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Theater Review: ONE FOR MY BABY (Broadway-Bound World-Premiere Musical at El Portal in North Hollywood)
SWINGS BIG, SHINES BRIGHT All Roads Theatre Company just set the bar sky-high with One for My Baby, a slick, jazz-soaked tribute to the music of Harold Arlen. This is old-school showbiz at its best—big voices, big orchestrations, and enough high-voltage talent to power a city block. With a Broadway-caliber cast and an 11-piece band…
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Theater Review: ART (Shotgun Players, Ashby Stage in Berkeley)
THE ART OF MAKING ART An extravagant art purchase causes a major upheaval among three old friends in Yasmina Reza’s Art, at Berkeley’s Ashby Stage through April 9. David Sinaiko and Benoît Monin The setup: former college buddies Serge, Marc, and Yvan meet regularly for dinner, drinks, and discussion. One day Serge (Benoît Monin) announces…
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Theater Review: GUYS AND DOLLS (Music Theater Works)
JOYOUSLY, GUYS & DOLLS HAS IT ALL Still touted as one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time, Guys and Dolls turns 75 in November. You’d never know it based on Music Theater Works feisty little production of this all-American classic playing now in Skokie’s North Shore Center. Frisky as a rambunctious puppy, this…
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Theater Review: NOBODY LOVES YOU (A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater)
AUDACIOUS AND FUN MUSICAL TAKES ON REALITY TV Last Wednesday, A.C.T. opened an extremely likeable, engaging and entertaining musical telling one of the tried-and-true stories of the 21st century. It’s boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy goes on girl’s favorite reality dating show to win girl back! In an era where technology dominates communication…
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Theater Review: REEFER MADNESS (Lucky Penny in Napa)
NAPA’S LUCK PENNY GOES TO POT– IN A GOOD WAY A hokey 1930s propaganda film runs headlong into Beach Blanket Babylon in Reefer Madness at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through March 23. A musical spoof by Dan Studney and Kevin Murphy, the show opens with a swarm of zombies lifted right out of Michael Jackson’s…
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Theater Review: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE (Huntington, Boston)
THE TRIUMPH OF ALLISON ALTMAN There are many reasons to see The Triumph of Love, director Loretta Greco’s gender-bending comedy that channels equal parts Shakespeare, Billy Wilder, and a dash of John Cleese. But at the heart of its success is Allison Altman’s dazzling turn as Princess Léonide. Vincent Randazzo, Avanthika Srinivasan Patrick Kerr, Vincent…
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Theater Review: HAPPY PLEASANT VALLEY: A SENIOR SEX SCANDAL MURDER MYSTERY MUSICAL (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto and CenterREP in Walnut Creek)
WILD ROMP IN SENIOR LIVING TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has launched an uproarious spoof of senior living with Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical. It’s an all-encompassing effort by Min Kahng. He knows his stuff: he’s definitely of an age to qualify for Medicare, but Kahng wrote book, music and lyrics, and…
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Theater Review: PARADE (National Tour at Emerson, Boston)
STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE At its heart, Parade is a gripping exploration of prejudice, justice, and the power of perception. This Tony Award-winning revival, directed by Michael Arden, is based on the true story of Leo Frank (Max Chernin), a Jewish factory superintendent in early 20th-century Atlanta who is falsely accused of the rape and…
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Theater Review: MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND (MMAC Theater)
Marital Mayhem and Matrimonial Mishaps: My First Ex-Husband’s Second Cast Delivers Divorce Tales with Bite “Do you take this man — To have and to hold — from this day forward — for better, for worse — for richer, for poorer…?” Half the time, after a while, a woman will take a moment to reconsider,…
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Theater Review: NIGHT DRIVER (Pearl Ong at The Marsh)
CABS, COKE AND COMING OUT: PEARL ONG’S JOYRIDE THROUGH SF At The Marsh Theater, Pearl Ong—who describes herself as a “former Hong Kong Princess, pot-smoking and coke-snorting lesbian—is performing her one-woman show, Night Driver—and it’s a perfect fit for San Francisco. After moving here from Hong Kong with her mother in the 1970s, as many…
