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Theater Review: SANTASIA: A HOLIDAY COMEDY (Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks)
A LETTER TO SANTA Dear Santa: Well, what a year 2024 was. With the way things are going, I decided to count my blessings. So I’m writing to thank you for that pair of tickets to see Santasia: A Holiday Comedy — it was the sweetest Kids in the Hall-type, holiday-themed Vaudeville show ever! Managing…
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Theater Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL (National Tour at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
THE DELOREAN IS THE ONLY THING THAT FLIES IN THIS DUMPSTER FIRE Since the release of the Stranger Things television series in 2016, the public appeal of all things ’80s has left very few stones unturned. From the lady wrestler phenomenon reimagined in the Netflix TV series GLOW to the surreal neo-noir film Drive, the…
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Theater Review: THE BERLIN DIARIES (Open Space Arts)
EXCAVATING THE PAST TO SOLVE PUZZLES ABOUT THE PRESENT Family is so integral to our identity that it’s difficult not to be enthralled by them. A complicated source of delight, distress, curiosity and mystery, no matter how much they change and evolve, grow or shrink, they remain a source of limitless fascination. The spirit of…
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Theater Review: KALEIDOSCOPE (Circus Bella, Embarcadero)
THIS TRULY IS HOLIDAY JOY Now playing this holiday season through January 5, 2025, down by The Embarcadero: The circus is in town. But not just any circus. Circus Bella, in a colorful Big Top tent at Beale & Howard, puts the circus in your lap with Kaleidoscope. Certainly what is achieved in this one-ring…
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Theater Review: PRICE: A REPRESSED REPERTOIRE (SEQUENCES) (New Theater Hollywood)
ACTS, REPETITIONS AND REPRESSIONS There’s a new theater in town, Los Angeles, aptly named New Theater Hollywood, run by artists Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff. I discovered it quite by accident in an article in the LA Review of Books, which described it as “sceney.” I simply had to go. I checked out the first…
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Theater Review: LITTLE WOMEN THE MUSICAL (Sonoma Arts Live at Sonoma Community Center)
CLASSIC STORY ENCHANTS Sonoma Arts Live captures the challenges of four sisters growing up in the late 1800s in this adaptation by Allan Knee, based on the classic novel written by Louisa May Alcott. Nate Mercer, Joanna “Lynn” Burt, Dani Innocenti Beem, Hannah Passinisi, and Emma Sutherland Sandra Ish skillfully directs a cast of eleven…
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Theater Review: BROADWAY HOLIDAY (Transcendence Theatre Company in Mill Valley and Sonoma)
HOLIDAY CHEESE The Transcendence Theatre Company is based out of Sonoma County and is known for putting on live theater productions usually in the summer, often in actual wineries. They have combined their efforts with Marin Theatre out of Mill Valley for this production of holiday music featuring performers from various Broadway productions. But instead…
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Theater Review: THE 39 STEPS (Coachella Valley Rep)
39 STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Adapted by Patrick Barlow from John Buchan’s novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, The 39 Steps is a comedic thriller blending spy drama, physical comedy, and theatrical ingenuity. In the outrageous, hilarious spoof, now playing at CV Rep, Richard Hannay (Matthew Floyed Miller), a dashing Canadian visiting England, meets…
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Theater Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Center Repertory Company at The Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek)
THERE’S A LESSON HERE: EVEN WITHOUT THE BIG PARTY, THE MESSAGE RINGS CLEAR Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol is among the holiday season’s most welcome recurring theater productions. Center REP’s sumptuous show has returned to the capacious Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek through December 22. With A.C.T.’s…
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Theater Review: DIARY OF A TAP DANCER (American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in Cambridge)
TAP INTO JOY AT A.R.T. I felt the first chills early in Diary of a Tap Dancer. It was during an ensemble number set in the Bronx and the birth of hip hop – I got that feeling in my solar plexus which told me this was a show bound for great things. That feeling…
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Theater Review: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (Broadway Production at The Ahmanson Theatre)
ONCE UPON A MATTRESS LIVES HAPPILY EVER AFTER Almost two hundred years ago, Hans Christian Andersen penned a quaint story about a lonesome prince in search of a woman who can prove to his mother she is a real princess and thereby become his wife. The queen devises a plan for the woman to sleep…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (The Streetcar Project Tour in LA, NY, SF, DC & more — Highly Recommended)
NOW, THERE’S OH SO MUCH MORE TO DESIRE Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director and co-creator Nick Westrate would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times. But wait til you hear…
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Theater Review: LEOPOLDSTADT (Shakespeare Theatre Company at Harman Hall in D.C.)
