Areas We Cover
Categories
Theater
-
Theater Review: THE KITCHEN WITCHES (Lamplighters Community Theatre in La Mesa)
BREWING UP SOME GOOD CHUCKLES IN THEIR KITCHEN Cooking shows are typically feel-good shows. The calm of Martha Stewart. The sweetness of Rachel Rae. The edge of Emeril Lagasse. Of course, it’s easy for them to make everything appear to go well on those high-budget programs; editing allows blunders to be reset and re-shot. So…
-
Theater Review: LAST SUMMER AT BLUEFISH COVE (Fountain Theatre in Hollywood)
LAST SUMMER THIS SUMMER Written in 1976 by the late Jane Chambers, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove — which opened in 1980, NYC — is a milestone in lesbian theatre history. Chambers’ name is legend as a daring playwright who put lesbian writing on stage before it was widely accepted to have out lesbians in…
-
Theater Review: FASCINATING RHYTHM (Lyric Stage Company in Boston MA)
FASCINATING, FUN AND FEEL-GOOD RHYTHM With stellar performances on two baby grands, a few silly props, and creative use of audience participation, Kirsten Salpini (sometimes wearing a tie to indicate Gershwin) and Jared Troilo (sometimes in bushy white wig to indicate Bernstein) pay energetic and loving tribute to the music of George Gershwin and Leonard…
-
Theater Review: INTO THE WOODS (National Tour)
WISHES ARE CHILDEN In the wake of news that Center Theatre Group, home of three major L.A. theaters, is “pausing” productions at their mid-size Mark Taper Forum and offering “select programming” at their smaller Kirk Douglas Theatre for the 2023/24 season, all eyes are on its largest and most commercially viable venue, the Ahmanson Theatre,…
-
Theater Review: PASSENGERS (Old Globe in San Diego)
THESE PASSENGERS WON’T STAY IN THEIR SEATS! Die-hard fans of So You Think You Can Dance get to know their choreographers. For me, there was Sonya Tayeh (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) : and then there was everyone else. Her startling juxtapositions, demanding symmetry, and physical boundary pushing was unmatched by others. Until now. Now, there…
-
Theater Review: FUN HOME (Studio Theatre in D.C.)
WATCHING THIS MAY NOT ALWAYS BE FUN, BUT IT SURE FEELS LIKE HOME Fun Home, which opened yesterday at Studio Theatre, will likely touch even the most cynical of hearts. Deep but never sappy, it’s full of multi-level contradictions within its characters, themes, and plot. Under David Muse‘s sensitive, fluid direction, a cast of strong…
-
Theater Review: EVITA (American Rep in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company in Cambridge MA)
A DUAL DUARTE DE PERí“N Understudy Isabella Lopez won a heartfelt standing ovation for her captivating portrayal of Eva Perón, the spiritual leader of Argentina last night in this A.R.T. revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics) classic Evita (Tony Award Best Musical). Director Sammi Cannold, who visited Argentina repeatedly to…
-
Theater Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY (Huntington Theatre, Boston MA)
AMAZING THEATER? BANK ON IT Steven Skybell (Henry Lehman), Joshua David Robinson (Emanuel Lehman), and Firdous Bamji (Mayer Lehman) absolutely stunned in the the first American-made production of The Lehman Trilogy, which opened at The Huntington last week. They slipped in and out of multiple roles, including babies, toddlers, men of diverse ethnic and regional…
-
Theater Review: A CHORUS LINE (SF Playhouse)
THE MUSICAL WITH LEGS San Francisco Playhouse‘s exuberant, high-kicking production of A Chorus Line proves that the musical is as fresh as the day it appeared almost fifty years ago, when the standard Broadway musical was already fading away, making room for the jukebox musicals and mostly hollow spectacles we are still forced to endure….
