- NEWS & COMMENTARY
A new era of Jewish leadership in L.A.?
Los Angeles chose Eric Garcetti as its first elected Jewish mayor, one of a number of political contests on Tuesday that reflected the city’s diversity, as well as its numerous…
Stone-walling
In the last two years, the Western Wall in Jerusalem — also known as the Kotel — has become a place of controversy as much as of worship. It’s the site of a battle that has long been waged by…
Gun violence in America: Scandal!
Two years after his mother was shot and killed, Dallas Sonnier received a phone call from the police: His father had just been shot and killed.
- HOLLYWOOD
Spielberg to produce ‘Halo’ television series, plus other news from the Xbox One announcement
Microsoft Corp gave the world a first look at its new Xbox One on Tuesday, announcing that its first gaming console in eight years will come with exclusive video and…
Justin Timberlake and Coen brothers answer Jewish questions at Cannes
Using his preternatural smoothness, Justin Timberlake saved the Coen brothers from some serious awkwardness at a Cannes press conference for their folk singer film “Inside Llewyn Davis” on Sunday. “Jewish…
Sean Penn lobbies for Charedi man imprisoned in Bolivia
Actor Sean Penn urged a congressional hearing to pressure Bolivia to release a haredi Orthodox father of five under house arrest in the country.
- LIFE & CULTURE
Sarah Silverman sings about staying home in ‘Perfect Night’
For your listening pleasure, “Perfect Night,” in which Sarah Silverman recounts the benefits of skipping the club for the couch. Because this is a Silverman production you can expect references…
Maccabi Tel Aviv back on top but coach future uncertain
Champions Maccabi Tel Aviv have reasserted their dominance of Israeli soccer but media reports on Tuesday suggested they might have to continue their revival without coach Oscar Garcia.
7 Rules for Perfect Hummus
When was the last time you opened a tub of hummus and swooned? When was the last time a restaurant put a plate of hummus in front of you, and…
- BLOGS
State 194: A Documentary About Palestine
Opening this weekend at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 is a very hot-button new documentary called State 194, which follows the recent history of Palestine. Many will approach this film with…
7 Rules for Perfect Hummus
When was the last time you opened a tub of hummus and swooned? When was the last time a restaurant put a plate of hummus in front of you, and…
What would my Israeli grandmother think?
When I hear about the latest events in Israel – the air strikes on weapons facilities in Syria, the flare-ups over women donning prayer shawls at the Western Wall –…
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This week from Israel
Observant life in progress
Barbara Heller likes to refer to herself as a “growing Jew.” The actress/singer has created a biographical show, “Finding Barb,” that traces her life from her dysfunctional family in Boca Raton, Fla., through her disappointing pursuit of an acting career in New York, to her indoctrination into Orthodox Judaism and, finally, to her present state of trying to balance her commitment to an observant life with her professional ambitions.
‘Coney Island’: A Christmas Story for Jews
Surviving a Survivor
It’s an age-old, common dilemma faced by adult children of aging parents: What is the right thing to do when those parents begin to lose their faculties? That theme is at the heart of “Surviving Mama,” by playwright Sonia Levitin, which opens Oct. 12 at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.
‘Jewtopia’s’ universal truths
David Katz knew minutes into watching Bryan Fogel’s “Jewtopia,” a star-studded independent film adapted from the hit comedic play about interfaith dating, that it would anchor his Malibu International Film Festival. Unfortunately, Katz had his epiphany at 3 a.m.
Actor feeds off ‘Mormon’s’ racy humor
Stage dramedy tackles interfaith marriage taboo
If you take Israel out of the equation, there’s little in the Jewish world that gets people as riled up as the idea of intermarriage.
August 11-17, 2012
The latest production from Moriah Films, the Oscar-winning film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, explores of the life and times of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism. Co-written and produced by Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and directed by Richard Trank, the film features narration by Ben Kingsley and stars Christoph Waltz as the voice of Herzl.
Delijanis put historic theater district back in the spotlight
The classic Los Angeles Theater at Broadway and Sixth Street is not much to look at from the outside -- situated alongside a host of busy retail shops, its sidewalk is lined with street vendors selling toys and trinkets. But upon entering the theater's French Baroque-style lobby, with its 50-foot ceiling, grand staircase, plush red carpet, detailed fresco paintings, ornate marble fountain and crystal chandeliers, one is immediately transported to a bygone era of opulent, glamorous movie palaces.
Brooke Shields, Richard Chamberlain and Teller on “Exorcist’s” demon [SLIDESHOW]
America the Beautiful
From “Immigrant” to American
Starring in ‘Godot’ ... and Remembering Beckett
Paul Weitz on dads, De Niro and “Being Flynn”
The Cinderella stories of Aline Brosh McKenna
“Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s” Steven Berkoff: ‘in yer face’
Will Sasson Gabai hit the stage for ‘The Band’s Visit’?
