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Theater Review: JACOB MARLEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (Lifeline Theatre)
THE OTHER CHRISTMAS CAROL A clever, moving tale of a ghost searching for grace ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Boy does it suck to be Jacob Marley. You die a lonely death, are doomed to perdition, and come back as a tortured ghost laden with chains to warn your former…
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Broadway Review: CHESS (Imperial Theatre)
WHEN SUPERPOWERS SING Broadway’s new revival of Chess thrills more than it confounds ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ “Welcome to our Cold War Musical!” That greeting — from the narrator (aka Arbiter) of Chess, the famed rock opera now being revived on Broadway with a starry cast and new book…
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Off-Broadway Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Perelman Performing Arts Center)
A BELOVED CLASSIC REBORN WITH BELL CHOIRS, SNOWFALL & HEART ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Are you fond of bell choirs, Christmas carols, indoor snow, and classic holiday tales? Then you’ll want to make your way to the PAC, where the Old Vic’s production of A Christmas Carol opened last…
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Event Review: LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE, DIOS INANTZIN (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels)
MIRACLE ON TEMPLE STREET Faith, fiesta, feathers, and unexpectedly fabulous ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ With candor, color, and ceremony, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin has become a Los Angeles holiday ritual — and after more than twenty years under the stewardship of Latino Theater Company, it’s a miracle…
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Off-Broadway Review: GOTTA DANCE! (York Theatre)
GOTTA SEE THIS SHOW! ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ I’ve been a fan of American Dance Machine since I was a kid in the 1980s—a company devoted to restaging Broadway choreography with museum-level precision and theatrical verve. Part artifact, part history lesson, and wholly a celebratory toast to Broadway’s golden-age…
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Theater Obituary: TOM STOPPARD (1937–2025)
THE PLAYWRIGHT WHO CHOSE RADIO OVER JAWS Steven Spielberg had asked Tom Stoppard to write the screenplay for Jaws, and Tom said he couldn’t as he was writing a play for the BBC. Spielberg said, “I’m offering you a fortune to collaborate with me on a Hollywood blockbuster, and you turn me down to write…
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Theater Review: THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF THE NORTH POLE (Hell in a Handbag Productions)
A WIG-PULLING, EYE-SCRATCHING BAUBLE OF HOLIDAY CHEER ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ When The Real Housewives of Orange County premiered on Bravo in 2006, I doubt anyone could have predicted the “reality” television juggernaut it would become. Over the next nineteen years the franchise has launched ten series, and assorted…
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Theater Review: SWEENEY CLAUS: THE DEMON FATHER OF SLEET STREET (The Gold Dust Orphans)
MORE NAUGHTY THAN NICE, WITH PLENTY OF SPICE ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ As they have for the past thirty years, Ryan Landry’s Gold Dust Orphans honor the saturnalian origins of Christmas with a holiday burlesque. This time the target of the spoofing crew of shamelessly talented punsters, dancers, singers,…
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Theater Review: RAPORNZEL (Pride Arts)
COARSE, HAIRY FUN ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The Christmas pantomime, or “panto”, as it is colloquially called, is a longstanding English holiday theatre entertainment that’s never made much inroads outside the Commonwealth, more’s the pity. Drawing on the commedia dell’arte tradition, they’re usually based on fairy tales and incorporate…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE SURGEON AND HER DAUGHTERS (Colt Coeur at Theatre 154)
A PLAY HELD TOGETHER BY BANDAGES: SCALPAL, PLEASE Colt Coeur’s world premiere of The Surgeon and Her Daughters, written by Chris Gabo, is a play of ideas—debates volleyed across generations, races, and cultures. Yet for all its verbal sparring, very little actually happens over the course of its two hours. It isn’t until the end…
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Theater Review: ANNIE (Palm Canyon Theatre)
SUNNY SIDE UP IN PALM SPRINGS A production that belts, dances, and tail-wags its way into the season ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Palm Canyon Theatre’s production of Annie delivers a sleigh-full of Christmas delights. All the elements of great musical theatre are here: talented performers, a terrific show and…
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Theater Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
MUCH ADO ABOUT ADO AND EVERY BIT WORTH THE FUSS ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Selina Cadell, is a reminder of what this company does best: Damn good Shakespeare that feels alive, precise, and joyously human. Deborah Hay as Beatrice Let’s…
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Theater Review: THE WAVERLY GALLERY (Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company in San Diego)
HER MIND, OUR MEMORY Kenneth Lonergan’s family fissures hit hard in Backyard Renaissance’s intimate staging What an incredibly robust month November has been for smaller theaters in San Diego: the fun of To My Girls at Diversionary; a gloriously intense one-woman performance in Beauty’s Daughter at OnWord; a delicious character study in Master Class at…
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Theater Review: HEISENBERG (Skylight Theatre)
A PRINCIPLED PRODUCTION Simon Stephens’ deceptively simple romance finally reveals its cosmic heart in close quarters at Skylight Theatre Director Cameron Watson delivers a remarkably authentic and poignant tale with his production of Heisenberg, a short play based on a rather unremarkable human relationship story. What is remarkable is that this intimate outing, which opened…
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Theater Review: EBENEZER SCROOGE’S BIG SAN DIEGO CHRISTMAS SHOW (The Old Globe)
SUN, SAND & SCROOGE, DICKENS IN THE GASLAMP The Old Globe is presenting Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, reshaping the classic short novel into a parody titled Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show. The one-act play provides 80 minutes of jokes, wisecracks, quips, wit, and asides, dispensed at warp speed by a cast of…
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Off-Off-Broadway Review: DIRTY BOOKS (Bated Breath)
“TOWN OF NASTY” AND OTHER THINGS WE BLURT OUT FOR FREE SPEECH Immersive pulp fiction where the audience writes the filth The world premiere of Dirty Books is an immersive play written and directed by Mara Lieberman, which opened November 13 at Bated Breath Theater—a decidedly Off-Off-Broadway adventure. Part art installation, part scripted play, part…
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Theater Review: BEFORE I FORGET (World Premiere at The Marsh in San Francisco)
MISERY LOVES COMPANY — BUT WE DIDN’T BUY TICKETS FOR THAT A solo show so full of angst it forgets to entertain. I mean, there’s baring your soul… and then there’s burying the comedy Since 1989, The Marsh has hosted hundreds of performance artists launching their personal stories, usually through spoken word. The small stages…
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FROM THE ARCHIVES — Theater Review: JEWTOPIA (Greenway Court Theatre in West Hollywood)
DON’T JEW HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO? {From the Archives — Back in 2010, when Facebook was still fun and Broadway still flirted with stereotypes like they were going out of style (which they were), Stage and Cinema took a trip to Jewtopia. We survived to tell the tale — and we’re not even charging…
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Theater Review: SMOKEFALL (Wild Door Theater)
A FAMILY IN FLUX, A PLAY IN FREEFALL Wild Door’s debut digs deep into love and legacy, even when Haidle’s sprawling story gets in its own way Chicago’s robust theater community got even stronger several days ago when Wild Door Theater made its debut in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. By “embracing bold theatrical storytelling to…
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Theater Review: FUN HOME (The Huntington)
THE KEYS OF KNOWLEDGE What can I say about a show that offers one moment of delight after another while holding the anguish of parental narcissism, the joy of discovering one’s own identity, and the power of creative expression to transform grief? One thing I can say is this: anyone within commuting distance of downtown…
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