Thursday, December 21, 2017
A PRINCH ASSAULT For 22 years, the Troubadour Theater Company (aka The Troubies) has amalgamated freely altered classics with music of a particular artist, creating riotous sketch/improv/ent…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:26PMMonday, December 11, 2017
COME FOR GYLLENHAAL; STAY FOR SONDHEIM Although a hit, the 2017 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George had a str…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:51PMWednesday, December 6, 2017
WE GET EVERYTHING BUT THE HEART Certainly one of the most gorgeous lavish sets ever seen at the Wallis, with gorgeous sumptuous costumes, and gorgeous talented athletic actors. With all of t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:53PMPLEASE HELLO! Remarkably, one of the most difficult things about Pacific Overtures is that Harold Prince directed the original production utilizing the ancient Japanese theater-form, Kabuki,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:17AMTuesday, December 5, 2017
CAUGHT IN ITS SPELL An onion-skin experience, Christopher Chen’s magnificent Caught is indeed scripted, but you won’t know that when you’re watching it. Part immersive thea…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:59PMMonday, December 4, 2017
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Deck the Hall Holiday Concerts at Disney Hall are just around the corner, and the variety this year is unmatched. I may be enchanted by the ever-popular H…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:46PMFriday, November 24, 2017
OUR CHORALE’S CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERTS AND CAROLS With the indefatigable Energizer Bunny of conducting, Grant Gershon, at the helm, Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) can easily be lab…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:38PMWednesday, November 22, 2017
SOMETHING SILLY; NOT QUITE ROTTEN BUT HARDLY FRESH What is it about William Shakespeare that inspires lesser authors (namely, everyone else) to try to take him down? George Bernard Shaw spen…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:45PMThursday, November 16, 2017
A CONCERT ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN Given the Madrid setting, Hispano characters, and Latin-inspired score, it’s possible that the musicalized version of Pedro Almodóvar’s fil…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:47PMSunday, November 12, 2017
ORIGINAL GHOST HOST A COUP FOR CAPT Captured Aural Phantasy Theater (CAPT), the only group authorized to perform EC Comics’ material live, offered a blood-bucket of charm at their rece…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:09AMFriday, November 10, 2017
LET THERE BE DARK A group of campers sits around the warm glow of campfire embers and tries to retell a favorite episode of The Simpsons. One man excitedly recalls and performs “Cape Fear…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:44AMFriday, November 3, 2017
COME FOR MENDELSSOHN, STAY FOR MÄLKKI There are three things to consider regarding LA Phil’s huge production of Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has m…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:39PMMonday, October 30, 2017
THE RIDICULOUSNESS OF IT ALL I had a college film-course assignment: Read Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella The Heart of Darkness and then watch Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film adaptation, A…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:04PMWednesday, October 25, 2017
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 à …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMWednesday, October 18, 2017
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 cin…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:45PMTuesday, October 17, 2017
BUREAUCRATIC NIGHTMARE; OPERATIC DREAM After witnessing Long Beach Opera’s extraordinarily satisfying production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, starring the magnificent Patricia…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:19PMFriday, October 13, 2017
SCHOOLED BY CALLAS; ENTERTAINED BY HENNESY If you’ve ever been to a master class, then Terrence McNally’s Master Class will seem very familiar. If you haven’t, then you’re in for a r…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:18PMEXIT TRAGEDY Fierce, funny, and relevant under Deena Selenow’s choreographic direction, Ike Holter’s entertaining but uneven melodrama takes place in a Chicago high school that&#…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:59PMSHUFFLE ALONG Is stuff magical only because it can’t be explained? Perhaps it’s more than just the absence of logic, probability, or reason. There’s a presence too: Magic evokes a chil…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:42PMTuesday, October 3, 2017
FANTASTIC, FRIGHTENING, FIERCE, FRENCH: THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE’S STATE OF SIEGE AT UCLA Presented by CAP UCLA, Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville returns to Royce Hall with a new productio…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:49PMThursday, September 21, 2017
STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES The Road Theatre Company, one of L.A.’s most dependable companies for original material, amazing casting, steadfast directors, and terrific production values, pres…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:07PMSunday, September 17, 2017
AN EXTRAORDINARY FIVE-COURSE MEAL Course One (Primer Plato): The Story. Two unnamed political prisoners, languishing in an Argentine maximum security prison, are allowed only one hour each S…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:01PMOH, SWEET AND LOVELY Ella Fitzgerald’s history with Harlem’s Apollo Theater dates back to the fall of 1934, when she won the opportunity to compete in Amateur Night. The teenager wen…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:42AMSaturday, September 16, 2017
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC; A VERY SHORT RUN; A MOST ACCOMPLISHED CAST Get ready for the wit, sophistication, and gentle eroticism of this most worldly and elegant of American musicals. The story …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:43PMThursday, September 14, 2017
FLYING WITH BROKEN WINGS It’s amazing. Thousands of billions of electronic messages are delivered every month globally, but it doesn’t feel like a small world after all. For many…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:06PMWednesday, September 13, 2017
FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE Based on the 1984 film Footloose, this eponymous musical opened on Broadway in 1998. Both adaptation and jukebox musical, in which songs sometimes land willy-nilly w…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:00AMTuesday, September 12, 2017
ALONG CAME THIS SPIDER Defying torture and humiliation in a Latin American prison, two cellmates—seeming enemies—build a passionate friendship and a larger loyalty. Hollywood vis…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMThursday, September 7, 2017
AULIS WELL AT THE GETTY Check out the production of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis by Chicago’s Court Theatre, and you’ll see why I rave about theater in the Windy City. Guided by the s…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:50PMWednesday, August 30, 2017
HE WHO LAUGHS AT LAST LAUGHS BEST Barney Cashman is a neurotic, shlubby, well-intentioned if somewhat misguided seafood restaurateur who feels his life and marriage have become too predictab…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:47PMIN HARLEM’S WAY “One never knows, do one?” That’s the favorite catchphrase of Fats Waller (1904-1943), an irrepressible master of music. The 285-pound, cherubic-cheeked jokester geni…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:08PMWHERE DO YOU GET ORFF..? There are some entertainments that bear repeating: Los Angeles Master Chorale has visited Carl Orff’s pagan-fest, Carmina Burana, under each of their music dire…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00PM 
