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Theater Review: RENT (Palm Canyon Theatre)
MAKING THE RENT Jonathan Larson’s Rent is in a musical theater empyrean; indeed, productions are as ubiquitous as the stars in the firmament. The show is about a year in the life of bohemian artists struggling to survive, and if that sounds familiar, Larson based his 1997 work on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, which contrasts lavish life…
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Theater Review: WE ARE CONTINUOUS (New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francsico)
COMING OUT AS A CONTINUANCE New Conservatory Theater’s Fall offering is the West Coast Premiere of a new play by Harrison David Rivers (The Bandaged Place, This Bitter Earth, a semi autobiographical journey. we are continuous examines how we change with the times and how our definitions of love and family can evolve. Alicia Stamps…
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Theater Review: THE LITTLE FELLOW (OR THE QUEEN OF TARTS TELLS ALL) (World Premiere at Cygnet Theatre in San Diego)
KEIKO GREEN IS THE QUEEN IN KATE HAMILL’S TERRIFIC NEW PLAY The Little Fellow (or The Queen of Tarts Tells All) may seem like a frivolous title for a serious play, but dramatist Kate Hamill has plenty of weighty themes in her script, now getting its world premiere at Cygnet Theatre. And with Hamill at…
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Theater Review: THE BOOK OF WILL (Hub Theatre Company of Boston)
A FOLIO AND ITS MAKERS Playwright Lauren Gunderson (Bauer, Silent Sky) has a gift of dramatizing small moments in history to illuminate larger influences, and that is exactly what she does in The Book of Will. Under the direction of Bryn Boice, the Hub Theatre Company, which offers pay-what-you-can tickets for every seat at every…
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Theater Review: SLOW THUNDER (The Emerson at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex)
SO, WHERE’S THE THUNDER? What a strange and unsatisfying evening. As baffling as the title of the producing company, bAfA TheatreWorks, Suse Sternkopf’s Slow Thunder is all slow and no thunder. Even with the presence of two of my favorite actors — Ann Noble and Rob Nagle — Sternkopf as director fails to create the undercurrent…
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Theater Review: DEATHTRAP (International City Theatre in Long Beach)
CAUGHT IN A TRAP Without spoiling, there’s only so much I can say about Deathtrap. Written by Ira Levin, this 1978 Tony-nominated play is an imperfect, though relatively delightful thriller now getting an even more imperfect, though relatively delightful production at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Best known for Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford…
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Theater Review: BLOOD AT THE ROOT (Open Fist)
THE ROOT OF THE MATTER Hooray and hallelujah, for Open Fist‘s taut 80-minute production of Dominque Morisseau‘s Blood at the Root, dynamically directed by Michael A. Shepperd, and choreographed by Yusuf Nasir, has been extended until November 6, 2023 at Atwater Village Theatre. Easily the most powerful play on any L.A. stage right now, Blood…
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Theater Review: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (North Coast Repertory Theatre)
A JEKYLL AND HYDE SCRIPT In 1886, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s short novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in London. The story has become one of the most popular in English language literature, dealing with an upper-class English scientist who manages to split his personality between good and evil, with…
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Theater Review: GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (Bent Theatre, Palm Springs)
WATCHING THREE TRIALS BECOMES A BIT OF A TRIAL In kicking off their second season, The Bent has again chosen to highlight an important issue of concern to the queer community, this time with a play by Moises Kaufman (The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations). The Bent fills an important niche in…
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Theater Review: OLIVER! (5-Star Theatricals)
WHO WILL BUY IT? Endearing and sometimes exhilarating in its zest to please, 5-Star Theatricals‘ heartfelt but uneven revival of Oliver!, staged like community theater on steroids by Kari Hayter, only occasionally earns its exclamation point. The good news is that even with all-over-the-map dialects, so-so choreography, milquetoast drama, and mixed performance styles from Broadway…
