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Theater Review: & JULIET (Broadway National Tour)
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE SET TO A POP BEAT After a few weather-related delays, Houston was introduced to the toe-tapping fun that is the national tour of & Juliet at The Hobby Center. Blending fireworks, both literal and metaphorical, & Juliet is a girls’ trip of self-discovery set to a jukebox score provided by powerhouse, Grammy-winning,…
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Theater Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts)
IN A YEAR WHERE EVERYTHING HAS GONE WRONG, THIS WRONG MAKES EVERYTHING RIGHT The Tony Award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong, also crowned Best New Comedy at the 2015 Olivier Awards, is a sidesplitting Broadway hit written by Mischief Theatre’s Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. At La Mirada Theatre in Hackensack (kidding…it’s in…
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Theater Review: EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING (Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles)
THE END OF THE WORLD COMES WITH A COFFEE BREAK There’s something eerily familiar about the way Michael Redfield and Hugo Armstrong zip and unzip their parkas in Will Arbery’s haunting new play Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Rogue Machine Theatre. Like characters in a Samuel Beckett fever dream reimagined for our climate-addled era, these…
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Theater Review: A SLOW AIR (Steep Theatre Company)
Steep Theatre Company’s A Slow Air: An Astonishing Journey Into Forbidden Territory “Estrangement” is an unfriendly word that carries with it all kinds of negative connotations–hostility, alienation, distrust, anger and, somewhat paradoxically, very often confusion. It’s also a word that many people are ashamed of or are uncomfortable talking about; especially when it’s a part…
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Theater Review: THE PIANO LESSON (Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, Boston)
A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LESSON ON FAMILY LEGACY Actors’ Shakespeare Project continues its exploration of August Wilson’s Century Cycle with an absolutely superb production of the 1987 Pulitzer-winning masterpiece The Piano Lesson. In a Pittsburgh home in 1936, two siblings of the Charles family debate whether to sell or keep an heirloom–the family piano, which is…
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Theater Review: DAISY (Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City)
THE MINUTE THAT CHANGED POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING FOREVER On September 7, 1964, a 60-second TV ad transformed American politics. Known as “Daisy Girl,” it featured a young girl counting daisy petals, followed by a countdown and a nuclear explosion. The ad became iconic for its emotional, innovative approach to negative political advertising. It’s even better known…
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Theater Review: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (CV Rep)
A LUSH, ROMANTIC JOURNEY THROUGH LOVE AND TRANSFORMATION Since Adam Karsten‘s arrival as Artistic Director at CV Rep, the quality and consistency of the theater’s productions have improved exponentially. The current production of The Light in the Piazza, directed by Karsten, takes this progress to the stratosphere. Mollie Vogt-Welch, Daniel Lopez, Logan Graye This 2005…
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Theater Review: WAIT UNTIL DARK (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
IT’S WORTH WAITING UNTIL DARK Playwright Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark debuted on Broadway in 1966, set in the contemporary world of its time in Greenwich Village. Lamplighters is now presenting Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation, which moves the setting to 1944. Aside from this time shift and the removal of some minor characters, the storyline closely follows…
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Theater Review: PRESENT LAUGHTER (Novato Theater)
A PRESENT LAUGHTER THAT UPENDS THE PAST Britain’s beloved playwright Sir Noël Coward crafted this lighthearted, autobiographical comedy as a showcase for his own flamboyant celebrity. A renowned bon vivant, Coward dazzled as a writer, singer, and performer, with friends and admirers orbiting his stardom. Adapting this blithe farce, director Carl Jordan brings a radical…
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Theater Review: FUN HOME (Porchlight Music Theatre at Ruth Page Center for the Arts)
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE FUN HOME One of the first penetrating statements Alanna Chavez makes very early as Alison Bechdel in Porchlight’s Fun Home, now playing at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, is that she “doesn’t trust memory”. To compensate, her character discovers cartooning as the most suitable vehicle for chronicling her journey…
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Theater Review: JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING (Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Yard)
AN UNFORGETTABLE LAUGHTER-ETCHED LESSON ON LIFE BY WALKING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES There are two things to know about Jocelyn Bioh, playwright of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, the theatrical sensation that’s currently delighting audiences in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Yard and had Broadway in such a tizzy 15 months ago. She starts with character and,…
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Theater Review: IMPROVISED LAW & ORDER (Synergy Theater
A SPONTANEOUS MOCKERY OF JUSTICE, INDEED Now on for a short run through January 26 at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Theater, Synergy Theater brings an improvised spoof of the iconic TV series Law & Order. Complete with the signature “Chung Chung” between scenes, this show offers a hilarious and unpredictable take on the long-running crime drama….
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Theater Review: LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL (Desert TheatreWorks in Indio)
A TON OF LEGAL FUN If you’re seeking a deep, soul-searching drama that challenges your intellect and reshapes your worldview, Legally Blonde The Musical at Indio’s Desert Theatreworks may not be the ticket. However, if you’re looking for an effervescent evening of laughter, music, and toe-tapping delight, this production promises to be the perfect antidote…
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Theater Review: NOISES OFF (Palo Alto Players)
LAUGH-A-MINUTE FUN When English playwright Michael Frayn wrote his slapstick farce in 1982, it bore little resemblance to the production that opened Saturday night at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. It started out as a one-act play called Exits, but was later expanded into the production Palo Alto Players is offering theatergoers. Noises…
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Theater Review: BARBECUE (Coronado Playhouse)
NO ONE EATS, BUT THERE’S PLENTY TO CHEW ON IN THE DETERMINEDLY DECEPTIVE BARBECUE Robert O’Hara has been a significant contributor to the American theater scene since his first play debuted in 1996. A Black dramatist, O’Hara has received a collection of awards and reward nominations for his idiosyncratic comedies about the American social scene….
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Theater Review: THE SEAGULL (Odyssey Theatre)
Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor. — Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, the first of his major plays, has achieved a stature akin to Hamlet in the pantheon. Watching tonight’s visiting production at…
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Theater Review: FAT HAM (Dezart Performs in Palm Springs)
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS FAT HAM Dezart Performs solidifies its reputation as one of the premier theater companies in The Valley—and possibly all of Southern California—with its current production of Fat Ham, running through January 26. Given the lack of diversity on Coachella Valley stages, it’s invigorating to see a play featuring a full…
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Theater Review: DOWNSTATE (Studio Theatre, DC)
DOWNSTATE CHALLENGES MOST BASIC ASSUMPTIONS Bruce Norris’s regional premiere of Downstate, currently at Studio Theatre, brings us up close into the forbidden world of pedophiles and shockingly presents them as both pariahs and victims. Emily Kester and Tim Getman Granted, this provocative play isn’t for everyone and it’s difficult to sit through. It may even…
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Theater Review: CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY (Lyric Stage Boston)
HOW THE COOKIE CRUMBLES From Intimate Apparel and Sweat to Clyde’s, playwright Lynn Nottage is known for her ability to illuminate the lives of ordinary and working-class people, Black and white. Crumbs from the Table of Joy is one of her early plays, first produced in 1995. Under the direction of Tasia A. Jones, the…
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Theater Review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Panic! Productions at The Colony Theatre in Burbank)
ARTHUR MILLER’S CLASSIC DONE TO DEATH AT THE COLONY THEATRE What cachet Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic Death of a Salesman has in terms of power and artistry, nuance, subtlety and insight, is buried by Mark Blanchard’s ineffectual staging currently on display at the Colony Theatre. Neither the director nor most of the cast demonstrate anything…
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