Food is complicated, as any dieter can tell you. Eating, even for the naturally slender, is an emotional activity. When the narrator of Marcel Proust's sprawling masterpiece, "Remembrance of…
During his tour of duty as a gunner in Iraq, former Marine Sgt. Christian Ellis experienced his share of trauma " the battles, the killings, an assault that left him with a spinal injury. Bu…
If there is such a thing as dance heaven, Garth Fagan Dance showed Saturday that it knows the path there. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company presented the West Coast premiere of "Geoffrey Hol…
To call Will Arbery's "The Mongoose" an oddity would be an understatement. Now in its world premiere at the Road on Magnolia, the play is an engagingly nonsensical, frustratingly elliptical …
It could be the setup for a Harlequin romance: A beautiful novelist curls on a couch in a bed-and-breakfast in rural Michigan, proofreading a manuscript, completely alone. Heavy snow has det…
The 18 million or so viewers who tune in to "The Walking Dead" each week on AMC know Danai Gurira as Michonne, the dreadlocked fan favorite whose skills with a katana have made her indispens…
Sheila Callaghan doesn't just want to make you laugh. She wants to tickle you until you squirm.The playwright behind Center Theatre Group's "Women Laughing Alone With Salad," opening at the …
Elsa and Anna have set a move-in date for their new home at Disney California Adventure: "Frozen," the new live show adapted from the hit 2013 movie, will officially begin performan…
I have a long history with the Music Center. I know the nooks and crannies of the campus' four theaters. But the one place I had not been until recently is the office of the president and CE…
The singular theatrical voice of Tennessee Williams pulsates through "Vieux Carré" at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood. Although this resourceful Coeurage Theatre Company produ…
Success for an actor " yes, even one of the classic Hollywood mold " can be a mixed blessing. For Leonardo DiCaprio, "Titanic" was both the greatest thing that ever happened to his career " …
Hello, spring. The arts team at L.A. Times has geared up with interviews, analysis and recommendations of where to go, whom to see and what not to miss. This week and next, look for our crit…
Fifteen years ago, Roy Battocchio's "Thicker Than Water" had its world premiere at Theatre West and quickly became one of the most popular offerings in the now-53-year-old theater's history.…
Lady Macbeth is such a larger-than-life theatrical figure that it's only natural that audiences would like more information about her than Shakespeare is willing to provide. His method, stil…
Purists beware: "Tempest Redux" at the Odyssey Theatre boldly transposes Shakespeare's play to a darker, more unsettling key, but the inventive staging and solid command of source text make …
Broadway, hardly a bastion of diversity, has been starting to see the wisdom in this "Hamilton"-rocked season of bringing new voices to the table. "Eclipsed," by the U.S.-born, Zimbabwean-ra…
If history is any indication, bringing a small, sweet movie from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival to Broadway is a pretty good idea.That was the path taken by John Carney's "Once," which, whe…
Large dumpsters, the kind often seen at construction sites or behind restaurants, play a prominent role in Dámaso Rodriguez's kinetic modern-dress production of William Shakespeare's "Rom…
Playwright Samuel D. Hunter hears Middle America's quiet desperation, the low moan of people who have lost their connection to the past, to loved ones, to the lives they thought they'd lead.…
In the ancient world, long before modern psychology domesticated sex, Eros was considered a fearful, destabilizing, often ruinous force. In "The Mystery of Love & Sex," a recent play by Bath…
Midway through its 10th anniversary season, Los Angeles Ballet added another full-length classic to its repertory, a three-act "Don Quixote," which the company premiered at the Redondo Beach…
New York choreographer Jessica Lang has a knack for conceiving a complete universe in each dance " distinctive in its look and mood, sound and atmosphere. She is a ballet illusionist, a more…
"Miss Julie," August Strindberg's 1888 classic, has inspired so many high-profile adaptations " the work has been relocated to Britain, Ireland, America, Russia and (most effectively) South …
Culture shock, like grief, progresses through distinct stages: There's the honeymoon period, when an expatriate is enchanted by a new country. Bliss gives way to withdrawal an…
About to ship off for Vietnam, a young Marine learns to be a man as he and his buddies forge bonds of loyalty, common purpose and sacrifice. Before he leaves, he will pick up other important…