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Theater Review: NINE (Broadway Center Stage at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)
NINE IS A TEN AT THE KEN CEN Following Broadway Center Stage‘s delightful production of Bye Bye Birdie, here comes a musical on the opposite spectrum in every way. Presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Nine, the musical adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 1963 film 8 ½ now playing at the Eisenhower, is…
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Theater Review: ALICE BY HEART (Kokandy Productions — Midwest Premiere at The Chopin Theatre)
ALICE BY HEART: FULL-HEARTED PRODUCTION; HALF-HEARTED SCRIPT Alice by Heart follows a young girl, Alice (Caitlyn Cerza), during the London Blitz of World War II as she takes refuge in her beloved copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice and her friend Alfred (Joe Giovannetti), who is deathly ill with tuberculosis, seek shelter in an…
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Theater Review: MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT. 2B (The Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre)
YOU CAN GO HOLMES AGAIN! The world obviously cannot get enough of Sherlock Holmes. Since the first story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appeared in 1887, the immortal fictional private detective has appeared in countless books, films, plays, and television shows, with Dr. Watson as his faithful friend and chronicler. But there is always room…
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Theater Review: THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN (Apollinaire Theatre Company at PORT Park in Chelsea, MA)
SUPPLIANT AND DEMAND Looking for a thoroughly pleasant evening on the banks of the Mystic River? Head for Chelsea’s PORT Park and a transfixing performance of The Suppliant Women, by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Dating back about 2500 years, it’s one of the world’s oldest known plays, brought into the present moment by award-winning playwright…
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Theater Review: CHICKEN STORIES (Broadwater Main Stage)
CHICKEN STORIES IS A FOWL BALL! There are more than 8 billion people on the earth. But did you know that there are more chickens on the planet than human beings? And you know that we’re not talking as pets. Costco alone sells more than 75 million roasted chickens every year. But what of fried…
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Theater Review: CLUE (National Tour at the Ahmanson Theatre)
CLUELESS NO MORE As a kid, I never played the Hasbro board game Clue, nor did I ever see the Paramount Pictures movie based on that board game. But at opening night on July 31, I was absolutely wowed by the sensational national touring production of Clue at The Ahmanson Theatre, on stage through August…
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Theater Review: PETER PAN (National Tour)
HAPPILY EVER EVER IN THE LAND OF NEVER NEVER There have been so many versions of Peter Pan over the years that current viewers might have been exposed to the character in numerous ways. Granted, it’s not too likely that anyone today got to see J.M. Barrie’s original 1904 London staging of his play about…
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Theater Review: COMPANY (2023-2024 North American Tour)
THE COMPANY WE KEEP To wed or not to wed — that is the question that Stephen Sondheim poses in his 1970 musical Company, for which he is the composer and lyricist (with a book by George Furth). James Earl Jones II as Harry, Kathryn Allison as Sarah, Britney Coleman as Bobbie and Judy McLane…
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Theater Review: CREVASSE (Son of Semele and The Victory Theatre Center at Victory Theatre)
A RIVETING TALE OF ART AND IDEOLOGY AT ITS FINEST In Tom Jacobson’s Crevasse, playing at the Victory Center Theatre, the curtain rises on a fractured world where art, love, and propaganda intersect amidst the gathering storm clouds of World War II. This ambitious play, set in the fall of 1938, deftly traverses the fraught…
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Theater Review: HENRY 6 (The Old Globe in San Diego)
LONG MAY THIS PRODUCTION REIGN Since its first production opened in Balboa Park in 1935, the Old Globe Theatre has built a national reputation for ambitious and stimulating productions, but this summer the company’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s history trilogy Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III has raised the bar to what must surely…
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Theater Review: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: A MUSICAL TALE (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
BORED OF THE RINGS In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins famously states to his nephew and adoptive heir, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” It’s also a…
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Theater Review: DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER (North Coast Rep)
DON’T BOTHER FOR DINNER The North Coast Repertory Theater is offering two hours of exceedingly lightweight summer theater in the French farce Don’t Dress for Dinner. And being a typical French farce, the play revels almost exclusively in ostentatious slapstick with an erotic edge. My large Sunday matinee audience seemed to love every unsubtle moment…
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Theater Review: COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN 5 BETTIES (Shotgun Players in Berkeley)
WHAT’S ALL THE HOO-HA? Last Saturday, Berkeley’s Shotgun Players opened a play by Jen Silverman which is so provocative that some publications won’t publish its full title: Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties; In Essence, A Queer and Occasionally Hazardous Exploration; Do You Remember When You Were In Middle School And You Read About…
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Theater Review: CAMELOT (Laguna Playhouse)
A BRIEF SHINING MOMENT AT LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE Sometimes less can be more in the arts. Consider the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot. The show set a record for the biggest advance sale in Broadway history at the time it opened in 1960. From the creators of My Fair Lady, Camelot seemed to have everything going for it ’” the hit…
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Theater Review: THE PITCH (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble)
TELEMARKETING SURE IS A PITCH There’s nothing like a fascinating story, and that’s what’s in store with The Pitch, now at the Odyssey Theatre directed by Louie Liberti. If you’ve ever done telemarketing, it can be a cold and brutal business, because — of course — the bottom line is sales, and as we have…
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Theater Review: THE SPY WHO WENT INTO REHAB (Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice)
ESPIONAGE COMES TO GROUP THERAPY There’s a pretty good reason why the world premiere of Gregg Ostrin’s The Spy Who Went Into Rehab, onstage at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, has been extended. It’s a darned good farcical and absurdist comedy. The studly, well-cast Satiar Pourvasei plays Cross. Simon Cross. He’s been dropped off at…
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Theater Review: CLUE (National Tour)
MURDEROUS LAUGHTER In 1945, “Cluedo” first came on the scene in the United Kingdom to the delight of board game lovers. Created by game designer Anthony E. Pratt, this beloved family friend board game, better known as “Clue” in the United States, has been a staple in the American zeitgeist for over half a century….
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Theater Review: DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! THE MUSICAL! (Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire)
THIS PIGEON ADAPTATION IS NOT FOR THE BIRDS My kids love Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, the popular children’s book by Mo Willems. It’s a simple, comic story about a pigeon that wants to be a bus driver, but whose dreams are thwarted by reality. An incredibly expressive and somewhat sympathetic character, the…
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Theater Review: 46 PLAYS FOR AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES (Hub Theatre Company at Club Café in Boston)
AS USUAL, THE WOMEN DEAL WITH THE MESS Hub Theatre Company‘s pay-what-you-will production of 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies offers a series of playlets as varied as the women portrayed. There are many surprises in store here. First of all, while the United States has had forty-six presidents, there have been many more First…
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Theater Review: ALICE BY HEART (Wildsong Theatre and Arts Collective in Ocean Beach, San Diego)
ALICE IN STUNNED-ERLAND Lewis Carroll sure never saw this version coming. His 1865 novel Alice In Wonderland, probably best known from the 1951 Disney animated film, has been reinterpreted time and again. This rocking musical version (with music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Steven Slater, and book by Slater and Jessie Nelson) reworks the original…
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