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Tony Frankel
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Recommended Off-Broadway: HELL’S KITCHEN (The Public Theater)
GREAT STUFF IS COOKING IN THIS KITCHEN The world premiere of new coming-of-age musical, HELL’S KITCHEN, with music and lyrics by New York’s own 15-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and playwright Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety), now in previews at The Public Theater with the official opening on November 19, 2023….
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Theater Review: OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD (Kirk Douglas Theatre)
OUR DEAR DEAD PLAYWRIGHTING In Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, which opened last Sunday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, feral feminism from sociopathic fledglings starts out fantastic but goes off the rails in a burst of magical realism. What could have been a complex, smart exploration of loss, idol worship, and teen angst is in…
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Recommended Immersive Haunted Experience: THE INITIATION (Into The Dark at the San Francisco Mint)
PREPARE TO BE INITIATED Into The Dark’”the Bay Area production company spawned from the creative, twisted minds of Peaches Christ, David Flower Productions, and Non Plus Ultra’”will present The Initiation, a brand-new, fully immersive haunted experience opening at The San Francisco Mint (88 5th St.). Performances will take place Wednesday–Sunday evenings beginning Friday, September 29 and continuing through Sunday, October 31. Patrons must be 18+…
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Streaming Classical: YUJA WANG, DUDAMEL & LA PHIL (Rachmaninoff’s Four Piano Concertos & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini)
Amazing Performances of Rachmaninoff’s Four Piano Concertos & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Recorded Live at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Yuja Wang are now available streaming for free The Los Angeles Philharmonic today released a free Sound/Stage series — a six-episode online cycle of Rachmaninoff 150, performed by Yuja Wang, Gustavo Dudamel and…
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Theater Review: THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS (Getty Villa Outdoor Theatre in Malibu)
THE GOSPEL AT GETTY Created by Lee Breuer and Bob Telson, The Gospel at Colonus — a Greek tragedy turned Pentecostal revival — had its original 1983 production at the fBrooklyn Academy of Music in New York with Morgan Freeman as the preacher and the great Blind Boys of Alabama as Oedipus. If, you’ve never…
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Theater Review: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica)
AN UNSTOPPABLE TRAJECTORY Ruskin Group Theatre‘s season-opener, a landmark drama from 1955, exploded into relevance last Friday night. A rarity worth a return, Arthur Miller’s drama of an inevitable domestic tragedy focuses on the family and the neighborhood in which they live. The strengths are compassion for the characters; a plot that’s both relentless and…
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Streaming Opera: THE FACTOTUM (Free Viewing of Cinematic Version from Lyric Opera of Chicago)
LYRIC OFFERS FREE STREAMING OF HIT OPERA, THE FACTOTUM Stage and Cinema‘s review of The Factotum claimed that this Lyric Opera world premiere was redefining opera for the 21st century. “The Factotum celebrates the joys and struggles of African Americans living on the south side of Chicago. Created primarily by Will Liverman and DJ King Rico (who both perform in the…
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Recommended Theater: CABARET (The Old Globe)
CABARET JUST GETS BETTER WITH AGE Cabaret was and remains one of the boldest and most innovative experiments in the history of musical theater, a ravishing work that has neither lost its power nor its pertinence no matter what one does with it. (If you think you’ve seen Cabaret because you saw the movie, you don’t…
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Extras: CAN CELLUAID BE USED DURING PREGNANCY OR WHILE BREASTFEEDING?
