Areas We Cover
Categories
Theater
-
Theater Review: EMMA (Actors Shakespeare Project at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, MA)
A TIME-TRAVELING JANE AUSTEN What if Jane Austen had managed to read The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking 1963 exploration of why well-educated and prosperous women were so unhappy in their roles as homemakers and mothers? Obviously, it would have been impossible for Austen (1775–1817) to do such a thing, so playwright Kate Hamill has…
-
Theater Review: MINDPLAY (Huntington Calderwood, Boston)
MIND FOR ALL ITS WORTH The antidote to anxiety is control — or so the mind would have us believe. Our knee-jerk reaction to worrying about a situation, event, person, outcome, or (let’s face it) life in general can be a desperate attempt to exert our limited human influence over it all. And we all…
-
Theater Review: PAW PATROL LIVE! A MIGHTY ADVENTURE (International Tour by Nickelodeon at Hobby Center, Houston)
PAWFECT FOR THE KIDDIES I have often felt that anything that gets children exposed to live theatrical productions is such a gift. A staged show can have such an enormous impact on both creativity and cognitive development. With that said, Nickelodeon’s PAW Patrol Live! A Mighty Adventure certainly had an impact on all the little…
-
Theater Review: ARMS AROUND AMERICA (Dan Froot & Company; World Premiere at The Nimoy Prior to Tour)
VOICES INSTEAD OF BULLETS Although Arms Around America, which opened last night at The Nimoy in Westwood, is about guns and their people (or “ammo-sexuality,” to steal a wonderful phrase from the show), it is also a feast of sounds, a display of musical bravura and an all-around fabulous evening of unconventional live theatre. Serving…
-
Theater Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA)
THE GOOD-NATURED BUFFOONERY IN FORUM IS THE TONIC FOR WHAT AILS YOU A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, currently at Signature Theater, is knee-slapping farcical fun à la vaudeville and the Marx Brothers mixed with ancient Roman escapades, all set to the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Sound like a…
-
Theater Review: WAITING FOR GODOT (Geffen Playhouse)
70 YEARS ON, AND WE’RE STILL WAITING You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. — Albert Camus, playwright and novelist Aasif Mandvi and Rainn Wilson Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot has generated volumes of…
-
Theater Review: SUESSICAL (Berkeley Playhouse)
“HOW LUCKY YOU ARE” TO SEE SEUSSICAL No one does youth and family theater better in the Bay Area than The Berkeley Playhouse. Everything they offer features classic and family friendly shows performed by talented ensemble actors of all ages. Even the young child performers can sing and dance to choreographed numbers with heart and…
-
Theater Review: DR. SEUSS’S HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! (The Old Globe)
YOU’LL BE GRINCHING FROM EAR TO EAR For the 27th year The Old Globe is presenting its hit musical Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, continuing its position as one of the essential entertainment attractions of the holiday season. Youngsters and adults will love it for the same reasons. It tells a great story…
-
Theater Review THE NANNY LIVE! (Oasis Nightclub in SF)
Club Oasis, San Francisco’s premiere drag and cabaret theater showcases the best of Bay Area’s queer community’s talent, from fresh performers to campy remakes of pop culture and TV shows (their recent Rocky Horror was a hoot). The latest sitcom to be spoofed by the talented Oasis team of performers is The Nanny. the CBS…
-
Theater Review: THE ODD COUPLE (Roustabouts Theatre Company in San Diego)
EVERYTHING ODD IS NEW AGAIN Before ABC-TV made 114 episodes of the 1970-1975 sit-com The Odd Couple starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugma), there was the movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in 1968. But all of that followed the original Neil Simon play by the same name, which was a huge Broadway hit…
-
Theater Review: INTO THE WOODS (Kokandy Productions)
INTO THE WOODS ACCOMPANIED BY TWO PIANOS? IN A STOREFRONT THEATRE? IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE Kokandy’s production of Into the Woods directed by Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula is a clever reimagining of this Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic for a storefront theatre space. Most notably, this production reimagines the orchestrations…
-
Theater Review: PACIFIC OVERTURES (East West Players / Los Angeles)
EAST WEST PLAYERS PULLS OUT ALL THE SHOGUNS FOR A RARELY SEEN SONDHEIM MUSICAL On Sunday, East West Players opened their new production of Pacific Overtures by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and John Weidman (book). From 1976, this is one of Sondheim’s more overlooked shows. If you’ve never seen this unusual musical, this will…
-
Theater Review: NEXT TO NORMAL (CV Rep in Cathedral City)
ABNORMALLY REAL CV Rep opened it’s 24/25 season this past week with a triumphant production of the rock musical Next to Normal, ably directed by CV Rep’s Artistic Director Adam Karsten. Groundbreaking in its exploration of mental illness, grief, and the impact these issues have on a family, the show won the Pulitzer Prize for…
-
Theater Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (starring Jason Alexander at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts)
JASON ALEXANDER ISN’T FIDDLING AROUND — HIS POIGNANT PERFORMANCE GROUNDS THIS REVIVAL In Lonny Price’s revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Jason Alexander’s performance as Tevye stands out as the production’s defining accomplishment. Alexander, well known for his comedic prowess on television, surprises here by sinking into the rich, layered pathos of Tevye — a…
-
Theater Review: PRIVATE EYES (Theatre Palisades)
PRIVATE EYES IS SO PRIVATE THAT YOU’LL CROSS YOUR EYES TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT Perhaps Shakespeare was right to say “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” At least that seems to be the case in Steven Dietz’s Private Eyes, a “Comedy of Suspicion” now onstage at Theatre…
-
Extras: THEME EXPLORATION: THE INTERSECTION OF SPORTS AND PERFORMANCE
Sports events, much like theatrical performances, captivate audiences with their unique blend of preparation, excitement, and unpredictability. Athletes become the performers, and the stadium or arena transforms into the stage where their physical skills and strategies unfold. In both fields, there is an undeniable sense of anticipation, the building of tension, and the ultimate payoff…
-
BOOSTING THEATRE INTEREST IN THE YOUNGER GENERATION
Just as much as putting on a production itself takes a lot of work, getting people to fill the seats can also feel like a massive effort. People are now spoiled for choice in terms of entertainment options, and it means that competing for the attention of the public needs more and more changes to…
-
Theater Review: TARTUFFE (Hub Theatre Company of Boston)
SOMETIMES YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU WANT I have been in a foul mood for the past several days, looking for ways to smash the patriarchy, cursing the unseasonably warm and dry November in my soul and longing to methodically knock a few people’s hats off. Thus I accounted it high time to get to…
-
Theater Review: DATA (Arena Stage in D.C.)
SURE, LET SILCON VALLEY DO ITS JOB WITH THE GOVERNMENT. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Along with The Other Americans, Arena Stage is offering yet another world premiere. A highly relevant corporate thriller that makes the Enron financial scandal look tame, DATA plunges viewers into the ethically complex world of Silicon Valley at a time when our…
-
Theater Review: SOJOURNERS (Huntington Theatre, Boston)
SETTING THE STAGE FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY CYCLE OF SHOWS How appropriate! I thought, as I stood in the August Wilson Lobby of the Huntington Theatre last night. I was about to see Sojourners, the first in the nine-play Ufot Family Cycle that celebrates multiple generations of a Nigerian and Nigerian-American family. Playwright Mfoniso Udofia was…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
