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Chicago Opera Review: COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Lyric Opera)
COSÌ FANTASTIC This was my third time seeing Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte. The second was Lyric’s 2018 production. While I was concerned about the three-and-a-half-hour runtime on a Sunday afternoon, I need not have worried. I had an absolute blast! The cast was outstanding, both as to their gorgeous singing and their laugh out loud…
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Theater Review: RISING WATER (Theatre L’Acadie)
RISING WATER CAN’T FIND ITS CURRENT A powerful premise sinks under miscasting and flat pacing John Biguenet’s Rising Water, a Pulitzer-nominated drama set in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, unfolds over a single night as a long-married New Orleans couple watches floodwater swallow their home. It’s an intimate survival story designed to ratchet tension…
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Theater Review: HOW SHAKESPEARE SAVED MY LIFE (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
SHAKESPEARE AS LIFELINE Jacob Ming-Trent turns the Bard into a blazing solo tour de force at Berkeley Rep We are all on our personal journeys of living and being in the world. Everyone encounters setbacks, roadblocks, and moments of doubt. How does one persevere when life feels uncertain? In the 21st century, we have become…
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Theater Review: STEREOPHONIC (National Tour, CIBC Theatre Chicago)
THEATER IN STEREOPHONIC A terrific docudrama about artistic temperament and the torment of creation David Adjmi’s Stereophonic, now playing at the CIBC, is an unusual piece of theater. It’s not about learning any life lessons, or coming to terms with things, and with one notable exception, none of the characters have a growth arc; further,…
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Off-Broadway Review: ULYSSES (Elevator Repair Service at The Public Theater)
JOYCE’S ODYSSEY ON STAGE Elevator Repair Service turns the impossible into a joyous theatrical sprint Beloved, despised, or abandoned halfway through by most readers, Joyce’s Ulysses is one of those books you know or have heard of. Published after the carnage of World War I, when the world felt confusing and utterly broken, this novel…
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Theater Review: PUNISH ME: A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER (Hudson Backstage Theatre)
A SELF-INFLICTED WOUND POSING AS THEATER. SAFE WORD: CURTAIN An erotic psychological thriller script without the erotic, psychology, thrill, or script Dear Gay Theater-makers, I am writing today to encourage you to see the terrible new play Punish Me, by triple-threat writer-producer-actor Michael Dukakis, currently renting space at the Hudson Backstage Theatre. Do I recommend…
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Theater Preview: CREATIVE STAGE SPECTACULAR 2026 (Creative Stage Collective, Symphony Space)
AN INTERGENERATIONAL, SENSATIONAL THEATRE GROUP Creative Stage Collective’s annual revue proves that age is irrelevant when imagination leads To get to their Sunday rehearsals, the many members of Creative Stage Collective are real troopers, traipsing and trudging through snow falling—and lingering—in unpleasant temperatures dipping below freezing and staying there. After all, these dedicated kids, teens,…
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Theater Review: SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (La Mirada Theatre)
SWEENEY TODD SLICES DEEP — EVEN WITH A FEW MISSTEPS Jason Alexander’s ambitious concept does not blunt the impact of a blisteringly performed revival McCoy Rigby Entertainment has been doing solid work for decades, but they have outdone themselves with their new production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, now playing in…
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Theater Review: LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR (Desert Theatreworks in Indio)
COMEDY UNDER PRESSURE A writers’ room in early television on deadline, and a production that hits every punchline Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor fictionalizes the writers’ room behind Your Show of Shows, the groundbreaking live television comedy that starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca and ran on NBC in the early 1950s. At…
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Theater Review: AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Zach Theater)
A FAMOUS TRAIN, A FROZEN LANDSCAPE, AND A CASE OF MURDER: A NIFTY CHRISTIE MYSTERY A stylish, fast-moving production that entertains but skirts Christie’s moral depth Is it an ill omen that my first two reviews for Stage and Cinema concern Hercule Poirot? Have I found my niche as a murder-mystery critic? It’s an intriguing…
