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Theater Review: “MASTER HAROLD” …AND THE BOYS (Geffen Playhouse)
MASTER PRODUCTION During the last half-hour of the exquisitely produced “Master Harold”…and the boys, the Geffen Playhouse becomes theatre as a temple: a transcendental, spiritual, empowering and uplifting theatrical experience that only a playwriting craftsman like Athol Fugard could create. For what was up to then a lyrical examination of a white seventeen year-old school boy,…
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Theater Review: EAT ME (South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa)
A HUNGER THAT DOESN’T QUITE NAME ITSELF A sharp new play still discovering its center Lewis Carroll understood that eating is never just eating. When Alice stands before the small cake and weighs the risk, she is doing what everyone in Talene Monahon’s Eat Me does across this hundred-minute production: measuring the cost of wanting…
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Off-Broadway Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (Theater 2020)
COMEDY TONIGHT— AND PLENTY OF IT A zippy, low-budget romp that lands big laughs When in ancient Rome,do as the ancient Romans—and moderns—would do:enjoy the kind of humor that never feels ancient.This musical confection from 1962 has ageless funny flavors and farcical fun. If Theater 2020 charged its audience a dime for every laugh-out-loud moment…
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Theater Preview: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (The Bent, Palm Springs Cultural Center)
SMALL MUSICAL, BIG HEART An intimate Irish story about courage, community, and the quiet power of living truthfully There’s a certain kind of musical that doesn’t announce itself with spectacle, but sneaks up on you—softly, gently—and then leaves you wrecked. A Man of No Importance is that kind of show. Opening May 8 at the…
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Theater Review: AMERIKA OR, THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED (Open Fist Theatre / Circle X Theatre, Atwater Village Theatre)
KAFKA IN AMERICA— AND LOST AT SEA Striking visuals adrift in an overlong adaptation Who isn’t familiar with Franz Kafka (1883–1924), the tormented Czech writer? Or The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s most notable tale chronicling Gregor Samsa’s angst when he wakes one morning to discover he’s transformed into a “monstrous vermin”? While Kafka wrote a good deal…
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Theater Preview: CREATIVE STAGE COLLECTIVE – MUSICAL MAD LIBS! (Symphony Space, NYC)
MIX, MATCH, AND MAKE IT UP An intergenerational troupe turns audience ideas into live musical theater Here’s a special recipe for success and entertainment. It’s all in the mixing and blending and combining of diverse ingredients. The people participating are of different ages and experiences and talents. The elements of the production are acting, music,…
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Opera Review: FALSTAFF (LA Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
THE LAST FOOL A master’s final shrug lands with surprising weight Verdi was seventy-nine when Falstaff premiered at La Scala in 1893. He had not written a comic opera since Un giorno di regno in 1840, a failure so complete it drove him to swear off the form for fifty-three years. And here, in what…
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Theater Review: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Coronado Playhouse)
NO SNOOZE BUTTON HERE Coronado’s Drowsy Chaperone keeps the laughs coming The Coronado Playhouse is reviving the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, hoping to repeat the popularity of the show’s success in 2011. Judging by the enthusiasm of my Sunday matinee, no problem. It’s too bad the production only runs for 16 performances. The Drowsy…
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Theater Review: ENGLISH (Wallis Annenberg Center, Beverly Hills)
LOST IN TRANSLATION— AND INTENTION Pulitzer winner that provokes, puzzles, and occasionally frustrates. Is it a scream into a void or a play? English, by Sanaz Toossi, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It racked up five Tony nominations. Critics nationwide tout it. Yet, in spite of Atlantic and Roundabout’s handsome co-production, now on…
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Theater Review: HELL MOUTH (The Road Theatre Company, North Hollywood)
A HELL OF A MOUTHFUL A play where grief, faith, and ambition collide —and silence carries the weight Jacobson knows that the domestic and the exalted do not occupy different rooms. Hell Mouth, now receiving a luminous production at The Road Theatre Company, opens on a son cleaning his dying father and pivots, in a…
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Theater Review: CABARET (Rancho Mirage Amphitheater in Palm Desert)
A CHILLING NIGHT UNDER THE STARS A high-energy production that refuses to look away from history’s shadows Desert Theatricals’ production of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, currently running at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater through April 19, is a visceral reminder of why this show remains so vital. Under the desert stars, the Kit Kat Club has…
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Theater Preview: 43RD ELLIOT NORTON AWARDS: NOMINATIONS & CEREMONY (Boston Theater Critics Association, The Huntington)
The Boston Theater Critics Association has announced nominations for the 43rd Annual Elliot Norton Awards, a wide-ranging snapshot of the current theater season in Greater Boston. The ceremony, set for June 1 at the Huntington Theatre, includes more than 130 nominations across acting, directing, design, and production categories, along with several honors for visiting work….
