Cirque Is Back!

A night spent at Kooza Cirque Du Soleil is a night of joy. Really. I know it's cheesy, but seriously, nothing but joy.

Here's what I said all night: whoa, wow, no way, that's insane, are you kidding me, woooo!

If you've never been to a Cirque show, I can't even begin to describe it. You just have to go and see for yourself. You'll be amazed. If you've been to a previous Cirque show, you won't be disappointed with the new show, Kooza. It's one of the best. Woooo hooo!

Kooza Cirque Du Soleil is under the Grand Chapiteau at the Santa Monica Pier until November 29th.

Hello Broadway!

You know I loves me the theater, and for some reason, I don’t know why, seeing theater in New York is the best. I love our theaters in L.A., but there’s an energy in New York that feels different. I managed to fit 3 shows into our 5-day trip and just in case you’re headed to the Big Apple any time soon, here are my quick reviews:

I saw Next To Normal, A Steady Rain and Billy Elliott. Next To Normal was my favorite of the three. I don’t know why someone would think writing a musical about a woman who's mental illness is taking over her life would be a good idea, but yay for them. This show was awesome! All the performances were terrific, the songs were alternately funny and moving, and I loved the staging. I hope it comes to L.A. one of these days.



A Steady Rain was a man-fest. It was a two-man show, starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. Just the two of them, and two chairs, on the stage. They play Chicago cops and tell the tale of their tragic summer. It’s pretty heavy stuff, but really good performances, which you might expect.

Billy Elliot was great, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that it's won a grip load of Tony Awards and the music is by Elton John. It's one of those shows that leaves you feeling great as you walk out of the theater.

Turns out JoBeth Williams is a damned good actor!

Why do you know the name JoBeth Williams? She’s probably most famous as part of the ensemble cast in The Big Chill and for her role as the mom in Poltergeist. In recent years she’s been doing guest starring roles in TV shows like Dexter, but right now you can see her on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse.

In The Night Is A Child, Williams plays Harriet, a WASP homemaker who has flown to Brazil to take a trip she’s wanted to take for years, leaving behind two grown children in Massachusetts, who have no idea where she’s gone. She meets a free-spirited doctor on a beach in Rio de Janiero and you learn, over the course of two acts, that both women are carrying terrible secrets. I have to tell you that there’s quite a twist towards the end of the second act, and it left me teary-eyed and with goose bumps - now that’s a good play! It runs through Oct. 4th.

http://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/

This is why we should be glad that we live here in sunny Southern California, dealing with the stupid traffic - because stuff like this doesn't happen here:

This is a wall of sand. A sand storm is about to hit a base in Iraq. I have a friend who's there, working for the Defense Department, and he said he only had a few seconds to grab his camera and take these photos. He said once it hits, you don't want to be outside. It tastes and smells terrible and gets in your eyes and your nose and your lungs. This is how it looked less than a minute later:

Speed Review

I've seen 3 shows in the last couple of weeks that I want to recommend, but like all of you, who has time for everything? Blogs, emails, phone calls,  DVD's, magazines, movies, TV shows. Not to mention that stuff you absolutely have to do - laundry, house cleaning, dog walking, hair washing. Oh  - and going to work. So I'm gonna make this short and sweet:

Right now at The Taper Theater at The Music Center in downtown L.A., is Pippin. I'd never seen Pippin before and it turns out it's a pretty great show. But this particular production is very, very special - because it's performed by the Deaf West Theater. Quite a few of the actors are deaf, and other actors talk and sing for them, and everyone in the cast signs while they perform. It's a fabulous thing to see, and you should do just that - go see it. It runs through March 15th.

At The Ahmanson Theater at The Music Center, Minsky's just opened. It's about a burlesque hall during the depression that's being threatened with closure for indecency. That scenario might ring a bell with KROQ fans. There are half naked women, which only adds to the fun. And it is a lot of fun! It runs through March 1.  

Lastly, at the Kirk Douglas theater a guy named Danny Hock is doing an amazing one-man show. The dude can transform himself just by putting on a hat or changing his coat. He's a wanna-be rapper in a club, he's a middle eastern guy selling real estate, he's a 70-year old black woman who's watching her neighborhood get taken over by a bunch of yuppies. The guy is awesome! His show runs though February 22.

Info and tickets on all three shows at www.centertheatergroup.org

Smiling Through Tears

You know those movies that make you laugh and cry at the same time? I just finished watching one of those. It's a documentary called Young@Heart, about a group of seniors in a choir in Massachusetts that sing songs by groups like Sonic Youth and Coldplay and The Rolling Stones and James Brown. Kevin of The Kevin And Bean Show recommended this to me. It's not a vampire movie or a movie about a fat guy doing funny stuff, and still he recommended it. I figured it had to pretty damned good for him to do that, and it was. This choir sings for a group of prisoners and the looks on the faces of some of the inmates are really moving. It kinda breaks your heart. But watching these people in their 70's, 80's and even 90's is completely inspiring. I hope we're all as cool as they are when we get to be their age. 

My First Book Report of The New Year

I just finished a book and I can't stop talking about it. No one wants to listen to me anymore, so my only outlet is this blog. Yup, you're my new victim.

The book is Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. He did a ton of press over the holidays, so you might have heard him. He wrote The Tipping Point and Blink; two books I've heard about but never read. I may give them a whirl now, though.

Outliers is about the widely accepted notion that if you live in America and you're smart and work hard, you too can be an astounding success. Basically Gladwell says that's BS. What a relief, right? He doesn't discount the benefits of working hard and being smart or talented, but his theory is that there's a whole lot more that goes into it -  things that are beyond our control - like when and where we were born, our ethnic backround, the kinds of things we were exposed to at a young age, they way our parents treated us. He dissects the elements that went into Bill Gates success, and shows why he was uniquely poised to do what he did. He explains, based on when they were born, why some hockey players go on to be pros and others don't. He has  theory about why certain countries have more plane crashes than others, and it's fascinating.

Gladwell doesn't write like a scholar. He writes so he can be understood, which I, for one, really appreciate. Since I read The Outliers I've found myself looking at all sorts of things differently, even the path my own life has taken. I call that some good readin'.