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Theater Review: GALILEE 34 (South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa)
A STUNNING WORLD PREMIERE, Galilee 34 blends the divine and profane in its exploration of early Christianity Eleanor Burgess, a prolific playwright whose works have graced numerous stages (The Niceties, Wife of a Salesman) and who has penned scripts for several television series (Perry Mason, Interview with the Vampire), offers us the world premiere of Galilee…
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Theater Review: LEGALLY BLONDE (San Diego Musical Theatre)
WAS BLONDE, BUT NOW I SEE! It’s easy to say that everyone wants to be taken seriously, but for Elle (Johnisa Breault) that notion has never really crossed her mind. She’s happy, perky, pretty, wealthy, loves her UCLA sorority friends and has the perfect boyfriend in Warner (Eli Wood). Life is perfect, so why would…
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Theater Review: OKLAHOMA! (Desert Theatricals)
THERE’S A BRIGHT, GOLDEN HAZE IN THE DESERT As the audience sat under a gorgeous golden sky with incessant desert winds, Jordan Killion sang “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” in his stunning, Broadway-worthy baritone as Curly: “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow … the wind is so busy it don’t miss a tree.”…
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Theater Review: THE HOPE THEORY (Geffen Playhouse)
HOPE IS A WAKING DREAM — Aristotle Close-up magic by master illusionist, storyteller and seeming mind-reader Helder Guimarí£es is mesmerizing and dazzling in The Hope Theory, an 80-minute wonderment which opened last Friday. This is his fourth collaboration with EGOT award-winning director/producer Frank Marshall at Geffen Playhouse in Westwood (Invisible Tango, The Present streamed during the…
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Theater Review: THE LINCOLN DEBATE (The Bent Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center)
IS THE RAILSPLITTER A LOG-SPLITTER? Written by Terry Ray, The Lincoln Debate — based on factual information provided in letters and biographies — concerns the debate about the romance of the 16th president and his friend Joshua Speed. Now being remounted (so to speak) by The Bent at The Palm Springs Cultural Center, Mr. Ray also appears…
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Theater Review: HAMLET (Long Beach Playhouse)
THE DECONSTRUCTED PLAY’S THE THING William Shakespeare’s Hamlet recounts the story of the ghost of Denmark’s murdered king who wants his son, Prince Hamlet, to kill his uncle Claudius, the man who murdered the king to seize the throne and marry Hamlet’s mother. Long considered one of the world’s greatest tragedies, it delves into Hamlet’s…
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Theater Review: BITCH SLAP! (San Francisco’s Oasis)
BITCH, YOU AGING GOOD In the tradition ’80s sitcoms but with elements of telenovela melodrama, Bitch Slap! is a hilarious, over-the-top spoof comedy written and directed by San Francisco’s inaugural drag laureate D’Arcy Drollinger. Bitch Slap first opened in 2017 and is back on stage through May 18 at Oasis. D’Arcy Drollinger, Katya Smirnoff The…
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Theater Review: A STRANGE LOOP (SpeakEasy Stage Company and Front Porch Arts Collective)
A THEATRICAL LOOP-DE-LOOP Playwright Michael R. Jackson’s acclaimed A Strange Loop (winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical) is a shocking work of genius, beautifully brought to Boston’s Wimberly Theatre by SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Collective and director Maurice Emmanuel Parent, starring Kai Clifton as Usher, “a fat American…
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Theater Review: SENSE OF DECENCY (North Coast Repertory Theatre in San Diego)
JUST A SENSE The North Coast Repertory Theatre is currently presenting the world premiere of Sense of Decency, a psychological drama adapted from a 2013 book by American author Jake El-Hai titled The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. The book has been adapted by Jake Broder, who is the play’s co-director with David Ellenstein. The original…
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Theater Review: THE SPITFIRE GRILL (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego)
A SWEET OFF-THE-GRID MUSICAL With the unexpectedly huge American response to Netflix’s Virgin River, there seems to be a great longing to see what life might be like in a tiny, forested community instead of the hustle and bustle of semi-anonymous city life. From It’s a Wonderful Life to The Andy Griffith Show to Northern…