-
Theater Review: NOW OR LATER (Matrix Theatre)
BETTER MAKE THAT LATER Christopher Shinn clearly understands the American consciousness. In Now or Later, a 2008 one-act which opened at the Royal Court Theatre with a fresh-faced Eddie Redmayne, he offers an engaging discussion in lieu of a play. There’s no dramatic action — characters stand around and present their point-of-view. Shinn’s play is…
-
Theater Review: A TRANSPARENT MUSICAL (World Premiere at Mark Taper Forum)
TRANSPARENT COULD ONE DAY TRANSITION FROM COCOON TO BUTTERFLY A Transparent Musical is based on the Amazon Prime TV series Transparent and written by the TV show’s creators – Joey Soloway and Faith Soloway. Yet while it features many of the same characters and themes as the TV show, this is a brand-new standalone story. Under Tina Landau‘s overwhelmed…
-
Theater Review: THE MOUNTAINTOP (Geffen)
BECAUSE IT’S THERE What if Dr. Martin Luther King was a down-to-earth, simple, vulnerable human being like the rest of us? What if human existence could be viewed from another dimension, one that allowed the viewer to weigh the pluses and minuses of the greater good versus personal choice, or the path of one human…
-
Theater Review: AS YOU LIKE IT (Actors Shakespeare Project in Collaboration with Theater Offensive, Balch Arena Theater at Tufts University, Medford MA)
AS WE LOVE IT Talk about chemistry! The amazing Genevieve Simon, who wowed us with a riveting performance in the title role of Coriolanus earlier this year, flirts and schemes into our hearts in the very different role of Rosalind in Actors Shakespeare Project‘s As You Like it — in collaboration with Theater Offensive, whose…
-
Theater Review: THE BOX (Zephyr Theater / Hollywood Fringe Festival)
A PLAY OUT OF THE BOX NO, INSIDE THE BOX NO, OUTSIDE… One of the finest offerings at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival is writer/director Patrick Hamilton‘s The Box which runs through June 18 at The Zephyr Theater. The title has a triple-meaning: It refers to a piece of furniture that may or may not…
-
Theater Review: LOVE ALL (La Jolla Playhouse)
WHEN KING WAS THE QUEEN OF THE COURT Ask most people what they know about Billy Jean King, other than fact that she played tennis, and there’s a good likelihood that you’ll hear a story about Bobby Riggs. Anna Deavere Smith’s play turns that inside out by focusing on almost everything but that to show…
-
Theater Review: SIX THE MUSICAL (National Tour)
THESE SIX QUEENS SLAY IT The cast of Six riled up the audience at Segerstrom in this pop concert remix of Tudor history. Catchy earworms, check. Iconic costumes, check. American-Idol-esque belting moments, double-triple check. Thundering applause and cheers erupt from the crowd following every number? Check. Did I mention that the songs are earworms? It…
-
Theater Review: ELEANOR (North Coast Rep)
“You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Eleanor at the North Coast Repertory Theatre is a one-woman drama that condenses the life of Eleanor Roosevelt into a glowing portrait of one of America’s great ladies. Running barely 85 minutes with no intermission, each minute is…
-
Theater Review: SPRING AWAKENING IN CONCERT (Ray Of Light Theater)
SHINING A RAY OF LIGHT ON PUBERTY This past weekend, San Franciscans were treated to a special treat with Ray Of Light Theater’s version of Spring Awakening — yet while it was subtitled “In Concert,” performers had parts memorized and the lighting by Weili Shi was Broadway caliber. My only disappointment with this production is…
-
Theater Review: TAKE ME AS I AM: A JONI MITCHELL TRIBUTE (Rainee Blake at Three Clubs in Hollywood)
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOU TO SEE RAINEE BLAKE AS JONI MITCHELL LIVE During the 2018 Music Center concert, Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration Live, Peter Gabriel sent a prescient message to the artists interpreting Joni Mitchell’s complex lyrics and melodies: “I pity the people who have to sing them tonight.” Instead of showing…
-
Theater Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ (American Conservatory Theater at the Toni Rembe Theatre)
OOHS AND OZ Just in time for summer and for Pride Month, a new, colorful and fun version of everyone’s childhood favorite movie based on L. Frank Baum’s books is here in San Francisco. American Conservatory Theater’s production, which opened June 8 at the Toni Rembe Theater, isn’t just for kids. We all have our…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
