Sunday evening at the Pasadena Playhouse with Seurat & Sondheim

Reviews · Theater
a sunday on la grande jatte — 1884, georges seurat Can you accept a gift? Then give yourself one, and ticket up for Sunday in the Park With George — the first main-stage production of Pasadena Playhouse‘s six-month festival celebrating Stephen Sondheim. The theatrical genius whose pedigree connects him directly to the great, preceding generation ...

‘Long live Sondheim,’ pianist Anthony de Mare soon to pronounce at Royce

Music
It sounds so intriguing doesn’t it? In 2007, Anthony de Mare, a champion of contemporary music and devotee of the musical theater genius of composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) embarked on a project that has proven enduring. His big idea was to commission leading composers in jazz, film, theater and classical music, and the pop world, ...

Happy birthday, Jerry! Love, WSS kids

Dance · Film
When was the last time a film clip got a standing ovation? Well, it happened last night. The audience at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills erupted in appreciation after watching Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, on screen, kicking it to Leonard Bernstein’s thumping music and Stephen Sondheim’s wicked lyrics (all still ring ...

Let Anniversary Classics entertain you … with GYPSY

Film
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 55th anniversary screening of GYPSY, the 1962 film adaptation of one of the masterworks of the American musical theater, renowned for its hummable Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score. The film version stars Natalie Wood as burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Rosalind Russell as Momma Rose, the ultimate ...

Live it, with Elaine Stritch

Music
Merry Christmas, Elaine. We’re still here too.

Koehler Clips: Sondheim, Fosse, Nicolas Rey

Film
by 
For those of us who think that the decline of the American musical theater (putting aside “The Book of Mormon,” coming back soon to the Pantages) is a pretty sad spectacle, we have a nice fix of the real thing with “Six by Sondheim,” an ingeniously conceived look at Stephen Sondheim’s art directed by his ...

Genius. West Side Story.

Dance · Film · Music · Theater
Just in from seeing “West Side Story” projected on big screen — my first such viewing (big screen) since who knows when … or maybe ever. What a great movie. Robbins’s choreography is so stellar, so wicked, so spot-on and thrilling; it’s even scary —  in “Cool.” The “America” number on the rooftop, beyond brilliant. ...

Line-up of geniuses: West Side Story’s Broadway creative/production team

Dance · Music · Theater
The West Side Story Broadway production team in 1957: (l. to r.) lyricist Stephen Sondheim, scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, producers Hal Prince and Robert Griffith (seated), composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins. (click for detail) Thank you, songbook1, for posting this photo. Like this? Read more: Not a Jet, but still the swingingest thing: George ...