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Off-Broadway Review: MILK AND HONEY (J2 Spotlight Theatre Company at AMT, NYC)
MIDDLE-AGED PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, IN THE MIDDLE OF ADVENTURES Jerry Herman’s early musical still charms Through the magic of musical theatre, we’re vicariously taking a guided tour through Israel in the early 1960s. On your left, a group of widows seeing the sights and setting their sights on finding—maybe (who knows?)—a husband. On…
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Theater Review: THE NOTEBOOK (North American Tour at San Diego Civic Theatre)
LOVE, LOSS, AND LYRICS An earnest musical adaptation that leans into memory, even when it leans too hard The touring production of The Notebook arrives at the Civic Theatre with a built-in audience and a well-worn story to tell. Based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel and the beloved 2004 film, the musical adaptation leans into…
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Comedy Club Review: GREENPOINT COMEDY CLUB (Brooklyn)
LAUGHS LAND IN GREENPOINT A new venue brings stand-up—and a sense of community—to north Brooklyn Attention north Brooklyn residents! A new comedy club is born in Greenpoint—the first comedy club to come to the neighborhood and appropriately bearing its namesake. Settled at 66 Greenpoint Avenue, steps from a stunning view of the East River, stands…
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Broadway Review: TITANÍQUE (St. James Theatre)
CELINE TAKES THE WHEEL An irreverent Titanic spoof that goes all in on camp and pop spectacle Titaníque, the Titanic parody which premiered in Los Angeles in 2017, opened at The Asylum Theatre in June 2022 and later transferred to the Daryl Roth Theatre, has finally docked on Broadway. And it is irreverent, energetic, and…
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Theater Review: REVENGE OF THE SOY BOY (FRIGID New York City Fringe Festival)
MAY THE FUNNY FORCE BE WITH YOU A solo show that blasts fandom toxicity into hyperspace Plot a course, prime the hyperdrive, and punch it, Chewie! A sci-fi multimedia solo show lands in the 2026 FRIGID New York City Fringe Festival. “Ahsoka Tano is arguably one of the most Millennial Star Wars characters to ever…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE ADDING MACHINE (The New Group at St. Clement’s Theatre)
MAN VS. MACHINE, STILL LOSING Rice’s century-old warning lands with unsettling familiarity In its inaugural production at the newly claimed St. Clement’s Theatre, The New Group launches its next chapter with a revival of The Adding Machine that feels both like a nod to the past and a wary glance toward the future. Written by…
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Theater Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Greater Boston Stage Company)
A GREAT DEBATE A play that asks the audience to think about what the Constitution means to them When she was 15, Heidi Schreck went on tour to compete for college scholarships by delivering a talk called What the Constitution Means to Me to American Legion posts. Her talk was successful enough to pay her…
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Broadway Review: BECKY SHAW (Helen Hayes)
LOVE, LIES, AND LETHAL CHARM Gina Gionfriddo’s comedy of dysfunction refuses easy labels—and lands every blow “Rom-com?” No. “Meet-cute”? Far from it. Sitting through Becky Shaw at the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway last night, laughing my head off, I struggled to define the genre of this captivating work by Gina Gionfriddo. And I’m still…
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