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…
PLEASE 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,…
FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BEAT Now in a very brief visit to Chicago's Broadway Playhouse, Gobsmacked! is a good title for a show that slaps sounds out of seven performers' fertile heads. It …
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…
HOLY HARMONIC HORMONES! Praise the Lord and pass the parody! Infernally ingratiating and devilishly disarming, Altar Boyz is also sweetly sardonic and packed with pep. This successful …
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-popul…
THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME If only by virtue of its title, you could call Twelfth Night a holiday love comedy: Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas (January 6) is for many in Europe…
THE FICTIONS THAT MAKE FACTS This two-act comedy relishes a cruel contradiction: false facts. Rich with rancid exposés, its 150 minutes indict press-agent "puffery," strategic lies that tri…
WHAT WON’T YOU DOÂ FOR A CHELSEA SUBLET? Ambiguity and nuance are qualities in a play to be greatly desired and lauded " and yet, if you do not go "ick" at least four times while wat…
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…
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…
BLOOD"AND WAR PAINT"WILL OUT Superbly civic, the vast council chamber created by set designer David Zinn reeks of rectitude. With a coffered arched ceiling, it's festooned with plaques, proc…
A 'PERFECT CITY'—AND A MUZZLED PRESS They're always eager to alert Chicago audiences to dangerous developments here and abroad: Silk Road Rising is a committed company which tells tale…
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 film …
A COUNTRY/CARIBBEAN ROMP AT CLUB JIMMY It's a jukebox musical that marinates in Gilligan's Island/South Pacific nostalgia. Plus, it's got a feel-good love story that's a creditable excuse fo…
WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY In Mike Bartlett's play about the imagined aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II's death, men hold inherited titles, but women, both living and dead, hold the keys to power. C…
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…
TO THIS WE'VE COME (AGAIN) Playing Chicago t0o briefly at the Studebaker Theatre, historically important and artistically wondrous, this co-production between Chicago and Long Beach Opera is…
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…
PASSIONS OF A PITY PARTY We're born alone. We die alone. But in between we need people"for love or money. That's searingly so for Jordan Berman. The gay anti-hero of Significant Other …
DAMAGED GOODS Playwright Phillip Kan Gotanda's elegiac drama is a powerful piece that encompasses many themes in a surprisingly tight and concise package; it's about aging, it's about the co…
DEATH DANCES TO LIFE'S BEATS It took us from Mozart to Mexico. Now, alas, it's over for another year—Chicago Sinfonietta's much anticipated, annual A DÃa de los Muertos Celebrati…
THE ULTIMATE 'PROOF OF PAIN' "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." He certainly doth in the Book of Job. In this brief but telling chronicle, a catalogue of catastrophes is visited on …
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 …
WEBBER RETURNS TO HIS ROCKIN’ ROOTS "Out of the guitars of babes": The 2003 film was a four-star charmer: Jack Black, a screen actor with the chops to be richly ordinary, depicte…