DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE As promised, the Los Angeles Philharmonic program last Tuesday offered stylishness and sophistication, but guest artists Katia and Marielle Labéque added an element of fierce emotion. It was evident in the centerpiece, Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E major for Two Pianos (and Orchestra), how well the sisters complement each other.  Marielle, wearing black, had…

A ZESTY SUMMER COCKTAIL In their seventeen years as a fourteen member full “little orchestra,” Pink Martini has established a reputation  for  clever, daring, sophisticated and  delightful music. The unusually overcast sky  at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday evening provided an excellent opportunity for LA Phil and Pink Martini to perk up the environment with some much needed color and…

THE X FACTOR How many times have we mused that we would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when ___________? That’s exactly what playwright Kemp Powers has done in his One Night in Miami…, the world premiere of which is currently on at Rogue Machine. Taking a real gathering of four…

RUPTURED RAPTURE Attending the opening night of a comedy at one of the smaller 99 seat theaters in Los Angeles can be problematic. In addition to a minute smattering of critics and avid theatergoers, the audience is primarily made up of friends of the cast and members of the theater company.   Therein lies the rub.  …

THE SHAPE OF THINGS After Bruce Norris’s A Parallelogram at the Mark Taper Forum, I overheard a few audience members describe the play as “cute.†For all of the play’s political incorrectness, ramblings about physics, a future plague, and fairly unlikeable (and unknowable) characters, it appears that the playwright was going for provocative philosophy, but…

MISGUIDED MELODRAMA Billy Wilder’s 1950 film masterpiece Sunset Boulevard starred Gloria Swanson as the washed-up-actress-turned-cougar Norma Desmond, and William Holden as her prematurely-jaded-Hollywood-writer-turned-boy-toy Joe Gillis.   Using the camera as an instrument to capture performances of discomforting intensity, it wove a psychologically intricate tale of seduction, jealousy and betrayal set, of course, in Hollywood.   It skirted…

THE NIGHT THEY INVENTED TINY BUBBLES After Marvin Hamlisch’s untimely passing, Michael Feinstein, who has singlehandedly reinvigorated the American Songbook for the 21st century, took over as principal conductor for the Pasadena POPS. His first concert, Michael Feinstein’s Songbook, saw the beguiling raconteur as a perfect fit for the POPS crowd which, let’s face it,…