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Theater Review: HITLER’S TASTERS (Rogue Machine)
MEAN GIRLS MEETS THE THIRD REICH Three teenage girls sit at a table in a bunker of some kind bored out of their minds tasting food three times a day before it is sent off to Hitler. They have clearly been convinced that this job is a privilege, for if one should die of poisoning…
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Theater Review: MERMAID HOUR (Moonbox in Cambridge, MA)
THE HOUR HAS COME Playwright David Valdes offers a touching insight into the complexities of family life for a transitioning teen in Mermaid Hour. The New England premiere of this 2016 Finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights’ Festival is directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. It’s well overdue: playwright Valdes sets the play in Boston…
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Theater Review: URBAN DEATH (Zombie Joe’s Underground)
KINK SHAME: AN ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE MASSES In North Hollywood, the audience’s senses were assaulted, mainly by each other, in the reception room before we even got into the theater for the return of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group‘s signature production Urban Death, a cornucopia of short, and I mean brief, minutes-long scenes of the…
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Theater Review: JERSEY BOYS (La Mirada Theatre)
THE BOYS ARE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER In the never-ending array of jukebox musicals that have lit up Broadway’s vibrant landscape, Jersey Boys shines like a brilliant star. Premiering in 2005, this musical biography of The Four Seasons skillfully transcends the usual by-the-number plot, weaving a rich tapestry that intertwines their legendary hits with…
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Theater Review: MONSTERS OF THE AMERICAN CINEMA (Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre
A MONSTER MASH Like most boomers, I was raised watching black-and-white horror movies. Both frightening and amusing, those giant ants, grasshoppers and spiders attacking some innocent town were the best action movies back in the day. And once seen, the major monsters — King Kong, Godzilla, The Blob, Frankenstein, Dracula, et al. — are not forgotten. In…
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Theater Review: KING (Pat Kinevane at the Odyssey)
A ROYAL KING From the moment Irish actor extraordinaire Pat Kinevane appears out of the darkness as if in a dream, his lithe body moving as seductively as a snake into a sexy Argentine Tango, you will be entranced to meet Luther, a lonely Elvis Impersonator looking for love in all the wrong places. Taking…
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Theater Review: A STRANGE LOOP (American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco)
YOU’LL WANT TO GET CAUGHT IN THIS LOOP A Strange Loop, a Pulitzer Prize winning, loosely autobiographical, one-act musical drama by Michael R. Jackson explores a myriad of themes related to identity, queerness, self-esteem, and religion. It first debuted off Broadway in 2019, won a Tony when it hit Broadway in 2022, and is now…
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Theater Review: FOREVER PLAID (42nd Street Moon)
GLAD PLAID Forever Plaid, an Off-Broadway musical revue written in the late eighties by Stuart Ross, takes place in the in-between, or whatever exists between this life and the next. The Plaids, a prototypical guy group in appearance, harmonies and temperament, find themselves dead right at the top of the show. But, they have been…
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Theater Review: THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE (Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs)
BEE THERE AT REVOLUTION! Revolution Stage Company, which had a winner earlier in the year with Avenue Q, has another hit musical comedy on its hands with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a charmer full of wit, humor and heart. Featuring a fast-paced, superbly giddy and touching book by Rachel Sheinkin (Tony and…
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Theater Review: PRELUDE TO A KISS, THE MUSICAL (World Premiere at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa)
WITH A MAGICAL IMBALANCE, THIS KISS IS MORE LIKE A PECK In the world of theater, revivals and adaptations often serve as a bridge between eras, illuminating how the sensibilities of one time can resonate, or clash, with those of another. Craig Lucas‘s Prelude to a Kiss, originally developed as a 70-minute play commissioned by…
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