The Last Confession, LA

Los Angeles,

Richard O’Callaghan (left) and Kevin Colson in “The Last Confession”

The Last Confession, LA

Theater Los Angeles,
Wal-Mart? A mom-and-pop corner store, despite its 2.1 million employees worldwide. Bank of America? A payday loan business, despite its $115 billion in assets. Chicago? A shining city on the hill, despite its long and well-earned history of municipal corruption ...
From left, David Clayton Rogers, Austin Butler and Orson Bean in

Death of the Author, LA

Theater CA,
Spoiler Alert: Animals are, indeed, hurt in this play. They’re the oxen gored by playwright Steven Drukman and they can be found at almost any university today — from the president to a major department chair to a ...
Plácido Domingo and Nino Machaidze in

Thaïs, LA Opera

Music CA,
“Thaïs.” Does the name ring a bell? If you are not an opera aficionado, the likely answer is no, unless you happen to recall the haunting "Méditation from Thaïs." If so, you are on the right track. This late 19th-century ...
neil labute

Interview w/Neil LaBute

Features CA,
Tom loves Helen. And why shouldn’t he? She’s smart, pretty and has a great sense of humor. But she’s also fat, and for Tom that just may be a deal breaker. This is the conundrum at the heart of Neil ...
Cast from

The Ghost of Gershwin, LA

Theater CA,
As someone who loves George Gershwin’s music, could listen to it 24/7 and never tire of it, I’d looked forward to reviewing "The Ghost of Gershwin" at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood. But I quickly tired of ...
Mark Costello, left, and David Selby with the cast of

A Delicate Balance, LA

Theater CA,
It’s Saturday and you’ve just been given tickets to an Edward Albee play. What to wear, what to wear? You look through your closet for something appropriate: (a) Tux. Un-huh. (b) Business casual. Ahh, no. (c) Hazmat suit. Hmmm…. Answer ...
Ian Buchanan and Mariette Hartley in

The Lion in Winter, LA

Theater CA,
It’s a story as old or older as any to be found in the Old Testament: a dysfunctional family; a husband and wife at each other’s throats; adult children twitching with ambition and sibling rivalry and, of course, a pearl ...
The Tallest Tree in the Forest, LA

The Tallest Tree in the Forest, LA

Theater CA,
Paul Robeson sang the soundtrack of my childhood. I wore out two copies of his 78-rpm album, "Ballad for Americans," yet continued to play it, scratches and all. When I was about 8 years old I met him after a ...
Annette Bening stars in

Ruth Draper’s Monologues, LA

Theater CA,
Ruth Draper is not a household word for you? Well, you are forgiven. She was born in 1884 and performed monologues through the early 1950s. The grayest of the gray-haired in the audience may recall a moment or two of ...
From left, Roxanne Hart, Sharon Lawrence and Bruce Davison in

A Song at Twilight, LA

Theater CA,
The old adage — “never tell your best friend anything you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to know” — is the armature of Noel Coward’s “A Song At Twilight,” one of the last plays he wrote (1966) before his death ...