All stories by Lewis Segal on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Review: Matthew Bourne's 'Cinderella' dances into WWII with a profound beauty by Lewis Segal

In the dance world, nobody makes a case for damaged heroes as brilliantly as Matthew Bourne. In his reworkings of classic stories and scores, the British director and choreographer invariabl…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:52PM
Sunday, March 3, 2019

Review: Los Angeles Ballet turns ‘La Sylphide’ from 1836 on its #MeToo head by Lewis Segal

What a difference a hashtag makes. When Los Angeles Ballet presented August Bournonville’s two-act story ballet “La Sylphide” five years ago, the performance seemed an elegy to lost lo…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:35PM
Sunday, January 13, 2019

Review: In 'The Great Tamer,' a bleak world of hurt rises from the UCLA stage by Lewis Segal

Count no man happy till he dies, the great Greek playwright Sophocles warned us in 429 BC — a perspective renewed often in the deliberately bleak, slow and dark movement-theater spectacle …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:10PM
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Review: American Ballet Theatre's 'La Bayadère' raises questions of cultural stereotypes amid the classics by Lewis Segal

Can a classic be offensive? Certainly reactions to certain scripted narratives, from Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” have changed with …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:30PM
Sunday, March 4, 2018

Los Angeles Ballet dips its toes into a cold, calm 'Swan Lake' by Lewis Segal

Continuity of tradition dominates the ballet world — and so does the new ways tradition can be embodied, reinterpreted and sometimes undermined year after year. Last performed in 2014, the…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:00PM
Saturday, March 25, 2017

A Hollywood classic, back where it belongs: 'An American in Paris' at the Pantages by Lewis Segal

Call it a joyous homecoming. The national tour of Broadway’s “An American in Paris” has opened at the Hollywood Pantages, returning the story, characters and George Gershwin music to t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:50PM
Thursday, March 9, 2017

The struggle, the hopeless fury and the joy of life, all captured by Alvin Ailey Dance by Lewis Segal

Endurance, survival, getting through troubled times: The program that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Wednesday focused on crucial life l…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:10PM
Sunday, February 12, 2017

Movement as bleak theater, with some terrific Pharrell music too by Lewis Segal

A bleak creative vision infused with scenic dazzle gave a distinctive edge to three works by young, New York-based choreographer Jonah Bokaer on Friday in Royce Hall at UCLA. Cold and dark, …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:20PM
Sunday, July 10, 2016

How the ballet world's choreographer of the moment is still searching for his next move by Lewis Segal

Memo to choreographer Alexei Ratmansky: Play Misty for me. Yes, everyone in the ballet world is aware that you're one of the artists defining the art, someone renowned or notorious - dependi…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:18PM

How the ballet world's choreographer of the moment is still searching for his next move by Lewis Segal

Memo to choreographer Alexei Ratmansky: Play Misty for me. Yes, everyone in the ballet world is aware that you're one of the artists defining the art, someone renowned or notorious — depen…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:18PM
Saturday, June 4, 2016

Choreographer Rosanna Gamson delivers a 'Restless' night of dance at REDCAT by Lewis Segal

Visual splendor is a familiar and welcome component of the pieces created by Rosanna Gamson for her nine-dancer ensemble. Few Los Angeles choreographers use theater technology quite so disti…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:58PM
Monday, May 9, 2016

L.A. Ballet finds the poetry in 1955 version of 'Romeo and Juliet' never before seen in the U.S. by Lewis Segal

Los Angeles Ballet’s new production of Frederick Ashton’s “Romeo and Juliet” is not only admirable. It’s news. Ashton ranks among the three or four greatest ballet choreographers o…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:46PM
Monday, November 9, 2015

Second City, Hubbard Street's often-visionary fusion of comedy and dance by Lewis Segal

The West Coast premiere of “The Art of Falling” brought to the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday night some uproarious sketch-comedy supplemented and occasionally eclipsed by first-rate contemp…

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Subscription at 12:12PM
Sunday, November 8, 2015

Second City, Hubbard Street's often-visionary fusion of comedy and dance by Lewis Segal

