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Theater Review: A STRANGE LOOP (Ahmanson Theatre)
A STRANGE LOOP’S IDENTITY CRISIS See if you can guess which musical this is. “A young black man sets out on a spiritual journey to discover his art, love, and himself. Along the way, he encounters a wild assortment of characters who, by way of contrast and tribulation, guide him along his path. This quest…
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Theater Review: IT’S ONLY A PLAY (Torrance Theatre Company)
FRANTIC ANTICS FUEL THE HUMOR Terrence McNally updated his 1986 Off-Broadway comedy It’s Only a Play for Broadway in 2014 featuring an all-star cast including F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane, and Megan Mullally. It’s a farcical, devilishly witty look behind the scenes at the opening night party of a play whose cast,…
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Theater Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Trinity Repertory in Providence, RI)
LA CAGE AUX FABULOUS If you are looking for a quality show with poignancy and heart, but ultimately just want to leave your worries at the doorstep and have a good time, head on over to La Cage aux Folles playing at Trinity Repertory in the center of hopping Providence, RI until June 30. The…
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Theater Review: YELLOW FACE (Lyric Stage in Boston)
MAKING FACES You’ve heard of a play-within-a-play? Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang offers us a play-within-a-play-within-a-play in the semi-autobiographical Yellow Face. Lyric Stage’s production of the Obie-winning play, directed by Ted Hewlett, has much to recommend it — and a few problems. Let’s start by focusing on the play itself. It begins with the outrage…
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Theater Review: MRS. DOUBTFIRE (North American Tour)
ROB MCCLURE IS ON FIRE AS MRS. DOUBTFIRE Mrs. Doubtfire started its theatrical life as the hit 1993 film starring Robin Williams. As happens so often with hit movies, it was adapted into a stage musical in 2019, ending its life struggling through several COVID-plagued short runs until it finally closed on Broadway in 2022….
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Theater Review: AMERICAN IDIOT (Wildsong Theatre & Arts Collective in San Diego)
THIS AMERICAN FELT LIKE AN IDIOT UNTIL READING A SYNOPSIS When MTV hit the airwaves, a young generation stopped dead in their tracks and watched hours and hours of endless videos. Frequently, they made no sense because, in most cases, the video had far less to do with the words of the song and more…
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Theater Review: DEAR SAN FRANCISCO: A HIGH-FLYING LOVE STORY (The 7 Fingers at Club Fugazi)
CIRQUE AND THE CITY During Dear San Francisco at Club Fugazi in North Beach, one could be forgiven for feeling like you’d jumped into a Cirque Du Soleil production, and that’s fine as the founders of this San Francisco based cirque troupe worked there for a time. The intimate and immersive resident production was created…
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Theater Review: HAIR (Signature Theatre in Washington D.C.)
HAIR EXPLODES WITH ECSTACY AT SIGNATURE The 1967 “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” Hair, currently at The Signature Theatre through July 7 and directed by Matthew Gardiner, is an explosion of emotion, iconic music, dance, and nostalgia. Amanda Lee (Dionne), Jordan Dobson (Claude) and the cast (Daniel Radar) The timing of the show is impeccable. Over…
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Theater Review: JELLY’S LAST JAM (Pasadena Playhouse)
MUSIC, MEMORY AND MORTALITY: THE MAGIC OF JELLY’S LAST JAM In the resplendent realm of musical theatre, Jelly’s Last Jam has once again ascended to prominence. Recently produced as a concert version by Encores! in New York, Angelinos get an all-new full-out revival, now gracing the stage of the Pasadena Playhouse, where the show opened…
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Theater Review: THE SANDWICH MINISTRY (Skylight Theatre)
BUILDING BONDS OVER BREAD AND BUTTER In the evocative narrative of Miranda Rose Hall‘s The Sandwich Ministry, — which opened last Saturday at Skylight Theatre — the audience is invited to partake in a touching and contemplative journey through the lives of a trio of women, set within the humble confines of a church’s parish…
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Theater Review: CAMELOT (North Coast Repertory Theatre)
A BRIEF SHINING MOMENT AT NORTH COAST REP Sometimes less can be more in the arts. Consider the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot. The show set a record for the biggest advance sale in Broadway history at the time it opened in 1960. From the creators of My Fair Lady, Camelot seemed to have everything…
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Theater Review: CABARET (Center Repertory Company at the Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek)
COME TO THIS CABARET 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 has been cut, added to, and shifted around, and the mood and look have been…
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Theater Review: TICK, TICK … BOOM! (New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco)
A MUSICAL THEATRE EXPLOSION San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center is presenting a musical by the late Broadway composer, lyricist and playwright Jonathan Larson. If you have heard of the runaway smash hit Rent then you are familiar with Larson’s style. tick, tick… BOOM! predates Rent by a few years, but the tight harmonies and quick…
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Theater Review: FAT HAM (Old Globe in San Diego)
FAT HAM HATH POWER TO ASSUME A PLEASING SHAPE American playwright James Ijames has written a funny and thoughtful play based on the Shakespeare tragedy Hamlet. The work carries the unlikely title of Fat Ham and it is playing at the Old Globe Theatre where it is doing sell-out business straight through to its closing…
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Theater Review: FUNNY GIRL (National Tour at Segerstrom Hall)
THERE’S A STAR IN THIS DUSTY OLD COUCH OF A MUSICAL Funny Girl — the musical narrative of the ugly duckling turned Ziegfeld star turned tragic heroine — takes center stage once more. With beloved songs written by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, Isobel Lennart‘s 1964 book was updated by Harvey Fierstein for Broadway in…
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Theater Review: BABY: THE MUSICAL (Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs)
BABY GO BOOM-BOOM Baby the 1983 Broadway musical now called Baby: The Musical with a book by Sybille Pearson, music by David Shire, and lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr., is a story that is almost a song cycle about three couples, each at different stages of life, who are surprised by an unexpected miracle. What…
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Theater Review: TOPSY TURVY: A MUSICAL GREEK VAUDEVILLE (World Premiere at The Actors’ Gang)
YOU’RE THE TOPSY TURVY During the forced shutdown of theaters due to the COVID pandemic, The Actors’ Gang in Culver City kept its employees on salary and health insurance, adapted their outreach programs in schools and prisons to a virtual format, and continued workshops with its actors online. The group’s Artistic Director Tim Robbins shared,…
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Theater Review: THE EXPLORER’S CLUB (Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills)
A PLAY NOT WORTH EXPLORING Doggedly determined to fight yesterday’s battles, Nell Benjamin’s farce The Explorers Club manically mocks the heyday of male British explorers. Fuddy-duddy adventure seekers with aboriginal blood on their hands, these intrepid trekkers did a lot more than find the source of the Nile; they blazed a trail for imperialism, colonialism, racism and misogyny….
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Theater Review: UNSAVORY FELLOW (Ruskin Group Theatre)
UNSAVORY IS SAVORY INDEED Those of us who grew up on the Westside of Los Angeles certainly remember hanging out on the Venice and Santa Monica beaches when we were kids. Times then were as innocent as we were, and our parents had no fear that predators were lurking about trying to do us harm….
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Theater Review: TONI STONE (Huntington Theatre Company)
BLACK IN THE GAME Toni Stone is as much about storytelling as it is about the story it is telling. Thanks to the inspiring source material by Martha Ackmann and this resulting play poignantly written and directed by Lydia R. Diamond, this important piece of history is vividly brought to life in its regional premiere…
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