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Theater Review: FOLLIES (Cygnet Theatre in San Diego)
GLITTER, GHOSTS AND GOLDEN-AGE GLAMOUR: DESPITE THE SCRIPT, CYGNET’S FOLLIES MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT THE JOAN Cygnet Theatre staked the debut of their new theater complex “The Joan” on a fairly solid bet: Stephen Sondheim. Given he is one of the great darlings of the theatre world, a musical with a score by Sondheim is a smart…
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Theater Review: TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre)
A CLIFFHANGER For the Midwest premiere of TL;DR: Thelma Louise: Dyke Remix, a rock musical by Ellarose Chary (book & lyrics) and Brandon James Gwinn (music and lyrics), the entirety of the Theo Ubique space is transformed by set designer Rose Johnson into the world’s coolest garage; an entirely appropriate location for the world’s coolest punk rock garage band; they don’t have a…
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Theater Review: PRIMARY TRUST (SpeakEasy Stage Company at Calderwood Pavilion in Boston)
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR Not every life-altering relationship is romantic. Sometimes it’s a friend who helps us endure, who shapes us in ways that can last long after the friendship has ended. Boston audiences can experience that truth in two very different plays in the weeks ahead: Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust (SpeakEasy Stage at Boston Center for…
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Theater Review: EUREKA DAY (Pasadena Playhouse)
OUTBREAK OF MANNERS: WHEN POLITENESS TURNS CONTAGIOUS The play begins with a picture of composure. Five parents sit at a polished library table in a progressive private school in Berkeley. They lean forward, nodding with exquisite concern, and speak in the gentle cadences of inclusivity. Words like “shared narrative” and “holding space” float through the…
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Theater Review: BESIDE MYSELF (North Coast Rep in Solana Beach/San Diego)
BESIDE MYSELF WITH PRAISE When the lights came up at the end of Act I of Beside Myself, my immediate reaction was, “No!” I was so invested in the proceedings of this stupendous world premiere that waiting fifteen minutes to see what happens next seemed criminal. Such is the payoff of Paul Slade Smith’s writing…
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Theater Review: FEATHERBABY (Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, MA)
COMEDY IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS So much could have gone wrong in this production of playwright David Templeton’s delightfully original and utterly unique Featherbaby, but in the able hands of director Weylin Symes, this co-world premiere (simultaneously produced in California) takes flight. Let’s start with the casting. To say that Paul Melendy is the…
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Theater Review: SUNDAY ON THE ROCKS (Falco Productions at The Actor’s Company)
A GEM OF A PRODUCTION FOR THERESA REBECK’S DAZZLING SUNDAY ON THE ROCKS Solid. Diamond Solid. Strength and luster. That is what’s most striking about Sunday on the Rocks by playwright Theresa Rebeck, now at The Actor’s Company Theatre. The finest razzle-dazzle that money can buy? Not in this production; there is just good old-fashioned…
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Theater Review: MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND (The Huntington at Calderwood Pavilion, Boston)
TAKE MY HUSBAND, PLEASE Marriage has long been fodder for male stand-up comics, but it has generally been women who have been the butt of the jokes. Actress, comic, and TV personality Joy Behar offers a refreshing alternative to that tired trope with My First Ex-Husband, which has made its journey from Off-Broadway to The…
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Theater Review: AM I ROXIE? (Geffen Playhouse)
Am I Roxie? Am I a Play? Am I at the Wrong Theater? Geffen’s Latest Solo Act Feels More Fringe Than Mainstage Within five minutes of “this fiercely funny one-woman tour-de-force” (so says the publicity), actress Roxana Ortega is already fighting back tears about losing her mother due to Alzheimer’s. Thus begins her sappy and…
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Theater Review: THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Berkeley Playhouse)
A DROP-DEAD DELIGHT Fall is officially here. Kids are back in school and Halloween is just around the corner. Thus it feels like the perfect time for Berkeley Playhouse to open their new season with the hilarious hit musical The Addams Family, appropriate for all the ghouls in your family. Post-pandemic, Berkeley Playhouse has become…