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Theater Review: A PERFECT GANESH (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
GANESHA GRANTS GRACE IN A GLORIOUSLY GRITTY JOURNEY The Hindu religion has multiple gods. Ganesha, also called Ganesh, is revered as the god of wisdom, luck, and beginnings. His beloved spirit is present in everything, and he is generally depicted as joyful, seeing the best in people and the world around him. He is easily…
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Theater Review: CHICAGO (Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley)
CHICAGO: IT’S A RAZZLE DAZZLE HELLUVA SHOW How did Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley get such a stunning production of Chicago? This isn’t Broadway, or is it? With the flash of a giant overhead marquee, a mute trumpet oozing honeyed notes, and a stageful of beautiful bodies in racy outfits, Chicago is one helluva…
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Theater Review: PUSH/PULL (Central Works in Berkeley)
PUSH/PULL PACKS A PUNCH Berkeley’s Central Works is known for offering local Bay Area writers workshops and the opportunity for new playwrights to debut their works on stage with an audience. The offering at hand is Harry Davis‘s triumphant Push/Pull, performed in the small and intimate setting of The Berkeley City Club. For the world premiere,…
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Theater Review: TOOTSIE (Desert TheatreWorks in Indio)
TOOT-TOOT-TOOTSIE, HELLO! I was worried about attending a local production of Tootsie. I had seen the national tour and enjoyed it immensely. I worried that I might be so spoiled that I couldn’t enjoy any other production. My worries were unfounded. Desert Theatreworks’ (DTW’s) production of Tootsie was one of the most consistently enjoyable musicals…
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Theater Review: 3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN (La Jolla Playhouse)
A HOUSE DIVIDED, A MUSICAL UNITED La Jolla Playhouse has struck gold with 3 Summers of Lincoln, a bold world premiere musical that dives into the three critical summers—1862, 1863, and 1864—when President Abraham Lincoln fought to hold the Union together amid the country’s deep divisions over slavery. With a book by Joe DiPietro (Memphis,…
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Theater Review: OLIVER! (Desert Theatricals)
At the end of last season, Desert Theatricals warned audiences that, due to renovations at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheatre, they would have to skip the 2025 season. Then, somehow, the construction work got postponed, allowing this delightful theatre company to schedule two musicals before the jackhammers begin. The first, Oliver!, was mostly a delight—like visiting…
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Theater Review: THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (Arena Stage, DC)
FORBIDDEN LOVE AND THE GILDED AGE GLOW IN ARENA’S DAZZLING PRODUCTION, BUT THE AGE OF INNOCENCE LINGERS Playwright Karen Zacarías (Destiny of Desire which premiered at Arena in 2015, Native Gardens) breathes new life into Edith Wharton’s 1920 classic The Age of Innocence, blending period drama with sharp social commentary. Set in Gilded Age New…
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Theater Review: SUCH SMALL HANDS (Chance Theater)
A WHISPER THAT ECHOES There are plays that knock you over with intensity. And there are those that seep in, settle under your skin, and stay there long after the lights come up. Adam Szymkowicz‘s Such Small Hands falls firmly in the latter category. This quiet but devastating meditation on memory, mortality, and devotion opened…
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Theater Review: FLY BY NIGHT (Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City)
A MUSICAL THAT CURVES IN CONCENTRIC CIRCLES Fly by Night, an affecting chamber musical which premiered in 2014 at Playwrights Horizon, has been described as a “darkly comic rock-fable,” and that’s about as accurate as any attempt to define this quirky show. With a book, music, and lyrics by Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael…
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Theater Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Coachella Valley Repertory in Cathedral City)
If you need proof that Andrew Lloyd Webber was more consistent in creating great musicals before helping turn Broadway into the spectacle-driven British juggernaut of the 1980s, look no further than Jesus Christ Superstar, now playing at CV Rep through March 23. Few musicals have the staying power of this groundbreaking rock opera penned by…
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