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Theater Review: TWO TRAINS RUNNING (The Acting Company at American Conservatory Theater)
August Wilson’s Two Trains Running takes place in 1969 in the working-class Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now on at American Conservatory Theater, it’s part of Wilson’s famous “Pittsburgh Cycle,” his series of ten plays that depict African-American life across different decades. His best-known work, Fences, portrayed the 1950s and premiered on stage in 1985…
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Theater Review: I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE (Sonoma Arts Live)
LOVE AND CHANGE, SONOMA STYLE Dating and mating get fully examined and fully skewered in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at Sonoma Arts Live in downtown Sonoma, through May 4. Ably helmed by North Bay veteran Carl Jordan in Andrews Hall at the Sonoma Community Center, the production is a series of musical…
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Theater Review: THE BOOK OF GRACE (Steppenwolf Theatre)
JUDGING THE BOOK OF GRACE BY ITS (VERY IMPRESSIVE) COVER The Chicago Premiere of The Book of Grace at Steppenwolf Theatre is an expertly executed production of an underwhelming family drama. I’m a long-time fan of Steppenwolf, and every aspect of this production demonstrated the artistic excellence that I’ve come to expect, but the play…
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Theater Review: ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (Palm Canyon Theatre)
THE INMATES ARE EASY TO LIKE IN PALM CANYON’S CUCKOO’S NEST Upon entering Palm Canyon Theatre, one first sees the onstage set for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Designer J. W. Layne has created a very naturalistic dayroom of a mental hospital. Especially effective are ceiling beams which extend almost to the front row…
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Theater Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Nocturne Theatre)
HORRORS IN THE ROUND Little Shop of Horrors, based on the 1960 science-fiction film by Roger Corman, opened off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre in Manhattan’s East Village on July 27, 1982. The production, directed by lyricist Howard Ashman, was so popular that David Geffen and team swooped in to buy the rights. The music, composed by…
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Theater Review: PERIL IN THE ALPS (Agatha Christie World Premiere by Steven Dietz at North Coast Rep)
SWEETLY PLAYFUL TREATMENT OF A COMPLICATED PLOT The prolific author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was the creator of 66 novels, 14 volumes of short stories and 20 plays, ten of which have been published. Half of her novels involved a quirky, fussy little Belgian private detective named Hercule Poirot solving mysteries of murder. Ironically, Christie hated…
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Theater Review: IT’S TRUE, IT’S TRUE, IT’S TRUE (Marin Theatre in Mill Valley)
FALSE WITNESS HAS NOT CHANGED An ear-splitting blast from a punk-rock band opens this thought-provoking glimpse into an ancient event. Playwrights Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett pieced together actual court manuscripts from a 1612 Roman trial of rape, adding contemporary dialogue and raucous music to intensify the content. Maggie Mason, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Alicia M….
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Theater Review: BEYOND THERAPY (Desert Ensemble Theater)
AN ABSURDIST ROMP INTO MODERN LOVE AND MADNESS Desert Ensemble Theater presents Christopher Durang’s hilarious comedy, Beyond Therapy, through April 27. The play is an exploration of neurosis, relationships, and the absurdity of modern psychobabble, and in this staging, directed by Jerome Elliott Moskowitz, the production delivers a chaotic cocktail of comedy and existential dread that…
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Theater Review: FALSETTOS (Dezart Performs in Palm Springs)
NOT A FALSE NOTE IN DEZART PERFORMS’ WONDERFUL PRODUCTION William Finn and James Lapine‘s two-act musical Falsettos follows Marvin (Tim Ewing), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, wealthy Jewish gay man who struggles to create a tight-knit family out of his eclectic array of core relationships: an ex-wife Trina (Stephanie Lynne Mason), new lover Whizzer (Patrick…
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Theater Review: HOW TO FAIL (Actors’ Gang Theater)
ONE MAN. 60 MINUTES OF DISASTER. EVERYTHING FAILS MAGNIFICENTLY! Ron Campbell is a clown all right. This is apparent from his first pratfall, which occurs about eleven seconds into his show, How to Fail. In this day and age of radical, assaultive clowns who prey on their audiences’ psychological foibles and are more comfortable staring…
