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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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Chicago Theater Review: IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY (TimeLine Theatre at Stage 773)
THE SPARK OF LOVE, OR CURRENT EVENTS Sarah Ruhl’s 2006 drama In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play ruefully wonders whether sex can be turned on like a light bulb. Or is love the best trigger after all? The setting is deceptively proper, a staid Victorian parlor and “in the next room,” a physician’s examination…
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Los Angeles Opera Photo Preview: THE MEDIUM & THE MONKEY’S PAW (Pacific Opera Project)
TAKE A PAWS Pacific Opera Project (POP) is serving up six spooky performances of the world premiere of LA-based composer Brooke deRosa’s The Monkey’s Paw. This is the company’s first presentation of a world premiere opera, and it is paired with Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, one of his best works. Performances begin tonight, October…
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Book Review: ADDICTED TO AMERICANA (Charles Phoenix / Prospect Park Books)
HOOKED ON HAPPY With trademark enthusiasm, quick wit, and keen eye for oddball detail, Charles Phoenix has become one of the American Treasures he often discusses. I often wonder that centuries from now, people will speak of him—perhaps from a picture they found of him in a fez and red-and-white striped suit—with the fascination that…
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CD Review: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS THE NEW MUSICAL (Original Cast Recording)
A SPLISH SPLASH MISHMASH After a successful out-of-town tryout in Chicago, SpongeBob SquarePants The New Musical is opening on Broadway this November. To whet the public’s appetite í la the “Abominable Showman” David Merrick, a recording was completed and is now available on Masterworks Broadway—hence the descriptor “Original Cast” not “Broadway Cast,” even though the…
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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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Off-Broadway Theater Review: OEDIPUS EL REY (The Public Theater in collaboration with the Sol Project)
A REY OF SUNSHINE ENDS UP CLOUDY Director Chay Yew mounts a spectacular production of Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey, a reworking of Sophocles’ tragedy set in the Barrio of present-day Los Angeles. Energetic performances, excellent use of a spare but effective set, dramatic lighting and music all make a powerful impression. This in spite…
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San Diego Theater Review: THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE (Cygnet Theatre Company)
GEORGIA MCBRIDE AIN’T NO DRAG Playwright Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man) has created a theatrical recipe: Take one part Torch Song Trilogy, mix in some La Cage aux Folles and, for a fun fish-out-of-water flavor, add in a generous dash of Sister Act. Sprinkle on some mixed nuts and you’re ready to serve up The Legend…
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Chicago Theater Review: LYSISTRATA JONES (Refuge Theatre Project at Unity Lutheran Church)
A SEX STRIKE FOR SMALL STAKES, OR JONESING FOR LESS Maybe—dammit!—we get the comedy we deserve, cut to fit and ready to wear. Take Lysistrata Jones (please). Aristophanes’ most famous satire, Lysistrata, imagined a sex strike in Athens fifth century BC: Tired of over a decade of inconclusive warfare between that city-state and the warriors of Sparta, the…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BRIGHT STAR (Ahmanson)
LIGHTING UP THE SOUTHERN SKY Carmen Cusack is luminous. She uses her whole self’”physically, emotionally, vocally’”to open herself to the audience, holding every last one of us in her loving arms. Cusack has been on a multi-year journey with Bright Star, since the Steve Martin/Edie Brickell musical began in a 2013 workshop by the New…
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Chicago Theater Review: HIS GREATNESS (Pride Arts)
HIS FALL FROM GREATNESS By 1980, Tom “Tennessee†Williams was on a constant skid: His last great play, The Night of the Iguana, had premiered two decades before. Ever since, the once-supreme author of The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, Suddenly Last Summer, Orpheus Descending, and, above…
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Los Angeles Music Review: MIRGA CONDUCTS MAHLER (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
INACCESSIBLE? MIRGA MAKES US THINK AGAIN The three composers that make up LA Phil’s current program—which opened last night and plays through Saturday—are not what one would call “accessible,” meaning easy to listen to for some folks. Laypersons will often find themselves searching for lyrical, easy-to-digest melodies, or possibly an introduction of a theme or…
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Chicago Dance Review: GISELLE (Joffrey Ballet)
DANCES OF THE DEAD Both classic ballet and romantic fantasy, Adolphe Adam’s 1841 masterwork is for a rightly renewed reason a worthy offering by Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet. Playing the gorgeous Auditorium Theatre through Oct. 29 only, this two-hour treasure, revisioned in 2012 by Lola de ívila (formerly of the San Francisco Ballet School), leaps and soars….
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Los Angeles Film and Music Preview: LA BELLE ET LA BíŠTE (LA Opera at Theatre at the Ace Hotel)
GREAT OPERA, GREAT CINEMA, GREAT PARTY! A familiar fairy tale takes on a broader and deeper subject’”the transformative power of love and art. Jean Cocteau’s stunningly beautiful 1946 cinematic masterpiece is recast with an enchanting new soundtrack by Philip Glass. Not only is it one of Glass’s most accessible works, it may well be the…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: TIME ALONE (Belle Ríªve Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center)
THE SOLITARY LONELINESS OF LOSS There is something cheeky and even a bit dangerous about a writer reaching far outside his or her community, culture, or country. When an outsider succeeds, though, the unfamiliarity can be an advantage, yielding wonder and illumination’”as happens here with Italian playwright Alessandro Camon’s remarkable new play, now getting its…
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Los Angeles Opera Review: THE CONSUL (Long Beach Opera in Lawndale, The South Bay)
BUREAUCRATIC NIGHTMARE; OPERATIC DREAM After witnessing Long Beach Opera’s extraordinarily satisfying production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, starring the magnificent Patricia Racette, I find it shocking that this dramatic opera has not become part of the standard repertoire. There may be one simple reason. When this Pulitzer Prize-winner opened on Broadway in 1950, its…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: TURN ME LOOSE (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
DRY WIT AND RIGHTEOUS OUTRAGE The best sequence in this largely solo show starring Joe Morton as civil rights activist, comedian, and writer Dick Gregory, is playwright Gretchen Law’s dramatization of a 1968 interview Gregory gives at the legendary hungry i in San Francisco. By this point in his life and career, he is driven…
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San Diego Opera Review: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (San Diego Opera)
PLUCKY PIRATES, DARLING DAMSELS AND SILLY SHENANIGANS San Diego Opera has come a long way since announcing in 2014 that, despite being the only opera company in the nation’s eighth largest city, it would be shutting down to avoid bankruptcy. Between a groundswell of support on crowdfunding, restructure of the organization, and some changes to…
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Chicago Theater Review: BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL (Porchlight Music Theatre at Ruth Page Center)
DANCING OUT A DREAM Billy Elliot was born to dance; likewise his cinematic tale just had to become a musical. But it’s a case of apples and oranges: If you loved the Universal Pictures film from 2000, you’ll like the musical. If you never saw the movie, or wish it had been both more political and more…
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Chicago Theater Review: HARD TIMES (Lookingglass Theatre Company)
CHARLES DICKENS, RINGMASTER EXTRAORDINAIRE This exuberant offering first appeared 16 years ago: Lookingglass Theatre Company reinvented Charles Dickens’ tough-loving and always topical Hard Times (for These Times). Whenever this cunning ensemble tell a cruel story truly, you can practically cut the chill in the house. Embracing Dickens’ tenth and shortest novel, a sadly contemporary cautionary tale…
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