Two Yiddishe Boys and a Bissel of Berlin
About a dozen years ago, actor Mike Burstyn auditioned in New York for the role of Al Jolson in the national touring company of the musical “Jolson.” While waiting for a decision, he flew home to Los Angeles and on landing at LAX decided to stop by the nearby Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary and visit the grave of the legendary jazz singer.
“Harry Potter” Producer David Heyman’s Jewish Connection
Spinoza’s Crucible: Faith, Reason Spar in ‘Jerusalem’
Some theater patrons prefer to switch off their brain cells and watch a light-hearted play, while others opt for strenuous mental exercise.
Performance series pays tribute to Boyle Heights’ cultural, artistic legacy
When Canter’s Deli first opened in Los Angeles, it was not at its now-famous location on Fairfax Avenue, but in Boyle Heights. And though Canter’s and most of the neighborhood’s Jews have long since deserted Boyle Heights, it was forever touched by the culture of the Jewish community that once called it home. Later waves of immigration brought Japanese, Latino and Russian immigrants to the area, giving Boyle Heights a unique and vibrant ethnic vibe.
‘LUV’ Endures
Murray Schisgal’s comedy “LUV” is, as the alert reader might suspect, about love, even passionate love, but don’t expect any moon in June or till death do us part nonsense. Actually, “LUV” works best as an anti-love play, and, after seeing it, any starry-eyed boy or girl might opt for a celibate life of devotion, if only their parents would let them.
A touch of George in Alexander’s ‘Prisoner’
Jason Alexander immediately apologizes for his voice when he comes to the phone. He’s hoarse because he’s been yelling nonstop for his current role, Mel Edison, in the darkly comic “Prisoner of Second Avenue,” which is in the midst of a three-week run at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. The show closes May 15 .
Oh Jared Leto, how little I knew about your band…
Everyone needs a happy ending (no, not THAT kind of happy ending)
Valley arts fans get sparkling new venue, shorter shlep
It wasn’t the fact that stars like Andy Garcia and Calista Flockhart were walking the red carpet that had people buzzing on Jan. 29. It was where they did it — not Hollywood and not downtown. It was Northridge. As a pink sky turned purple, more than 1,400 people gathered at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) to celebrate the long-awaited opening of its Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC).
Director of Polish Jewish theater is attacked
Bricks painted with swastikas and a firecracker were thrown through the window of the director of a Jewish theater in Poland. The attack on the home of Thomas Pietrasiewicz, director of the NN Theater in Lublin, took place late at night on Dec. 17. A bottle had been thrown at the house a month earlier but had been dismissed as a prank, the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reported. The newspaper reported that the theater has been the victim of several anti-Semitic attacks in the past, including the painting of a Star of David on a gallows on the door, threatening letters and a container with a foul-smelling substance thrown in the building.
Arts in L.A. Quarterly Calendar: Cultural events through Feb. 2009
Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks Nov. 22 - 28: Toots Shor, turkey and theater
Tovah Feldshuh immortalizes life of young Shoah heroine in ‘Irena’s Vow’
"Irena's Vow" is the story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a young Polish Catholic woman who took unimaginable risks and paid an unspeakable personal price to save the lives of 12 Jews by hiding them in the basement of the villa where she was virtually enslaved by a German major during World War II.
Arts in L.A. Quarterly Calendar: Cultural events through November 2008
Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks for August 1-7, 2008: Dance, comedy, sports, theater, politics
Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks July 26-August 1—Rothman, Pressman live
Prolific Israeli producer-director tries Hollywood
Israeli producer-director Uri Paster has four movie and theater projects planned this year
Israeli and Palestinian shed their armor in ‘Desert Sunrise’
The play opens in the south Hebron hills in the West Bank with Tsahi, an off-duty Israel Defense Forces soldier, pointing his gun at Ismail, a Palestinian shepherd. Having just broken up with his settler girlfriend, Tsahi is lost and seeking a way back to the main road. Ismail, waiting for his girlfriend, is the only one who can help Tsahi find his way.
Leigh Silverman: Nurturing novel ideas, one play at a time
One day, when Leigh Silverman was 15 and the youngest student in a college summer drama program, her teacher pointedly asked her to stay after class.
"She said, 'Leigh, you shouldn't be an actress; you're terrible,'" Silverman, now 33, recalled with a laugh. "I was horrified. But then she said I had good insights about the plays, and that instead of acting I should be her assistant.
Theater: Making a Jew not a Jew
Always in the background lurks the threat of "Gentleman's Agreement," produced by Darryl Zanuck, the only non-Jewish studio chief, and starring Gregory Peck as a WASP who pretends to be a Jew.
‘Chorus Line’ composer’s music still has a kick
The characters reveal their stories through a mixture of singing and dancing -- with some pantomime thrown in. Hamlisch said that from the beginning the creators felt that certain stories were best told through song, others through dance.
Theater: ‘Immigrant’ sings the story of the ‘Only Jew in Town’
In 1909, an impoverished Jewish immigrant arrived in Hamilton, Texas, hawking 1-cent bananas from his pushcart.