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Theater Review: CYRANO (Los Altos Stage Company)
CYRANO GETS A CONFUSING NOSE JOB Why anyone involved in Los Altos Stage Company’s current production of Cyrano thought it would be a good idea to make Cyrano a woman—and without the trademark large proboscis at that—is a bit of a mystery. Cyrano de Bergerac remains a beloved staple of the stage, loosely based on…
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Theater Review: JERSEY BOYS (Palo Alto Players)
Palo Alto Players’ Jersey Boys Finds the Beat, Even When the Staging Stumbles Opening night at Palo Alto Players’ Jersey Boys had the Lucie Stern audience itching to jump out of their seats and dance. And who could blame them? The hits keep coming in this crowd-pleasing jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four…
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Theater Review: YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE END OF THE WORLD! (South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa)
END-OF-WORLD TRAGICOMEDY CRACKS, BLEEDS AND THRIVES The end arrives not with a sob, but with a drag queen in a glittering black pantsuit, standing in a celestial spotlight, grinning like they’re about to host the universe’s weirdest game show. Keiko Green’s You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! doesn’t so much begin…
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Theater Review: WRITING FRAGMENTS HOME (Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City)
COUCH SURFING AND CULTURAL BAGGAGE It makes sense that Jeffrey Lo—a Filipino artist who writes, directs, and knows the Peninsula theater scene inside and out—could write a play like Writing Fragments Home. It’s personal without being sentimental, funny without trying too hard, and it lands exactly where it needs to. I was at the near-sold-out…
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Theater Review: CORKTOWN ’39 (Rogue Machine at The Matrix)
IN CORKTOWN ’39, THE LIVING ARE JUST GHOSTS WITH BETTER TIMING Mark Mendelson‘s tightly composed set at The Matrix Theatre is a room cloaked in aging wealth at the Keating family’s Philadelphia home. Heavy curtains. Soft chairs. Whiskey always within reach. It feels like it once held power and still holds its consequences. That atmosphere…
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Theater Review: HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES (Tectonic Theater Project at Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
HERE THERE ARE HORRORS Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich’s Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Kaufman at Berkeley Rep, involves a fascinating true story. We are at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., where archivists study, document, and interpret Holocaust history—people often donate letters, photographs, and personal mementos from family members of that…
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Theater Review: HELLAS (The School of Night at the Broadwater)
A HELLUVA HELLAS Ancient drama gets short shrift here in Los Angeles. Sure, we get the stories, but the shows are usually adaptations, hardly ever a straight translation, and when we do, they’re performed in today’s style. In 2018, The School of Night did something radical: they performed Seneca’s Hercules Insane as written and with…
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Theater Review: HENRY JOHNSON (David Mamet Midwest Premiere at Victory Gardens)
MAMET’S HENRY JOHNSON PROVES A DIFFICULT PROTAGONIST Along with blazingly rapid dialog, there’s something aggressively determined about David Mamet plays—like Glengarry Glen Ross now being revived on Broadway—and his latest Henry Johnson is no exception. Written in 2023 where it premiered at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California, Mamet’s stage effort is now enjoying its…
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Theater Review: HILLARY AND CLINTON (OnWord Theatre at the Alma Hotel in San Diego)
WHAT’S IN A NAME? A LOT WHEN IT’S “CLINTON” “Feelings are a terrible way to make decisions, Bill.” “Yes, but people don’t think you have any.” Reviewing this show is almost like reviewing two separate factors: the show itself and the experience they are creating. In the talkback afterward, Producing Artistic Director and Education Coordinator…
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Theater Review: THE HOT WING KING (Cygnet Theatre)
THESE WINGS ARE FLAMING IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE In our divided nation, there are still a few universals that bring us together. Puppies. Mother’s Day. Pizza. And, tagging close behind on the pizza bandwagon: the deep-fried delight known as “chicken wings.” But the folks at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo who first served them…
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