Admittedly, I'm not a music streaming customer. While I channel some (but not most) of my entertainment through my computer,

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Easy Targets: Artists and Heroes" doesn’t quite reach the same heady heights as the Burglars of Hamm’s HHF17

A Mexican Trilogy: An American Story, a multi-award winning work by Evelina Fernández is fiercely ambitious, thoroughly and intelligently mounted

By Ernest Kearney — Actor, Playwright, Joshua Thomas was last at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2014 with

"Stringmates" by Amanda Noriko Newman takes its core concept from the Asian legend of the “Red String of Fate,” the

With a solid reputation for superior dramas, PBS's Masterpiece Theatre has undoubtedly been a hard act to follow. Now its

Suffering from Copper withdrawal yet? No worries. Another period-based crime thriller is just around the bend. Lying in wait down

There are more individuals whose talents deserve some Note of Distinction this year, and we, at TheTVolution wish the privilege

The Hollywood Fringe Festival 2015 has drawn to a close. The following is the Medal Tally for the 57 Shows I attended: 13

Sarah Manning is the key. She is brave, brash and ballsy. It’s one or a combination of these traits that

"Secret Honor, The Last Testament of Richard M. Nixon" is a torrential tirade spewed by a scotch-soaked Richard M. Nixon,

by Ernest Kearney - Epics tend to be about champions, giant defeaters, kingdom conquerors, warriors of a thousand battles.

In the hands of the right actors "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," by playwrights Adam Long, Daniel Singer and

The Americans, season 4 premiere 10pm, Weds. (March, 16) on FX. Be prepared for a whip-lash year. Now, it’s possible you

Not much delivers more joy than the reup of a favorite TV show. Case in point: The third season of

I expected President Drumpf to embarrass himself—and us by proxy—when he went abroad last month. He did not disappoint, so

Playwright Adam Peck's "Bonnie & Clyde" brushes aside the legendary elements of the Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow story, putting

Henry Mayhew, in 1841, named his pioneering humor magazine after the gleeful little murdering bastard. Neil Gaiman sought him out

In "Ashlee Olivia Presents E.A.R.T.H.A.," Ms. Jones delivers an exceptional performance of an exceptional performer

"Monsters, John! Monsters from the Id!" That's the warning delivered by a dying Warren Stevens to Captain Leslie Nielson just before

By Ernest Kearney  —  The Bitch is Back: An Elton John Cabaret is exactly that, no more no less.  Director

Last year (2014) The Honorable Woman snagged two TVolution Honors: the Bravest and the Best Freshman Drama of the summer. A creative

When the bar is set as high as writer/director David Hare and thespian extraordinaire Bill Nighy (yes, I am biased)

Wow! What a remarkably haphazard and poorly structured thesis to use as the foundation for a documentary! A more insipid,

When the topic turns to the worst series ever, one is walking a tightrope of wet tissue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4 So Leslie Gore is crying because someone messed with her party? She’s clearly not a 2016 Republican. The sound you hear out

Netflix is shooting out product faster than the bullet train. The Jason Bateman starrer, "Ozark," streaming now, is sprinting toward

(Now please, if you can’t make it through this rather long winded harangue of homage, simply scroll to the end

The Hollywood Fringe Festival 2015: Final Tallies & Reviews HOUSE OF RABBITS CHARIVARI IN VOYEURVILLE (Platinum Medal) House of Rabbits Charivari in

In 'Class' getting ready for Fall Prom is more than finding a pretty dress and matching corsage. (BBC America)

Thank goodness, we’re almost through the lull in Hamilton news. After the multi-week coverage of its record number of Tony

I can always appreciate Long Beach's International City Theatre even when I don't necessarily enjoy a particular production. Case in point

Talk about being overly optimistic. My previous TheTVolution post seems positively Pollyanna-ish. The headline read: "The Voice Finally Acknowledges Songwriters."

