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Theater Review: AIN’T TOO PROUD (Ogunquit Playhouse / Ogunquit, Maine)
TRAGEDY AND TEMPTATIONS The rise and fall of a hit machine Ain’t Too Proud tells the story of the rise of The Temptations, a musical group comprised of young Black men who came together in Detroit to form what became the most successful R&B band in history. The story begins like this: Following a six-month…
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Theater Review: ASCENT (Skylight Theatre / L.A.)
REACHING FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM Henry Ong’s final play transforms one man’s remarkable life into a timely cautionary tale Ascent is a small gem. It is not ostentatious enough to be affixed to the crown of some monarch, nor sumptuous enough to be a gaudy piece of “bling” dangling about some rapper’s neck, but it…
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Theater Review: TARTUFFE, OR, THE CHARLATAN (The Conspirators / Chicago)
PUNK, PRAYER, AND PURE CHAOS The Conspirators’ neo-commedia take on Molière finds fresh mischief in a timeless satire What could be better than a saucy, irreverent, seventeenth-century French farce? How about a saucy, irreverent, seventeenth-century French farce performed in the twenty-first century, that marries a punk aesthetic to a modern interpretation of a sixteenth-century Italian…
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Opera Review: ZORRO (Pacific Opera Project / San Gabriel Mission Playhouse)
THIS ZORRO NEVER LEAVES A MARK Pacific Opera Project’s lavish production can’t rescue an opera that rarely catches fire Pacific Opera Project gave composer-librettist Héctor Armienta’s 2022 opera, Zorro, a lavish Los Angeles premiere last weekend at San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. Alas, strong production value was not enough to put life into this instantly forgettable…
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Theater Review: CARLOTA: ALHAJERO DE SECRETOS (Latino Theater Company / LATC)
LORCA IN DRAG, WITH HIS CLAWS INTACT Rodrigo García and Ugho Badú reimagine a Spanish classic without dulling its edge Lorca wrote for women’s voices and then watched the world go silent on him. Carlota: Alhajero de Secretos (Carlota: Jewelry Box of Secrets) hands those voices to men, and the swap is the honest move….
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Theater Review: THE TARGETED (A Red Orchid Theatre / Chopin Theatre / Chicago)
SIGNALS IN THE STATIC A Red Orchid’s compelling world premiere favors empathy over satire, sometimes at the expense of deeper exploration Thus far, 2026 has been an uncommonly good year in Chicago for new work, bringing forth plays and musicals that push against the boundaries of theatre, in terms of both narrative and construction. The…
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Theater Review: PIPPIN (Signature Theatre / Arlington)
CORNER OF THE SKY, CENTER OF THE RING Signature’s dazzling revival embraces Pippin‘s whimsy, darkness, and enduring search for meaning A sort of ninth-century, one-ring circus crammed with presentational glee, Pippin has always been an unusual musical. Premiering in 1972 with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson, it…
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Broadway Review: CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Shubert Theatre)
READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF FAME Broadway’s funniest staged reading proves that truth is often stranger —and funnier—than fiction Yevgeny Yevtushenko famously wrote, “A poet’s autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.” Judging by the material on display at the opening night of Celebrity Autobiography, many celebrities probably should have stopped at…
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Theater Review: COVENANT (Goodman / Chicago)
THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA York Walker’s Southern Gothic keeps its secrets close and its audience on edge “Everybody got a secret” That is the line that opens Covenant, the gripping play by York Walker, now playing on the Owen stage at the Goodman. It is about as tight a summation as can be…
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Theater Review: (RE)DRESSING MISS HAVISHAM (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre)
GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OR GREAT DECEPTIONS? Miranda Jonte and playwright John Minigan turn Dickens into the subject of a witty and compelling literary cold case Despite the broken air-conditioning on a hot and sticky night, Miranda Jonte kept me engaged and curious with her spirited portrayal of both a literary sleuth and one of literature’s iconic…
