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Theater Review: ||: GIRLS :||: CHANCE :||: MUSIC :|| (American Conservatory Theater’s Strand Theater)
FINDING THEIR VOICE A thoughtful coming-of-age story that avoids the usual clichés American Conservatory Theater’s Strand Theater on Market Street tends to showcase new playwrights and emerging voices, in contrast to its mainstage on Geary Street, which features more traditional fare. Currently on offer is Girls: Chance: Music: by Eisa Davis, a world premiere co-production…
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Theater Review: WHITE ROOSTER (Lookingglass Theatre)
FOLKLORE, GHOSTS, AND THE WEIGHT OF THE DEAD Matthew C. Yee’s wildly ambitious world premiere dazzles, even as its larger shape remains elusive Death, and coming to terms with it, have been fertile ground for the theatre since its inception. In White Rooster, multi-hyphenate Matthew C. Yee—he writes! He directs! He acts! He composes!—examines death…
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Theater Review: MONTE CRISTO (The York Theatre)
A HANDSOME, AMBITIOUS REVENGE MUSICAL TAKES SHAPE Strong design and performances elevate Dumas’ tale, even as tonal shifts occasionally blur its focus The York Theatre’s ambitious world premiere of the new musical Monte Cristo stages Alexandre Dumas’ revenge-driven tale of Edmond Dantès (Adam Jacobs), an innocent man wrongfully imprisoned by a corrupt system and betrayed…
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Theater Review: THE BEST BOARDING HOUSE IN DELAWARE (Electric Lodge)
HOME IS WHERE THE HORROR IS A boarding house of quiet menace and killer detail Writer/director Marja-Lewis Ryan is back, and her latest show arrives at The Electric Lodge in Venice with a killer premise and, thankfully, a production that knows exactly how to serve it: not with winks or indulgence, but with precision, restraint,…
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Off-Broadway Review: ABOUT TIME (Marjorie S. Dean Little Theater)
GETTING OLDER NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD A richly satisfying Maltby and Shire revue finds warmth, wit, and wisdom in growing older Lynne Wintersteller, Sally Wilfert, Allyson Kaye Daniel While it may be true that getting old (excuse me, getting older) is no picnic, a taste of that period of life is more palatable—even sweet—when accompanied…
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Theater Review: CHICAGO (Desert Theatricals)
CHICAGO IS EVEN HOTTER IN THE DESERT Desert Theatricals just wrapped up their run of Chicago at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater, and if you weren’t there this past weekend, you truly missed out on a spectacular night under the stars. It’s one thing to see this show in a traditional theater, but there’s something about…
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Off-Broadway Review: BIGFOOT! (New York City Center Stage 1)
BIGFOOT! BRINGS DOWNTOWN MUSICAL MISCHIEF UPTOWN A raunchy, campy comedy with big laughs, big fur, and a surprisingly sharp anti-capitalist bite It’s not every day downtown theater energy comes uptown; when it does, it’s almost always sanitized and robbed of the charm and authenticity that made it so deliciously twisted in the first place. Luckily,…
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Opera Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Lyric Opera)
A REIMAGINED BUTTERFLY WHERE REALITY MEETS FANTASY What is it about Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) that lures audiences back year after year, especially in the United States? Madama Butterfly might be one of the few canonical operas featuring an American character (Pinkerton), but it is by no means a flattering portrait of him. The…
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Theater Review: SUNSET BLVD. (Palm Canyon Theatre)
READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP IN PALM SPRINGS Palm Canyon Theatre’s Sunset Blvd. finds a commanding Norma Desmond and a powerful ensemble Se Layne Although Andrew Lloyd Webber turned Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film noir Sunset Blvd. into a musical almost three decades ago, it is not tackled by schools or community theatres very often for…
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Theater Review: FAIRVIEW (Rogue Machine Theatre)
WHEN COMFORT TURNS INTO A TRAP Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer-winning play dismantles what we think we’re watching Marie-Françoise Theodore, iesha m. daniels Writing honestly about Fairview without ruining it is close to a contradiction in terms. The play runs on surprise, on jolts timed so precisely that a critic who telegraphs them is doing active…
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Theater Review: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre)
AIN’T NOTHING DROWSY ABOUT THIS CHAPERONE Theo Ubique’s joyous revival of the Tony-winning musical turned this critic into a tap-dancing, high-kicking fool. Darian Goulding as Aldolpho In a cozy, well-used apartment, a small man sits in a comfortable armchair. With his brow furrowed and his voice riddled with anxiety, he talks to us about music….