People are funny. In the way we keep making the same mistakes. Even when we're conscious of our tendency to run

CNN debate anchor Anderson Cooper was intent on confrontation and stirring up rivalries

In an isolated study room, set off in a forgotten wing of a cavernous comprehensive school tucked away in a

By Ernest Kearney  —  There is some solid writing in Playwright/Director Travis Snyder-Eaton’s "Glitch," a two-person play about Rachel, a journalist

Some of the most jaw dropping, chill raising, and yes tear inducing, imagery ever shot makes up BBC America’s prequel

Well another Fringe has come and gone. I attended 60 shows and managed to review 55 (denoted by the asterisk:

As the nerdiest kid this side of the Rockies, I lived for the cheesy Sci-Fi that oozed out of the

Can the lightening in the bottle that was the essence of the limited special event of True Detective, Season 1

With the return of Sherlock premiering on New Year’s Day, this past week, BBC Worldwide and Fathom Events will present

If you follow economic or political news at all, you know there has been a lot of discussion about our

By Ernest Kearney  —  In his latest Hollywood Fringe Festival offering, "New Kid on the Block," playwright John Patrick Daly's heart is

The surest way to appreciate Steven Berkoff’s Hairy Ape now playing at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble is to have acquaintance

The wait’s been long, but the time is nigh: April 24th is coming. Books in the series whose stories will play

…and tracks it all over our political kitchen floor! Not that the place was spotless to begin… This edition was supposed

“Clip Show” A clip show is primarily a creature inhabiting the realm of television. Basically it denotes a particular episode, sometimes called

If not for a twist of fate and a bit of luck we might never have been witness to David

Now I’ve seen some truly remarkable acting at this year’s Fringe, but here are two amazing ensembles that stand out

By Ernest Kearney —  "Shakes on the Rocks" has a poor concept of what it wants to be. Eleven actors

The Echo Theater Company is one of the newer jewels in the crown of Los Angeles theatre, and with their

Forever Flamenco is back at the Fountain Theatre, which is cause for celebration. I am a self admitted aficionado, whose been

Well on here I am: Hollywood Fringe Show number forty-five now and here’s a just a recap of some of

Wendy Graf has written an intelligent, craftsman work about an idealistic All American Girl seeking to convey her love of

This is a thank you to Colin Johnson my stage manager on My Alamo War. Colin helped set the stage,

By Ernest Kearney — Laura Grimaldi is a whirlwind of a performer with a winning mixture of humor and honesty.

"The Second Coming of Klaus Kinski" writer, performer Andrew Perez presents Kinski and all his demons with such unnerving commitment

It is odd to admire the seed but fault the fruit. But Brittanie Richardson’s solo show "Art and Abolition" has

In the real world April means springtime and showers. In HBO time, it means winter is coming. In the land

By Ernest Kearney  —  James Royce is an okay mime. It’s ironic in a way that he’s performing his show in

It opens with a real-life catastrophic event: a meteor the size of a small house hits a small town in

By Ernest Kearney  —  Like little boys with their toy soldiers, so, too, are little girls with their dolls: They

It's nearly here

Surprise. You don't have to be a zombie movie lover to enjoy the three part mini-series premiering tonight on BBC

If that be the fashion of your dreams then I say hold on to those dreams

Playwright Laurel M. Wetzork has filled Blueprint for Paradise, now playing at the Hudson Theatre, with fascinating tidbits plucked from

The tunes in "Save Me a Spot" were both charming and moving, and wisely limited to ten in number.

All playwrights of any merit explore those vast and stretching abysses that form human relationships. In his earlier work, “The

This is a lovely little documentary about the history of American ventriloquism over the last 70 years. While not comprehensive

Is Hillary honest? Does she lie? That seems an odd issue for the Trump camp to obsess about, considering the

Matt Chait’s Disinherit the Wind opens quite nicely, with a depiction of Bertram Cates (Chait), a neurobiologist giving a lecture

The Superhero and his Charming Wife purports to be “inspired by archetypes and dreams” presented in the style of “an

"He was looking for someone else, you say—someone who was not you?" "He was looking for little Miles." A portentous clearness

These days, every comedian and commentator seems to be paraphrasing Bette Davis in All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts,

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 14. 2016) — Members of L.A.’s “PRO-99” theater community continue to gather signatures to demand a new

With Black History Month you hear accounts of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Cyrus Attucks and other historical black figures

It is not with eyes alone that we read a novel’s passage or play’s scene; we read them through the

