Friday, March 10, 2017
A NIGHT THAT WILL BE A DREAM Franz Schubert, the quintessential Romantic composer of the 19th century, was loved by Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, poet and director Samuel BeckettÂ…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:53PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 8, 2017
HERE COMES MR. JORDAN Get ready, cats. The best musical revue since Ain’t Misbehavin’ is coming to Los Angeles, and I’m warning you well in advance: I promise you–yep…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:00PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 7, 2017
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR Prior to yesterday's matinee, the last of a two-performance run of Nixon in China presented by LA Phil, I wondered who would make up the audience for a re…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:05AM[SHARE]Monday, March 6, 2017
THAT GIRL, THAT BOY…HELL, THAT STAR It was well over 30 years ago that I first saw writer, actor and drag legend Charles Busch. Not only was he hi-larious in his long-running Off-Br…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:51PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 1, 2017
AILEY IS ALWAYS A REVELATION(S) After many happy visits to the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater returns to unleash a sumptuous, three-program showcas…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:41PM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 28, 2017
YOU’LL FALL IN LOVE WITH AMOUR “I wanted to write an opera-bouffe, an intimate evening with light, lyrical singing and delicate charm,” wrote composer Michel Legrand. ̶…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:14PM[SHARE]Monday, February 27, 2017
THERE’S A REASON WE RETURN TO BRAHMS AND RAVEL Under guest conductor James Gaffigan's assured leadership, the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought a fuller and more vibrant sound to two ve…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:57AM[SHARE]Friday, February 24, 2017
 A BIRDIE THAT TAKES WING Having no intention of reviewing, I bought a couple tickets to a non-union production of Bye Bye Birdie, but the entire affair had me so damn giddy that I can…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:55PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 23, 2017
IN AND OUT AT HOME The Tony-winning 2013 coming-of-age memory play/chamber musical Fun Home"based on Alison Bechdel's 2006 semi-autobiographical graphic novel"is a worthy coming-out tale. We…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:52PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 22, 2017
NEVERLAND FOUND AND LOST Playwright Alan Knee called Sir J. M. Barrie "the man who was Peter Pan." If so, it was an author's compensation as much as creativity. James Barrie was a shy Scotsm…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:12PM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 21, 2017
THEATER’S BLUE PERIOD Steve Martin wrote Picasso at the Lapin Agile in 1993. The offbeat meta-theatrical play opened at Chicago’s Steppenwolf, went to Los Angeles’s West…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:50AM[SHARE]Monday, February 20, 2017
A SCALED-DOWNÂ ROBBER BRIDEGROOM STEALS YOUR HEART ON CD It will always remain one of the great unsolved mysteries in Broadway history. Composer Robert Waldman and librettist and lyricist …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00PM[SHARE]Saturday, February 18, 2017
MORE THAN JUST VARIATIONS ON A THEME "Why did the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven write 33 variations on a trivial little waltz by a mediocre amateur composer?" On the surface, th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:59PM[SHARE]Friday, February 17, 2017
SUPER SQUIRREL Flora Buckman, the ten-year-old central character of Flora & Ulysses, the best play I’ve seen all year, begins when this self-proclaimed Â"natural-born c…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:45PM[SHARE]COME JOIN THE CIRCUS As if to compensate for the unpopularity of animal acts, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus began to beef up their productions in recent years, but that lack …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:29PM[SHARE]SHE’S BA-A-A-CK AND SHE’S FA-A-A-ABULOUS Charles Busch's Die, Mommie, Die! is equal parts comic melodrama, Greek tragedy and Hollywood kitsch"and all campy noir classic in the ve…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:16AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 14, 2017
A GUY WALKS INTO A CUCKOO’S NEST… Jazz pianist, TV personality, actor, author, film composer and arranger Oscar Levant (1906-1972) was quite possibly one of the quickest wits on …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:54PM[SHARE]Monday, February 13, 2017
AND EVITA KEEPS ROLLING IN That great balcony scene is back. No, not R&J. It's the one with Eva Duarte Perón's valedictory aria "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina." As this princess of t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:06PM[SHARE]WORKING UP YOUR APPETITE Bringing the aesthetics of classical theater to the realm of the contemporary circus, the fearless performers of The 7 Fingers (also known as Les 7 Doigts) explore l…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:35PM[SHARE]Monday, February 6, 2017
ZOOT SUIT FITTED FOR A NEW GENERATION When Zoot Suit was originally commissioned and developed by Center Theatre Group in 1978, it played for nearly a year in Los Angeles"first a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:31PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 1, 2017
THE MUSIC AND THE WORDS BEHIND THE MUSIC With astounding chromatic structure and continually shifting tonalities and rhythms, Debussy's music has always mystified and transported me. Certain…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:10PM[SHARE]KNEEHIGH RETURNS TO THE WALLIS I wonder if L.A. residents know how ridiculously lucky they are to have the Wallis Annenberg Center, an outfit so prestigious that Britain's Kneehigh …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52AM[SHARE]Monday, January 30, 2017
FOUND IN THE STARS Lost in the Stars is quite possibly composer Kurt Weill’s magnum opus for the American Theater. The score is prime Weill, characteristically mixing high operatic sty…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:26PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 26, 2017
GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER? At first, we have no idea why a well-to-do couple has invited another couple and their son over for dinner. The hostess Debora (Ann Hearn) is on edge …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:55PM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 25, 2017
A WHALE OF A PRODUCTION Moby Dick, Herman Melville's 1851 whale of a tale (or tale of a whale), is as unsinkable as its title cetacean. It's never been more so than in Lookingglass Theatre C…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:24PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 24, 2017
CUMMING AND SAPPY Yes, Disney Hall is a large venue for a cabaret act, but you can expect Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming to turn the venue into the most intimate hotspot when he prese…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:15PM[SHARE]Saturday, January 21, 2017
JERRY HERMAN’S LEGACY ISN’T IN JEOPARDY, BUT TRIBUTE CONCERTS ARE With an evening of Jerry Herman tunes sung by Broadway powerhouses Ron Raines, Karen Morrow, Debbie Gravit…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:44AM[SHARE]Monday, January 9, 2017
JAMES CAMERON MEETS CIRQUE DU SOLEIL Cirque du Soleil writes a new chapter in make-believe with Toruk " The First Flight, a not so typical two-hour fantasy inspired by (but not based on) Jam…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:02AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 8, 2017
A SALUTE TO GREAT SONGS AND A GREAT CLUB Any excuse to expose selections from the Great American Songbook to a modern audience works for me. And a cabaret revue entitled A Night at the Stork…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:18PM[SHARE]Saturday, January 7, 2017
THE MANE EVENT Watching the Los Angeles premiere of writer/performer Benjamin Scheuer's one-man show The Lion, directed by Sean Daniels, the element I am most taken with is Mr. Scheuer's …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:00PM[SHARE]Friday, January 6, 2017
‘TWAS BRILLIG, AND THE SLITHY TOVEY The witty, charming raconteur and conductor Bramwell Tovey has never failed to have the audience in the palm of his baton-filled hand. As ener…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:43PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