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Theater Review: THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY (The Geffen Playhouse)
A MOST ENGAGING PARTY Going into the west coast premiere production of Samuel Baum’s The Engagement Party, currently running at the Geffen Playhouse, I was aware of two things. First, a spilled glass of wine is the instigating action that causes everything to collapse. Two, the poster bore a striking resemblance to imagery used in…
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Theater Review: SUMO (World Premiere by Lisa Sanaye Dring at La Jolla Playhouse)
FOR ALL IT’S GIRTH Sumo is a Japanese sport in which two bulky Japanese wrestlers clutch and grab at each other within a circular ring enclosed by bales of straw. The goal is to either eject the opponent from the ring or knock him on his back. The typical match runs a few seconds and…
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Theater Review: JANE: A GHOST STORY (Lamb’s Players Theatre in San Diego)
LAMB’S STRIVES FOR AN EYRE OF MYSTERY Playwright David McFadzean is no stranger to Lamb’s Players, having been a part of the company from 1979-1984. From there, his career took him to writing and produced for TV and film, including Roseanne, Home Improvement, Carol & Company, Thunder Alley, and the Mel Gibson comedy, What Women…
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Theater Review: STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Palm Canyon Theater in Palm Springs)
MAGNOLIAS FOR JUDITH CHAPMAN AS M’LYNN In Steel Magnolias at the Palm Canyon Theatre in Palm Springs, which opened last weekend, Judith Chapman as M’Lynn blows the roof off of the theater and insists you pay attention; her second act monologue and emotional outburst is just brilliant. Chapman’s character takes almost the entire evening to…
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Theater Review: LOVE AMONG THE RUINS (El Portal)
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS Hearing the vintage recordings of Judy Garland and male crooners singing with society pop orchestras from the post-depression era, coupled with seeing black and white etchings of London skylines projected onto a scrim framed in an elegant art deco-inspired false proscenium, one would expect to see a romantic love story. However,…
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Theater Review: THE SORCERER (Ventura County Gilbert & Sullivan Repertoire Company)
THE SORCERER TAKEN FROM THE SOURCE This weekend, the Ventura County Gilbert & Sullivan Repertoire Company began its three-weekend run of The Sorcerer, a revival of their 2016 production. It is Gilbert and Sullivan’s first full-length opera and infrequently performed today. Subject to revisions since the opera’s 1877 premiere, this version reinstates the original Act…
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Theater Review: SHINERS (Woolworth Theatre in Nashville)
CIRQUE DU WICKS SALOON REVUE Booze, mostly respectable eye candy, and the music turned up. That’s downtown Nashville in a nutshell. Until recently, Broadway (not The Great White Way, but the iconic southern thoroughfare) was replete with these three in the historical honky tonk bars that vibrated with live country and western tunes of Roger…
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Theater Review: DOUBT: A PARABLE (New Village Arts Center in Carlsbad Village)
DON’T DOUBT THIS PRODUCTION John Patrick Shanley‘s drama Doubt: A Parable opened in New York City in 2004 and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2005. As evidenced by New Village Arts‘ production, which opened at the Conrad Prebys Theatre last weekend, twenty years after its premiere it still ranks among the most stirring…
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Theater Review: THE ADDAMS FAMILY (San Diego Musical Theatre)
ALTOGETHER OOKEY GOOD FUN When American cartoonist Charles Addams started drawing a family of moderately harmless ghoulish folks for The New Yorker in 1938, how could he have expected them to gain huge fame in the world of television (as there was no TV) and multiple films. And he certainly would have been amazed if…
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Theater Review: BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble)
A FEATHER IN ARYE GROSS’S CAP Playwright Anna Ouyang Moench uses the setting of a wooded area — beautifully designed at Odyssey Theatre by Mark Guirguis — as the backdrop of this beautiful family drama. The father, John (Arye Gross), is just about equally bound to his liberal and earth-loving principles, his love of bird-watching, and…
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