The Chromolume Theatre at The Attic has been the site of some stunning successes, and while their current production of

The GOP field presidential candidates held a noisy war drum circle on December 15

by Ernest Kearney — 'Antony and Cleopatra' has it all — magnificent history, towering characters, stunning pageantry and poetry of

A lot of us who respect Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House want to curl up and hibernate

…that’s the current liberal fantasy, and we can sweeten it even more by taking the rest of America’s “left coast” with

…and the biggest problem with democracy is that every damn fool gets one vote. You heard me right. The metric

The Bravest Show of the Summer goes to: The Honorable Woman. Series creator Hugo Blick's masterful eye created a world of

Office Beat: A Tap Dance Comedy playing now at 2016's Hollywood Fringe: A review

By Ernest Kearney — And here they are

by Ernest Kearney  —  "The Book That I'm Going to Write, by Judy Garland" is an idea that someone should

During Empire Entertainment's famous white party, Lucious reminds Jamal that music is the truth. So Jamal explains his sexual preference

An advisor to Donald Trump recently explained the candidate’s multiple (and conflicting) positions on most issues with: Words don’t matter. Wow,

Noel Coward’s Hay Fever at Theatre Palisades is a wonderfully delivered comedy of manners. Laughs and folly spring from the

What strikes one—when inspecting television’s hugest failures—is the large percentage of those which are remakes and retooling’s. Now with the right

For the most part, Korean cinema has not rung the dong for me. I Saw the Devil (2010) Kim Jee-woon’s brutal and

Wow. That’s about the most apropos comment across the board on Squeeze My Cans, Cathy Schenkelberg’s riveting, heart wrenching and ultimately

Hollywood Fringe 2016 is better than ever and continues on for two more weeks: dance, artistry, plays. There's also plenty

At one point in the production of Lauren Gunderson's I and You at the Fountain Theatre, the main character's bedroom

By Ernest Kearney —  The Aeriform Arts Studios is setup for those interested in learning the skills of trapeze, ribbon silks, lyra

Last year, I wrote that In The Flesh was not your typical zombie apocalyptic tale. Those of you who watched

Loser! The Tweet Defeat of Donald Trump did not begin with “Liddle’ Bob Corker” and his oh-so-devastating viral tweet: https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/917045348820049920? Wham! Impressive. But

Pete Docter began Inside Out with a seedling of an idea, after he noticed the transition that his adolescent daughter

Our little game of Political Survivor abruptly expanded to the House of Representatives last week, with potentially explosive results. Speaker John Boehner

Victorian era pulp fiction by another name could have been Penny Awful, Penny Number, Penny Blood or Penny Horrible. The

A USEFUL LIFE IN C MAJOR David Wheatley has four degrees in music and composition. He has an impressive background in stage

Photo above is from Creative Commons: “hacker army 2.0” by Rodrigo Paoletti is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Hollywood Fringe, Week One —Part IV  The main stays of any Fringe are the solo performances; one-man shows, one-woman, one-whatever shows.

Wendy Williams stops by Books and Books in Coral Gables to sign her new book Ask Wendy. How you doin'?

By Ernest Kearney  —  On December 21, 1988 a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of

By Ernest Kearney  —  Set in the Florida Keys during a raging hurricane "Spaceman," by Writer/Director Melissa Vitello, plays like

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has five definitions for "entropy" [ěn′ trә-pē]. Four of the five could

On second thought, don't flash that cash—I'll get ill. The Koch brothers have reportedly committed $900 million, give-or-take, to Republican

I've turned so many people on to this show and have never heard any regrets. The best is my brother

At the top of where the Angel’s Flight Trolley once deposited its riders (and hopefully will again one day), nestled

The personalities with whom playwright, Steven Vlasak populates “Nights at the Algonquin Round Table” are some the most acerbic wits,

TheTvolution.com Award Tallies for mid run of the Hollywood Fringe Festival ‘18 (HHF18): We rank all the shows we attend

By Ernest Kearney  —  The history of the United States Army installation of Fort Huachuca located in southeast Arizona is

Billed as an exploration of music and magic "Incantesimo" relies heavily on the ability of music to take us into

"If you want to live, come with me – and keep in harmony" Yes, I troll Netflix, the cable channels, and

