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Theater Review: CIRQUE SHANGHAI: DRAGON’S THUNDER (Navy Pier)
A THUNDEROUS EVENT The “thunder” in Dragon’s Thunder comes from huge kettle drums, prominently featured in a pounding competition between a Dragon and a Tiger (both win). It’s one of 14 lyrical or awesome acts in 2013’s welcome edition of Navy Pier’s annual Skyline Stage spectacle: Cirque Shanghai, the Eastern answer to a rather different…
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Theater Review: ROUND ROCK (Theatre Unleashed at Studio/Stage)
WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER ROCK Since the first ship landed, since the first boot heel dug into the earth, since the first wagon ventured west, the American frontier has stirred the world’s imagination. And it is this very rich history that serves as the foundation for Theatre Unleashed’s newest production, Round Rock, now appearing…
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Theater Review: THE WHALE (South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa)
NOT WORTH THE WEIGHT The title of Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale refers to three things. The first is Charlie, a homebound, 600-pound tutor who instructs online classes in expository writing. Second is a student essay on Moby-Dick. The third is the biblical story of Jonah. At the top of South Coast Rep’s production, Charlie,…
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Theater Review: THE TROUBLE WITH WORDS (Coeurage Theatre Company at Lost Studio)
THE TROUBLE WITH THE TROUBLE WITH WORDS In 2011, I stumbled upon a refreshing new composer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The extraordinarily encouraging work in Gregory Nabours’ song cycle, The Trouble with Words, was thrilling. Comparable to the work of Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), the music, whether bouncy or haunting, incorporated innovative harmonies with…
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Theater Review: LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL (Porchlight)
THE LADY OF THE GARDENIAS Thanks to Lanie Robertson’s bedrock-basic script, Rob Lindley’s dedicated staging and the utter effacement of a good vocalist into a great one, courtesy of Alexis Rogers, Porchlight Music Theatre’s 90-minute revival pays full, if conditional, homage to Billie Holiday’s heroism and heartbreak. Unlike her famous “God Bless the Child,” Lady…
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Theater Review: TRACK 3 (Theatre Movement Bazaar at Bootleg)
RUSHIN’ RUSSIAN Track 3 at the Bootleg Theater is a peculiar sort. Richard Alger’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic Three Sisters is better described as a transmogrification of the text. The play centers on sisters Olga, Masha, Irina, and their brother, Andrei. Dissatisfied with life in a provincial town, they all share a yearning to…
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Theater Review: THE MUSIC MAN (The Paramount)
ONE RIVER CITY DESERVES ANOTHER If ever a show spelled out summer, it’s Meredith Willson’s 1957 masterpiece The Music Man. Throughout the rollicking story the title character exudes sunny optimism and buoyant confidence, a contagious flimflam that “Professor” Harold Hill wants to believe as much as the suckers who take it in. For four magical…
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Theater Review: WAR HORSE (National Tour)
AN IMPRESSIVE PUPPET, A SOMEWHAT FOGGY STORY War Horse is all about Joey, a 120 lb. puppet made of bent and stained cane and animated by three puppeteers. Their movements become the breathing of the horse; their voices become his neighs, whether they are pleasure or pain. Towering at 8 feet tall and just under…
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Theater Review: INTIMATE APPAREL (Pasadena Playhouse)
BEST TO LOOK AT THE QUILT AS A WHOLE, NOT THE INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS Intimate Apparel is a delicate but persuasive play about Esther (Vanessa Williams), a gifted black seamstress in 1905 who begins a series of missives with George (David St. Louis), a strapping, fetching, and younger Caribbean man working on the Panama Canal. The…
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Theater Review: SISTER ACT (National Tour)
NUNBEARABLE If there’s one thing I hate, it’s to see a classic movie adapted for the stage for no apparent reason. Instead of transferring the heart and sassiness that made the movie Sister Act such a classic film, the makers of the Broadway musical, now on its national tour at the Auditorium Theatre, decided to…
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Theater Review: DEATH OF A SALESGIRL (Bootleg Theater)
BETTER THAN THIN MINTS FROM A GIRL SCOUT The World Premiere of Patricia Scanlon’s Death of a Salesgirl is a must-see surreal tragicomedy presented by The Bootleg Theater. Its fresh and innovative use of space coupled with its inspired use of integrated multimedia make the already powerful piece that much more immediate to today’s attention…
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Theater Review: 44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS (The Neo-Futurarium in Chicago)
PRESIDENTIAL AFFAIR OR LAME DUCK? Every four years, the American people come together to debate important issues, engage in democratic dialogue, and realize they agree on absolutely nothing. All they can agree on is the importance of who will be the next President. The Chief Executives, powerful and sometimes power-hungry men, are the subject of…
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Theater Review: THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA (A Noise Within)
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED Even though the legislation for a public health care option passed by Democratic majority in Congress, matters of wellness and proper treatment are anxieties that still plague the hearts, souls, and minds of all mortal individuals. It concerns us greatly because we hunger to make the most of our lives;…
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Theater Review: KRAPP’S LAST TAPE (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City)
LIKE THE LAST, AND THE ONE BEFORE THAT About twenty minutes into John Hurt’s solo performance Wednesday, the character Krapp’s voice on tape said, “Extraordinary silence tonight.” And as the live actor playing Krapp and the capacity house at the Kirk Douglas Theatre listened intently to this recorded mention of silence, a real live watch…
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Theater Review: BLACK N BLUE BOYS/BROKEN MEN (Goodman Theatre in Chicago)
A STORY TO TELL Writer/Actress Dael Orlandersmith has many stories to tell in her one-person show at the Goodman, but they all encompass the same theme: abuse. Specifically, involving boys and men, both the abusers and those who have been abused’”physically and sexually. The fictional characters are channeled through Orlandersmith, a powerful writer who is…
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Theater Review: THE OTHER PLACE (Magic Theatre in San Francisco)
THE PUZZLE BOX OF THE SOUL Critics should avoid discussing plot in their reviews, but playwright Sharr White has unintentionally placed a challenge before me: Because the play is a labyrinthine unraveling from the start, divulging any but the slightest bit of plot may irrevocably alter your experience. What I can tell you is that…
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Broadway Review: CHAPLIN (Ethel Barrymore)
WHAT’CHA GONNA DO? In a poignant moment in Act II of the new musical Chaplin, cultural icon Charlie Chaplin realizes that life is not a movie. One has to take the tears with the laughter, and there is no guarantee of a happy ending. As it turns out, life is not really a musical either….
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Theater Review: BLAGOJEVICH, BLAGOJEVICH! (Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago)
NOT REALLY, NOT REALLY! The most pressing question I had walking out of Athenaeum Theatre’s Blagojevich, Blagojevich! was “Was that really necessary?” We’re already familiar with the long, hysterical end of Rod Blagojevich’s career’”a thing so jam-packed with comedy on its own that a show dedicated to making fun of it seems redundant. Still, there…
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Theater Review: THE GRÖNHOLM METHOD (Falcon Theatre)
CORPORATE FOUR-PLAY As the audience files into the Falcon Theater for The Grönholm Method, the sleek, stark and sterile meeting room of Fortune 500 company Burnham + Burnham is in full view, courtesy of Brian Webb’s beautifully realized set design. You’re not sure why, but its crisp corporate cleanliness—complete with designer water bottles, sparkling crystal…
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Theater Review: MARY POPPINS (National Tour at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles)
PRACTICAL PERFECTION There is a good-natured pragmatism at work in the stage musical version of the film classic Mary Poppins, now back in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson through September 2. It knows what we want it to be, and in almost every case, it gives it to us happily; with meticulous care and affection’”and…
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