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Theater Review: PICTURES FROM HOME (Marin Theatre / Mill Valley)
SAY CHEESE—AND PASS THE TRAUMA Sharr White’s adaptation of Larry Sultan’s memoir turns one California family into a deeply recognizable portrait of memory, regret, and love Now making its West Coast debut at Marin Theatre is a story with roots here in Marin County. Bay Area photographer Larry Sultan assembled a series of family photographs…
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Theater Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Theatre Rhinoceros / San Francisco)
WE ARE WHAT WE ARE Theatre Rhinoceros turns its intimate Castro venue into a joyous explosion of feathers, farce, and fierce self-acceptance Since 1977, Theatre Rhinoceros has produced theater celebrating the LGBTQ community. This month, they’re presenting the classic Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles. Originally written as a French play by Jean Poiret in…
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Theater Review: SCARAMOUCHE (City Lit Theater / Edgewater Presbyterian Church / Chicago)
EN GARDE, YOU FOOLS A spirited cast and plenty of swashbuckling fun can’t quite compensate for a forgettable score “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” That terrific sentence opens Rafael Sabatini’s 1921 novel Scaramouche. A smash hit on publication, this swashbuckling adventure has been adapted…
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Theater Review: BRIGADOON (Pasadena Playhouse)
BRIGADOON EARNS ITS MIRACLE Pasadena Playhouse’s revelatory new production treats Lerner and Loewe’s fable not as nostalgia, but as a question of faith, sacrifice, and survival Dormancy is a survival strategy. Seeds use it. Bears use it. A village in the Scottish Highlands uses it in Brigadoon, which premiered on Broadway in 1947 — the…
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Comedy Review: THE ARABISH IMPROV SHOW (The Arabic Theater Company / Balance Arts Center)
LOST IN TRANSLATION? NOT TONIGHT The Arabic Theater Company blends improv chaos, bilingual comedy, and cultural specificity into a fun night of laughs First, take eight appealing actors, all with roots in the Arab world. Add fluency in both English and Arabic. Throw in considerable comedic talent and a desire to “amplify Arab voices” in…
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Theater Review: THE HULA-HOOPIN’ QUEEN (Young People’s Theatre Chicago)
HOOP DREAMS IN HARLEM Young People’s Theatre closes its season with a charming, energetic celebration of childhood, friendship, and community In The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen, the stakes are very low; to an adult, that is. But if you’re a 10-year-old girl like Kameeka (or her friend Jamara), being crowned the Hula-Hoopin’ Queen of 139th Street is…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company at AMT Theater)
WHO KILLED EDWIN DROOD? WELL, IT’S UP TO THE AUDIENCE The musical whodunit is done with panache by the reliable J2 Musical Theater Company The unpleasant fact about life is that everybody dies. In 1870, before completing his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in which the title character dies—apparently by murder—the author himself…
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Theater Review: EXIT THE KING (A Noise Within / Pasadena)
LONG LIVE THE ABSURD Michael Michetti’s visually stunning staging transforms Ionesco’s meditation on death into a thing of eerie beauty It is rare, nowadays, when a play by the Romanian Godfather of absurdist theatre, Eugène Ionesco, is staged, and rarer still when it is staged well. That happy convergence can be currently experienced at the…
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Theater Review: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (The Bent / Palm Springs)
A LITTLE SHOW WITH A VERY BIG HEART The Bent’s first musical proves this company is ready for anything The Bent, Palm Springs’ queer theatre company, closes its fourth season with its first musical, A Man of No Importance — and what a debut it is. This intimate chamber piece proves the company’s trademark excellence…
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Theater Preview: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (Ebony Rep / Nate Holden Performing Arts Center / Los Angeles)
FATS WALLER’S JOINT IS JUMPIN’ AGAIN Ledisi and an all-star cast bring the Harlem Renaissance roaring back to life at the Nate Holden Center Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a sizzling celebration of Fats Waller’s music—songs that he made famous in a career that ranged from uptown clubs to downtown Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood and concert…
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