The West Coast premiere of “The Art of Falling” brought to the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday night some uproarious sketch-comedy supplemented and occasionally eclipsed by first-rate contemp…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:49PM
Thursday, October 15, 2015

Twyla Tharp's 50th anniversary program, while graceful, becomes predictable by Lewis Segal

Twyla Tharp once choreographed different recordings of Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" in the same piece. That double dose of self-aggrandizement should have prepared us for her 50th annivers…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:09PM
Friday, April 17, 2015

Alvin Ailey at Dorothy Chandler: Brutality chic in modern dance by Lewis Segal

From its first performances in 1958, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has championed overlapping social and creative agendas. Not all of them were evident in the four-part “Power of …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:16PM
Tuesday, March 31, 2015

L.A. Ballet delivers a classically pure 'Sleeping Beauty' by Lewis Segal

Dancing through its first nine seasons, Los Angeles Ballet has bravely tackled one rite of passage after another — not merely the major Balanchine and Bournonville choreographies that are …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00AM
Friday, December 19, 2014

Dance in 2014: Same-sex duets, solid performances and an unsure future by Lewis Segal

Reflecting fast-evolving social and marital realities, the same-sex duet became a staple of new choreography on nearly every local dance stage in 2014, ranging from the dazzling partnering i…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PM
Monday, October 27, 2014

L.A. Dance Project explores flyaway dynamics by Lewis Segal

Even if Benjamin Millepied never creates a dance worth seeing more than once, his L.A. Dance Project deserves high praise for attracting young audiences with contemporary works that challeng…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:30AM
Monday, October 20, 2014

Quibbles aside, a strong 'Swan Lake' from Los Angeles Ballet by Lewis Segal

"Swan Lake" has been a work in progress ever since its first 1877 Moscow version (now lost), with each new generation adding to — and sometimes undermining — its evolving richness and de…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:30AM
Friday, October 10, 2014

Australian Ballet's 'Swan Lake' a royal disconnect by Lewis Segal

In an age of rampant ballet revisionism, finding an unorthodox "Swan Lake" isn't difficult. In Denmark there's one that depicts the life of Tchaikovsky. Germany offers a version that focuses…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:44PM
Sunday, April 13, 2014

Review: From bright to dark to playful from Paul Taylor Dance by Lewis Segal

Paul Taylor served the first generation of modern dance pioneers as a performer, then helped create and redefine the second as a choreographer.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00PM
Saturday, February 1, 2014

Review: A reworked 'Giselle' from New Zealand Royal Ballet by Lewis Segal

Classic ballets change over time---sometimes radically. Take "Giselle," the antique, tragic two-act dance drama about a peasant girl driven mad by a nobleman but who rises from her grave to …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:46PM
Monday, December 16, 2013

Review: Moscow Ballet enlivens 'The Great Russian Nutcracker' by Lewis Segal

Lively and resourceful, with an unusual array of bright, painted backdrops adding to the Christmas cheer, "The Great Russian Nutcracker" came to the Wiltern Theatre on Sunday performed by th…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:20PM
Friday, November 22, 2013

Review: In 'Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty,' imagination awakes by Lewis Segal

Matthew Bourne’s delirious remake of "The Sleeping Beauty," which opened Thursday at the Ahmanson Theatre, managed to leapfrog through time as magically as other major productions whil…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:50PM
Saturday, October 19, 2013

Review: Unpredictable Nederlands Dans Theater is memorably modern by Lewis Segal

On the struggling and often confused American dance scene, the three companies that make up Nederlands Dans Theater might seem to inhabit an alternative artistic universe. Think ballet line…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:15PM
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Theater review: 'Peter Pan' soars at moments, loses its way at others by Lewis Segal

Cathy Rigby channels her inner child triumphantly as always in the musical's title role in a restaging at the Pantages. The production is uneven, albeit still charming.Any show created by or…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:21PM
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Theater review: Twyla Tharp's 'Come Fly Away' at the Pantages by Lewis Segal

No choreographer alive knows more about getting pop songs on their feet than Twyla Tharp -- and just about everything she knows is on view in the musical “Come Fly Away.”

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:25PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic