Review: Follies is Fabulous

Follies is a song and dance with time.  Perhaps this is fitting in its wild success as a musical revival.  It has, after all, just received 25 Tony Award®  nominations.  But it is this layering of the past into the present, the heart of the show itself, that makes this show so wildly entertaining and relatable. 

Win tickets to see Los Otros – send us your “Only In L.A.” photo

On May 23 the world premiere of the musical, Los Otros, makes its debut at the Mark Taper Forum. The show celebrates those experiences that are unique to Southern California. In honor of this, we are giving away one (1) pair of tickets* to see the show on June 1st at 8PM, and what better way to do this giveaway than to host a photo contest?! Send us your best “Only in L.A.” photo, capturing that moment or experience that makes us say, “Oh yeah, that’s definitely L.A.” Because – you know – we are all about Los Angeles experiences after all J

Special event: Love Never Dies (The Phantom of the Opera sequel)

Valentine's Day may be over, but we're still feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at NCM Fathom and Omniverse Vision, ExperienceLA has received four passes to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies in theatres on February 28th. To share this love, we're hosting a Twitter contest to send two of our lucky followers to see the first ever US showing of Love Never Dies, the highly anticipated sequel to the Broadway classic: The Phantom of the Opera. 

Shrek the Musical: An "ogre"-dose of fun

Burping. Farting. Air-guitar. No, this is not a description of my husband's and his buddies' man-cave joys. This is "Shrek the Musical," the theatrical adaptation of DreamWorks' 2001 award-winning CG film, "Shrek."

Staff Picks: Upcoming events we're excited about!

Memorial Day and Father's Day (this year, it's June 19th!) are both coming up and that means summer is just around the corner! Here are a few events that have us buzzing about here at ExperienceLA (in a somewhat chronological order):

Review: Loving "Loving Repeating"

Looking for a unique way to express your love? Are you a hopeless romantic? Maybe not? Well, "Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein" (now playing at the Center Theatre in Long Beach) could be what you're looking for!

Oooo, sparkly!

For a brief moment, I imagined myself at the Apollo Theatre watching musical acts perform as I would have had I lived in New York during the 60s. In this way, Dreamgirls was unlike any other musical performance I have ever attended. I didn't feel like I was watching a story being told through song and dance. For me, it was more like attending several live concerts.

Must Love Cats - and Dance!

This Tuesday, I went to the opening night of one of the longest running, most anticipated (at least by me!), and very emotionally-charged musicals, CATS. I say emotionally-charged not because the musical has moments of joy, laughter, mystery, sadness and more, but that discussions about the musical always end up with people loving it or hating it, in the same way people love or hate cats (not kittens, of course - everyone loves kittens).


Of course, this is a generalization, and one does not need to love cats in order to enjoy the musical, CATS - but it helps. An interest in dance, especially modern dance, and a fondness for 80s nostalgia (especially leg warmers) also help. When I had first seen CATS in L.A., way back when, I could only remember the amazing makeup, costumes and large, "cat-sized" household objects of the extensive set. Now, I realized how talented and full of energy the cast must be in order to pull off what seemed to be a continuous dance movement. Rarely was there a still moment on stage. If the "cats" weren't dancing or singing, they were pawing, purring and playing like... well, cats!


For those anticipating the return of the magic and mystery, these performances will not disappoint. I've memorized every song from the musical, and still I enjoyed singing along (okay - actually just mouthing the words - I didn't want to ruin it for everyone else!) to my favorite ones. I was also pleasantly surprised by the extensive amount of dancing (not on the soundtrack!) and the little quirks of a live performance. The Rum Tum Tugger's (overly) confident drawl got extra laughs, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser's (slightly) skewed duet gave a neat twist to their song of mischief and mayhem,  and Skimbleshanks extra cheeriness (my personal favorite) really hit the spot (I always felt that Skimbleshanks was too uptight on the CD).

The first musical I saw as a young child was CATS, and from then on I was hooked. A variety of music, modern dance, leg warmers and cats all wrapped up with a splash of 80s nostalgia - what's not to love?




-Tiina Vuorenmaa

Let's give a Los Angeles "Lakers Girl Cheer" for Monty Python's Spamalot

That's right, after a four-year run in New York on Broadway, three-year tour and over a year in Vegas, the 2005 Tony Award winner for best musical Monty Python's Spamalot and their "Laker girls" have finally found a summer home in the Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre. But unlike the Vegas show, the Ahmanson is hosting the full length Broadway production with all the songs, laughs, and killer bunnies that only Monty Python can bring you.

