Shari Barrett - Page 15

In the fifth incarnation of POP's trademark production, a new batch of hand-crafted, vegan, organically-sourced hipsters take the stage for what is quickly becoming an annual Los Angeles holiday tradition. In it, Puccini's 19th Century Parisian garret becomes a present-day Highland Park loft apartment in the hills between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena during a particularly cold SoCal winter. LA's housing crisis comes to life on stage as the artist, poet, philosopher, musician, and seamstress become a graphic designer, screenplay writer, English major, indie-rocker, and fashion designer dealing with the timeless issues of life, love, jealousy, illness, and overdue bills.

From Coco Chanel's 1926 Ford dress, Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lady Di's revenge dress to Liz Hurley's jaw dropping, safety-pinned Versace, the little black dress' silhouette has changed over the years. And given how often and in so many difference circumstances a LITTLE BLACK DRESS can be worn, most likely there are many important life-changing moments during which the memory of wearing it at that time opened up the capacity for limitless personal reinvention. No doubt every woman, and probably a few men, have a little black dress in their closet just waiting for the next moment when the right wrap, jacket or string of white pearls to adorn it will create another life-long remembrance. That LBD is the inspiration behind LITTLE BLACK DRESS The Musical, a world premiere production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City through December 15.

We all know how unintentionally funny nuns can be as they go about their daily lessons, ruler in hand, trying to get children to behave or do their lessons. Or perhaps not. But just imagine if you could be a fly on the wall in the early morning hours, listening in as they get together over coffee or while baking bread in their small kitchen and blissfully make fun of not only their students but each other, as well as their local Bishop who holds all the money needed to keep their beloved St. Cyril's convent and school from closing down. They smoke and swear while complaining about being old, jaded and stupid, but realize that just like their building and the entire neighborhood around them, we're just a?oeall dirt poor.a?? And incredibly funny!

'Tis the season for the popular Christmas-themed ballet THE NUTCRACKER to fill stages around the world offering families the chance to experience the emotionally engaging story of Clara and the dreamlike journey she takes to the Land of Sweets with the Nutcracker as her guide. During the December 7 and 8 weekend, The Soraya's resident dance company, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, perhaps best known for edgy programs featuring the most notable contemporary choreography, kicked off the troupe's fifth Soraya season at Cal State Northridge with something different: the most traditional of story ballets. With Tchaikovsky's original music, this storybook production, choreographed by ASFB executive director Jean-Phillippe Malaty and artistic director Tom Mossbrucker, set THE NUTCRACKER in the Victorian era, beginning with the resplendent holiday party and concluding with the fantastical scenes in the second act centered around a bright and colorful carousel.

A fan of the romantic but put-upon-by-tradition women in Jane Austen novels and the witty men created by Oscar Wilde, Kathryn Farren has successfully woven those elements together in Victorian-era England with a modern perspective on female equality, the importance of family, standing in one's own truth, and the power of love to overcome fear and hatred in her World Premiere play EMBRIDGE at Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro.

The dynamic story shared through comedy skits and songs deals with the journeys many women face from admiring their mother's chests (a?oeOne day I'll be like Mommy or Barbie!a??), to training bras and cup sizes, dating while dealing with wandering eyes (a?oeCleavage'), to pumping at work and breastfeeding in public (a?oeDon't Blame Me, My Baby is Hungrya??), to facing breast cancer. The energetic songs incorporate humorous pieces like a?oeLife in Boobs,a?? a?oeWife Beater Tank Top,a?? and a?oeSuck It, Cancera?? to the inspirational a?oeI'm Dianea?? which will tug at your heartstrings and inspire you to accept yourself exactly the way you are.

This brilliantly written romantic farce takes place in an upscale Manhattan penthouse owned by the Maestro Vito De Angelis and his wife, the opera diva Raquel De Angelis, each convinced they are the best in the world at what they do. And pity the fool who attempts to convince either one otherwise! Continuously at odds about a?oewho is better at what,a?? it takes two comedically competent actors who can beautifully sing opera and walk the thin line between character and caricature to make these two self-centered talents come to life onstage. And without a doubt, director Perry Shields found them in Daniel Tennant and Allison McGuire who not only enchant with their amazing voices but fabulously demonstrate the true meaning of being a a?oedivaa?? to the utmost heights.

Beginning at a rather leisurely pace, JITNEY takes its time introducing us to the cast of characters working and hanging out together in the one-room gypsy cab business office run by Becker (Steven Anthony Jones), a former mill worker who prides himself on owning his own business. His employees, who we learn about via their individual stories as they interact with the other characters, allow the audience an intimate view of the Pittsburgh working-class struggling to keep afloat in a time of great social change during the city's period of so-called a?oeurban renewal,a?? as the city tries to shut down businesses -- including the cab station -- to make way for a new, more upscale modern building

From the moment you enter the theater, it's obvious something dramatic is about to take place during BEFORE with its black walls and set pieces begging for lights and color to awaken the spirit and envelop the misty atmosphere within its walls. And following the initial blackout, Pat Kinevane explodes with never-ending energy during his 90-minute physical performance piece about love, loss, and parental responsibilities in the face of overwhelming odds.

