INTO THE SOUL OF INTO THE WOODS When I first saw Fiasco Theatre’s production of Into the Woods, it was without reservation that I told friends it was worth the drive from Los Angele…
HIT AND MYTH In Sophocles’ Antigone, the titular character has returned to Thebes to warn her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, about a prophecy that predicts they will kill each o…
IF PIZZA BE THE FOOD OF LOVE… Well, that was frustrating. Now at the Wallis in Beverly Hills is England’s Filter Theatre, which deconstructs Twelfth Night to the bare walls (l…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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. ̶…
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…
 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…
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…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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 …
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 …