Regional

OOH LA LA FOR LA CAGE AUX FOLLES If any gay activist ever derides this delightful musical, they would do well to remember just how radical La Cage aux Folles was when it hit Broadway in 1983 (the original play [1973] and film [1978] even more so). A third of a century later, it’s still…

SCHOOLED BY CALLAS If you’ve ever been to a master class, then Terrence McNally’s Master Class (1995) will seem very familiar. If you haven’t, then you’re in for a real eye-opener. A master class, as its name suggests, is a class given by an expert (or master) to students in a particular discipline, typically music,…

MARIINSKY BALLET &  ORCHESTRA DOUBLE DOSE Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet, one of the world’s most influential and historically rich dance companies, returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts September 24 – 27, 2015 opening the Center’s 30th Season with Raymonda. Performing with the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Gavriel Heine, this will be the company’s eighth visit to…

YOU CAN GO HOLMES AGAIN It turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks, proven by The Old Globe’s contemporary stage-spoof treatment of the classic 1901 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Longtime fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literature need not be skeptical: While Ken Ludwig’s adaptation’”in which three…

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…