This Weekend in LA (Feb 2-4)

The Mismatch Game – Renberg Center

February 2-3

RuPaul’s Drag Race has Snatch Game. Well before that was the syndicated show Match Game. Consider this the comedy hybrid that while offering laughs a plenty, also serves as a fundraiser for the LGBT Center in Los Angeles.  Friday’s line-up features Jackie Beat as “Bea Arthur,” Dante as “Jack Nicholson,” Rebekah Kochan as “Pamela Anderson, ”Tom Lenk as “Zooey Deschane,l” Nicol Paone as “Arianna Huffington” and Chris Pudlo as “Peewee Herman.”  Saturday’s line-up features Rachel Butera as “Rosie O’Donnel,l” Danny Casillas as “Reba Areba,” Maile Flanagan as “Danny Bonaduce,” Daran Norris as “Julia Child,” Felix Pire as “Ricardo Montalbán” and Marc Samuel as “President Obama”

Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue – The Kirk Douglas Theatre

February 3-February 25th

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes created a trilogy of plays of which Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue is the first. The second play, Water by The Spoonful is currently in previews at the Mark Taper Forum for an official opening next weekend. The third play, The Happiest Song Plays Last will officially open at the Los Angeles Theatre Center on February 22nd. This is a great opportunity to see all three plays. This play deals with a soldier who has returned home from Iraq trying to forge a closer relationship with his father. He also has to decide if he has a future beyond the military.

An Intimate Evening with Kristin Chenoweth – Segerstrom Hall

February 3

Usually when the Tony Award-winning Kristin Chenoweth appears these days it is with an orchestra. Saturday night’s show at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa is a much more intimate affair. You can probably still count on hearing “Popular” from Wicked and other songs from shows in which she has appeared, or would like to. Hello, Dolly! is a project she’s long wanted to do. Maybe she’ll follow Bernadette Peters on Broadway? Or even better for us in SoCal, maybe she’ll do the tour. (I wouldn’t count on that!)

Miguel Gutierrez – K-D-A-VER – Live Arts Los Angeles

February 3

On the Facebook page for this event, the description begins with a quote from William Faulkner: “You must kill all your darlings.”  This solo performance will be Miguel Gutierrez is described as “for one night, he picks the bones of a past work, lays a shroud over its hopes, and invites us to witness a ritualized death to the joys of the past.” As the innovator behind Deep Aerobics as performance, this will no doubt be an intriguing evening. Gutierrez is quoted as saying of his previous work, “he hopes to soon destroy the technique, because it’s just too hard to teach,and really the world is going to hell in a hand basket anyway.”

Linda Lavin – My Second Farewell Concert – Catalina Bar & Grill

February 4th

Though most people know Linda Lavin for her portrayal of the title character in the television show Alice, she is an accomplished stage actor and singer. She won a Tony Award for her performance in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound and her next role on Broadway was the Mount Olympus of female roles in musicals, “Mama Rose” in Gypsy. On Sunday she presents her second farewell concert (Cher, take note here…). In this show she will share stories and songs from her career. At her side as her music director is Billy Stritch – arguably the best accompanist in the business. So if the Super Bowl doesn’t interest you, this is a great alternative to seeing what Tom Brady may or may not accomplish. Though I hear he’s got possibilities.

Don’t Forget:  Meow Meow performs Friday night at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has three more performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.