Haskell Harelik had fled Russia to escape pogroms, docking not in Ellis Island but in Galveston, Texas, via a plan to route Eastern European Jews to the West. He spoke no English and was the first Jew the Hamilton residents had ever seen. But he found some friendly faces, and he stayed in that Baptist town, founding a dry goods store and raising three sons there.
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for April 12- 18
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for April 12- 18
Einstein’s allure is more than theory on stage
We think of Albert Einstein, and we conjure up the image of a frail, unkempt and absent-minded old man, but a visit to the Einstein archives at Caltech provides quite another picture.
The man who radically transformed our understanding of the universe was adored by women, at 23 fathered an illegitimate child and after marriage had a few side flings with other women.
Theater: A generation’s history, one life at time
"Showing Our Age" is a play about stories, and the fact that everyone has one. It's a project that I started more than 10 years ago, though not specifically as an idea for a play. I was a participant in a community outreach program in which we interviewed senior citizens, used their remarkable life stories to write monologues and then performed them for the seniors and their families. The simplicity of just the details of a life -- without sets or costumes -- created some of the most powerful theater I had ever been involved with. And I have been involved in theater for a very long time, as an actress, writer, director and teacher. I wanted more! I wanted to take this idea and expand it.
Theater: Tolins draws on his own mentorship ‘Secrets’
"Everything I write is a question of identity," Jonathan Tolins says over tea after a yoga class in Sherman Oaks. "What choices do you have? What roles do you take on?"
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for April 5-11
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for April 5-11
Letter from London: ‘An English Tragedy’ is timely on stage
In an atmosphere of increasing British anti-Semitism and vitriolic anti-Israel rhetoric in the left-wing press here, the play we're about to see, "An English Tragedy," couldn't be more timely. Written by South African Jewish playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), it is the story of John Amery, son of a Cabinet minister, who along with the infamous Lord Haw Haw made propaganda radio broadcasts for the Nazis that were beamed to England.
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for March 22-28
Calendar Girls picks and clicks for March 22-28
Spring Calendar
Spring arts calender.
Picks and clicks for March 15-21
Picks and clicks for March 15-21
Mitisek and Co. expand boundaries of opera with puppets, poetry and ‘Frankenstein!!’
Critics have called the Long Beach Opera (LBO) "daring," "unconventional" and "innovative." While all those are accurate, another word that perhaps better describes the company is "playful."
Gang of Actors reaches a new stage
The Actors' Gang, now in residence at the historic Ivy Substation in Culver City, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The substation, constructed in 1907 by the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, looks more like a Spanish mission than an electric power facility, strangely appropriate for The Actors' Gang, which is both a theater troupe with a strong sense of mission and a longtime source of power plays and electric performances (and that's as far as I'm willing to stretch this metaphor).
Mideast allegory becomes roommate musical
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has stymied generations of statesmen and commentators, so why not try a witty song-and-dance musical? Such was the thought of playwright Oren Safdie and composer-lyricist Ronnie Cohen, and the result of their collaboration is "West Bank, UK," which opens March 21 at the Malibu Stage Company.
Calendar Girls picks and kicks for March 8 -15
Calendar Girls picks and kicks for March 8 -15
‘Boychick’ puts bar mitzvah audience in the simcha
"The Boychick Affair: The Bar Mitzvah of Harry Boychick," is the latest addition to the ever-amusing genre of interactive theater, known in the business as "environmental theater." In such plays, the conventional fourth wall is broken as actors directly interact with members of the audience. Each character has a detailed background, either created on the spot or written prior to the performance. While the show is staged and scripted, about 30 percent to 40 percent is improvised, said playwright and director Amy Lord.
Rabbi-impresario brings Broadway to Beverly Hills
But as other venues closed in Beverly Hills (the Canon Theatre was demolished in 2005), Rabbi David Baron, Los Angeles' rabbi-impresario, saw an opportunity: "a home for my temple and also something much bigger," he says. "People hate shlepping to the Pantages in Hollywood or downtown to see Broadway-caliber shows.... I had a dream of being able to preserve, restore, maintain and revitalize this complex and this theater (Wilshire Theatre Beverly Hills), and to make it a real community hub, a cultural, performing arts center for the entire area."
Calendar Girls picks and kicks for March 1 - 7
Calendar Girls picks and kicks for March 1 - 7
Calendar Girls picks, clicks and kicks for February 16 - 22
Calendar Girls picks, clicks and kicks for February 16 - 22
The Calendar Girls: Picks, kicks and plugs
Events calendar
Musicals: UCLA goes to Dogpatch, USA
Senior and middle-aged Angelenos who grew up on the wonderfully satirical "Li'l Abner" comic strip can get their nostalgia fix as the denizens of Dogpatch USA cavort on the stage of UCLA's Freud Playhouse through Feb. 17.
Theater: Mark Feuerstein is the “Some Girls” guy
The Calendar Girls: Picks, kicks and plugs
Summary of upcoming cultural events of note. Theatre, photography, films and lectures!
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