Santa's North Pole Village is coming to the heart of Downtown Los Angeles this holiday season from November 30 through December 30 when Wisdome.LA  transforms its 35,000 sq. ft. art entertainment park into the magical world of the North Pole for what will be the city's largest immersive holiday experience for families and children of all ages.

From the people who brought you 2018's critically acclaimed SILENCE! The Musical a?" Bucket List Theatre is re-launching their Bucket List Cabaret series starting with their Dark & Dirty seta??NSFW has never been so fun!

Open Fist's clever, hilarious World Premiere musical adaptation of Neil Simon's MUSICAL FOOLS is a hilarious musical adaptation of his play, Fools, with book and lyrics by Simon, and music and lyrics by Phil Swann and Ron West, a veteran comedy genius from Chicago's Second City, who has directed the laugh fest like a Monty Python version of Fiddler on the Roof performed by the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Off-the-wall hysterical choreography by Louisa Kendrick Burton greatly enhances the comedy, with musical direction by Jan Roper often adding in the flavor of Eastern European Klezmer music.

The play adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and Andy Garcia, produced in association with Frank Mancuso and Andy Garcia, and directed by Doug Hughes, honors the original story in which disillusioned World War II veteran Frank McCloud (Danny Pino) travels to a hotel in Key Largo to pay his respects to Nora (Rose McIver), the young widow of a fallen solider, who now runs the hotel with its owner, her blind father (Tony Plana) who claims to have a?oeseena?? and heard it all during his lifetime. What McCloud doesn't count on is being confronted by an entirely different type of battlefield with mobsters who have overtaken the hotel, led by the ruthless Johnny Rocco (Andy Garcia, who dominates the stage channeling Al Pacino in The Godfather to the hilt), who is waiting for the culmination of a drug deal. As a hurricane barrels toward the Keys, tempers flare and gunfire blares, forcing McCloud to face his demons in order to take down a monster.

Taking place exactly five years after the events of last year's production, the site-specific thriller SAFEHOUSE '82 once again immerses audiences in the culture and atmosphere of its particular era, right down to the 1982 copies of Playboy Magazine sitting on the living room table. This time, however, guests are asked to play a much more significant role in the story, with our choices directly impacting: the show's outcome as well as the fates of key characters. Thurs, vastly different endings are possible depending upon how the audience works together to complete the evening's mission.

Combining a sad Irish mythological tale of four sisters doomed to live together silently as swans on a lake with a modern tale of a modern man suffering in silence from debilitating depression while living alone in a house soon to be lost after the death of his beloved mother on the shore of that same lake, is the essence of the Keegan-Dolan's tale, reminding us to do what it takes to reach the light and joy when the bell rings in our mind and allows us to express the release of negative emotions and let childlike joy enter our lives.

Acclaimed experiential theme park, Wisdome.LA will host a four-night festival of live, immersive musical experiences dedicated to Pink Floyd's iconic album, 'Dark Side Of The Moon', and to the music of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead from November 7th-10th, combining musical art and eye-popping visuals with 3D sound in a 360-degree virtual reality experience.

Making its debut as The Wallis' first foray into contemporary circus, Australian company Circa brought HUMANS, its tribute to what it means to be fiercely human, offering a thrilling and heart-stopping performance by ten acrobats from this award-winning contemporary circus ensemble who pushed the boundaries of physical possibilities during their extraordinary 70 minutes of exquisitely choreographed athletic artistry.

RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL originally opened Off-Broadway in 1992, created as an over-the-top dark comedy spoof of the films The Bad Seed and All About Eve, and well-known Broadway musicals Gypsy and Annie. Similar to the dark comedy in musicals such as Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd where characters are murdered and then eaten, RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL centers on 8-year old Tina Denmark, who knows she was born to play the lead in her school's third grade show and will do anything to win the part. And I do mean anything. Now onstage at Theatre Palisades, directed by Alta Abbott who first fell in love with the show during its 1993 West Coast premiere at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, I can only say that the over-the-top production sometimes seemed so dark that the comedy became invisible.

HAIR was written more than 50 years ago by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot and broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of 'rock musical' as well as using a racially integrated cast and inviting the audience onstage to join in the a?oeBe-Ina?? finale. But at the time it opened off Broadway at the end of 1967, it seemed unlikely that HAIR would be relevant five decades later. A product of the hippie counter-culture, sexual revolution, and Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-war movement, while its profanity, depiction of the use of illegal drugs, treatment of open sexuality, irreverence for the American flag, and full-frontal nude scene caused much comment and controversy at the time. Yet today it seems what was shocking has become so common place that even a few children were in the audience at the performance I attended.

Beginning on a basically empty stage with a large center rug and one wooden stool, Birbiglia begins by talking about the first thing he bought as an adult for his first apartment a?' a new couch - and how much he loved sleeping on it. As he gushes about how he loved being wrapped in its warmth, that little stool literally becomes his beloved, overstuffed companion where he reads, writes, eats and sleeps. That is until THE NEW ONE arrives and changes everything!