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Theater Review: POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE: THE JUNE JORDAN EXPERIENCE (Fountain Theatre)
POETRY AS ACTIVISM, MEMORY, AND INVITATION A moving, participatory tribute to June Jordan that insists poetry still matters June Jordan was a seminal feminist poet and essayist who—beyond gender—tackled issues of race, sexual identity, and political activism. She believed that the truest means of understanding the challenges these forces posed to American society, and of…
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Theater Review: JOB (SpeakEasy Stage Company)
A PRESSURE COOKER OF A PRODUCTION A thriller that examines the effects of social media Josephine Moshiri Elwood (Jane) and Dennis Trainor Jr. (Loyd) pull out all the stops in Job, an 80-minute intermission-free exploration of the effects of social media on those who produce it and those who consume it. Jane has been sent…
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Theater Review: AGAINST ALL ODDS: COINCIDENCE, CHAOS, AND EVERYDAY MIRACLES (Stephanie Feury)
MY WINNER WITH LAWRENCE As part of the 30 Minutes or Less Festival presented by Matthew V. Quinn and Bertha Rodriguez at the Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre in Hollywood, writer-performer Lawrence Meyers manages to fill every nanosecond on stage with his Against All Odds: Coincidence, Chaos, and Everyday Miracles. Clever and witty to a fault,…
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Theater Review: GILDED SPINDLE (Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre)
ZANDER RAPHAEL SPINS PUPPETRY INTO GOLD Gilded Spindle offers Shannon L. Reagan’s retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale with a slight #MeToo twist. While the talents and artistry of Reagan, the Wyndwolf Players and Wyndwolf Puppets are present on the stage of the Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, the roughness of the production itself is unable to…
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Chicago Opera Review: SALOME (Lyric Opera)
THIS SALOME IS NO FEMME FATALE Like its source material (Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé), Richard Strauss’ opera Salome has a reputation for being scandalous, decadent, and daring. Unfortunately, Lyric Opera’s new-to-Chicago production is none of the above. This is partly because some elements of the play (premiered in 1896) and opera (premiered in 1905) that…
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Theater Review: KIND STRANGER … A MEMORY PLAY (Zephyr Theatre)
Kind Stranger … A Memory Play, conceived and performed by Rick Simone-Friedland is successful as a historical rendering of Playwright Tennessee Williams’ life. It is also successful as a reconstruction of Williams’ public persona–that calm, lackadaisical soul who answers questions in a slow Southern drawl between lingering puffs on the black ivory cigarette holder. But…
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Theater Review: SOME LIKE IT HOT (National Tour, Broadway in Boston)
A REIMAGINING OF A HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC Frothy fun with an affirmingly progressive perspective The art deco sets (Scott Pask, scenic design), broad-shouldered plaids (Gregg Barnes, costumes), and jitterbugging choreography (Casey Nicholaw, who also directed) are a pleasing eyeful in Broadway in Boston’s energetic rendition of the Tony-award winning Some Like It Hot. But there’s more…
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Off-Broadway Review: DATA (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
ALGORITHMS, ETHICS, AND THE COST OF INFORMATION A sleek, jargon-charged tech thriller that trades in privacy, prediction, and moral gray zones Between ownership battles over data-rich social media platforms (TikTok), harvesting scandals (Cambridge Analytica), and whistleblowers exposing algorithmic harm (Frances Haugen), questions about data ownership, citizens’ privacy, and the exact inner workings of the websites…
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Theater Interview: DAVID ZIPPEL (Artistic Director of rePLAY at the Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs)
OSCAR WILDE, REWIRED FOR NOW David Zippel brings star power and modern snap to Palm Springs Tony-winner for Liza’s at the Palace, David Zippel—one of Broadway and Hollywood’s sharpest comic lyricists (City of Angels, Disney’s Hercules & Mulan)—is bringing his wit and theatrical instincts to Palm Springs as the Artistic Director of the new rePLAY…
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Theater Review: LOUISA GILLIS (North Coast Rep)
WHEN THE DEAD STILL RUN THE ROOM Grief, memory, and the long shadow of unfinished business In this play of four characters, a fifth looms large, though never seen: the titular Louisa, late wife to Steven (James Sutorius), mother to Celia (Faline England), and grandmother to Lucy (Caroline Renee). She’s been dead for nearly forty…
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