A Chorus Line | Photo by Paul Kolnik First brought to the boards of Broadway in 1975, Michael Bennett's stark, blunt, and brilliant musical about being in musicals became one of the longest-running musicals of all-time. Now in revival after over a decade's absence on the Great White Way, the national touring company of A Chorus Line has landed in LA's Ahmanson Theatre for a limited engagement. Considering that Line is wholly emblematic of......

Jesus Sanchez at the LA Times reports that the 150,000 estimated turn out (based on LAPD numbers) to Sunday's Fiesta Broadway celebration downtown was still was lower than previous celebrations and projections for this year. However, the fire department determined 400,000 people came out, still lower than the expected 500,000. Whatever the exact number may be, one things was for sure... it was hot and looked like a great time. LAist Featured Photographer Tom Andrews......

Actors Ruben Ortiz and Carolina Phipps Full disclosure: my expectations for shows that are put up on “theater row” in Hollywood are low. For every one good play on that stretch of Santa Monica between Highland and Vine, there are ten painful renditions of “Proof,” five embarrassing actor showcases, and at least three productions by students taking classes in the Complex. So when I saw that my scheduled Friday evening out to see Jose......

We always hear about Improv Everywhere pulling crazy stunts off in New York City, like five-minutes of frozen time at Grand Central or no-pants on the subway. Well, after a small improvised pillow fight at the Glendale mall (video below), the new LA Chapter of the collaborative pulled off their first major mission: a spontaneous musical at Baldwin Hills Mall, starting off with the Hot Dog On A Stick girl. Eventually a cast of......

Drinks with Digital LA tonight at Bodega Bar in Santa Monica (and yes, this is not the Bodega bar) / Photo by C-Monster via LAist's photo pool. FILM I am so scaaared. Writer/director Eli Roth (Hostel) continues his reign at the New Beverly in “The Greats of Roth” series. Tonight, he’s screening the double-feature of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), an earlier film that deals with a missing documentary film......

FREE DAYS @ LACMA Don't forget that today, tomorrow, and Monday admission to LACMA is free. There will be lots of extra entertainment on the grounds, and access to all the galleries, except the new Broad Contemporary, which has already sold out (of course!). But that means less people crowding the European paintings you love so much. Tickets need to be reserved in advanced online or by calling the box office. Sat, Sun, & Mon......

Just in time for the release one of the most anticipated titles for the Wii this year, the folks over at Nintendo are staging a regional tournament for fans of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the game that just recently shattered Wii sales records in Japan. According to our sources, the first 256 people who show up at the Orpheum theater downtown will have a chance to fight to the finish in an attempt to......

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY! Come celebrate at LA's annual Lunar New Year Festival! Today the Golden Dragon Parade featuring lion and dragon dancers will thrill over 100,000 spectators along North Broadway. The festival continues until 8pm tonight, and runs from 10am to 3pm tomorrow at Broadway and Cesar Chavez. Parade 2pm-5pm Festival 10am-8pm // Chinatown // N. Broadway & College Street // Free THEATRE The Kinsey Sicks, a "Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet" perform their critically......

The Lunar New Year has officially started, and pigs are like soooo last year. To usher in the Year of the Mouse and Rat, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles is hosting the 109th Annual Golden Dragon Parade and festival on February 9th and 10th. Performers from Beijing will lead the parade, followed by assorted city officials (Villaraigosa et al.), Mickey Mouse as grand Marshall, flower drum dances, a plethora of beauty queens,......

Bright Umbrellas in Chinatown for a Less than Bright Day Crews are still working to restore power to some 3,600 Edison and DWP residents that lost power due to heavy rains and winds over the past two days. North Hollywood, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Pomona, Torrance, Stevenson Ranch and - gasp! - Beverly Hills residents were affected. Candles, people. More rain is on the way so gather ye umbrellas while ye may. Tons of......

DINE dineLA Restaurant Week starts today. The event "unites restaurants from the traditional to the trendy to promote the extraordinary diversity and culinary expertise found throughout LA’s restaurant scene. Restaurants in two dining categories will serve a selection of three-course menus at special prices." Nab a reservation for tonight, and eat up this amazing event! (Previously on LAist: Restaurant Week Coming to LA this Month; dineLA Restaurant Week's Big Kickoff) January 27th-February 8th, lunch &......

Downtown's historic Broadway Theater District could soon be getting a boost from the City. The Downtown News is reporting that a press conference on the area is planned for tomorrow morning, and that City Coucilman José Huizar (14th district) and Mayor Villaraigosa will be on hand to share with local business and land owners their goals and intentions. As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements......

Will it be pouring buckets tonight? If you aren't already planning on holing up with some popcorn and Netflix picks, you may want to get out and get your art & culture on. Let us help! ART ART LA 2008 is billed as "the only art fair in Los Angeles exclusively dedicated to contemporary art" and runs through tomorrow at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. This year's event "features 64 prominent international and Los Angeles-based......

It was 10 p.m. when two men fought at West 86th Place and Main Street in Broadway Square, an official Los Angeles neighborhood in South LA near the 110 and 105 freeway junction. One man, the apparent "winner" of this fight, which took place for unknown reasons, slashed the victim's throat, "doused with a flammable liquid and set alight," according to the Daily News this morning. The victim, who has not been identified and his......

