Milo Shapiro

READY, SET, SPONGE! A colorful musical that’s tailor-made for kids and SpongeBob devotees SpongeBob SquarePants debuted on Nickelodeon in 1999 and was a quick success, becoming a must-watch for kids and many college students. The animated series became a multibillion-dollar global hit, yielding spin-offs, movies, and this musical adaptation now on at Cygnet Theatre titled,…

SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG SONG Megan Carmitchel delivers a knockout performance in Backyard Renaissance’s latest gem During a recent move, I handed down dozens of DVDs. One I couldn’t part with was 1998’s Little Voice, featuring Brenda Blethyn’s exquisite performance. So, imagine my excitement—and trepidation given my esteem of the film—when I learned…

WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS HOMBRE Tony Meneses explores the hidden costs of masculinity with humor, compassion, and insight For centuries, women and gay men have fought to carve out power in a world largely shaped by straight men, within systems built by and for them. But straight men often wrestle with a different…

THE WOMEN LEFT OFFSTAGE Lauren Gunderson reclaims Shakespeare’s sidelined women in a sharp, emotionally intelligent companion piece to Hamlet The women in Hamlet exist largely to reflect Hamlet’s choices and actions. They are little more than props to propel the plot, with no backstory or motivation. Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson clearly feels frustration at this…

HOW TO SUCCEED IN PRODUCING A MUSICAL Offices tend not to be much fun, which is why they are ripe for exploring undertones of emotion and comedy in scripts like Office Space, Working Girl, 9 to 5, and NBC’s The Office. Throw in some music (okay, a LOT of music) and dynamic choreography and you’ve got a…

HOPE WITH CALLOUSED HANDS: A QUIET MASTERPIECE REVISITED John Steinbeck’s play Of Mice and Men came quickly after the success of his novella by the same name. In fact, the play opened on Broadway in 1937 while the book was still on best sellers lists. In each telling, Steinbeck draws upon his own teenage experiences…

WHEN THE DEAD STILL RUN THE ROOM Grief, memory, and the long shadow of unfinished business In this play of four characters, a fifth looms large, though never seen: the titular Louisa, late wife to Steven (James Sutorius), mother to Celia (Faline England), and grandmother to Lucy (Caroline Renee). She’s been dead for nearly forty…

A NEIGHBORLY NICE LADY— WITH BUZZ ALDRIN IN HER HEAD Susan Clausen shines in Ian August’s funny, surreal one-woman ride Reading the press blurb about Donna Orbits the Moon left me scratching my head, wondering what it was actually about. Having seen it now, I get why. Some shows are hard to describe well. That…

A VINTAGE-STYLE HOLIDAY CONCERT A warmly nostalgic night of classic music, crooning, and dance Imagine that it’s 1962. You and your spouse decide to get a sitter and go down to the “club” because they’re featuring an upbeat Christmas music show with dancers and a small live band. If the club did the show really…

THE SOUP OF THE DAY IS A DARK BROTH INDEED There’s a game some couples play when they’re out and about: they make up lives about the strangers they see in places like diners. Part of what makes it work is that they’re never actually going to know a thing about those people. Until playwright/director…

NOSTALGIA LOADED — AND EYE SAFETY ENSURED The 1983 film A Christmas Story may not have been universally crowned a “classic” when it premiered, its near-universal popularity and nostalgic look back at Christmas in 1940 have long since earned it that status. San Diego Musical Theatre brings back the musical version in which we meet…

HER MIND, OUR MEMORY Kenneth Lonergan’s family fissures hit hard in Backyard Renaissance’s intimate staging What an incredibly robust month November has been for smaller theaters in San Diego: the fun of To My Girls at Diversionary; a gloriously intense one-woman performance in Beauty’s Daughter at OnWord; a delicious character study in Master Class at…

BEAUTY GETS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP Beauty’s Daughter is a one-woman play by Dael Orlandersmith that centers on Diane, a young Black woman growing up in East Harlem, as she navigates a world marked by violence, beauty, trauma, and resilience. Marti Gobel portrays six different characters consecutively before returning to the first one, Diane. No…

CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being difficult, petulant, and opinionated only served to heighten people’s interest in her and boost her fame, as did her very public love life, including a…

A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT—FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people’s views on social issues, including class structure. In his Arms and the Man, there’s a clear message of celebrating the letting go of putting on airs, as well as a hard look at…

SMALL IS EPIC In his exceptional how-to book Storyworthy, author and storyteller Matthew Dicks advises us to stop recounting tales that few can relate to — like the time you climbed Mt. Everest — and instead share stories that help others see themselves in similar moments. That’s how a story connects. Robert Montano does exactly…