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Theater Review: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (Huntington)
“You can almost hear what everyone’s feeling”—an aside delivered to the audience midway through the show—neatly sums up what is most striking about The Light in the Piazza, playing at the Huntington Theatre. The idea that emotions can transcend language is at the heart of this beautiful, heartbreaking, and heartwarming musical. As characters alternate between…
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Theater Review: ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL (Novato Theatre Company)
MAYHEM MIXED WITH MAGIC Novato Theatre Company considered a daunting task of shepherding thirty young actors ages 10 to 13 to stage Matilda the Musical, the Broadway hit by Dennis Kelly (book) and Tim Minchin (music and lyrics) based on the book written by Roald Dahl, the much-beloved children’s author. Those familiar with Dahl recognize him as the…
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Theater Review: WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (Fountain)
HARE FORCE ONE With White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour currently at the Fountain Theatre, what you encounter is an interesting and provocative theatrical game, a hybrid of “Story Theatre” and immersive Role Playing Game (RPG). On stage is a sparse set that displays the sharp divisions of red and white conveying…
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Theater Review: AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN (Theater UnCorked, Boston Center for the Arts)
HOW SWEET IT IS! From the opening scene of As Bees in Honey Drown, we know that young Evan Wyler (Michael Mazzone) is doomed, but we also know that we are going to be happily amused as he tumbles toward his downfall. A debut novelist on the verge of fame, he reluctantly acquiesces to the…
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Theater Review: THE INHERITANCE, PART ONE (The Bent)
AMAZING AND EPIC Palm Springs’ queer theatre company, The Bent, is justifiably proud that they are the first non-professional company on the West Coast to be granted the rights to Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, Part One, a play that The Telegraph described as “The most important American play of the century.” Almost every actor in…
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Theater Review: THE AVES (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
THE WAITING GAME HAS WRINKLES As Bette Davis’s sampler cushion said, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” We start to lose our memories. Our bodies start to ache as our strength and endurance fade. People that we love and care about die or move away. Bill Buell In the aves, now premiering at Berkeley…
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Theater Review: BRIGHT STAR (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
COMFORTABLE HOMEY FOLK SHARE A SWEET STORY Book and music creators Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell heard a true story from 1902 and became somewhat obsessed with it. They brainstormed a purely fictional account of what could have led up to that moment (most of Act I), the actual moment itself…
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Theater Review: STUPID FUCKING BIRD (Blue Pen Theatre)
THIS BIRD AIN’T SO STUPID There is a strange little niche tucked away in the theatre world which, for lack of a better term, could be called “Travesty Theatrics.” It’s when a classic drama is taken and reworked as a caricature, parody, or mockery of itself. (More on that later.) A new, actor driven company,…
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Theater Review: THE BOOK OF WILL (Ross Valley Players)
WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A BOOK Where do playwrights get their inspiration? Brava to Lauren Gunderson, who took hers from actual historical events and created a believable backstory with characters to support it. Malcolm Rodgers (John Hemminges) and Fred Pitts (Henry Condell) Three years after William Shakespeare’s passing in 1616, the Globe Theatre had…
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Theater Review: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (A Noise Within)
Wilde at Heart: The Quiet Theatrics of A Man of No Importance Some musicals don’t announce themselves. They drift in quietly, settle beside you, and before you know it, you’re sitting there, wrecked, wondering when the tears began. That’s the spell cast by A Man of No Importance, now playing at A Noise Within. Based…
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Theater Review: HAMILTON (National Tour in San Diego)
NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S 1776 Until Hamilton, if you’d asked me if I liked rap music, you’d have gotten a pretty quick, “No.” And I still do cringe at the memories of cars driving up my street with offensive lyrics played at sonic boom levels, because that had been my primary exposure to rap. So why…
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Theater Review: FOREVER PLAID (Palm Canyon Theatre)
A HILARIOUS DRIVE DOWN MEMORY LANE Of course I love a big musical with choruses singing and dancing, but on reflection, several of my favorite shows have intimate casts such as Nunsense, The Fantasticks and the original You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Firmly holding a place on that list is the four-hander Forever Plaid,…
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Theater Review: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (San Francisco Playhouse)
ANOTHER WORTHY WAY TO WONDER AT THE WORLD On rare occasions even the most seasoned reviewers are confounded by the inadequacy of language to describe a production so beautiful and transcendent that words fail to do it justice. Such a production is multiple award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which opened May…
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Theater Review: FOUNDING F%!#ERS (Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, MA)
SOME DARE CALL IT TREASON Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold can hardly be called founders of the United States. In fact, while both acted as military leaders in the American War for Independence, they also played an antagonistic role in the Revolution. Benedict Arnold’s name has become synonymous with being a traitor; Allen is romanticized…
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Theater Review: BEST DAD. NEVER. (Hudson Theatre Backstage, Hollywood Fringe Festival)
Coming to Hollywood Fringe: A Fatherhood Story You Didn’t Know You Needed Fatherhood isn’t always what you expect — and Best. Dad. NEVER. proves that’s exactly where the magic happens. Haig “Hike” Chahinian didn’t set out to write a feel-good story about fatherhood. Good thing, because this one-man outing is something better: honest, funny, and…
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Theater Review: THE STAIRCASE (South Coast Rep)
MEMORY LOOPS AND ECHOES IN GARDNER’S THE STAIRCASE Rain doesn’t fall in The Staircase. It lingers, heavy and waiting. Like a secret no one asked to hear. Like a mother halfway between a lullaby and a memory she can’t put down. In the hands of Noa Gardner, this first-time playwright turns weather into something far…
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Theater Review: HYMN (Chicago Shakespeare on Navy Pier)
TO KNOW HYMN IS TO LOVE HYMN It’s not unusual to hear creatives, especially Black creatives, quote Toni Morrison when talking about what inspires them to write, paint or compose. “If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” That notion seems to have…
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Theater Review: THE GLASS MENAGERIE (Antaeus Theatre)
A STRIKINGLY RESPECTFUL TAKE WORTHY FOR A MUSEUM The Antaeus Theatre Company first began offering audiences superbly mounted productions over a quarter of a century ago, and for their continued success in doing so, they are recognized as one of the true jewels in the crown of the Los Angeles theatre community. An actor-driven company,…
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Theater Review: CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY (Aurora Theatre in Berkeley)
SURVIVAL, STRUGGLE AND SMALL JOYS Young girls coming of age always makes for a good story usually filled with life-changing moments and lessons to be learned. In Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy, now playing at Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, our protagonist and narrator is Ernestine Crump (Anna Marie Sharpe), a 17-year-old senior…
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Theater Review: GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS (Redtwist Theatre)
UNCONVENTIONAL SPIN, DARING THEATER, CAUTIOUSLY RECOMMENDED There are sequels and there are sequels. Few can be considered as aspirational or as pioneering as Taylor Mac’s Gary, a continuation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus now playing at Redtwist Theatre. Easily the Bard’s most sensational blood fest, Redtwist brought Titus’s “vicious circle of revenge and counter-revenge” to their…
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