you won’t be bored; there’s undeniable entertainment value. But what happens when you throw everything into a show to make sure…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: PACIFIC OVERTURES (Chromolume Theatre)
PLEASE HELLO! Remarkably, one of the most difficult things about Pacific Overtures is that Harold Prince directed the original production utilizing the ancient Japanese theater-form, Kabuki, which isn’t necessary to elucidate John Weidman’s book (can you imagine if every production of Merrily We Roll Along used a teenage cast, as Prince’s original production did?). The…
-
Chicago Theater Review: GOBSMACKED! (Broadway in Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse)
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BEAT Now in a very brief visit to Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, Gobsmacked! is a good title for a show that slaps sounds out of seven performers’ fertile heads. It hits an audience too for almost two hours of fervent imitation. This touring U.K. troupe mimic every percussive instrument imaginable. They’re a lot like Australia’s Stomp! without…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: CAUGHT (Think Tank Art Gallery in the Fashion District, DTLA)
CAUGHT IN ITS SPELL An onion-skin experience, Christopher Chen’s magnificent Caught is indeed scripted, but you won’t know that when you’re watching it. Part immersive theater, part performance art, part installation, part thrust theater, part food and drinks, and pure play, this exhilarating look into politics, propaganda, and perception is pocked with paradox. It begins…
-
Chicago Theater Review: ALTAR BOYZ (Theo Ubique)
HOLY HARMONIC HORMONES! Praise the Lord and pass the parody! Infernally ingratiating and devilishly disarming, Altar Boyz is also sweetly sardonic and packed with pep. This successful 2005 revue ’” music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila ’” both spoofs and celebrates a Christian boy-band on the final…
-
Los Angeles Music Preview: DECK THE HALL HOLIDAY CONCERTS (Disney Hall)
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Deck the Hall Holiday Concerts at Disney Hall are just around the corner, and the variety this year is unmatched. I may be enchanted by the ever-popular Holiday Sing-Along (Dec. 16); I may be enraptured by jazz great Dianne Reeves’ Christmas Time Is Here (Dec. 20); I may be excited about the beat-boxing a…
-
Chicago Theater Review: TWELFTH NIGHT (Midsommer Flight at the Lincoln Park Conservatory)
THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME If only by virtue of its title, you could call Twelfth Night a holiday love comedy: Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas (January 6), is for many in Europe the right time to give gifts, as it notably was for the three Magi at the stable. Moreover, in Elizabethan England the entertainments that closed the…
-
Los Angeles Dance Preview: GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER (Miami City Ballet World Premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
CRACK AWAY Miami City Ballet’s new redesign of the magical George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker will feature enchanting new costumes and sets by the Cuban-American artist/designer power couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Balanchine’s glorious choreography, and Tchaikovsky’s beloved timeless score. The production, co-commissioned by The Music Center, will have its world premiere in Los Angeles on…
-
CD Review: CHRISTMAS TOGETHER (The Piano Guys)
CHRISTMAS MUSIC OUTSIDE OF THE BOX All it took was one spin for me to appreciate The Piano Guys’ second Noel album, Christmas Together. Oddly enough, when I recommended it to a few friends, they hadn’t heard of this amazing quartet. For those who don’t know, there’s only one main pianist in the bunch (though…
-
Los Angeles Music Review: WEST SIDE STORY: FILM WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA (LA Phil’s BERNSTEIN 100)
THE MUSIC PLAYING IS, INDEED, ALMOST LIKE PRAYING As is becoming increasingly popular, films with astounding soundtracks are being shown with just dialogue and sound effects while an orchestra plays the score live; it’s cost-effective for the presenting organization and offers the spectator the chance to hear live music while waxing nostalgic over a great…
-
Film Review: REBELS ON POINTE (directed by Bobbi Jo Hart)
YOU SO TOTALLY TROCK This drag documentary has been winning plaudits and awards this year. And well it should. Bobbi Jo Hart’s 90-minute exploration of the internationally-known drag ballet company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (affectionately known as The Trocks) is both a hoot and a revelation. Ms. Hart’s cinéma vérité documentary explores forty years…
-
Los Angeles Music Preview: HOLIDAY CANDLELIGHT (Pasadena Symphony)
IT’S BETTER BY CANDLELIGHT I always waited until too late to procure tickets to Pasadena Symphony’s enormously popular extravaganza, Holiday Candlelight. Consistently a sell-out in the past, they started to add an extra performance a few years ago, which allowed me to finally see what all the Ho-Ho-Ho-hoopla was about. The gorgeous concert actually exceeded…
-
Chicago Opera Review: THE PEARL FISHERS (Lyric)
DIVING INTO ESCAPIST ENTERTAINMENT If opera is an escapist medium, transporting audiences to a distant time and place, then Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers is wonderfully paradigmatic. Set in Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) at an unspecified time, though likely before the advent of Europeans in the sixteenth century, the opera exudes exoticism at every turn. In…
-
Chicago Theater Review: PUFF: BELIEVE IT OR NOT (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company)
THE FICTIONS THAT MAKE FACTS This two-act comedy relishes a cruel contradiction: false facts. Rich with rancid exposés, its 150 minutes indict press-agent “puffery,” strategic lies that trigger self-fulfilling fates, colonialist xenophobia, and “collusions in deception” that are perversely preferable to proof. It all sounds ferociously familiar. But it’s not the gasbag bombast of a…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Find beautiful trendy gowns for girls' special events.
Need to order an essay? Hire our top writers to complete the most challenging papers at an affordable rate.
For professional writing support, hire essay writers at Edubirdie for high-quality help.
Discover top-rated Australian online casinos with fair games, fast payouts, and generous bonuses for every type of player.
Explore the best paying pokies Australia games with high RTP and clear bonus terms
