The one piece of advice I can give anyone in watching this outstanding production is this: bring a bottle of extra strength Excedrin tablets.  The collage of soft tinkering sounds to full blown loud banging will make your headache mimic those sounds after you leave. And if you don’t bring the aspirin, the harmonic noise will be worth the risk.  A collage of dirty barrels, long and small pieces of rubber tubing, beyond dented rash cans, dirty brooms and mops and grimy traffic signs, tin lids, hang neatly above the performers. The unclean floor and the noise, all at once, can and will be tolerated. 

Music’s biggest night, the 52nd Grammy Awards is destine to hit an unparallel crescendo with two powerful performers singing with heart wrenching emotion. The classic “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” has r&b diva Mary J. Blige and opera’s Andrea Bocelli climaxing together vocally in front of a worldwide audience. The song is available for download at iTunes and all proceeds will benefit relief efforts in Haiti.

Arguably, Fringe is the best new science fiction show on the air, coming back extra strong in its current second season on Fox TV. Fans have compared it to The X-Files, the early years. The complex drama that explores the “endless impossibilities” was co-created by today’s king of the genre J.J. Abrams (Lost), who is the first to brag about the series’ “dream team of performers,” Anna Torv as FBI agent Olivia Dunham, John Noble as crazy but brilliant scientist Walter Bishop, and Joshua Jackson as his shrewd son Peter Bishop.

The three main characters have made The Vampire Diaries into must-see-TV. Thanks to the chemistry oozing from the trio of hot blooded stars, the adaptation of the bestselling books is destine to have a long run on the CW network with Nina Dobrev playing the hauntingly beautiful Elena, Paul Wesley playing the conflicted vampire Stefan, and Ian Somerhalder playing the badass bloodsucker.

The two hottest gangs roaming the streets of LA are not as dangerous as you might think. They are the casts of Glee and Jersey Shore. And they were making the rounds between award shows in Hollywood. We caught up with the bickering Jersey Shore castmates at the GBK Lounge hosted by Gavin B. Keilly, who introduced the East Coast wild bunch to the luxury lifestyle they had only dreamt about until landing in Tinsel Town on a rainy day.

The juggernaut avant-garde troupe from Quebec has spread its mirth to practically every corner of the earth. In the midst of the tsunami of tourist attractions in Orlando, La Nouba steadily and understandably draws sell-out crowds. During the coldest week in years, we enjoyed this production at an early evening performance.

How do you prepare your kids for a trip to Orlando?  How do you describe the wildly disparate attractions, the over-the-top mindset?  How to handle the uniform expectation that the entire Orlando economy is devoted to separating visitors from their dollars?  A couple Carl Hiassen books are a good start (Hoot, Flush and Scat are each excellent for readers of all ages). But mostly, it is best to just dive right in.

Another great evening from the unscripted series delivered by the hilarious boys and girls of the Impro Theatre and Combined Artform. Their style is uniquely funny the kind that make your sides ache from so much hard laughter. Nothing is scripted, hence the unscripted part and everyone, cast and audience, have a raucous good time. Previously, both companies brought forth Jane Austen Unscripted, Sondheim Unscripted and Tennessee Williams Unscripted, bringing the Bard to life was just anther rip roaring trip into hystericsville.

The pier at Redondo Beach has been something I have managed to miss for many years. My family discovered its allure during a stay at the lovely Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club. As part of the Noble House family of resorts, the PH&YC offers a boutique luxury vibe on a quiet edge of the Redondo King Harbor.

In the last 15 years or so, Riverdance has become a part of the lexicon of pop culture. Who were these quick-feet tap dancers, who stubbornly refused to use their arms in their dance and seem to bounce and bounce and bounce a lot? This new dance from Ireland was both intriguing and odd but no one could deny the illuminating presence of then dancer and choreographer Michael Flatley.

You can check my Production of the Year and Performance Awards posted earlier, but here are the rest of my top picks (and don’t miss my annual Orton-esque quote at the end) for the generally disappointing and continuously challenging past dozen months known as 2009, for whatever it all may be worth in a year that otherwise sucked the big one. Some redemptive value? As Stella Adler once said: “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.”

Everything is different Down Under.  While most of America hunkers down for a cold winter’s onslaught by mid-December, in Sydney they are wearing skimpy light clothing and enjoying a lovely summer.  I should know, I was there recently just as the Christmas season was getting into gear.

The late Heath Ledger was an ambassador and supporter of Australians in Film. A Scholarship has been established in his honor, to enable Australian actors to pursue their career in the U.S.  Jude Law, a great friend of Ledger, who appears in his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, was named as one of the Judges, along with casting director, John Papsidera (who cast Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight) and Susie Dobson, chair of the AIF.

It seems too soon for Ricky Jay to be doing a victory lap. Not that he won’t deserve one at some point, it just feels too soon. While already establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent sleight of hand artists, he has further spread his influence as an actor, author and consultant. The latter role has him advising filmmakers when there is a scam involved. The directors of The Illusionist and The Prestige, among others called in Jay and his Deceptive Practices company for advice.  Jay rendered ‘arcane knowledge on a need to know basis.’

Matt Walker and his troupe of Troubies continue their improbably consistent successful run of holiday comedies, blending Christmas storylines with a defined canon of music. In years past, the productions were “It’s a Stevie Wonderful Life” and “A Charlie James Brown Christmas.”  I am hopeful they will bring back a few shows I missed, like “A Christmas Carol King” or “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Motown” or “Little Drummer Bowie.”

Well, personally, 2009 basically blew for me. I spent the first half of it mostly in bed, watching perpetual Law and Order reruns and ingesting huge amounts of steroids that gave me cataracts and made me look like Jabba the Hut—all to combat a total of 18 months dealing with a nasty little Bernie Mac-killing respiratory ailment called sarcoidosis.

Jeff Bridges is getting a lot of attention lately. And he deserves it. He gives a huge performance in a little film calledCrazy Heart, which just might capture an Oscar for the four-time Academy Award nominee. Bridges plays Bad Blake, a hard-drinking, hard-living country singer who had fame and headlining gigs in the biggest arenas, and now is reduced to singing for small groups in bowling alleys.

The place to start the holiday hunt for glamour, glitz and gifts was the Shecky’s Girls Night Out experience which landed in the Los Angeles area just before Christmas. Set up at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, it was a three-day shopping event that had everything for fashionistas and glam gals looking for bargains.

Stephen J. Cannell, best selling author of fifteen novels and writer/producer of such famed series as The Rockford Files, The A-Team, and Wiseguy to name a few, was named Producer of the Year at the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This organization, founded 35 years ago by Producers Chuck Friesand Jerry Isenberg, provides grants to aspiring filmmakers, and provides mentorship to creative young students.

One of the greatest actors of our time, Al Pacino, and renowned ophthalmologist Gary N. Holland, M.D. received the prestigious Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel