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Theater Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (Cygnet Theatre)
DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THE PLOT, AND YOU’LL HAVE A BLAST In 1973, a rock musical called The Rocky Horror Show opened in London and ran until 1980 as other productions of the show blossomed throughout the world. One source estimated that the show was eventually performed in 20 languages for 30 million people. The…
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Theater Review: THE CHER SHOW (2024-25 National Tour)
I’VE GOT SOME GREAT NEWS TO CHER The Cher Show, a new musical that follows Broadway’s continuous trend of capitalizing on rockstar jukebox bio-musicals like MJ The Musical and Tina The Tina Turner Musical, stopped at Long Beach’s Terrace Theatre as part of its 2024-2025 national tour (the show closed after a year on Broadway…
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Theater Review: THE AUDIENCE (Drury Lane Theatre)
ENJOYABLE, BUT WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THE AUDIENCE? The Audience at Drury Lane Theatre is a slightly stuffy drama best suited for audience members who are very interested in British politics. I fear that might be a rather niche group. The Audience imagines the life of Queen Elizabeth II through the window of her…
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Theater Review: A GOOD GUY (Rogue Machine)
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED Take a look at the highly decorated diorama just before you go upstairs to the Henry Murray Theatre for one of the most exciting world premieres you will ever see. It’s a miniature school room with one open text book about statistics and others involving math problems. Notice the circles….
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Theater Review: DUEL REALITY (Ahmanson Theatre)
STAR-CROSSED … AND TOSSED Think of The 7 Fingers (Les 7 doigts de la main) as a mini Cirque du Soleil performing onstage instead of in a ring under a Big Tent. This Montreal-based circus troupe and creative collective is making its Music Center debut with a brief two-week run of its current show, Duel…
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Theater Review: Oh My Heart, Oh My Home (Studio Theatre, DC)
UNIVERSAL, YES, BUT ALSO ESOTERIC Who’s to say what constitutes a monumental event – something as vast as a meteor shower versus the provincial act of trying to go home again? This is the unspoken question posed by British Playwright Casey Jay Andrews in her intimate tale Oh My Heart, Oh My Home currently playing…
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Theater Review: DRAGON LADY (Geffen Playhouse)
GRANDMA’S A BADASS It’s Grandma Maria Porkalob Sr.’s 60th birthday party, she’s living in her son’s mother-in-law basement and he’s just given her a karaoke machine as her birthday present. She’s about to fire it up to tell granddaughter Sara Porkalob her dramatic life story. Upstairs, her birthday is being both celebrated by most of…
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Theater Review: AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (The Old Globe)
ALL ABOARD FOR MURDEROUS FUN Agatha Christie fans rejoice! There is a new Christie adventure in a terrific production at The Old Globe, a novel/play hybrid of one of the Dame’s most popular novels, the 1934 best seller Murder on the Orient Express. Opening last night, this imaginative production blends the original novel with comic…
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Theater Review: THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH (A Noise Within)
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL I love how the press notes for A Noise Within‘s stupendous revival of Thornton Wilder‘s The Skin of Our Teeth noted a quote from original director Elia Kazan: “I overheard one couple talking as they left the theater. ‘What’s it all about?’ the man complained to his wife. ‘Why, George,’ she said,…
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Theater Review: CYRANO DE BERGERAC (Pasadena Playhouse)
PLAYWRIGHT MARTIN CRIMP HAS A NOSE FOR UPDATES Martin Crimp’s Cyrano at the Pasadena Playhouse is nothing short of theatrical alchemy. This bold reimagining of Edmond Rostand’s beloved classic breathes new life into an age-old tale, cleverly intertwining the timeless themes of love, identity, and self-worth with a distinctly modern sensibility. Crimp’s adaptation, first brought…
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Theater Review: ABSINTHE and SUPERFRICO RESTAURANT (Spiegelworld at Caesars Palace and Chelsea Tower)
ABSINTHE I FELL FOR YOU For a most salacious evening of “adult” delights, head on over to Absinthe at Caesar’s Palace which is surely the #1 Greatest Show in Las Vegas history (it has played to sold-out audiences since 2011). Hosted by the filthy rich and just plain filthy Gazillionaire and his nymphomaniac sidekick Wanda Widdles,…
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Theater Review: LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL (Ray of Light Theatre at San Francisco’s Victoria Theater)
LET THIS SILLY BLONDE MUSICAL ENTERTAIN YOU Post-pandemic, as the world is seemingly opening up, local theater and the arts have not rebounded. Many venues are suffering or have gone out of business. In every local theater production I have seen in The Bay Area in 2024, as soon as the curtain goes down, cast…
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Theater Review: THE CIVILITY OF ALBERT CASHIER (Colony Theatre, Burbank)
A MUSICAL THAT’S TOO CIVIL TO RESONATE Union soldier Jeffrey N. Davis (no relation to President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis), is on the hunt for his best friend, Albert Cashier, a fellow soldier in the the 95th Illinois Infantry. Following a skirmish, the brave sharpshooter Cashier stayed behind to place a…
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Theater Review: THE DOUBLE V (International City Theatre in Long Beach)
THE DOUBLE V GETS A DOUBLE D It’s a shame that Carole Eglash–Kosoff’s period drama The Double V is such a lackluster, overwritten, repetitive piece of didacticism. The story is one which should be told. It concerns the The Pittsburgh Courier, which served the large Black population based there. In 1942, they receive a letter from…
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Theater Review: ROMEO AND JULIET (American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in Cambridge)
ATMOSPHERIC, MOODY, DARK AND MODERN, ROMEO AND JULIET AT A.R.T. BELONGS TO THE AGES As summer turns to autumn, American Repertory Theater brings a dark and moody interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, to the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge. This production from director Diane Paulus, collaborating with Sidi Larbi…
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Theater Review: NEWSIES (Wildsong Productions in Ocean Beach, San Diego)
EXTRA! EXTRA! SING ALL ABOUT IT! Wildsong Productions is back with a rousing production of Newsies, doing the best they can with a so-so-script. In Harvey Fierstein’s stage book adaptation of the same-titled 1992 Disney musical film, we meet a group of impoverished young men, most of whom are orphans. Inspired by a true story…
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Theater Review: THE REVOLUTIONISTS (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
HEADS. WILL. ROLL. The Revolutionists is feminist history laced with an argument for the value of art in revolution. Playwright Lauren Gunderson (The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Exit, Pursued by a Bear) describes it as a “comedic quartet about four women at the height of the Reign of Terror. Liberté, égalité… sororité.” In Lamplighters Community…
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Theater Review: RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR: A NEW MUSICAL PLAY (Hershey Felder Presents on Tour)
CAUGHT BETWEEN A RACH AND TSAR-ED PLACE For those not familiar with composer and classical pianist Hershey Felder, he’s something of a living homage to great composers of the last 200 years. In 1999, he debuted his one-man show George Gershwin Alone after interviewing many of the composer’s family members. Its success prompted him to…
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Theater Review: HAPPY FALL: A QUEER STUNT SPECTACULAR (Renberg Theatre Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center)
Now playing at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre is the world premiere of Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular. Performed by an enthusiastic and energetic ensemble, and written by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble, director Sean Cawelti interviewed over a dozen stunt performers (several closeted) who shared intimate stories about the challenges they…
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Theater Review: THE BROTHERS SIZE (Geffen Playhouse)
THIS SIZE FITS ALL Opening the 2024/25 season of Geffen Playhouse is The Brothers Size, written by the Geffen’s Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney, performed in the smaller of the Playhouse’s two stages, the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater. Sheaun McKinney, Alani iLongwe This infinitely adaptable black box space is transformed here in the simplest way….
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