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…
ABBONDANZA! What a gem of a jewel is this rarely done masterwork! It's what Candide was to Leonard Bernstein or Porgy and Bess to George Gershwin, a folk opera to rise above mere musicals. A…
CANNED SPAM-ILTON For little more than an hour, Spamilton, an attention-deficit musical travesty, never lets up until we're let out. Exploding with relentless volleys of unfriendly fire, it …
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…
PLEASE, SIR, I WANT SOME MORE INCHES "I'm the new Berlin Wall. Try to tear me down!" That defiant dare marks the flaming arrival of Hedwig Schmidt, survivor-heroine of John Cameron Mitchell'…
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…
COME ON, BABY I wanted so badly to say “Glory, Hallelujah!” after seeing Musical Theatre Guild’s staged concert version of the 1968 Tony-winning musical. While it’s e…
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…
COPELAND'S MOREL LACKS INVENTION Four years ago, Long Beach Opera (Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek's other company) staged Stewart Copeland's The Tell-Tale Heart, giving the on…
A PERFECT TENN The Pasadena Playhouse is currently presenting God Looked Away, an ode to Tennessee Williams at the end of his career. As an adjunct to this world premiere development prod…
 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…
THE SOUR SMELL OF SUCCESS Never confuse fear with respect. During the Cold War, when the Russians were less deniably our enemies, op-ed tyro Joe Alsop rivaled gossip czar Walter Winchell in …
MATURE MAGIC No spells get cast here, no phantoms materialize. There are no mystical suspension of the laws of physics, just our disbelief. Now in a too-short stop at Chicago's Oriental T…
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…
SINKING INTO THE STEPPES Running invisible endurance feats, the characters of Anton Chekhov expose what Henry David Thoreau called “lives of quiet desperation.” When the good doc…
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 …
THIS BROTHERSÂ IS A KEEPER This winner really is a blast from the past. Celebrating America's most explosive and enthralling tap-dancing team, My Brother's Keeper"The Story of the Nicholas…
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…
A SOUTH SIDE WEAVE The setting is a beloved beauty parlor on Chicago's South Side. It's seen better times and may soon see none. Hanging over the storefront is a gallery of famous female Afr…