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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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Theater Review: SPRING AWAKENING (Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs)
TEEN ANGST HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD The first time I saw Spring Awakening was at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre and I hated it. This chamber musical–so dependent on facial expressions–was awful in that 2,700-seat venue (though I love it for big musicals). The intimate production which opened last night at Palm Springs’ Revolution Stage…
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Theater Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL (National Tour at San Diego Civic Theatre)
BACK TO BACK TO THE FUTURE For those of us old enough to remember the summer of ’85, when the movie Back to the Future reigned in movie theaters, here’s a daunting thought: Marty’s 30-year time travel back to 1955 was a shorter leap than going to 1985 from now. For the musical, the Broadway…
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Theater Review: HEAVENBOUND (Wilshire Ebell Theatre)
HEAVENBOUND ROUSES THE SPIRIT AT WILSHIRE EBELL THEATRE In the face of so much destruction from the ongoing Los Angeles fires, a bright event brought a sense of spiritual peace during Heavenbound, a musical written, directed, and produced by Don B. Welch at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on January 11. Welsh assembled a knockout cast…
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Theater Review: RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR: A NEW MUSICAL PLAY (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley)
Hershey Felder has become synonymous with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, returning year after year from Europe to present his original musical productions. This year, he brings Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, a largely successful exploration of the life of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, the renowned Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Felder has stated that this marks the final…
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Theater Review: THE HEART SELLERS (North Coast Rep)
YOU’LL BUY THIS HEART In my ninth-grade English class, Mr. Rozran taught that a short story, versus a novel, should aim to capture a small slice of life, leaving much of what happened before and after to our imaginations. That perspective came to mind while watching The Heart Sellers, a play that offers a focused,…
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Theater Review: AIN’T NO MO’ (SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Arts Collective at Boston Center for the Arts)
THE ELATION OF NEGATION Written by Jordan E. Cooper and directed by Dawn M. Simmons, the Boston premiere of this Tony-nominated series of provocative satirical sketches explores various facets of Black life in the United States, challenging audiences to consider whether racism can ever truly be eradicated. It’s the kind of humor that leaves you…
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Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour)
A SHUCKING DELIGHT The Broadway tour of Shucked by Robert Horn will be cracking up audiences in Chicago’s CIBC Theatre through January 19th before it continues on its national tour. If you look too closely this corny little musical starts to wilt with an aimless protagonist and too many ballads for a lighthearted comedy, but…
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