The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 60

LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR D3 John Dickerson joining CBS Slate magazine political correspondent John Dickerson wrote a book about his late mother, Nancy Dickerson, who was the first female correspondent for CBS News. Now following her lead. CBS on Monday announced hiring as a political analyst and contributor. Dickerson, 40, will join the analyst team of Bob Schieffer and Jeff Greenfield. He covered politics for Time magazine for 12 years before joining Slate, where he will continue to work along with doing the CBS job.

press Tolkien enters the e-book age Amajor new name has been added to the digital library: J.R.R. Tolkien. E-versions of the late multimillion-selling and Lord of the trilogy were released Monday, with Legend of Sigurd and planned for next month and other works expected before the end of the year, publisher HarperCol- lins announced. books, like other older works, were published well before the digital age and negotiations for e- rights are often time-consuming. Kill a and Streetcar Named are among the many classics still unavailable.

press Early return for fans will be happy to learn that ABC has decided to bring it back one week earlier than had been planned. The show will return April 30 with Betty (America Ferrera) still having a crush on Matt, and Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams) wondering if William is her biological son. The move means that which has been struggling in the ratings since the writers strike will go off the air indefinitely, along with new comedy the Mother- which has been plagued with behind-the- scenes problems for months, according to sources. Elena Fernandez Books fit for a prince and king Royalty is coming to bookstores. Prince Charles is working on a call for balance between and that HarperCollins has tentatively scheduled for next year, with a picture book version planned for 2011, the publisher said Monday.

Meanwhile, Penguin Group (USA) will release a memoir in 2010 by King Abdullah II. The book is called Last Best Chance: An Intimate Account of the Pursuit of Peace in a Time of In astatement Monday, Penguin called the book a narrative rich with human press Is goes are coming on down at Price Is In observance of Earth Day, episode of the CBS game show will feature environmentally friendly products including cellphones made of recycled materials and solar charging equipment. Environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr. will introduce a showcase that includes an electric bike, golf cart and Toyota Prius hybrid car. Trips offered during the show will be paired with donations to offset carbon emissions.

press QUICK TAKES Dan Brown novel due Dan new book, Lost will hit shelves Sept. 15, it was announced Monday by his publisher, Doubleday. Brown is the man behind the runaway bestsellers Da Vinci and With 81 million copies in print, Da Vinci is the bestselling hardcover adult novel of all time. Lost will again feature protagonist Robert Langdon and will continue historical-religious- conspiracy-thriller tradition. In a new twist, Brown has amped up the action the entire novel takes place in 12 hours.

novel has been a strange and wonderful Brown said in a statement. five years of research into the 12-hour time frame was an exhilarating challenge. Robert life clearly moves a lot faster than The news of Lost is particularly exciting for booksellers, been looking forward to follow-up to Da Vinci since its publication in 2003. Kellogg Patrick Harbron ABC NEW PLAN: America back April 30. latimes.com LAS VEGAS Cirque sorry about Angel Cirque du Soleil issued an apology Monday for inappropriate and disrespectful remarks at Friday performance of at the Luxor in Las Vegas.

The magician, who stars in the Cirque show, had gone off on celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who was in attendance. Read the details on the Movable Buffet blog at latimes.com/vegas TELEVISION OK to pick up a new reality show premiering tonighton MTV, is a treasure hunt dressed up in the clothes of an action film. Television critic Robert Lloyd says it works pretty well. Check out his review on the Show Tracker blog at latimes.com/showtracker Tomasz Rossa MAGICIAN: Criss Angel was rebuked for remarks. Pop music is the wallpaper of our lives.

And the delicate floral patterns designed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David define the lovesick mood of a bygone easy-listening era. Actually, the music never stopped, as the theatrical celebration to Bacharach and makes clear. The show, which opened Sunday at the Music Box Fonda, keeps pulling out the timeless hits, like a magician yanking endless multicolored scarves from the same canister. Inspired by the singular sultriness of Dionne Warwick, this songwriting team (Bacharach wrote the music, David the lyrics) proved remarkably adept at spinning out catchy melodies for moony sentiments about desire and dissatisfaction. Beyond the insinuating music, what distinguished the method was the suggestion of the same lonely ache before and during Say a Little and after on The production created by Steve Gunderson, who did the musical and vocal arrangements as well as the orchestrations, and actress Kathy Naji- my, who also directed is still in its warmup phase when Never Get to and and Boats and waft by.

This embarrassment of catalog riches is the main draw of this sprightly homage, which is lightly shaped into tongue-in-chic vignettes, many of them performed in the groovy garb of the hippie era. Pulsating with an onstage band led by musical director Ben Toth and genially choreographed by Javier Velasco, the show is less a jukebox musical than a goosey cabaret. A talented foursome approaches the music in a whimsical vein, never allowing reverence to grow clammy always a risk for material in which romance is the alpha and the omega. Diana DeGarmo, a runner- up on the third season of maintains a loopy go-go air as she sings her heart out. Tressa Thomas, who possesses the juiciest voice in the group, seems content to snatch spotlighted moments without milking anything.

