San Diego

THIS IS GREAT THEATER. TRUST ME. Reviewers across the country have honored the 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Primary Trust with many positive adjectives, like “touching” and “deeply affecting.” But one adjective comes closer to the mark in describing the Eboni Booth drama: mesmerizing. The show is receiving its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla…

ATTEND THIS TALE: IT’S MURDER Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical filled with gore, brutality, hate, and vengeance. But the show, as composed by the great Stephen Sondheim, became a major Broadway hit after it opened in 1979 and has since been revived on Broadway, in opera houses and throughout…

DRAC-OOH-LA-LA The play Dracula, in its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe is subtitled A Comedy of Terrors. It’s unlikely that viewers will be terrified by the show, but as for “Comedy,” it’s laughs all the way. Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, riding the praise heaped on them for their satire of Dostoevsky’s Crime…

THE IMPORTANCE OF SEEING THIS IMPORTANCE Is there a funnier comedy in the English language than Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest? Since it opened in London in 1895 the play has astonished audiences with its dazzling wit, charming characters. and clever plot. Lamb’s Players Theatre has taken on the challenge of reviving this…

BOY, OH JERSEY BOY, IS THIS SHOW EVER GREAT In 2004, a new musical called Jersey Boys quietly debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse. It transferred to Broadway the next year, running for 12 years while road productions popped up worldwide. It’s now back for a short run at the California Center for the Arts…

A BRIDGE TO GREAT THEATER Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge may be a small play physically, with a single drab set and just five significant characters. But it builds from a sympathetic beginning to a shattering violent conclusion in the spot-on production played to the hilt at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. The…

DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THE PLOT, AND YOU’LL HAVE A BLAST In 1973, a rock musical called The Rocky Horror Show opened in London and ran until 1980 as other productions of the show blossomed throughout the world. One source estimated that the show was eventually performed in 20 languages for 30 million people. The…

ALL ABOARD FOR MURDEROUS FUN Agatha Christie fans rejoice! There is a new Christie adventure in a terrific production at The Old Globe, a novel/play hybrid of one of the Dame’s most popular novels, the 1934 best seller Murder on the Orient Express. Opening last night, this imaginative production blends the original novel with comic…

EXTRA! EXTRA! SING ALL ABOUT IT! Wildsong Productions is back with a rousing production of Newsies, doing the best they can with a so-so-script. In Harvey Fierstein’s stage book adaptation of the same-titled 1992 Disney musical film, we meet a group of impoverished young men, most of whom are orphans. Inspired by a true story…

HEADS. WILL. ROLL. The Revolutionists  is feminist history laced with an argument for the value of art in revolution. Playwright Lauren Gunderson (The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Exit, Pursued by a Bear) describes it as a “comedic quartet about four women at the height of the Reign of Terror. Liberté, égalité… sororité.” In Lamplighters Community…

DRAGTACULAR Velour at the La Jolla Playhouse subtitles itself “A Drag Extravaganza” and for 105 uninterrupted minutes it validates the label with a smorgasbord of song, dance, film, projections, animation, circus stunts, and narration. It’s primarily a one-person show but if any entertainer can shoulder such a load, it’s the inimitable Sasha Velour, who has…

The Coronado Playhouse is currently presenting Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a one-act 80-minute play by American dramatist Lauren Gundersen. who is one of the most successful writers on the American theater scene, with more than 25 staged productions since the early 2010s. Yet after the first half hour, I was ready to give up…

IF LOOKS COULD KILL : The strength of a person’s spirit would then be measured by how much ‘truth’ he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Best friends (and sometimes lovers) Nathan and Richard decide, because of their extreme intelligence…

YOU CAN GO HOLMES AGAIN! The world obviously cannot get enough of Sherlock Holmes. Since the first story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appeared in 1887, the immortal fictional private detective has appeared in countless books, films, plays, and television shows, with Dr. Watson as his faithful friend and chronicler. But there is always room…