GRANTING YOUR WISH FOR A FUN OPERA Gioachino Rossini's Cinderella (La Cenerentola) was written in 1817 during the bel canto era when operas were written to showcase beautiful singing, and Je…
REIMAGINING THE REIMAGINED ATÂ NCTC No one can deny why Romeo and Juliet has achieved cult status. Not only is Shakespeare's comic tragedy one of the most enduring stories ever told, but i…
SLIDING BORES A or B? The question of Ken Levine's title refers to the choice between two parallel universes set forth in his two-act two-hour two-hander. Played out simultaneously with flip…
COOL AS A CUCUMBER BUT NOT AS REFRESHING In Boys in the Band, the character of Harold states: "Although I’ve never seen my soul, I understand from my mother’s Rabbi that it’…
I'M NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD BE SKIPPIN' PIPPIN, BUT… Prepare yourself. After all the rave reviews and buzz from New York, Diane Paulus's Tony-winning revival hits the road filled with enough…
NUDITY IS AS NUDITY DOES For the sake of argument ("arguendo"), let us consider G-strings as tools of oppression, and pasties as violations of our First Amendment rights. This was the perspe…
KOSKY'S QUEEN AND CASTLE On the surface, there isn't much that unites Henry Purcell's 1688 Dido and Aeneas and Béla Bartók’s 1918 Bluebeard's Castle, except perhaps that men are no…
FOR BETTER OR WORSE Based on her own experience with a dying father and marital breakup with playwright Hamish Linklater (whose The Vandal is currently running in Chicago), Jessica Goldbe…
THERE'S A BRIGHT STAR SOMEWHERE ON THE HORIZON It takes a while to get on board with Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's new musical at The Old Globe. In fact, emotional involvement by intermis…
TRICKSTERS WHO ARE A TREAT From Vegas extravaganzas to intimate parlors, my favorite magicians are those with personality and humor. Even when tricks are well-rehearsed and mindboggling, sli…
SWAN IN A MILLION Featuring a live orchestra, The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this weekend, October 9-12, 2014. While this is one of the world's favo…
A TRANS-PORTIVE EXPERIENCE AWAITS YOU When I saw the trio of headliners who will be performing for one night only at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, I had to do a Little Rascals double-take. …
REAWAKENING In one of the bios for Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening, actress Ali Stroker thanks the company for stepping out of the box, and turning what some may think as a 'limit…
COME HOME TO THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote's plaintive 1953 teleplay (adapted for Broadway and for the 1985 film with Geraldine Page), paints a picture of rural A…
POP DOES OPERAÂ BIG, INTIMATELY Under Artistic Director Josh Shaw's hands-on guidance, Pacific Opera Project has become L.A.'s most exciting new opera company. In just three years since PO…
HERE'S CHARLEY This Sunday, September 21, Musical Theatre West will begin the Reiner Staged Reading Series fifth anniversary season with a one-time only performance of Where’s Charley?…
STRANGE BUT WATCHABLE BEHAVIOR Let's see if I got this right. A tongue-in-cheek bio-musical and pseudo-adventure tale about John Broadus Watson"wannabe preacher-turned-behavioral scientist-t…
MORE D'OH THAN WOO-HOO The intelligent minds behind The Simpsons already had over 51,000 spectators (over three nights) in the palms of their collective hands before they sat down to write T…
ALBEE SEEING YOU AT THE RENBERG On the surface, Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? is about a middle-aged architect, Martin, who has a zoophilic love affair that threatens to destroy…
INTO THE FOLD Recently divorced, and abandoned by her beloved three-legged dog, well-respected origami artist Ilana has fortified herself in her studio. Surrounded by paper, Chinese take-out…
A FLAT-FOOTED RACE In April 2014, lawyer and LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by the league after private recordings of him making ra…
THE PERFECT COCK Whether breeding chickens or designing your kitchen with rooster tchotchkes, it can be challenging to find the perfect cock. But if you look to the theater, your search for …
NOT AS TRYING AS IT COULD HAVE BEEN A slight bio-drama is given heft by larger-than-life performances in this latest outing from International City Theatre in Long Beach. Trying is based on …
ONE IN A MILLION Rabid theatergoers who often attend plays are akin to miners panning for gold: The drudgery and disappointment from months of discovering rocks is dissipated when a precious…
I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE OF LOS ANGELES BALLET Along with the film industry, one of Los Angeles' greatest entertainment assets is music. While theater, dance, opera, and other mediums continua…