Whether you view the later works of Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett as avant-grade, Theatre of the Absurd, tragicomic

by Ernest Kearney —  My Own Private River Phoenix is a smart and funny piece that is just not ready to

ShoWorks Entertainment has traveled from South Africa to stage two offerings at the Fringe, both written by South African playwright

Set in suburban New Jersey in 1985, Red Oaks centers around college student David Meyers—a young man at a crossroads

Say it ain’t so

OMG moments on Empire: • While trying to steal a top rap artist from a rival music competitor, Lucious and Anika

The Hollywood Fringe Festival's Week One Diary—Part III is all about the Bard who is nicely represented this year with a

By Ernest Kearney  —  The Rogue Artists Ensemble are an imaginative group that integrates grand theatrics and excellent puppetry into

At 11:30 on New Year’s Eve, a friend asked me what actual “new” things would come in 2016. The political

Okay

The folks who produce Survivor think that they understand tribes. Jeff Probst’s first official duty, on the first episode of every season,

We are all Donald Trump now. In 1963, JFK went to the Berlin wall and said, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I

What can be said about A Haunted House 2? My, it is rare to see such a testament to mediocrity.

There is a great deal about Swarm Cell which is commendable

by Ernest Kearney — The Fountain Theatre’s West Coast Premiere of “The Chosen,” adapted for the stage Aaron Posner and

Start in a state with an active electorate of six million (say, Pennsylvania in 2016). Now poll a thousand of

First a bit of Irish history. The Black and Tans were a force of mostly former soldiers enrolled in the

By Ernest Kearney  —  It is regrettable that more audiences didn’t have the opportunity of seeing "Butoh Medea," an adaptation of

The Robey Theatre Company and Los Angeles Theatre Center have partnered for the staging of "Dr. Du Bois and Miss

I always feel a kinship between August Wilson and the ancient Greek playwrights. Like the dramas of Euripides and other Athenian

Last year no one knew what to expect. The burning question was: "Who is Orphan Black?" This recap is for anyone

Wait, don’t put away the Christmas decorations just yet. I’ve got one more present for you—and you’re gonna to hate

By Ernest Kearney — Its title, "The Other Side of the Razor Ribbon," refers to the modern style

Let's imagine one could take a heaping jigger of Citizen Kane, another of Blade Runner, pour in a dash of

By Ernest Kearney  —  Michael Shaw Fisher has apparently taken to heart George Burns’ sage advice on how to be a

You don’t have to be paying rapt attention to the 50-inch rectangular flat screen hanging above the fireplace or the

Queen Latifah stars as the legendary Bessie Smith whose talent and perseverance resulted in her becoming an iconic "Empress of

by Ernest Kearney — Ice at the 24th Street Theatre is really a matter of  “All the King’s horses and

Forever Flamenco, have I said it once?  Have I said it twice?  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve

It amazes me what a higgledy-piggledy of sources have served as inspiration for musicals. Little Shops of Horror, Cats, Sunset Boulevard

Just two years ago, documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia began interviewing Amy Winehouse's family, friends and collaborators in a darkened London

Summary: Streaming detective show Bosch, based on the long-running (17 and counting) popular series by author, Michael Connelly, doesn’t stray

In "The Sacred Beasts" for Hollywood Fringe 2017, writer/director Chris Wollman has mined a particularly rich vein of historical gold

By Ernest Kearney - The Cherry Poppins Productions have embraced a formula which has served them well in Hollywood Fringe

For the first decade of this century I didn't pay much attention to the music business. After close to 30

by Ernest Kearney — In "This Land," at The Company of Angels, playwright Evangeline Ordaz, uses a parcel of earth

Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop won the 2010 British Olivier Award for Best New Play. In 2011 it opened in New York

The film opens with a laconic, heart rendering simple and sincere shriving, "I'm sorry. I know that means little at

"The Tomb" by Ed Sharrow (at the Complex Theatre during Fringe 2017) is an encapsulated tale of Anthony the Great,

The 25th Annual (Silver Anniversary) Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival (LAWTF) has a roster of distinguished artists who will co-host four days

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the shows of playwright Peter Lefcourt and director Terri Hanauer. Their prior productions,

