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Theater Review: GOING BACHARACH: THE SONGS OF AN ICON (Apollo Theater / Chicago)
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW A charming revue reminds us why Burt Bacharach’s songs remain timeless An overture! An honest-to-goodness overture! All right, so maybe I’m overreacting a bit, but I adore overtures, and they have been largely missing—or severely truncated—in musicals over the last several years. Not so in Going Bacharach: The Songs of…
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Theater Review: KEERAH (Definition Theatre / Chicago)
KEERAH’S WAYWARD WANDERINGS: DON’T LOOK BACK—OR DO An ambitious meta-theatrical drama of love and loss boasts terrific performances but struggles to find its focus with too many detours There are many things to recommend about Netta Walker‘s new play Keerah, her first, but director McKenzie Chinn has yet to shape its intriguing ideas into a…
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Theater Review: SOUL SACRIFICE (CASA 0101 Theater / Los Angeles)
THE WAR AFTER THE WAR A powerful family drama examines the lasting wounds of Vietnam and the Chicano Moratorium Some family dramas simmer, others explode, and still others leave emotional shrapnel embedded under the skin long after curtain call. Soul Sacrifice, currently having its world premiere at CASA 0101, does all three. Written by Consuelo…
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Theater Review: HELL’S KITCHEN (North American Tour at Hollywood Pantages)
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND A rare jukebox musical that finds fresh life by letting the songs tell the story A jukebox musical is an inheritance. Someone else wrote the songs, lived the life, banked the meaning, and the show arrives to spend it. Most of them spend it badly, doling out hits like an allowance…
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Off-Broadway Review: ||: GIRLS :||: CHANCE :||: MUSIC :|| (Vineyard Theatre)
JANGLED JAM SESSION This coming-of-age ensemble never quite finds its rhythm In an age where most pre-teens and teens have the world in the palm of their hand via their smartphone, growing up happens faster than ever. Such speed may have benefited ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| at the Vineyard Theatre, which tells…
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Theater Review: THE EMPORIUM (Classic Stage Company / Off-Broadway)
SHOPPING FOR MEANING Thornton Wilder’s long-lost play arrives decades late, still reaching for something just beyond its grasp Seventy-five years is a long time to wait for a world premiere. But that is precisely the circumstance surrounding The Emporium, Thornton Wilder’s long-unfinished play, now receiving its New York debut at Classic Stage Company—and the wait,…
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Theater Review: ALWAYS…PATSY CLINE (American Blues Theater / Chicago)
CRAZY FOR PATSY A warm-hearted tribute lets Patsy Cline’s music do most of the talking American Blues Theater closes out its 40th season with a rather left-field choice: the 1988 revue Always…Patsy Cline, created by Ted Swindley. Covering the career of country music legend—scratch that—music legend Patsy Cline, this is an odd but crowd-pleasing bio-musical,…
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Theater Review: PRIMARY TRUST (Mark Taper Forum / Los Angeles)
SLIGHTLY TOO BIG FOR HIS WORLD Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer-winning drama offers comfort, compassion, and just enough unease beneath the surface A bell rings before the lights come up. Out of the dark rises Cranberry, New York, a fictional suburb of Rochester built at the size of a model train layout: a church, a bowling alley,…
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Theater Review: DRACULA: A FEMINIST REVENGE FANTASY, REALLY (San Francisco Playhouse)
BITE MARKS AND BATTLE CRIES Kate Hamill’s revisionist take offers a few fresh ideas, but Dracula remains the real attraction Since its publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula has been regarded as one of the most famous books in English literature and is certainly the original vampire novel. The subject of vampires…
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Off-Broadway Review: WELL, I’LL LET YOU GO (Studio Seaview)
LETTING GO, HOLDING ON A beautifully observed portrait of grief anchored by Quincy Tyler Bernstine’s extraordinary performance If only someone would paint a portrait of Quincy Tyler Bernstine‘s grief-stricken face. And not just any artist. I mean an experienced portraitist who can capture the profound depth and complexity of her astonishing performance in Well, I’ll…
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Opera Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (San Francisco Opera)
