• "Almost Famous: The Musical" Rocks On

    This Sunday October 27th, "Almost Famous," the Musical based on the 2000 Cameron Crowe movie will end its run at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Tickets for the run have been sold out for a while but I was lucky enough to attend a matinee recently, and am here to report that when "Almost Famous" turns up on Broadway or in your town (and I"d be shocked if it doesn"t), you and your family will very much enjoy…

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  • A Russian Ballet Dreams of Isadora Duncan

    The world premiere of a ballet, Isadora, inspired by the life of Isadora Duncan, choreographed by Vladmir Varnava with Royal Ballet Principal dancer Natalia Osipova in the lead role, as performed at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.... View Original Article

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  • 'Up in the Cheap Seats' by Ron Fassler - A Fan's Notes of the Broadway Theater

    'Up in the Cheap Seats' by Ron Fassler - A Fan's No... View Original Article

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  • Zsa Zsa Gabor Dead - The Last Hungarian Actress of Her Generation

    Zsa Zsa Gabor has died at 99. As my fellow Hungarican wrote me: 'That's it. 2016 worse year ever.' Zsa Zsa was the last connection to my mother's world of Budapest and the glory of Hungarian women born before World War Two - a cosmopolitan, very clever, very adaptable, very assimilated, world of superficial beauty, sexual sophistication and a love of jewelry and luxury. A decade ago, when Zsa Zsa first was reported at death's door, I wrote the following…

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  • What Black Mountain College Taught

    What Black Mountain College Taught View Original Article

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  • 'Something Rotten' is Some Fun Show

    'Something Rotten' is Some Fun Show - Forbes View Original Article

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  • Fifty Shades of Mel Brooks

    Anastasia writes: I was a college student at the time working part-time at Fromin’s deli, the first time he came in. There was something powerful and domineering about him. “I need things,” he said to me, his voice a rough mix of Brooklyn and post-nasal drip that sent an electric current though my whole body. “What sort of things?” I said in all innocence. “Things. Bagels, cream cheese, lox. I need them. I want them.” No one had ever talked…

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  • Did Figaro turn Marie Antoinette's head? Can LA Opera engage yours?

    Last Saturday, I spent the day at the Getty Center at a one day study program hosted by The Getty in cooperation with LA Opera, "Luxury and Liberation: Art and Revolution in 18th Century France," just one of the events in LA Opera's multi-faceted city-wide "Figaro Unbound"celebration. This is the... View Original Article

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  • Culture with a Side of Popcorn

    James Corden and Suzie Toase in “One Man, Two Guvnors,” at the National Theatre in London, and onscreen at a theater near you. Photo by Johan Persson When the hit comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors” comes to Broadway this spring, I’ll be able to say I saw the London production. I also saw the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Don Giovanni” with the Polish tenor Mariusz Kwiecien. As for bragging rights, it’s hard to match having seen David Hallberg’s debut…

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  • Lost & Found: What Wasserstein Hid, New Bio Reveals

    When the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein - beloved for her plays "The Heidi Chronicles," "The Sisters Rosensweig" and "Isn't it Romantic?" - died in 2006 at age 55, Broadway dimmed its lights in her honor. Five years later, Julie Salamon's page-turning biography "Wendy and the Lost Boys" (The Penguin Press: $29.95) sheds light on the public and private selves of this author, whose own family dramas were no less gripping than those she wrote for the stage.…

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  • Q & A with Mel Brooks

    JewishJournal.com exclusive audio: Interview with Mel Brooks Mel Brooks sings Mel Brooks is on a hot streak: He was just a Kennedy Center Honoree (along with Dave Brubeck, Robert De Niro, Grace Bumbry and Bruce Springsteen); 20th Century Fox just released "The Mel Brooks Collection" in Blu-ray - a nine-DVD set that includes "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein" and "Spaceballs," among other classics; and Shout! Factory has released "The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History," a three-CD, one-DVD set that…

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  • Santa Monica Rising (The Broad Stage)

    Located at the intersection of 11th St. and Santa Monica Blvd., a striking modern building designed by Santa Monica architect Renzo Zecchetto sits on the site of a former elementary school playground and looks to have risen out of the ground sui generis, almost as if the Starship Enterprise had decided to dock in the middle of a residential city block. It didn't. This is the remarkable new Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, comprised of the Eli and Edythe…

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