Long-awaited "Game of Thrones'" Season Seven—winner of 12 Emmy's just last September, remember— is no longer coming. It's Here: July

Post-debate note: The political wind seemed to change at the second debate. So--praise cheeses!--this may be the last Trump-centric column. He’s

A few weeks back, Molly Ball wrote in the Washington Post about the 2016 Presidential Campaign’s “…rich irony that America's

With hardly an exception the American Experience historical programs are gems. That the dumb heads in congress have succeeded in

By Ernest Kearney — Bad Jews at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble was hard for me to watch. Hard in the same

In Part I, we celebrated two dazzling effects of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s landmark musical Hamilton: with his theatrical retelling of our

No, not that race card. But some candidate will play it before the election. Promise. I mean the horse race card.

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Skin Jobs" by Jim Vejvoda is a short indictment of the undercurrent of racism still in

by Ernest Kearney — The Australian Theatre Company's "Grey Nomad" by Dan Lee is the tale of Helen (Ros Gentle)

What: BBC America’s Psychological Detective Thriller— One Night, Three Hour Movie Event TVolution Quick Take Summary: We thought we’d seen the

By Ernest Kearney  —  In my opinion, Long Beach’s International City Theatre artistic director, caryn desai has a genius for

"Do You: Migration of the Monarchs" is a dazzling concept conveyed in a visually rich language, not a play as

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend Come inside! Come inside! There behind the

Let the Games Begin in How To Get Away With Murder

"There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven't yet done." B.B. King   The summer of

By Ernest Kearney   — If most non-artists know the name Chris Burden (1946-2015), it is for the art installation “Urban

What does this all mean? A flashy, vulgar celebrity/businessman runs for public office with no prior experience except having run a

Do not be fooled by the title, One of the Nice Ones. There is nothing “nice” about Erik Patterson’s play. Point

I haven’t teased you with a Survivor metaphor in months. Well, the last time someone got voted off the island was in

Forgive the projection, but are producer/writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attempting to 1) let us down easy by forecasting

By Ernest Kearney  — The Fountain Theatre's production of  "Runaway Home" by playwright Jeremy J. Kamps, is a cannonade of

"Silent Sky" in its final weekend at Long Beach's International City Theatre, is a well-crafted feel-good evening in the theatre. 

The movie Jurassic Park removed an intriguing side plot from Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, that I think applies directly

The TVolution declares 'The Knick'  The Best Summer Freshman Drama (2014) Here the cast speaks on creating those intense and almost too

VOICES According to the program notes, voiceover artist Carla Delaney wrote this one woman show as a birthday gift to herself,

Friday, June 5 we will discover what it means to be "reborn" as a "Sensate." That's the day Netflix unveils

"Blue," by filmmaker Charles Huddleston, is not a complex plot. It’s a pretty straightforward morality tale wrapped in the landscape

What do you think? Have your say HERE: #Savetwinpeaks14251

It was rather fitting that on the night of the first presidential debate I found myself sitting in the audience,

by Ernest Kearney  — The origins of Taiko drumming in Japan is lost in that vast attic called history, but

Even the best magicians never actually do magic—they give you a believable illusion that they are performing the impossible. Mostly,

The bed is our most formidable arena. And two people in bed alone are never really by themselves. Bed by Sheila Callaghan,

By Ernest Kearney  —  Puppeteer Jean Minuchin’s "Still Life of an Orange and Other Puppet Parables" starts off strong and

I wanted "Zombie Clown Trump" (Surprise! It's a musical), so badly, to be great.  But if wishes were horses….

by Darwyn Carson  —  With an eye and a heart dedicated to cohesive connection and support of local theatre, Better

Two more clips released from HBO with hints at what we can expect this coming season: Cersei Lannister all but threw

Do you know his favorite Karaoke song? I do. And he sings it with me. The man, the legend talks

Not only will I tip my hat to The Coeurage Theatre Company, but if you don't tip your hat as

When Stephen Colbert coined the word "truthiness" in 2005, he meant "

By Ernest Kearney  —  “I was like Mozart in his day,”  announces Bartholomew (Writer/Performer Montana Cypress) from his sanctuary in