Arts & Culture

Jacques Offenbach’s four-hour The Tales of Hoffmann is simply one of the greatest operatic extravaganzas I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, from opera houses at Manhattan’s Metropolitan to Zurich to Croatia to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, etc. The sprawling story (libretto by Jules Barbier, based on his and Michel Carre’s play, derived from three stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a Prussian Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror), accompanied by a soaring score, explores the love life of the poet Hoffmann (Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo), as he embarks on an odyssey seeking the golden fleece of the ideal woman. He’s a sort of 19th century Henry Miller off on a sensuous sojourn that takes the gallivanting wordsmith across Europe with destinations vividly brought to life by costumer/scenic designer Giovanni Agostinucci’s sets, exquisitely wrought without peer.

As its title suggests, The Complete History of Comedy [Abridged] is an incomplete chronicle of what makes people laugh and those jesters who deliberately induce said laughter, from ancient times until today. Starting with a riff on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show monologues telling theatergoers to shut their cells, where the exits are, etc., there is an endless stream of skits, standup, slapstick, one-liners, cream pies, double entendres, in-jokes, topical jibes at those Three-plus Stooges in the Trump regime and much more, as the jaunty Zehra Fazal, Marc Ginsburg and Mark Jacobson bring the annals of amusement to life.

Imported from Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, Absinthe is a heady mélange of a variety of entertainment forms geared for adult (although, not necessarily grown up) audiences. This naughty, bawdy brew blends circus acrobatics, commedia dell'arte, standup comedy, vaudeville, cabaret, the Rat Pack, cross-dressing, striptease, (taped) rock music and live singing. Imagine the Flying Wallendas meet Purple Owsley meet Cirque du Soleil meet burlesque, and you’ll get some idea of this mind-blowing one-act extravaganza executed minus intermission.

It’s all presided over by an over-the-top, sleazy, Trump-like ringmaster called The Gazillionaire, who - along with a kooky female sidekick - intro the acts, interact with the audience and reel off a series of quips and jokes that range from the racial (if not outright racist) to the sexist, often in poor taste. The sheer athleticism of the various performances, many introduced as coming from Russia (with lust), accentuate the human form, and may leave you, like Shakespeare, musing:

The Town Hall Affair is to a large extent a docu-play based on the real (you can’t make this stuff up, folks!) 1971 panel discussion and/or debate at Manhattan’s Town Hall, with various luminaries holding forth on the hot topic (then and now, as the pussy grabbing Trump-istas attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood, outlaw abortion, etc.) of Women’s Liberation. D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus actually filmed the roiling, rollicking brouhaha, releasing it eight years later as Town Bloody Hall, which is interwoven into the tapestry of Wooster Group’s free form live interpretation of the actual event with the documentary plus clips from the 1970 indie film Maidstone.

Pennebaker - known for his fly on the wall technique, he remains

There was something delightfully refreshing about the March 23 champagne gala at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood that kicked off the 24th annual Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival. This brainchild of LAWTF co-founder and President Adilah Barnes places groups that the entertainment community often overlooks or downplays front and center, where they belong: The female of the species, with a special (although not exclusive) emphasis on women of color. In particular, as program notes state, “multicultural and multidisciplinary solo performers from around the globe.”

[NOTE: This review contains PLOT SPOILERS.]

The response to Trump and his polices are flying fast and furious from the creative community. Only two months into his presidency and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright Robert Schenkkan’s Building the Wall imagines Trump’s plans to “solve” the “problem” of the millions of undocumented immigrants living in America in this world premiere ripped from the proverbial headlines. ​

The entire one act two-hander takes place in the visiting room of a prison where Gloria (Judith Moreland), an African American history professor, has received hard-to-get permission to interview Rick (Bo Foxworth), a Caucasian, tattooed inmate in an orange uniform. (I guess orange really is the new Black!) The play opens with lots of back and forth: will he/won’t he? talk about what sounds like a heinous crime Rick has been convicted of and may face the death sentence for.

This U.S. premiere at Long Beach Opera is no hagiography of one our country’s most beloved folklore and pop culture heroes. Based on Peter Stephan Jungk’s novel, composer Philip Glass and librettist Rudolph Wurlitzer’s ironically named opera The Perfect American takes an often scathing look at animation icon Walt Disney (baritone Justin Ryan). When thinking of “Uncle Walt,” as he was rather euphemistically dubbed (and I should add marketed), color pops immediately to mind. From his classic cartoons such as 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the 1960s TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, a richly vivid palette of hues has long been associated with this pioneer of motion picture cartoons and theme parks.

Set around the turn of the last century in New London, Connecticut - where young Eugene had summered - O’Neill’s 1933 Ah, Wilderness! is a marked departure from his usually gloomy plays, fraught with familial Sturm und Drang. Indeed, with their happy if imperfect lives, this comedy’s Millers are the polar opposites of those long suffering characters in his angsty final dramas, such as The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Indeed, one could say that the Millers are the family O’Neill wished he had grown up in, rather than the tense, dysfunctional, substance-abusing unit he had the misbegotten misfortune to have been born into.

In 1968 Simon and Garfunkel sang: “Someone told me it’s all happening at the zoo. I do believe it, I do believe it’s true.” And after witnessing Deaf West Theatre’s production of Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo I’ve become a true believer. Serious theatergoers shouldn’t monkey around - head down ASAP to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to catch this run, which is short on number of days but long on profundity, leavened by Albee’s wicked wit about the human (or lack of) condition.

This is a very unique live stage experience delivered in a singular way on the boards of the Wallis’ 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater. In both acts two hearing impaired thesps perform onstage, using facial expressions, body language and American Sign Language. Offstage, or on the side of the set, a pair of actors literally give voice to what the onstage pair of protagonists are communicating via ASL.

Los Angeles, March 13, 2017 – The Los Angeles Workers Center and HollywoodProgressive.com are co-presenting the revolutionary classic Potemkin.

Based on a true story, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Potemkin is a stirring account of the mutiny by sailors aboard the Battleship Potemkin who refuse to eat maggoty meat and the mass strike by workers supporting them during Russia’s 1905 Revolution is widely considered to be Soviet cinema’s greatest masterpiece. The terrifying Odessa Steps scene encapsulates czarist brutality, while Potemkin’s theme of triumphant solidarity expresses the essence of Russia’s three revolutions, symbolized by pounding waves. (75 minutes.)

What: Battleship Potemkin screening.

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m., March 24, 2017.

Where: The L.A. Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, L.A., CA 90019.