KRSON – courtesy photo
I HATE TO BRAG, BUT…
My wife is one helluva singer. Been at it professionally since her mid-teens. Toured Japan four times, played the Queen Mary five nights a week for five years, and her voice is at Disneylands all over the world. She thrilled an overflow crowd Sunday evening at the Ruskin Group Theatre. The packed house rocked with cheers and applause after every song. The last few days she has gotten so many compliments, usually starting with something like, "I didn’t even know you could sing, but especially… not like that!"
The occasion was the first performance of her new album, "Diane Michelle Sings Billie Holiday," a tribute to her first and still greatest influence as a singer. Diane doesn’t try to sound like Billie, because no one can, but puts all her own emotion into storytelling, the way Lady Day did.
The album features jazz greats Peter Erskine on drums, Chuck Berghofer on bass, and Tom Ranier on piano and clarinet.
I was so proud of her. It really was a thrilling performance.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Tonight! - "HAMILTON" – Not often, but sometimes in life you do get second chances. I never saw the groundbreaking historical musical when it first came to LA in 2017 with its touring original Broadway cast, and I never saw the film version. I wasn’t trying to wait, but it was well worth it. Any concern you won’t like a "rap" musical? Fuggedaboutit. It fits everything else perfectly, and is not "extreme." The singing was superb, their staging spectacular, and the lyrics still riveting. Thurs 7:30 p.m., Fri 8 p.m., Sat 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Sun 1 p.m., 6:30 p.m., Tues 7:30 p.m., Wed 7:30 p.m., next Thurs 7:30 p.m., Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, $122-626.
THEATRICUM BOTANICUM: The 2024 season is almost over! But the two shows still playing are perhaps their best. Big miss on my part for not getting myself sooner to "Tartuffe - Born Again," Molière’s masterpiece of social satire that has endured 360 years. Brought forward four centuries and right into today’s headlines. How do you rid yourself of a clever, persistent and evil con man? When the die-hard believers won’t accept the truth even when he speaks it about himself. The original French was brilliantly, hilariously adapted by Freyda Thomas into rhyming couplets in English, keeping the original story line but leaving lots of room for fresh comedy, and they maximize it with superb acting by all and perfect direction from Melora Marshall. The laughs are literally non-stop, the physical comedy as good as I’ve ever seen. New political thought provoker "Hispanic" – don’t be scared! They are always entertaining. A few laughs too, I’m sure. It is another thing they are known for, one of their strengths. I have it on good authority that this one is especially worthwhile. Blacklisted Will Geer (Grandpa Walton) would be proud. It is playing only once more after this, 10/20 –you must go. Sat 7:30 p.m.(prologue with cast, 6:30), "Hispanic;" Sun 7:30 p.m. "Tartuffe;" $15-60.
Final performance! - LA OPERA, Puccini’s "MADAME BUTTERFLY" – What a way to start the new season! Great artists and great companies take chances and reimagine the warhorses, while maintaining the highest artistic standards. Staging "Butterfly" as though it takes place on a 1930s movie set, filming Puccini’s heartbreaking masterpiece in black and white, with a screen showing it as it takes place on stage. Intriguing? Confusing? Reliable LA Times critic Mark Swed expressed some misgivings, but said the screen was impossible to take your eyes off of. People do like screens and close-ups, he posited, and said the applause was deafening. Does LA Opera have another hit in its resume? With Korean soprano Karah Son in her signature role. A tragic drama of modern import, with Cio-Cio-San taking on a very male dominated world. Sun 2 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LA, $166-450.
HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES — You can go to the Cinema Bar any Monday night, 9-11:30, for more than a decade now, and hear these hot players run through Django Reinhart-style ‘30s jazz. This amazing ensemble is a treasure. Mon 9 p.m., Cinema Bar, Culver City, free.
RECOMMENDED:
LIBRARY GIRL, "People of the Valley, part 2" – OMGosh, the 15th anniversary show! Number 174! Amazing! Kudos to originator and producer/curator and sometimes reader Susan Hayden, and to the Ruskin Group Theatre for giving her the stage all these years. A superb investment. It has become a Santa Monica artistic treasure, that still too many people are not aware of. Well, it’s not too late because she does this every month, the second Sunday, featuring spoken word, poetry, prose and music, and often some good laughs along with some tears. And free dessert and free parking! And for this show, free dinner at the taco cart (go for the gorditos), and free souvenirs.Sun 7 p.m., tacos at 6, Ruskin Group Theatre, SM Airport, $20.
CULVER CITY JAZZ FESTIVAL, JEREMY PELT – Every Sunday in October, at the beautiful Kirk Douglas Theatre, and boy did they make the right move to bring in Ruth Price of Santa Monica’s Jazz Bakery to book it. After seven decades, her instincts for great players are still top of the game. Pelt joined the Mingus Big Band very early on, which eventually led to performances and recordings with Ravi Coltrane, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, Vincent Herring, John Hicks, Nancy Wilson. You shall know a man by the company he keeps. Also the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Big Band, The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band.Sun 7 p.m., Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City, $10-20.
COMING ATTRACTIONS (also recommended): "HAMILTON," Pantages Theatre, 10/10, 11, 12, 13; Theatricum Botanicum - "The Hispanic/ Latino/ Latina/ Latinx/ Latine Vote" 10/12, 20, "Tartuffe - Born Again" 10/13; LIBRARY GIRL, Ruskin Theatre, 10/13; JEREMY PELT, Jazz Bakery, 10/13; JONI MITCHELL and the Joni Jam, Hollywood Bowl, 10/19, 20; "KOOZA," CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, Santa Monica Pier, 10/19-1/5/25; DELFEAYO MARSALIS, Jazz Bakery, 10/20; JEFF LYNNE’S E.L.O., Kia Forum, 10/25, 26; RICK HOLMSTROM BAND, DAVID HIDALGO, McCabe’s, 10/27; TERRY GIBBS, SHORTY ROGERS, Jazz Bakery, 10/27; DAVID GILMOUR, Hollywood Bowl, 10/29, 30, 31; Halloween Organ, Film & Music: "Nosferatu," Disney Hall, 10/31; LA SANTA CECILIA, Wiltern, 10/31.
<span style='background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)'><i>Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 3,000 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 38 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or hate mail to:</i></span> <a href='mailto:therealmrmusic@gmail.com'><i>therealmrmusic@gmail.com</i></a>
