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Theater Review: PSYCHO BEACH PARTY (The Matrix Theatre)
CAMPING ON THE BEACH Psycho Beach Party, a totally campy creation written by Charles Busch, is not your typical 50s and 60s beach blanket movie with Frankie and Annette innocently dancing and singing in the sand. With several cross-dressing cast members, mischief, madness, and the passionate pursuit of the perfect wave — or man —…
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Theater Review: REEFER MADNESS (The Whitley in Hollywood)
AN EVENT TO MAKE YOU HIGH No doubt spurred by William Randolph Hearst’s yellow-journalism against pot (he invested in wood-pulp newsprint because he didn’t want paper made from hemp), a church group in 1936 sponsored a film aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. One of the worst films ever made, Reefer…
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Theater Review: LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD (World Premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago)
LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD IS A BRIGHT STAR IN OUR VAST UNIVERSE Steppenwolf’s world premiere production of Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter lays bare the reality of two people who feel so much yet are stubbornly unwilling or unable to tear down their walls and allow connection. Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock This…
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Theater Review: FEMMINA SUPER (Broadwater Main Stage at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
SUPER FEMMINA SUPER To say that I was fascinated with Femmina Super is an understatement. The show is subtitled, “A New Opera,” which normally has me running in the other direction, as newer operas tend to be atonal and opaque and pretentious. Writer-composer-performer Bethany Hill offers just the opposite. I fear that subtitle may scare…
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Theater Review: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC IN CONCERT (David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center; World Premiere of Jonathan Tunick’s Orchestrations for Large Ensembles)
A SUMMER NIGHT THAT SMILES THREE HUNDRED TIMES Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s delightful musical A Little Night Music is is an adaptation of the Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night, a droll story of sexual musical chairs among the middle- and lower-classes in provincial Sweden at the turn of the last century….
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Theater Review: STRAIGHT TO THE HEART — A TRIBUTE TO THE LEGACY OF RODGERS & HART
A REVUE THAT GOES STRAIGHT TO THE HEART AND SOUL This past weekend, one of our boldest theater companies in the Coachella Valley, Dezart Performs (Dezart), launched a new program called Cabaret at the Pearl with the revue Straight to the Heart – A Tribute to the Legacy of Rodgers & Hart at the Pearl…
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Theater Review: THE KITE RUNNER (National Tour at The Kennedy Center in D.C.)
THE KITE RUNNER FLIES HIGH AT THE KENNEDY CENTER Because the best-selling novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is so significant and well-revered, as is the 2007 movie screenplay by David Benioff, my expectations were high at last night’s opening to see the stage version, currently on a national tour at The Kennedy Center’s…
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Theater Review: COME FROM AWAY (National Tour reviewed at Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&M University in College Station)
DYNAMIC DOZEN DELIVERS Turning the backdrop of one of America’s darkest days into a lively and highly entertaining musical, the creators of Come From Away successfully navigated turning terrifying fact into entertaining fiction. Irene Sankoff and David Hein culled real world interviews and insights of those personally involved into an exceedingly engaging book, music and…
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Theater Review: TINY FATHER (Geffen Playhouse)
GOOD LESSONS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES Sometimes life throws you for a loop when fun times take a turn in unexpected ways, changing your whole life in an instant. Such is the story at the center of the 90-minute two-hander tiny father, written by Mike Lew (Tiger Style!), and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel at…
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Theater Review: CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL (PAC/NYC)
A PUUUURFECT REVIVAL IS SERVED “Get your life!” says the pre-show announcement as the lights dim in the Perelman Performing Arts Center before last night’s opening of this much talked-about revival of Cats. The Cast of CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL That phrase might sound out-of-place in a Broadway musical’s pre-show announcement; however, when you step…
