Saturday, February 22, 2014
REFLECTIONS ON L.A. DANCE PROJECT The uneven and uninspiring effort presented by L.A. Dance Project last night isn’t bad news; it just means that this nascent company needs to hone its vis…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:30AMWednesday, February 19, 2014
THE BLOOMING OF A BUDD IN L.A. Based on Herman Melville’s classic American tale, adapted into a libretto by English novelist E.M. Forster and writer Eric Crozier, Billy Budd tells the st…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:12PMLOVE WITHOUT THE TRIMMINGS My darling, dearest Noël: It only just occurred to me that I haven’t written you since I saw your play Peace in our Time. Do forgive me, lamb chop. Let me cut t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54AMSunday, February 16, 2014
THE MUSIC MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC MAN When Musical Theatre West announced their production of The Music Man, which opens tonight at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach, I actually got excited. I…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMSaturday, February 15, 2014
FUNK ME Director and choreographer Otis Sallid wants to illuminate how James Brown’s funky music and original dance styling has influenced contemporary culture. He engaged PHILADANCO (Phil…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52PMFriday, February 14, 2014
LASAGNA AND MOANERS AND KASHA AND TRIPE The comical but frothy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike arrives at the Taper this week, but instead of a delectable meal, Christopher Durang’s pl…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:12PMWednesday, February 12, 2014
MTG DEFIBRILLATES DOA MUSICAL Sheaths can be written about how deadly the musical Death Takes a Holiday is, and where the creators went wrong. What’s more important is that director Calvin…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:42PMTuesday, February 11, 2014
DAISEY: I LOVE HIM, I LOVE HIM NOT I’m jealous of Mike Daisey. In American Utopias at Royce Hall, the infamous monologist fulminated and commentated about three interpolated subjects near …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:48PMSunday, February 9, 2014
IF I LOVED YOU At a time when many ballet companies are commissioning short dance pieces, it’s refreshing that John Neumeier—since 1973, when he became Artistic Director and chief choreo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:11AMMonday, February 3, 2014
KILLER PUSSY Suicide! Euthanasia! Incest! Health Care! Racism! Old age! Corporate America! Spirits! The afterlife! Prison! Duplicity! Playwright Josefina López (Real Women Have Curves) is t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:58PMSaturday, February 1, 2014
GISELLE’S GAZELLES First staged in 1841, Giselle is one of the oldest surviving ballets still in the international repertory, especially because the lead role is a showcase for the world�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:02PMMAKE IT ANOTHER OLD-FASHIONED PLEASE It’s something of a shocker, really. I had a great time watching Let’s Misbehave, a jukebox musical slim on both premise and reality. It’s actually…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52PMTuesday, January 28, 2014
QUEENIE WHY? When George C. Wolfe first tried adapting Duke Ellington’s unfinished work Queenie Pie in 1986 it was subtitled “A Jazz Operetta in the Key of Make Believe.” Ellington cal…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:04PMSaturday, January 25, 2014
FAR OUT The Los Angeles premiere of British choreographer Wayne McGregor’s FAR opened at Royce Hall last night, and you are advised to cancel all plans and catch the last performance tonig…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:05PMFriday, January 24, 2014
WHEN A WORD OR TWO WILL NOT DO A Word or Two is an apt title for Christopher Plummer’s solo show about Christopher Plummer and Christopher Plummer’s love of language. He wants to celebra…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:22PMMonday, January 20, 2014
THAT AIN’T THE WAY TO HAVE FUN, SON One of the most exciting events to come out of Los Angeles theater in the last few years was Zombie Joe’s Urban Death, a naturalistic horror show…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:55PMSaturday, January 11, 2014
MORE JAZZ, PLEASE Interestingly, the work that opened Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal’s program last night at the Bram Goldsmith Theater in the brand new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Perf…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:11PMThursday, January 9, 2014
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID The two most important aspects of the right kind of cabaret act are the singer and the songs. But when you go to see Laura Benanti’s new cabaret In Constant Search o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:46PMWednesday, January 8, 2014
TAKE A CHANCE Merrily We Roll Along is a notoriously difficult musical to get right. Even with Sondheim’s magnificent score, the nature of the show—its lopsided cynicism and moving-back-…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:29PMThursday, January 2, 2014
AN UNCONVENTIONAL ROMANCE Meet Max, a celebrity novelist who is single, and Trudy, a happily married woman who is working on a new novel. They meet in a writer’s room and form a fast frien…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:13PMWednesday, January 1, 2014
MORE LIKE ONE STARRY STARRY STARRY NIGHT If anybody knows how to put together a night of eclectic songs and singers, it’s Bruce Kimmel. While he has created some terrific revues, this prol…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:29PMMonday, December 30, 2013
CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND THEATER LOVERS, UNITE! Remember E. Howard Hunt? This intelligence officer was one of Nixon’s White House Plumbers, that clandestine band of operatives who were ass…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:20PMI AM EXHILARATED In 1978, on the night of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone’s assassinations, an unprecedented candlelight march brought mourners to San Francisco’s City Hall. The new…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:48AMSunday, December 29, 2013
CABARET SAUVIGNON She received a Tony nomination for both the Broadway revue Swing! and for playing Cinderella in the revival of Into the Woods. She won a Tony for portraying Louise in the P…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:48PMFriday, December 27, 2013
ORACLE’S THE MOTHER GETS A WELL-DESERVED REMOUNT My annual theater sojourn to the Windy City this year was a bit of a let down. Spoiled by previous pilgrimages, in which no less than 5…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:02PMSunday, December 22, 2013
DRAGULOUS I love The Kinsey Sicks. Is it because I love barbershop quartets? Is it because I love drag queens? Is it because I love community activists? Is it because I love irreverent, chee…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMFriday, December 20, 2013
PLEASE MAKE IT STOMP When I first saw the Blue Man Group at the Astor Place Theatre in 1991, it was performance art nirvana. Sadly, what started as a sweet and satisfying event became a corp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:20AMTuesday, December 17, 2013
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE’S RICHARD II COMES TO WESTWOOD Brits had already heard about Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Richard II, directed by Gregory Doran and starring former Doc…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:59PMWednesday, December 11, 2013
A HIT-AND-MISS HOLIDAY HYBRID IS AT LEAST MORE HO HO THAN HO HUM Silliness and charm reign supreme in The Actors’ Gang’s original Christmas show, The Queen Family’s Very Special Ho…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:17PMMonday, December 9, 2013
JOCKEY-SIZED JORDAN REMAINS A COMICAL CLYDESDALE Have you ever been to a sultry party that has the oppressive feel of a languid, humid day in the Deep South, only to have the energy shift dr…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:35PMFriday, December 6, 2013
WOULD YOU LIKE COFFEE, TEA OR THE AMERICAN DREAM? Sometimes we take a short vacation just to get away from it all. A few days. No big tourist attractions or monumental natural sites are nece…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:16PM 