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Theater Review: AN ACT OF GOD (Roustabouts Theatre Company at Scripps Ranch Theatre)
LORD HAVE MERCY! Roustabouts Theatre’s irreverent comedy lets Samantha Ginn unleash a hilariously blunt deity Samantha Ginn Playwright David Javerbaum pulls no punches in this hysterical, irreverent look at the heavenly father (now a mother) and her two angel sidekicks. The play borders on blasphemous, and if this would bother you, move right along because…
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Theater Review: THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE (Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs)
If you were lucky enough to be in the audience at the historic Palm Springs Plaza Theatre on Friday evening, you witnessed something rarer—and more electric—than a standard play. The second installment of the inaugural rePLAY series delivered a “script-in-hand” performance of Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife that proved, beyond a doubt,…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE PAPARAZZI (AMT Theater)
EXTRA! EXTRA! SING ALL ABOUT IT A musical about paparazzi culture delivers energy and tunes but could stand to sharpen its storytelling Brogan Nelson, Jack Rasmussen The new musical The Paparazzi, now playing at AMT Theater, takes aim at celebrity gossip culture with a story about ambition, scandal, and the price of chasing headlines. To…
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Theater Review: WAIT UNTIL DARK (Greater Boston Stage Company)
DARK VICTORY Disability transformed in a gripping and tension-filled noir Director Weylin Symes provides unerring direction of the classic thriller Wait Until Dark at the Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, Massachusetts. This modern adaptation of the 1966 Broadway play by Frederick Knott enjoys superb sound (Caroline Eng) and lighting design (Jeff Adelberg) to transform…
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Theater Review: THE ANTIQUITIES (SpeakEasy Stage at Boston Center for the Arts)
WE WON’T KNOW WHAT WE’VE GOT ‘TIL IT’S GONE An exploration of what it means to be human through the consciousness of the machines we created SpeakEasy Stage presents the New England premier of Jordan Harrison’s The Antiquities in a groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and poignant production directed by Alex Lonati. Nine actors take on more than…
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Off-Broadway Review: ZACK (Mint Theater Company)
EDWARDIAN ANXIETIES, COMEDIC COMFORT A rediscovered British comedy reminds us that decency—not money or status— may be the most radical virtue of all When the news of war grows terrifying, a trip back to the 1920s can be reassuring: if people got through that bloody era, we should be able to cope with ours. And…
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Off-Broadway Review: BUGHOUSE (Vineyard Theatre on East 15th St)
COME FOR THE PROJECTIONS, STAY FOR THE… PROJECTIONS (AND HAVE AN EDIBLE) A dazzling design team conjures Henry Darger’s imagination while the script drifts somewhere offstage I suppose when Martha Clarke proposes an idea for a theater production at this point in her illustrious career, the powers that be must grant her every blessing: no…
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Theater Review: HEDDA GABLER (The Old Globe)
BEAUTIFUL, BORED, AND BENT ON DESTRUCTION A brisk new adaptation of Ibsen’s classic showcases Katie Holmes’s ferocious Hedda—while questioning the modern impulse to excuse her behavior The Old Globe is staging Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler in a streamlined adaptation by Erin Cressida Wilson. First performed in 1891, the play has seen countless English-language productions, usually…
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Theater Review: IN PURSUIT OF (Sub Rosa Theatre Collective at Greenhouse Theatre Center)
CRIME, PUNISHMENT, AND TOO MANY SET CHANGES A sharp modern riff on Dostoevsky boasts strong performances and ideas, but it’s a production that won’t stop getting in its own way The opening scene of Zoé Soteres’s In Pursuit Of is a case study in narrative efficiency. A young man steps into a disheveled room with…
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