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Theater Review: SUCK MY TONGUE (Catharsis Theatre Collective at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
A PREMISE THAT DOESN’T SUCK I have dealt with PR firms for 15 years now, both in (mostly) and out of the arts world. Some may say that public relations is a strategic communication practice that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses or individuals and their audience. Sounds good, but advisors, pollsters and media consultants,…
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Theater Review: GARUDA’S WING (Magic Theatre)
A COMPELLING ECO-DYSTOPIAN STORY The destruction of tropical ecosystems has been a worldwide concern since the 1960s. Through June 23, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre examines the crisis in a personal manner with Naomi Iizuka’s Garuda’s Wing, Directed by prolific actor/director (and university professor) Margo Hall, it’s an eco-dystopian tale spanning approximately five decades in the…
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Theater Review: FOXY LADIES LOVE BOOGIE 70s EXPLOSION! (Three Clubs Stage Room as part of Hollywood Fringe)
GET DOWN … TO THE HOTTEST REVUE IN TOWN Created and directed by Fritz Brekeller, this feminocentric musical revue of 70s hits, Foxy Ladies Love Boogie 70s Explosion!, celebrates an amazing array of songs from the smiley face decade, but does so with a tilt towards feminist empowerment. Using entire songs, themes (disco) and medleys…
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Theater Review: SOUTH PACIFIC (Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston in Waltham, MA)
IT REALLY IS AN ENCHANTED EVENING I had never seen South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s famed and highly successful musical (winner 1950 Pulitzer and numerous Tony awards in 1950 as well as a 2008 Tony for best revival) though I was certainly familiar with the music. I was grateful therefore for the chance…
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Theater Review: MRS. DOUBTFIRE (North American Tour)
HELLOOOOOO! The 90s zeitgeist has returned in the form of drag Scottish nanny Mrs. Doubtfire, the eponymous movie of which has been turned into a Broadway musical, and is now on a national tour stopping at Hollywood Pantages through June 30. From her comically high-pitched Scottish accent to the iconic pastel cardigans, our titular drag…
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Theater Review: GATSBY (World Premiere Musical at American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA)
GREAT F. SCOTT! F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby recently entered the public domain, and as we approach the centenary of this American classic published in 1925, there is a plethora of stage adaptations, including the lavish musical now on Broadway. I haven’t seen any of the others, but I’m willing to wager that Gatsby,…
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Theater Review: THE KITE RUNNER (National Tour)
A KITE THIS BIG DOESN’T ALWAYS TAKE OFF; WHEN IT DOES, THIS STAGE ADAPTATION IS WORTH SEEING Directed by Giles Croft, the touring production of The Kite Runner at CIBC Theatre is an intensely human piece of theatre perhaps better suited for a more intimate venue. Based on the best-selling book by Khaled Hosseini, the…
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Theater Review: DURAN DURANTONY & CLEOPATRA (Troubadour Theater Company at the Colony Theatre in Burbank)
NICE ASP! Troubadour Theater Company is a free-wheeling, no holds barred, commedia dell’arte-flavored, slapstick-driven Los Angeles based ensemble of actors, musicians, and comedians that has been performing for audiences throughout Southern California and beyond since 1995. Their fast-paced, laugh-filled, loose adaptations (some of the original lines are still there) of classic plays, literature, and film,…
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Theater Review: HEAD OVER HEELS (Berkeley Playhouse)
MY HEAD SAID “STAY” BUT MY HEELS SAID “RUN” Since 2007 the Berkeley Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that offers classes and camps for youths. Consequently their shows feature large ensemble casts of young actors who sing and dance with passion. Past shows include Matilda The Musical, Cinderella Enchanted…
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Theater Review: BYE BYE BIRDIE (Broadway Center Stage at the Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center)
THE MINDLESS SILLINESS WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEEDED Broadway Center Stage’s production of Bye Bye Birdie, the 1960 musical comedy smash currently at The Kennedy Center, is delightfully corny, schmaltzy, and yes, hysterically funny. Broadway superstars Christian Borle as the goofy, lovable Albert Peterson (originally played by the now 98-year-old Dick Van Dyke) and Krysta…
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