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 ...
In a well-performed production, the playwright ponders wealth and what a once-wealthy family does to regain its lost status.
George AlexanderTheaterLos Angeles,
Affluence is a major issue in American society today — a few people have a lot of it while a lot of people have none and probably never will — so it’s not surprising that some playwrights are drawn to ...
Despite the brevity of the scenes and the number of undeveloped sub-plots, the vitality of this drama's performers rings true.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win a MacArthur genius grant? I mean, aside from the fact that a sweet stipend would come to you for five years, no questions asked, no forms to be filed, ...
Cicely Tyson gives a luminous performance in this old-fashioned drama.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
"The Trip to Bountiful" is an old-fashioned story mounted with old-fashioned style. Not that that is all bad. It is what passes as a classic in the 21st century. Horton Foote's first iteration of this memory tale was as a ...
Despite the impressive bios of the creative team, this excessively wordy drama never comes to life onstage.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" was the mantra of my youth, but that mantra does not serve a critic well. Looking forward to the opening night of "Marjorie Prime," I thought, "At last Michael ...
While updating Verdi's tale of star-crossed romance to the Roaring Twenties is open to debate, this production remains true to his glorious music.
Karen WeinsteinMusicLos Angeles,
The question: To be or not to be faithful to the original setting of an opera is known to evoke passions as intense as those expressed by the originalists fighting with the rest of us who think the Constitution should ...
This fictional take on an employee in Barbra Streisand's real-life basement mall is a bright, fresh pleasure.
Karen WeinsteinTheaterLos Angeles,
Somewhere folks who make up summer reading lists and compile theatrical playlists get the notion that we still have the summer off from school to simply be amused before we return in September. The curmudgeon in me screams, “I haven’t ...
