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Theater Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY (North American Tour)
MCPHERSON EXPLOITS DYLAN IN GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY Girl from the North Country is one of those shows that sounds promising in the abstract: a musical incorporating songs by Bob Dylan. Whatever you think of Dylan’s singing voice, it’s undeniable that he wrote some great songs–and a few of them are used in this…
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Theater Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (San Diego Musical Theatre)
SEEING FIDDLER AGAIN AND AGAIN IS A GREAT TRADITION It’s no surprise that this 1964 triumph ’” with an irresistible book by Joseph Stein and unimprovable songs by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ’” keeps surprising us with our own humanity. It’s 1905 in a small Russian village called Anatevka, and a fiddler plays a…
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Theater Review: CHICAGO (National Tour)
ALL THAT JAZZ AND MORE The national tour of Chicago at the San Diego Civic Theater — now through Sunday — reaffirms what generations of theater fans have recognized. This musical ranks among the major theatrical entertainments in the history of American musical theater. For verification, consider the full house at the Wednesday night performance…
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Theater Review: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (Chance Theater in Anaheim)
WIG SNATCHED! 1998 Genderqueer Musical Still Slays in 2024 In the pantheon of (so-called) rock musicals, Hedwig and the Angry Inch holds a distinct and unparalleled position, merging raw energy with emotional depth in a way that few other shows can claim. Witnessing its 1999 iteration with Michael Cerveris in the lead role was a…
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Theater Review: CLYDE’S (Moxie Theatre Company in San Diego)
SANDWICHING GOOD STORYTELLING BETWEEN TWO SLICES OF COMEDY Remember Linda Lavin’s old TV sit-com Alice? And her co-waitresses: the sassy Flo (“Kiss my grits!”) and the ditzy Vera at the truck stop diner? And the owner, cranky-but-loveable Mel, giving them hell through the kitchen passthrough as he cooked everything up? Well, flip that around so…
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Theater Review: MY HOME ON THE MOON (San Francisco Playhouse)
WHAT THE PHO IS GOING ON? Pho (pronounced in 2 sounds, sliding up at the end: fo/É™, like your saying “fur” with a strong New York accent) is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, protein (usually beef, sometimes chicken) and herbs (depending on the chef, it can include spices such as ginger,…
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Theater Review: STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills)
YOU MIGHT WANNA MISS THIS TRAIN Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 psychological film noir thriller Strangers on a Train, which he directed and produced to mixed reviews, was based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. But since then, the film has been regarded much more favorably; and in 2021 was selected for preservation…
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Theater Review: LITTLE PEASANTS (Food Tank at The Burren Backroom in Somerville, MA)
SOLIDARITY FOREVER The workshop reading of Food Tank’s Little Peasants at The Burren Backroom, a venue known more for Irish, Bluegrass, Appalachian, Roots, Jazz, and Blues than theater, is all the more engrossing for being rough around the edges. With a tight script by Bernard Pollack, dramaturgy and production by Elena Morris, and the excellent…
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Theater Review: MYSTIC PIZZA THE MUSICAL (National Tour)
A TASTY SLICE OF 80s NOSTALGIA In the ever-evolving landscape of film-to-stage musical adaptations, the latest entrant Mystic Pizza emerges as a charming addition. Based on the eponymous 1988 cult-classic film delight, we are brought back to the quaint environs of Mystic, Connecticut, and the intertwined lives of three young Portuguese-American women, childhood friends working…
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Theater Review: ALL THINGS EQUAL — THE LIFE AND TRIALS OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG (Pre-Broadway National Tour)
FROM NOTORIOUS TO VICTORIOUS Michelle Azar vividly invokes the spirit of famed jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Rupert Holmes’s one-woman show All Things Equal. As implied in the play’s subtitle The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ginsburg faced many trials in and out of the courtroom. Set in Ginsburg’s chambers at the United…
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Theater Review: CULT OF LOVE (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
CULT OF LOVE TAKES YOU FROM “HO, HO, HO” TO “HOLY CHRIST!” The Dysfunctional Family, whether in a comedy or drama, is a staple of storytelling, from The Bible and Shakespeare to Netflix. We all have one. And what better fodder for drama is there than the dysfunctional American family? Throw in the trope of…
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Theater Review: TINY LITTLE TOWN: A NEW MUSICAL (Theatre Movement Bazaar at Broadwater Theater)
TINY LITTLE TOWN OPENS WITH A BANG, BUT GETS CORRUPTED BY INCOHESIVE STYLES Theatre Movement Bazaar’s Tiny Little Town, a new musical comedy now playing at the Broadwater Main Stage, starts out with a bang. The entire company gathers to perform the opening title number, done in the style of a 1970s variety special, begging…
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Theater Review: ENGLISH (Old Globe in San Diego)
Learning another language is like becoming another person. — Haruki Murakami Years ago, I ran a teambuilding class using improv games for an I.T. group. Despite the diversity of heritage and appearances in the group, there was only one person in the group who was an immigrant. “Min” had a thick Chinese accent and, despite…
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Theater Review: THE LION KING (National Tour)
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER IT’S THE KING OF MUSICALS OR NOT; IT’S THE KING OF EXPERIENCES Endearing heroes and villains. Shakespeare and ancient myth. Coherent storytelling. Anthropomorphic jungle animals. Gorgeous African chanting. Transfixing puppet pageantry on a pythonic, prodigious level. A celebration of theatrical ingenuity. Forty-nine cast members –six of whom are South African. Over…
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Theater Review: POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE (Geffen)
A TOOTHLESS POTUS Seven women propping up one man at The White House — that’s the premise behind Selena Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. The widely produced play, which had its Broadway debut just a little over a year ago, is political but not partisan because its critique of…
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Theater Review: THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT (Desert Ensemble Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center)
ALTERNATIVE FACTS This past weekend Desert Ensemble Theater kicked off 2024 with The Lifespan of a Fact, a poignant and funny play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Jordan Farrell. Based on a book by Jim Fingal and John D’Agata, who detailed their personal experience preparing a magazine essay for publication in 2003, the play’s…
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Theater Review: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (Laguna Playhouse)
THE JOINT IS, INDEED, JUMPIN’ The musical revue Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a sizzling celebration of Fats Waller’s music ’” songs that he made famous in a career that ranged from uptown clubs to downtown Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood and concert stages around the world. This delightful revue evokes the humor and infectious energy of…
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Theater Review: LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL (Cygnet Theatre Company in San Diego)
BILLIE’S LIFE WASN’T NO HOLIDAY The title actually says a lot. When a star as bright as Billie Holiday, the sultry jazz singer whose career lasted from 1929 to 1958, is performing at a bar and grill in her hometown of Philadelphia, late in her career, something is clearly amiss. Billie explains that she loves…
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Theater Review: STAND UP IF YOU’RE HERE TONIGHT (Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA)
A MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING “When the curtain is down, and it’s three minutes before the show, what’re you wishing for?” playwright John Kolvenbach wondered as he wrote Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight. He kept asking that question and many others as director of what at first appears to be a one-man show (Jim…
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Theater Review: A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston)
A CASE FOR SEEING THIS PLAY Toward the end of A Case for the Existence of God (named Best Play of the 21–22 Season by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle), I tried to recall what I had learned in grad school about Aristotle and his theory of catharsis. Full disclosure: I had to look…
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