Monty Python's Spamalot is a parody of the cult classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail that makes fun of Holy Grail as much as it does musicals themselves. Spamalot focuses on King Arthur, Pasty and the Knights of the Round Table's quest for the Holy Grail. As well as their encounters with The Lady of the Lake, who sings about not being in the show enough, the Laker Girls (who sadly do not sport gold and purple), and The Knights who say Ni that demand King Arthur and his group to give him their shrubbery as well as put on a Broadway show. But the Knights warn that "you won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews" which launches the musical into a whole set of other parodies.

Spamalot really is just a laugh out loud comedy enhanced by silly musical numbers and men doing the Can Can, meant to attract all audiences from musical lovers and Monty Paython fanatics to anyone looking for a good laugh. And no one knows this better than King Arthur himself, John O'Hurly, who is returning to the role after just concluding his run in Los Vegas. O'Hurly is best known for his role as J. Peterman in "Seinfeld" as well as being the winner of the first season of "Dancing with the Stars" - oh and, of course, as King Neptune on "Sponge Bob Square Pants." Other title characters include Merle Dandridge as The Lady of the Lake, James Beaman as Sir Robin and Jeff Dumas as Patsy. The fact is that Spamalot is "Not Dead Yet" and this is sure to be a knock out production. So come find your grail at the Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre! The production runs from July 7th to September 6th. Come soon otherwise you might never have a stuffed cow launched at you.

Anyway, the most important thing to do right now is "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," which is why spoiling yourself with a dinner and show is good thing every once in a while. So do just that! With all the great restaurants downtown, many of which provide shuttles to the Music Center, there is no reason not to. Even better, avoid the hassle of parking and take the Metro to your downtown destinations! Just use the ExperienceLA Metro Trip Planner.

Oh, and just as a head's up, having seen the play in New York on Broadway and loved it enough to memorize all the songs (if you can't tell from all the lyrical references) I warn against sitting in the front row because if it is anything like the theater I saw it at, The Shubert Theatre (which I adore and has hosted two of my favorite shows and is right next to the best cheesecake place in New York Jrs), you might just get wet...but who knows? The LA Production might just have some new surprises in store!

-Aly

Artwork provided by the Ahmanson Theatre website.

An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth

We all know and love her as Glinda in the Broadway hit musical, Wicked, but this time Kristin Chenoweth's bringing her own goodness to a benefit performance for the Reprise Theatre Company. The performance is one night only at the intimate Freud Playhouse at UCLA. You can also win tickets through the Reprise Theatre Company's website at www.reprise.org/kristin. Check out other events by the Reprise Theatre Company.

Other Broadway-like events around Los Angeles include:

• The Dining Room by A. R. Gurney at the Victory Theatre


• An Enchanted Evening at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center


• Luisa Fernanda, the Zarzuela - A Spanish Musical at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre


• Broadway At The Gardens Presents: Sweeney Todd at the Lewis Family Playhouse


• Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum

-Tiina Vuorenmaa, ExperienceLA Staff

Behind the Curtains...

Life After Tomorrow is an award-winning documentary that reunites more than forty women who played orphans in the Broadway production of ANNIE, revealing the highs and lows of their experiences as child actresses in a cultural phenomenon—from out-of-control stage mothers to being replaceable at the age of 12. At the age of 12? Talk about potential lifelong complexes waiting to happen. If you want to check it out, the DVD will be on sale February 26th...

Live theater and Broadway's always been associated with the streets of New York, but I wonder how many people ever think back to the once thriving Broadway Theater District in LA's Historic Core, comprised of 12 theaters concentrated in a 7 block span? Even in the present day, the theaters are still preserved in their unique architecture and character; and while LA might now be more known for Rodeo Drive and the glamour of Hollywood, LA definitely has its own historical theater culture to boast about as well.

Here's an interesting fact of the day: The Los Angeles Theater's 1931 opening featured Charlie Chaplin and his movie "City Lights".

Check out ExperienceLA for live theater events taking place all around greater LA.

-Sarah Koo, ExperienceLA Arts/Culture Marketing Assistant