Due to the possible hazards linked with some of the components in anti-cellulite creams, pregnant women should use care while considering them. Making open contact with medical experts a priority enables educated choice-making about appropriate skin care throughout pregnancy. Keep in mind that while taking the best possible care of both mother and baby’s health,…
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Recommended Theater: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING (Rogue Machine at The Matrix Theatre)
A HEROIC PLAY Days after the white-supremacist riot in Charlottesville, four old friends gather for a reunion at their conservative Catholic alma mater in Wyoming. The four young conservatives have gathered at a backyard after-party to toast their mentor Gina, newly inducted as president of a tiny Catholic college. But as their reunion spirals into spiritual chaos…
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Off-Broadway Recommendation: MECCA IS BURNING (Negro Ensemble Company)
A composite play by four playwrights, Mecca Is Burning — which closes Sunday at the Harlem School of the Arts — confronts social and racial themes through the use of protest poetry, dialogue and monologues examining our current social climate from the perspective of four fictional Harlem families. The work was collaboratively written by Cris…
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Recommended Film: PIGEON SHRINE FRIGHTFEST (Festival, August 24-28, 2023, at Cineworld Leicester Square, London)
FrightFest, the UK’s biggest, best and most beloved community-driven horror & fantasy film festival, returns in a blaze of gory glory to the Cineworld Leicester Square, London, for its 24th edition, this year with pioneering technology & entertainment company Pigeon Shrine as its headline sponsor. *** CHEAT Running from Thursday to Monday, August 24-28, 2023,…
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Theater Review: LES MISÉRABLES (National Tour)
DON’T MIZ IT Unlike most of the characters in the blockbuster sung-through musical Les Misérables, the show itself will never die. Consistently presented either on Broadway, national tours, and globally since the English-language version opened on the West End in 1985, audiences can’t get enough of Victor Hugo’s story about ex-con and do-gooder Jean Valjean and…
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Theater Review: PIPELINE (Art of Acting Studio)
A PIPELINE TO THE TROUBLED SOUL One of our era’s greatest dramatists, Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew, Ain’t Too Proud) sheds light on the complicated realities of urban African-American communities. Her 2017 Pipeline, which opened last night at The Art of Acting Studio, concerns Nya Joseph (beautifully underplayed by Fadhia Carmelle Marcelin), a divorced mom and teacher…
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Theater Review: CRABS IN A BUCKET (World Premiere by Echo Theatre Company at Atwater Theater)
CRAB’S LAST TAPE Ah, Theatre of the Absurd. a place where characters can grapple with existentialism, that which is the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. Well, not always people. In the case of Crabs in a Bucket, it’s, well, crabs….
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Theater Review: CABARET (Wildsong Productions at The Ocean Beach Playhouse, San Diego)
PERFECTLY MARVELOUS You better tell Momma and everybody else to come see Wildsong’s production of Cabaret, which opened last weekend in Ocean Beach. When you take into consideration that this is “community theater” on a shoestring budget, it is nothing short of miraculous that this incarnation has some of the most indelible moments of any…
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Theater Review: PIPPIN (North Coast Repertory)
GOOD NEWS: PIPPIN‘S A PIP Some shows stay young by never growing up: With a book by Roger O. Hirson, this 1972 hit show originally directed by Bob Fosse is the perfect example of a musical that’s saved by its spirit and songs — those cheeky and sophisticated tunes by Stephen Schwartz got more than…
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Recommended Theater: GROUP THERAPY (Theatre 68)
THEATER AS THERAPY The waiting room at a psychiatrist’s office is an emotional airlock between the chaos of the outside world and the sanctuary of the therapy office. It’s public yet private, a shared place of solitude. It’s a space to transition and collect your breath as well as your thoughts and feelings while entering…
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Theater Review: THE TEMPEST (Antaeus Theatre Co.)
THE TEMPEST AS RADIO PLAY One can only wonder why productions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest have been sprouting up like magical vines in the jungle. Is it because the tale is about revenge as much as it is about redemption? What I can say is this: When the sorcerer Prospero discards his magic staff and…
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Theater Review: THE ANTS (Geffen Playhouse)
ANTSY The subject of “haves” and “have-nots” in the theater is nothing new, having been explored from The Greeks to Molière. More recent hallmarks are the Industrial Age’s The Hairy Ape by O’Neill; Odets’ Depression era Awake and Sing!; and John Osbourne’s “Angry Young Man” hurled in the world’s consciousness in Look Back in Anger….
Off-Broadway Review: THE MAIDS (St. Ann’s Warehouse / Brooklyn)
by Gregory Fletcher | May 27, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (TimeLine Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 27, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: LE BAL (Trap Door Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 26, 2026
in Chicago, Theater
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