Regional

A FULL-ON KISS Everything is so dang perfect about the construction of Kiss Me, Kate that it’s doubly amazing when a revival comes along to match that perfection. With some of the most boffo talent you are likely to encounter on stage, director Darko Tresnjak and choreographer Peggy Hickey (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and…

YOUR PURSUIT IS OVER In writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson borrowed a phrase from 17th century English philosopher John Locke, who spoke of “life, liberty and property,” property perhaps being the key to happiness in the age of servants and nobility. But Locke had plenty to say about happiness in one of his…

TWELFTH NIGHT LANDS AT THE OLD GLOBE A comedy’s brewing up in the rehearsal rooms of The Old Globe. Soon, winds will whip, distressed voices will call out and a ship’s timbers will be shivering, cracking, and smashing against a coastline’”all in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre of course. Two castaways’”the lady Viola and the…

PREGNANT PAUSE A loving, liberal, and somewhat quirky childless couple, Craig and Katie, discovers that the only option to have their own baby is to implant her egg and his sperm in another woman. But fertilization in the States is pricey, so the surrogate mother will be Indian. The rented womb belongs to Saraiya, who…

TWO GREAT ART FORMS IN ONE Dido and Aeneas is a Greek myth of grand proportions, perfect for adaptation into an opera. English Baroque composer Henry Purcell and librettist Nahum Tate did just that. The exact composition date is surmised, but we know that Purcell’s first opera was performed for the first time at an…

TAKING PRIDE La Mirada Theatre has truly been on a roll, proving what a jewel this regional theater is to Southern California. After a bold interpretation of the musical version of Carrie, La Mirada announces their first-ever World Premiere musical’”the fourth show of their 2014-2015 season’”the runaway hit of the New York Musical Theatre Festival,…

IT IS A FARCE FARCE BETTER THING THEY DO… Boeing-Boeing — the delicious comedic confection currently gracing the Coronado Playhouse stage — soars to hilarious heights as it buoyantly brings to life that most demanding of theatrical genres: the frenetic French bedroom farce. Brilliantly headed by the show’s leading player, James Lamberti as Robert, the…

NEW MUSICAL IN RIGHT DIRECTION, BUT NEEDS TO UNLOCH MORE Fostered completely under the roof of the Chance from conception to premiere, Loch Ness is a new musical developed specifically for the space and cast at the Anaheim theater, a rare trajectory observed in the theater world these days. With lyrics/book by A.D. Penedo and…

THEATRICAL TRICKERY TRUMPS A TRAGIC TALE Cheeky, goofy and sassy, Tristan & Yseult at South Coast Rep affectionately mocks and contemporizes a classic love tragedy and literary legend while respecting English performing arts tradition, from music-hall and panto to Peter Sellers and Ealing Studios. This irrepressible import from Kneehigh, that brassy Cornish theater company which…

EXCITING QUARTET COMES TO SEGERSTROM I’ve been on a chamber music kick for about four years now. From intimate salons in living rooms to concert halls, I’m discovering composers I’ve never heard of who have’â€for reasons beyond their amazing work’â€frustratingly not become ensconced in the repertoire. I’ve also been introduced to pieces by well-known composers…

IT DOESN’T SUCK TO BE AVENUE Q AT CORONADO In the right setting, irreverence is so jovial. Perhaps our era of thought-police and political correctness has made it delicious to pervert that which seems simple and pure solely for the sake of entertainment, but musicals such as The Producers and The Book of Mormon are…

HOT AUGUSTIN NIGHT In the past five years, I have encountered only a handful of fresh-to-the-scene classical soloists who completely enraptured’”those who combine the old-school magnetic quality of superlative technique with energetic experimentation, soul, and discovery. Among the electrifying performers that have made me literally lean forward in my seat are cellist Alisa Weilerstein and…

EVERYBODY LOVES SHE LOVES ME I’ll be the first to admit that it may be impossible to create a bad production of the 1963 jewel-box musical She Loves Me. This perfect show, based on the 1937 play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo, is so resplendent, so charming, and so well-constructed that a 2011 gathering of literati…

A NEW WORLD OF DVOŘíK AT SEGERSTROM Decca just released a 6-CD box set by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) of the complete symphonies and concertos of Antoní­n Dvořák, and I don’t remember when I’ve been quite so taken with such an utterly certified interpretation of Dvořák’s work. Not only is the recording quality impeccable,…