A creepy premise, a great cast, and deft direction cannot redeem this drama from its own shortfalls.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
"Reborning." The meaning is as crazy as it sounds. Reborning is the act of creating an individual infant doll in the precise image of a child whom a parent has lost. People (mostly women) pay mucho dinero for these creepy ...
A social satire about the building of Dodger Stadium.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
The question is "Can you tell the players without a scorecard?" No, I do not mean the one player on the field. Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers since long before they arrived in Los Angeles, cheerfully gives the ...
The only thing that doesn't creak in this touring production is the charming, unstoppable Angela Lansbury.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
Here is the perfect Christmas gift for the "Downton Abbey"/"Upstairs Downstairs"/antimacassar set. Anglophiles will probably thrill to the (sometimes hard to catch) British accents, Designer Simon Higlett's perfect English drawing room, and Noël Coward's ever-so-tasteful, black-tie double entendres. Angela Lansbury ...
Despite a listenable score, the simple story line never fully engages in this loose homage to García Márquez.
Karen WeinsteinMusicLos Angeles,
Reader beware. This is not a review for the opera cognoscenti whose weary ears may be seeking newer, less familiar fodder. You know who you are. This is a review for the reader who may be a touch tired of ...
This new production from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has made the transition to the hills of Beverly with all its provocative elements intact.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
Trip thee lightly into the woods my darlings but beware the eternal dangers lurking there. Thus it is and thus it shall always be. The woods are full of wolves, giants, controlling mothers, faithless spouses, impossible dreams ... all manner ...
The cast peels off zingers (and clothes) in this ribald farce, but the power it packed in the 1960s has faded.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
What is naughty or nice is often a matter of when the question is asked. In 1967 when it debuted, "What the Butler Saw" was not only naughty, it was downright scandalous. In 2014? Not so much. Still witty, ...
These strangely paired short operas display the best (and worst) of the director's concepts.
Karen WeinsteinMusicLos Angeles,
Why pair Baroque "Dido and Aeneas" with Bartok's 20th century "Bluebeard's Castle"? According to program notes by director Barrie Kosky of the Komische Oper Berlin they have much in common. His most convincing argument is that they are "two operas ...
So, three guys were sitting around a bar rewriting the Gospels. That's the set-up to this funny, provocative work that is entertaining for all its intellectual heft.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
Put off by the weighty title of the Geffen's latest offering on its more innovative stage? Take it from me, there's no need to be. It is OK if you have forgotten all but the barest outline of your literature ...
This one-woman show has moments of revelation but often comes over as one long howl.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
In lean times theater directors turn more frequently to one person performances and very small casts. For material, the "written-and-performed-bys" mine the depths of memory. It is so much the easier if the remembered are dead and will never see ...
Modernists should find much to enjoy in this updated variation of the oft-performed classic.
Karen WeinsteinDanceLos Angeles,
Maybe you are one of those folks who looked at the advertisements for the Australian Ballet's "Swan Lake" and said, "I don't need to see another 'Swan Lake' by a company I've never even heard of ... why I've even ...