A TRIUMPHANT SAGA OF A VIENNESE FAMILY Shakespeare Theatre Company, in association with Huntington in Boston, is presenting at Harman Hall an epic, haunting play about loss and survival. Grandiose in scale and complete with 23 actors who portray multiple characters, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt is incredibly moving in that it speaks of unimaginable loss. Concerning…
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Theater Review: HOLIDAY FEAST (Christmastime Sitcom Scripts; Staged Readings at Front Porch Arts Collective in Cambridge)
FEAST ON THIS! For the second year, Front Porch Arts Collective offers its Holiday Feast of staged readings of scripts from the holiday episodes of Black sitcoms of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. The brainchild of co-producing artistic directors Dawn M. Simmons and Maurice Emmanuel Parent and directed by Jackie Davis, this event is fast…
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Theater Review: A WHYNOT CHRISTMAS CAROL (World Premiere at A.C.T. in San Francisco)
A.C.T. ASKS US TO PONDER “WHY NOT” – BUT AFTER THIS UPDATED CAROL YOU’LL BE SCREAMING “WHY?!” Last holiday season, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced that, after over 40 years, they were ending their annual run of their popular holiday classic showing of A Christmas Carol. The original sets were to be struck and all…
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Theater Review: HOME ALONE-LY HEARTS CLUB BAND (The Troubies at the Colony in Burbank)
Accompanied by the rockin’ 4-piece Troubadorchestra led by music director Ryan Whyman, the always-entertaining, hip and sassy Troubadour Theater Company (The Troubies) is generating tons of fun with their latest mash-up, the world premiere of Home Alone-ly Hearts Club Band at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, areThe premise is familiar to fans of the group: The…
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Theater Review: DEATH ON THE NILE (Arena Stage, D.C.)
DEATH IS ALIVE AND BETTER THAN WELL Ken Ludwig’s stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile premiered to a packed house at Arena Stage, with the playwright himself attending the Kreeger Theater’s opening performance. The story follows 11 disparate passengers embarking on a six-day Nile River cruise. Along the way, relationships are tested, secrets are…
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Theater Review: PETER PAN (Panto in the Presidio)
WITH ROTIMI AGBABIAKA KILLING IT AS PIRATE CAPTAIN HOOK, IT’S NO WONDER WHY THIS PETER PAN IS SUCH A TREASURE This holiday season, The Presidio Theater presents the fourth incarnation of Panto in the Presidio with the world premiere of Peter Pan, written by Stephanie Brown and Richard Ciccarone, inspired by Peter and Wendy by…
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Theater Review: CABARET (Theater Rhinoceros in The Castro)
A CABARET IN THE HEART OF THE CASTRO Cabaret is a masterpiece of American musical theater that has been presented in a vast variety of musical and physical shapes and sizes since its premiere on Broadway in 1966. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s score and Joe Masteroff’s book has been cut, added to, and shifted…
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Theater Review: TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Lamplighters Community Theatre in La Mesa/ San Diego)
THESE CREATURES ARE DEFINITELY STIRRING UP HOLIDAY SPIRT AT LAMPLIGHTERS Ken Ludwig’s story begins with a homey Uncle Brierly (Christopher T. Miller) wanting to read to us the famous poem that this play is named after. Unfortunately for the frustrated fellow, he is repeatedly interrupted by a mouse (Matt Sayre) named Amos who keeps questioning…
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