Forget Malibu. Forget the Hollywood Hills. Forget Mulholland Drive. Downtown is the new hot LZ for A-list celebrities, at least for the beloved Johnny Depp. He looked and bought into the $2-million property six months ago, but still hasn't moved into the Art Deco Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway, which has reportedly been having problems selling all the units. To that, the LA Times gives you the hard sell:It's not too late to become......

So what do you think of the beards on Letterman and Conan? I thought everyone did pretty well, particularly Conan. Leno's show was practically unchanged (same old crap) while Letterman gave lots of props to the WGA. If you don't have a TV with a built-in digital tuner you will need to get a converter box by February of 2009. It seems like a long way off but it will sneak up on you. Be......

Stage and screen choreographer Michael Kidd died this past Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 92, according to the New York Times. From his beginnings in Brooklyn, Kidd moved over to Manhattan to dance and create dances for dance companies including Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan (1937), Eugene Loring's Dance Players (1941) and Ballet Theater, the predecessor to the American Ballet Theater (1942-47). Soon after dance critic Edwin Denby opined that Kidd’s talents “leaned......

A balcony collapsed last night around 9 p.m. in San Pedro, leaving the eight adults who fell about 8-10 feet in the accident with mild to moderate injuries.No injuries are reported in a small fire that tore through several garages and an apartment building this moring in the Hollywood Hills, according to ABC7. The fire took place at 8054 Fareholm Drive in the Laurel Canyon area, and the cause is as yet unknown. The price......

1812: A major earthquake struck Southern California, destroying the church at Mission San Juan Capistrano and damaging the San Gabriel Mission. 1873: J. R. Toberman, Mayor approved a franchise for a street railway which have a run "commencing at Temple and Spring Streets, and along Spring to First; First to Fort Street, (now Broadway); Fort Street to Fourth Street, Fourth to Hill Street, on Hill to Fifth Street; on Fifth to Olive Street; on......

The newly reunited Spice Girls hit the stage at the Staples Center for two sold out nights this past Wednesday and Friday. Today's LA Times review says the girls are "thinner and more plastic than ever" and that "the show was even more elaborate and pyro- technic than the British pop group's 1998 L.A. debut at the Forum." However, the article goes on to say that the spectacle "played more like a Broadway production......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

No one likes the stigma of saying they live in Van Nuys, so they chip away making their own new neighborhoods. To that, Councilman Tony Cardenas, who we admittedly give a hard time to on this site, said something that is right on target about this so called community pride: "If I had that many people show up to a community cleanup or an anti-prostitution night out it would do much more than changing......

It certainly doesn’t sound like a musical from the 50s. Among other things, it includes kidnapping, a dance-off, literal shotgun weddings, one woman moving in with seven men, and an opening number in which the main character expresses thanks for an unknown woman’s beautiful "hide." But these elements come together to create the thoroughly enjoyable musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. For the last two weeks the Cabrillo Musical Theatre Group has presented this energetic......

Transformers would have been perfect as a 20-minute demo reel for ILM. Instead, it's a long, dull live-action cartoon. And I still don't understand all the fuss about Shia LaBeouf. He's good. Not amazing. Good. No one saw A Mighty Heart at the theater, but it's worth a rental. Angelina Jolie the Actress has been replaced by Angelina the Star, but she doesn't get in the way of a gripping, horrifying story. No one......

On Sunday, one of my buddies and I went downtown to the Oprheum Theater on Broadway for a taping of Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam. What can I say? I'm a sucker for lowbrow comedy. So, picture my surprise when after about 30 minutes of the stylings of such comics as Damn Fool (yes, that's his name), host D.L. Hughley came onto the stage and announced the final comedian. "All the way from Canada...the......

It is the best musical you’ve (probably) never heard of. It boasts music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, and lyrics by Tim Rice. Its rich songs fuse classical Broadway influences with sprinklings of disco. And it’s the only musical gutsy enough to include songs like “One Night in Bangkok” alongside the beautifully patriotic “Anthem.” The musical is “CHESS,” which tells the story of Victor Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer-esque competitors in a......

LA’s theatre scene is packed with good stuff this week: Dolly Parton serves as muse; a Korean family’s road trip goes wrong; and a bunch of people sing about chess at the Ford. So without further ado, here are LAist’s five theater picks for this week: Journey to Dollywood Jolene is a small-town waitress who idolizes obsesses over Dolly Parton. When a stranger’s car breaks down in town, her life, a rival co-worker’s, and their......

It has been two days, and the dust still hasn’t settled from the embarrassing MTV Video Music Awards, which both the media and public seem to agree was the worst one ever. The reasons for the disastrous show range from the lackluster performance of Britney Spears to the confusing jumble of special performance spaces to the unhinged antics of Kanye West, Kid Rock, Tommy Lee, et al. But I know better. I also know......

Avenue Q, the Broadway sensation now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre, simply put, is Sesame Street and The Muppets for adults. Actually, it's any go-lucky humpty-dory family/neighborhood TV sitcom with overly crude humor. It's a tight production with abrupt segues, hints of metatheatrical jabs and extremely catchy tunes. Everything's very un-PC, but that's okay, cause a puppet said it, right? They're just telling it like it is, as they see it, no qualms about......