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Theater Review: FLY ME TO THE SUN (Fountain Theatre)
FLY ME TO THE SUN… AND LEAVE ME THERE I confess, playwright Brian Quijada was an unknown quantity to me, and after attending Fly Me to the Sun at the Fountain Theatre, I was of the mind that he could remain so. But, I’ve a good deal of experience with the Fountain, which is one…
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Theater Review: 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL (Ray of Light Theatre)
MORE LIKE 9 TO 9, THIS MUSICAL IS AN OVERSTUFFED BUT FUN DOLLYFEST Ray of Light Theater is known for putting a spin on musicals that are big in popular culture. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Rocky Horror Show and Legally Blonde are some of their memorable hits. Now they’ve taken on 9 to…
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Theater Review: A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN (Sonoma Arts Live Theatre Company at Andrews Hall)
JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for the psychedelic set), Libby Oberlin embraces the essence of Janis in Randy Johnson’s expertly-researched script, a stage version of what the film industry…
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Theater Review: THE HEART (La Jolla Playhouse)
THEATRICAL ARRHYTHMIA La Jolla Playhouse has always been fairly adventurous in its programming, but its latest premiere chooses a subject that feels less like theatrical fodder than a medical case study. A human heart travels from the body of a dead teenager to a waiting recipient, and along the way the audience is asked to…
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Theater Review: JUST ANOTHER DAY (Dan Lauria and Patty McCormack at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble)
IT MAY BE JUST ANOTHER DAY, BUT THIS ISN’T JUST ANOTHER PLAY If I were to start by telling you what author Dan Lauria’s sly new play is about, a great number of you might stop reading in disgust, thinking, “I’ve lived through that; I don’t need to see a play about it.” However, Just…
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Theater Review: THINGS WITH FRIENDS (World Premiere at American Blues Theater)
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE… Early in the proceedings of Things with Friends, the new play by Kristoffer Diaz (Hell’s Kitchen, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) a character dismisses another’s trauma with a snide, “I’m sorry. We all wish we didn’t see things fall”, to which the other responds, “Some of us actually wish that things…
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Theater Review: EUREKA DAY (Marin Theatre Company)
EUREKA! Private school children often grow up in a carefully protected bubble. Their privilege shields them from many of life’s cruelties, creating a world of like-minded students, parents, and teachers. The adults strive to give their children better opportunities for the future, building a space meant to foster creativity in a safe and nurturing environment….
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Theater Review: PASSENGERS (The 7 Fingers at American Repertory Theater)
ON THE RIGHT TRACK The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts), a Montréal-based circus arts company, brings 90 spellbinding minutes of exhibitions of strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, courage, timing, and trust to the A.R.T.’s Loeb Drama Center in Passengers. The 7 Fingers collaborated with A.R.T.’s 2012 production of Pippin and have performed on numerous occasions at…
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Theater Review: LETTICE & LOVAGE (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
HOW TO SUCCEED IN HISTORY WITHOUT REALLY TELLING IT Meet Lettice Douffet (Bobbi Randall), an eccentric tour guide at Fustian House, a drab Tudor mansion. Burdened with delivering its painfully dull history to visitors, she finds the plain facts intolerable. Instead, Lettice gradually begins to embellish wildly, weaving dramatic tales of intrigue, passion, and bloodshed…
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Theater Review: FEATHERBABY (Spreckels Theatre Company in Rohnert Park)
A FEATHERBABY IN SPRECKELS’ CAP A talking, squawking parrot dispenses wit, wisdom, and wonder in Featherbaby at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. In a bright green suit and yellow bow tie, Gina Alvarado astounds as a wise-cracking high-energy Amazon parrot belonging to forensic photographer Angie (Mercedes Murphy), newly single after her lover walked…
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