Tom Lowe, another alum, and Susan Mosher, who was part of the original off-Broadway company, are content to hit all the right notes while playing the cut-ups. Images are projected onto a hanging screen not so much to illustrate lyrics as establish the right ambience a close-up of aflower, a civil rights rally and (for Keep Falling on My a poetic drizzle. Issues of gay and lesbian equality are highlighted in the running stream of progressive causes that flash by us, but like the show as a whole, nothing overbearing in the well- blended design. Truth be told, to Bacharach and threatens to underwhelm by its casual grace. The problem might be the quality of the amplification, which allow for an intimate connection with the different voices.

The room at the Music Box Fonda, which at the orchestra level is set up as a nightclub with little tables and acirculating wait-staff ready to take drink orders, is spacious, and the sound system invite personal exploration of these oft-interpreted songs. go in expecting to hear vintage version of You Know the Way to San or Karen patented to The renditions here are far more generalized, a group effort whose personality is collective rather than individual. But with such a gold mine of music, you go wrong if you stood on your head and sang these classics. And this capable quartet offers a tribute that is in the mellow spirit of the unbelievably rich Bacharach-David tradition. charles.mcnulty@latimes.com THEATER REVIEW Bacharach to basics Ann Johansson For The Times WHIMSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY: Diana DeGarmo, left, Tom Lowe and Susan Mosher in the to Bacharach and production in Hollywood at the Music Box Fonda.

Four singers deliver a sprightly homage to the pop music. CHARLES McNULTY THEATER CRITIC Hey, you bons vivants and connoisseurs of the amatory life! Are you looking for a grown-up, erotically charged entertainment that will tickle your libido, stimulate your imagination, engage your sense of humor and chase away those recessionary blues for a couple hours? Yeah, same here. Tweet me if you happen to find one. Meanwhile, have to make do with an intermittently amusing but utterly predictable and sotted soft-core revue that opened Sunday night at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. With a creative team led by the accomplished Broadway choreographer Jerry Mitchell Full and a cast headed by Mel a.k.a.

Scary Spice of the British pop group the Spice Girls, aroused a certain degree of pre-opening curiosity. Now that the Strip has abandoned the farcical marketing concept of Las Vegas as akid-friendly town, a kind of desert Disneyland with slot machines, it has turned its full attention to the feeding and pampering of those of legal age. At least in theory, that opens the door to a more sophisticated type of sensual entertainment, the kind that Cirque du Soleil aspired to with its flawed but admirably ambitious show. But this is a town that, when it comes to sex, still prefers the commercially tried and tested to the truly innovative. Accordingly, hauls out the familiar stag-show props and tropes sequins, pasties, thongs, smirking double-entendres and dresses them up with an itsy-bitsy story line about a blushing named Bo Peep (former Playboy Playmate and With the winner Kelly Monaco) being introduced to forbidden pleasures by a saucy mistress of ceremonies (Mel Apart from the flashing bare breasts, not much that follows in the naughty- fairy-tale scenarios would be at all new or shocking to the average U.S.

teenager. Cheerleaders, vampy school girls, pole dancers and a gal with a breathy voice and a fake bearskin rug all parade across the circular thrust stages, evincing varying levels of singing and dancing talent. The most engaging performer, by far, is Mel whose broad Northern England accent and teasingly bullying manner complement her character, a drill sergeant in the art of R-rated foreplay. Looking leaner and more muscly than she did when the Spice Girls were in their heyday, she brings a raunchy charisma to the production. But her spiky presence sufficient to raise above its calculated tameness and commercial juvenilia.

Musically, among the more inspired numbers is a tribute to pink that involves a male stooge, some light bondage, a bucket of paint and a crunching rock ditty. Composer Andrew Lippa, who penned the book, music and lyrics for the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Wild here dabbles in pop, rock, hip-hop and cabaret, and manages to rhyme with David Rockwell (scenic design) and Gregg Barnes (costumes) are able to manufacture a few pretty good sight gags but, as with choreography, the overall effect is more of watching an aerobics workout than an erotic adventure. Overall, suggests not so much a journey into the realm of the senses as a rerun of reed.johnson@latimes.com THEATER REVIEW Broadway goes soft-core in Vegas Darren Michaels CAST: Mel B. portrays a saucy, drill-sergeant-like mistress of ceremonies in the show at the Planet Hollywood Resort. The team has NYC pedigree but little sense of slyness.

Reed Johnson reporting from las vegas to Bacharach and Where: The Music Box Fonda, 6126 Hollywood Blvd, L.A. When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays.

(Call for exceptions.) Ends May 17. Price: $25 to $100 Contact: (800) 514-3849 or www.etix.com Running time: 1 hour, 10minutes.