Billie Holiday

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Pycho-Sexual Boxing Match

Pycho-sexual spectacles got nods from our critics this week, including Illyrian Players' Lord Blackberry's Apocalypse and our Pick of the Week, Tender Napalm. Nice reviews also for Doma Theatre Company's Dreamgirls at the MET, Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice at A Noise Within, Latino Theatre Company's Melacho ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Unusual Look at Motherhood

This week, our critics enjoyed composer and musical director Gregory Nabours' 90-minute musical The Trouble With Words (Coeurage Theatre Company at the Unknown Theatre) as well as a quartet of one-acts at the Lillian under the collective title Unscreened. This week's Pick goes to Dorothy Fortenberry ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Prancing Horses on a Stage the Size of a Football Field

The Canadian troupe Cavalia wowed critic Lovell Estell III this week with its equestrian spectacle Cavalia's Odysseo. Good notices also for Diane Glancy's The Bird House at the Autry National Center, and for a revival of Carlos Murillo's Dark Play (or Story for Boys) at the Whitmore-Lindley The ... More >>

Drag Queen Sings the Blues

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Mesmerizing Child's-Eye View of Grief, Walking the Tightrope

Child-like views delighted our critics this week, with Mike Kenney's Walking the Tightrope at the 24th Street Theatre taking Pick of the Week, and a nod to Albie Selznick's magic show Smoke and Mirrors at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood. There's also a recommendation for an adult comed ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Family Strife and Sexual Taboos in Machu Picchu, Texas

Family trauma drama Machu Picchu, Texas (pictured above) grabs our Pick of the Week this week. Good reviews also for Noel Coward's Fallen Angels at the Pasadena Playhouse and David Henry Hwang's Chinglish at South Coast Rep. For all New Theater Reviews, and this weekend's comprehensive listing ... More >>

Jerry Stahl Discusses His New Book About Heroin, the Drug That Nearly Destroyed Him

Jerry Stahl knows heroin — the good, the bad and the literary. That's why Stahl was the perfect choice to be editor of The Heroin Chronicles, an anthology of 13 chasing-the-dragon stories by junkies and ex-junkies. Released Jan. 1, the third entry in the Akashic Drug Chronicles Series (after T ... More >>

Music Picks: Chino XL, Marissa Nadler, As Blood Runs Black

Anthony Wilson Quartet - Blue Whale - 4/4/12

See also: Anthony Wilson, Guitar Pin-up, Begins His Month-long Residency at the Blue Whale Anthony Wilson Quartet Blue Whale 4/4/12 Better than... the guy from 24 Hour Party People playing guitar all night. Last night, before a full house, guitarist-composer-arranger Anthony Wilson began his four ... More >>

John Pisano Guitar Night with Mundell Lowe - Lucy's 51 - 3/6/12

John Pisano Guitar Night w/ Mundell Lowe Lucy's 51 3-6-12 Better than ...Nancy Reagan's 90th birthday. John Pisano has been a fixture in Los Angeles for a long time. His tasteful tones have backed musicians like Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Chico Hamilton, but for over fifteen years now he has ... More >>

Etta James Is Dead

See also: R&B Legend Etta James Has Dementia, Reveals Sordid Riverside County Money Lawsuit Etta James passed away today at the age of 73 at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside. James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, suffered a number of health problems at the time of her death, including leukemia an ... More >>

I Am Shelby Lynne Is the Best Breakup Album Ever

Breaking up blows. But if there's any bright side to the storm of emotions that makes it hard to eat/sleep/function like a normal human that follows in the wake of a breakup, it's the chance to do some really indulgent, fully acceptable wallowing. And for that, you need a good breakup album. Shelb ... More >>

Music Picks: Janet Jackson, John Escreet Quartet, DJ Quik, Charles Bradley

Also, Charlie Haden Quartet West, John Williams, Philip Glass and others

Henry Rollins: The Column! Rollins on Being an Angeleno in New York (and Missing Joey Ramone)

Timothy Norris​[The one and only Henry Rollins contributes a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Wednesday and make sure to tune in to Henry's KCRW radio show every Saturday ... More >>

R. Kelly Interviewed by Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy (No, Really): The Highlights

​The current issue of Interview magazine--the celebrities-talking-to-other-celebrities journal invented by Andy Warhol--features an interview with Aziz Anzari-impersonator (and strangest person in the whole music industry) R. Kelly. The interviewer?: indie man of many hats Will Oldham (aka Bon ... More >>

The L.A. Weekly Interview: Best Coast

A few songs about her crazy, lazy, hazy L.A. world turned Bethany Cosentino into a global icon of cool. Yeah, she's as surprised as you are

Stage Raw: Voombodian Women from Outer Space!

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater FEATURE on Happy Ending and WaterVOOMBODIAN WOMEN FROM OUTER SPACE! Staged reading of Barry Schwam's new play at Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., in Sierra Madre. Sun., 7:30 p.m. $5 (626) 355-4318 AN EVENING WITH PAT BOONE, ... More >>

Stage Raw: Circle X and Bootleg Hook Up to Read Plays

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater FEATURE on John StepplingCIRCLE X AND BOOTLEG HOOK UP TO READ PLAYS Circle X Theatre Company and Bootleg are joining forces to present a series of Monday night readings of new works, starting September 13, at the Bootleg venue. Playwrights s ... More >>

Stage Raw: Rachel Rosenthal at 83

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSLATEST NEW REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Poland, where theater is hipRACHEL ROSENTHAL AT 83 ​The Rachel Rosenthal Company (founded in 1989) is throwing a fundraiser to help celebrate the performance artist's 83rd birthday, past achievements and the upcoming publication o ... More >>

Stage Raw: L.A. shows NYC-bound

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSLATEST THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Leonard Nimoy and Company of AngelsL.A. SHOWS HEADING EAST ​SoulArt Productions presentation of Alex Lyras' The Common Air - a nominee in last year's L.A. Weekly Theatre Awards solo performance award for its 2008 run at the Asylu ... More >>

Ten Best LA Recordings 2009 (So Far)

​Last week as we were sorting through our piles of CDs and accumulated MP3 files, we started to notice how big the stack of recent excellent LA music was. It became apparent that we're in the middle of a pretty great year for Los Angeles releases, and decided to give mid-year props to our fave ... More >>

Stage Raw: Clowntown City Limits

THE LATEST NEW REVIEWS ARE EMBEDDED IN THIS WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW REVIEW THEATER PICK CLOWNTOWN CITY LIMITSPhoto by Ed RachlesImagine a personable, grimy, makeup-smeared, cigar-chomping guy in a tank top, not unlike Tommy Lee Jones, playing cards outdoors on the porch of some tra ... More >>

Easy Come Easy Go: Marianne Faithfull and Hal Willner's Songs of Tragedy and Heartbreak

Icon's sandpaper vocals sing it like no one else

Scarlett Johansson's Album of Tom Waits Covers Doesn't Suck

Coachella Day Two: The Triumvirate of Kraftwerk, Portishead and Prince

The Coachella mainstage on Saturday night was a glory to behold, a spirit-lifting evening celebrating joy through technology, through contemplation and through celebration. In a single four hour chunk of time, the lucky masses at Coachella witnessed two-and-a-half humongous performances, two of whic ... More >>

Theater Listings

For the Week of Sept. 21-27

Amy Winehouse, Beehive and All

U.K. soul mama gets crowned on the Sunset Strip Monday, March 19, at the Roxy

Grammy Shmammy

Rock Picks

For the week of Feb. 8 - 15

Rock Picks

For February 1–8

If God's Good Word Goes Unspoken

Feeling Sublime, 10 years after

Sentimental Journal

Notes from Billy Crystal’s diary

I Gotta Be Mimi!

On The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey flaunts seven octaves, three races, a bundle of nerves, and one king-hell identity crisis

Tender-Fried Juicy Love Bits

Bless the Child

Marianne Faithfull’s life after the poison

Hollywood Country

Don’t look for the soul of country music in glitzy Nashville — or even Bakersfield. It’s right here on the grand ole streets of L.A.

What Lies Beneath

Carl Hancock Rux on Asphalt, war-torn cities and the state of black literature in America

Shopping While Black

Lick My Detox

At work and play with rockaholics the Sharp Ease

We Are Familia

Rock, romance and Go Betty Go

Sam & Dave

The politics of mixology

Secret Agent

Cecil Taylor has evolved you

TRIBES: Kittens and Puppies and Birds, Oh My

Letters

The Elixirs

Charles Lloyd on ultrapolation, dehumidification and the sound

Sea of Lov

Him Write Funny

David Sedaris and the art of self-mockery

American Beauty

Dead Phish taste the best

Frank

An homage to Sinatra

Jazz Central

Oral history from a vanished Los Angeles