Friday, October 11, 2024
The name Yola is not to be confused with YOLO, but if her moniker were to be an acronym, it might stand for You Only Live Awe-Inspiringly. The British-born singer has been expanding her hori…
SOURCE: Variety at 07:33PMFriday, September 27, 2024
The devil is making them do it… or maybe it’s actually an exercise in divine justice. “Randy Newman’s Faust,” the only musical comedy ever written for the stage by the dean of barb…
SOURCE: Variety at 09:43PMTuesday, September 17, 2024
Singer-songwriter Allison Russell had a song called “Persephone” on her debut solo album, so there may be some destiny in the fact that she will soon step into a role with that name in t…
SOURCE: Variety at 11:29AMTuesday, August 20, 2024
Whatever counts as Sara Bareilles’ day job right now, it’s not regualrly releasing albums and touring. Her last studio album (2019’s “Amidst the Chaos”) and tour are both five year…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:49PMTuesday, August 6, 2024
If you were cataloging the signs of a stage musical that has had a robust life over a period of not just years but decades, here are two things that might be included on that list: A) The sh…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:23PMFriday, June 28, 2024
At some point, if you are enthusiastically trying to get everyone you know in Los Angeles out to see “A Strange Loop” — and anyone who hasn’t should try to, as the production come…
SOURCE: Variety at 01:01PMFriday, June 21, 2024
It’s been just over one year since the Tonys gave the Pasadena Playhouse an award for regional theater, and that honor looks more justified than ever now that the venue is presenting a muc…
SOURCE: Variety at 09:13PMSunday, June 16, 2024
A lot of bong water has passed under the bridge since “Reefer Madness: The Musical” first premiered at the Hudson Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. in 1998. Like, legalization of the demon w…
SOURCE: Variety at 06:50PMWednesday, June 12, 2024
For his new “Honeymind” album, singer and actor Ben Platt brought in an especially honeyed voice as a counterpart on one song, Brandy Clark. He had written “Treehouse” in a writing s…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:45PMThursday, June 6, 2024
Not to be confused with “Hello Dolly,” there’s a musical earmarked for Broadway by the name of “Hello, I’m Dolly,” with country-pop superstar Dolly Parton spearheading the effort…
SOURCE: Variety at 12:00PMMonday, April 15, 2024
The 30th anniversary of the original animated film version of “The Lion King” will be celebrated at the Hollywood Bowl next month with a live-to-film concert/screening that will include …
SOURCE: Variety at 09:29AMSunday, March 24, 2024
Does “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” count as a genre unto itself, given how many plotlines in the last half-century have relied on the suitor-out-of-water supper guest as a linchpin? T…
SOURCE: Variety at 05:03PMThursday, March 7, 2024
Steve Lawrence, a king among easy-listening crooners who rocketed to fame in the ’50s and ’60s as half of the duo Steve and Eydie, died Thursday at age 88. Lawrence died at home in Los A…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:33PMThursday, January 25, 2024
It’s not exactly breaking news in the world of show-biz satire that actors can be vain, or insecure; it’s been mined. But for as long as time and human consciousness still exist, there w…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:17PMThere’s no IP more innately suited for adaptation as a pure two-hander than the tale of Adam and Eve, a story in which, initially at least, there are no other characters, excepting the cre…
SOURCE: Variety at 12:15AMMonday, January 15, 2024
The musical-comedy “Shucked” had its closing performance on Broadway Sunday night, but the show went out with an even louder set of whoops than expected, as the curtain call included the…
SOURCE: Variety at 11:56AMTuesday, December 5, 2023
Hello, beautiful. That’s what some Barbra Streisand fans have been murmuring to their physical editions of “My Name Is Barbra,” her memoir, since it came out one month ago, and over th…
SOURCE: Variety at 10:11AMSaturday, November 11, 2023
Southern California comedy aficionados have experienced some FOMO when it comes to on-and-off L.A. resident Alex Edelman having become the toast of the town in New York theater circles with …
SOURCE: Variety at 03:07PMTuesday, August 22, 2023
“Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” now playing at L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre, has its roots partly in silent-film slapstick, partly in British pantomime and partly in Python. But maybe the best shor…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:58PMSunday, August 13, 2023
“Try to Remember,” the most famous song to have come out of the stage musical “The Fantasticks,” was noted for its autumnal feel, sung by someone reflecting back on youthful days. Th…
SOURCE: Variety at 04:27PMTuesday, July 25, 2023
You remember the famous Talking Heads song with the lyrical hook, “This ain’t no disco…”? Part of the mission of the producers of “Here Lies Love,” a stage musical created by Dav…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:39PMSaturday, July 1, 2023
In “Into the Woods,” the audience laughs at the gluttony of the Little Red Ridinghood character, especially in the earliest, most deliberately cartoony parts of the production. But in a …
SOURCE: Variety at 09:40PMThursday, June 15, 2023
In a move certain to shock Los Angeles theatergoers, the Center Theatre Group (CTG) announced Thursday that it is canceling plans for a 2023-34 season at the Mark Taper Forum, one of the mos…
SOURCE: Variety at 08:22PMMonday, June 5, 2023
In front of the Broadway Theatre at the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street in Manhattan are posters for the venue’s incoming production, “Here Lies Love,” advertising a score by David …
SOURCE: Variety at 04:59PMWednesday, May 31, 2023
Nobody’s perfect, but “Some Like It Hot” was close enough for the 67th annual Drama Desk Awards, which gave the Broadway adaptation of the classic film comedy eight honors on Wednesday…
SOURCE: Variety at 03:58PMSaturday, April 8, 2023
A touring production of the stage version of “The Bodyguard” was brought to a halt and canceled in Manchester, England on Friday night after patrons would not stop singing along with the…
SOURCE: Variety at 01:51PMWednesday, April 5, 2023
The verdicts on the new Broadway musical-comedy “Shucked” are in, and the critics have asked you to lend them your ears — so to speak — as they’ve cobbled together their reactions …
SOURCE: Variety at 03:55PMThursday, January 12, 2023
“Here Lies Love,” a celebrated “disco pop” stage musical with a score by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, dramatizing Imelda Marcos’ rise to prominence and downfall in the Philippines,…
SOURCE: Variety at 09:42AMThursday, December 1, 2022
It’s a few days after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony when we find Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo holed up in the green room of a Beverly Hills performing arts center, talk…
SOURCE: Variety at 08:01PMThursday, July 28, 2022
Incoming Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Pat Benatar and her musical partner and husband Neil Giraldo are announcing an L.A.-area November world premiere for “Invincible — The Musical,” a …
SOURCE: Variety at 03:01PMMonday, July 18, 2022
There aren’t many Tony-winning productions in which one of the veteran creator-performers can announce that he’s retiring, right in the middle of a performance… and do it in song form�…
SOURCE: Variety at 02:35PM 