FIGARO TO THE RESCUE Rossini’s evergreen comedy launches San Francisco Opera’s summer season with charm and style The summer season of San Francisco Opera is officially underway, and the first offering is a popular favorite. The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) by Gioachino Rossini first debuted in Rome in 1816 and is no…
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Theater Review: MY HOME ON THE MOON (CHUANG Stage / Boston)
HOME IS WHERE THE PHO IS Looking for a real life amidst the demands of AI Directed by cara hinh and written by Minna Lee, this East Coast premiere is alternately hilarious and joyous and, at other times, a sobering and touching look at the effects of gentrification, the threats of AI, and the ongoing…
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Theater Review: OTHELLO (Shakespeare Theatre Company / Washington, DC)
IAGO’S GAME A terrifyingly gripping production driven by a mesmerizing villain and a devastating descent into jealousy Who can resist a good villain? Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current rendition of Othello is a bone-chilling, goosebump-worthy success, largely due to the Bard’s poetry and the acting chops of Ben Turner, who plays the antagonist Iago. Although Wendell…
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Theater Review: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (Ebony Rep / Los Angeles)
THE JOINT IS JUMPIN’, IT’S REALLY JUMPIN’ Ebony Rep finds the joy, sorrow, and swing hidden inside Fats Waller’s enduring revue Ain’t Misbehavin’ does not tell the story of Fats Waller’s life. It does something trickier. Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr. built the 1978 revue from the Waller repertoire: the novelty numbers, the double…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE MAIDS (St. Ann’s Warehouse / Brooklyn)
MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL Kip Williams delivers a visually stunning assault on the senses, even when the drama struggles to keep pace A co-production with London’s Donmar Warehouse, The Maids arrives at St. Ann’s Warehouse in a blistering new adaptation written and directed by Kip Williams, closing out the season with a production as…
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Theater Review: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (TimeLine Theatre / Chicago)
TRUTH, CONSEQUENCES, AND CONTAMINATED WATER A superb production of Ibsen’s classic finds unsettling echoes in the present day There are plays that endure because their themes and characters are universal, allowing them to be reinterpreted for different eras, locations, and so on—the oeuvre of a certain bard from Stratford-upon-Avon comes to mind. And then there…
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Theater Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Civic Theatre / Broadway in San Diego)
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE AND WELL This polished national tour reminds audiences why the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic still resonates The national touring production of The Sound of Music is playing through May 31 at the Civic Theatre, and what a joy it is! Name your pleasure—brilliant singing, dancing, or acting—and it’s served up with…
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Off-Broadway Review: HEATED RIVALRY: THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY (6th Floor Theater at The Culture Club)
PUCK BUNNIES AND POWER PLAYS Knowing exactly who it’s playing to, this gleefully ridiculous send-up shoots and scores There are fandoms, and then there are fandoms. The kind that inspires message boards, fan fiction, watch parties, and now, apparently, full-blown musical theater parodies. Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody understands exactly who its audience is,…
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Theater Review: LE BAL (Trap Door Theatre / Chicago)
DANCING THROUGH THE DECADES A mesmerizing theatrical collage that rewards surrender over analysis One never quite knows what to expect from the good folks at Trap Door Theatre, and I’m sure they wouldn’t want it any other way. The company restricts itself to furiously political works from lesser-known authors; they have a fondness for the…
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Theater Review: OEDIPUS EL REY (Huntington Theatre Company / Boston)
Oedipus El Rey, playwright Luis Alfaro’s reimagining of the Greek myth, transforms the familiar tale of fate and tragedy into an urban contemporary story about incarceration, identity, and the possibility of starting over. The premise remains the same—a child fated to kill his father and marry his mother—but Alfaro uses the myth to explore modern…
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