L.A. MASTER CHORALE’S GRANT GERSHON PIPES UP The Los Angeles Master Chorale kicks off its 49th season on Sunday, October 21st at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with an organ and choral e…
THE LANGUAGE OF THE ZOMBIE Over a decade ago, author Tony Burgess penned the experimental novel Pontypool Changes Everything, which featured what could be called "zombies" but focused more o…
THE FORCE OF FAMILY Looming over this long multi-generational family epic by Adrianna Sevahn Nicholas is the shadow of genocide"the 1915 slaughter by Turks of 1.5 million Armenians, a precur…
OPERA WITH A TASTE FOR BLOOD The word "opera" normally elicits memories of sound"an orchestra roiling, an aria peaking"but in an effort to innovate the public's preconceived notions of the a…
THE FAMILY THAT STAYS TOGETHER HATES TOGETHER The legacy of emotional damage inflicted on children by their parents is one of the main themes in Him, a new play by Daisy Foote " but the subt…
TICKLED PINK OK. I admit it: I'm a bad grandma. With three granddaughters between the ages of four and seven, I've never read a single Pinkalicious book. I felt unprepared, then, to join a t…
SOPHISTICATED SONGWRITING IN CLOSER THAN EVER One might well approach this musical about growing into middle age with some trepidation. The fact is that plays about midlife usually tend …
LIKE THE LAST, AND THE ONE BEFORE THAT About twenty minutes into John Hurt’s solo performance Wednesday, the character Krapp’s voice on tape said, "Extraordinary silence tonight.…
YOU THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD ISSUES? Your favorite Euripidean diva has some serious beef with just about everything. Â In Emilio Williams' new one woman show, Medea's Got Some Issues, she's pi…
NORTH GOES SOUTH As a child, I flew to the stars with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince " a work of youthful wonder tinged with adult melancholy, loneliness, and wistful philosop…
YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO MEET THESE FEET I was led to believe, based on having seen both the original Broadway version of 42nd Street and the humongous Broadway revival, that the slight jukebo…
NOT AS BLOODY AS THE TITLE IMPLIES Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is an audacious rock musical tracing the life and times of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. The show is…
AN AMUSING TRIFLE A.R. Gurney's entertaining, dynamic but trivial new play Heresy reinvents the story of Jesus Christ (in the play he's called Chris), changing the setting from 33 A.D. Jerus…
THE LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL Those who were lucky enough to witness the Joffrey Ballet's Spring Desire program this year were treated to what may well have been the greatest dance program…
KILLER'S REMORSE It's a bit haunting that Black Watch is performed in a National Guard armory where soldiers, like the Scottish laddies depicted in Gregory Burke's combat pageant, trained be…
A STORY TO TELL Writer/Actress Dael Orlandersmith has many stories to tell in her one-person show at the Goodman, but they all encompass the same theme: abuse. Specifically, involving boys a…
JOPLIN TRIBUTE NEEDS TO TRY, NOT A LITTLE BIT, BUT A LOT HARDER 42 years ago, Janis Joplin joined fellow rock visionaries Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones in the "27 Club," a…
PIECES OF FATE There is quite a bit of buzz surrounding Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's One Thousand Pieces, which will commence the company's 35th season. Inspired by Chagall’s masterp…
THANK GOD THE DRINKS ARE STRONG The secret to living in New York is knowing how to cross the street against the light. Sam Bendrix (Luke Macfarlane) recalls having been given that advice…
THE 'TROUBLES' WITH FAITH Choosing to write about the Irish Troubles comes with baggage"many people have come before you, and many will come after. Like the Holocaust, it can conjure a deep …
DUALITY IN A NOISE WITHIN’S CYMBELINE Are women faithful to the men they love? Or are they so weak-willed and inconstant as to be easily seduced by another? While many writers and dram…
ONE TIME ONLY FOR ONE NAME ONLY WAS ONE TOO MANY TIMES Yes, America's got talent. And the performers on stage at Black Ensemble Theater's beautiful new digs are packed to the gills with char…
A PLAY THAT GROPES FOR AN EXIT William Missouri Downs' The Exit Interview is a jumble of a play whose myriad directions are made more difficult to track by its opening pronouncement: …
SEMI-CIRCLE The drawing room comedy has fallen out of fashion over the years. These extremely well-made, light, sophisticated plays center around members of polite society whose lives unrave…
AN OCTOBER UNSURPRISE Scott Zigler learned to direct theater from David Mamet, which is like having David Ortiz teach you how to pitch for the major leagues. A designated hitter thinks e…