Areas We Cover
Categories
Theater
-
Theater Review: BOULEVARD OF BOLD DREAMS (Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, MA)
HATTIE, MAMMY AND OSCAR Playwright LaDarrion Williams has mined a moment in history to explore the human cost of being the first to achieve a milestone in this moving and ultimately affirming exploration of the ambivalence surrounding the first Black person to receive an Academy Award. As many know, Hattie McDaniel, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s…
-
Theater Review: FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE (Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater, Center For Inquiry West)
OFF TO NEVERLAND! It is common knowledge in the theater world that the most difficult show to create is a musical. The second is a parody. But both together?And yet, success has arrived in Los Angeles with For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About Michael Jackson’s Life As Told By His…
-
Theater Review: CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
BAND ON THE RUN Berkeley Rep is debuting The Bay Area premiere of Chinese-American Playwright Lauren Yee’s acclaimed Cambodian Rock Band. The story follows a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime who returns to his country decades later. Marxist Dictator Pol Pol ruled Cambodia from 1975-79; a radical communist, he forced an evacuation of the…
-
Theater Review: CARDENIO (City Garage, Santa Monica)
HERE’S ANOTHER PLAY THAT SHOULD BE LOST A muddled, misjudged attempt to resurrect “Shakespeare’s lost play” that collapses under amateur acting, confused direction, and a baffling lack of theatrical intent. In Cardenio, now playing at City Garage, a character states in Latin, “De gustibus non disputandum est,” which means “There’s no accounting for taste.” Well,…
-
Theater Review: THE SECRET GARDEN (Revival Production at the Ahmanson Theatre)
THE SECRET’S OUT: THIS GARDEN’S IN BLOOM It’s been almost a year since Ahmanson Theatre ushered in spring with the national tour of Hadestown. This season (thank ye, Fates!), spring has come again with a lush new production of the 1991 Broadway musical The Secret Garden. Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 English children’s novel…
-
Theater Review: THE GREAT LEAP (Lyric Stage Company of Boston)
A SLAM DUNK! The Great Leap opens with hearty humor and carries its audience along in an absorbing story until a profound poignancy begins to permeate the senses. Tyler Simahk plays Manford “the most feared [basketball] player in Chinatown” as a brash and determined 17 year old who opens the action by trying to talk…
-
TIPS & TRICKS FROM THE STAGE — IN REAL LIFE
Acting on stage is an art form that takes years of practice to perfect. That’s because it’s such a multifaceted form of expression. Actors must be able to control and manipulate their bodies—including their voices. They also have to gain brainier skills like memorization, ineffable skills like a dreamy stare, and more than a dash…
-
Theater Review: PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE (Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica)
HELP WANTED AT THE LAPIN AGILE As I wrote last Sunday in my review of Sunday in the Park with George: “art isn’t easy.” Having just now seen Picasso at the Lapin Agile, I’ll add to that Sondheim quote: “’”especially comedy.” Opening last night at The Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, this 1993 comedy…
-
Theater Review: HAROLD AND MAUDE (Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood)
HAROLD AND MAUDE ARE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER It has been decades since I saw, or even thought about, the classic 1971 movie Harold and Maude starring Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon. Do you remember it? It’s the black comedy directed by Hal Ashby about a deadpanned death-obsessed 20-year-old who has an emotional and…
-
Theater Review: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (Pasadena Playhouse)
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE JUST GETS BETTER WITH TIME “Art isn’t easy,” sing the cast of players in Sunday in the Park with George; the words are most notably sung by the artist-protagonist himself — or perhaps, his creator. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Sunday won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama…
-
Theater Review: SEVEN GUITARS (Actors Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, Boston)
SEVEN CHEERS FOR SEVEN GUITARS The Actors Shakespeare Company’s production of Seven Guitars deserves at least seven cheers for this powerful production of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-nominated portrayal of the life and death of a promising blues guitarist. First cheer: Jon Savage‘s scenic design and Abe Joyner-Meyers‘ sound design: Entering Hibernian Hall in Boston’s Nubian…
-
Theater Review: MAGIC PEARL (Pinwheel at the Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, MA)
A MAGIC AFTERNOON Beautiful music (Christopher Vu, composer; Bo Jones (Lee) flute; Thomas Barth, cello, and Michael Weinfeld-Zell, percussion) and richly colored projected visuals gave a sold-out and extremely intergenerational audience a magical experience. Pinwheel, an ensemble of classically trained musicians and puppet artists, presented Magic Pearl, an adaptation by Veronica Barron, Max Gaylord, and Jones…
-
Theater Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
SWINGTIME SHAKESPEARE Everyone will make much ado about Guillermo Cienfuego‘s delightful take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which opened last weekend at A Noise Within. This comedy has it all: sparring partners, deceit, mistaken identities, many overheard conversations, love, and my favorite comedic character in all of Shakespeare: Dogberry, a pompous, scattered constable who…
-
Theater Review: NIMROD (Theatre of NOTE)
THIS JOYOUS TRIUMPH IS LIKE A PIG IN SHIT Mixed with the contradictory language of William Shakespeare and Trump-speak, Nimrod is a gut-busting, refreshing, sharp, irreverent, and often cacophonous satirical play delivered by a big, superbly talented cast at Theatre of NOTE. Phinneas Kiyomura is The Bard of our time — writing in the form…
-
FIVE DAYS OF BROADWAY CAMP (Segerstrom Center for the Arts / Costa Mesa)
BROADWAY SUMMER CAMP IS COMING First Week | Students ages 11–13 Second Week | Students ages 14–19 As a participant in Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ Five Days of Broadway camp, students of all experience levels from ages 11-19 are coached in musical theater performance and technique by some of the industry’s leading professional artists and…
-
Theater Review: THE FIRST DEEP BREATH (Geffen)
WAITING TO EXHALE Getting its West Coast Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse’s mainstage Gil Cates Theater, The First Deep Breath, a 2019 play by Lee Edward Colston II, is an overstuffed family drama that left me wanting : less. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, this double-intermissioned, 3 hour and 45 minute play takes place…
-
Theater Review: BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA (Moxie Theatre in San Diego)
ANOTHER FEATHER IN MOXIE’S CAP Playwright Anna Ouyang Moench uses the setting of a wooded area — beautifully designed at MOXIE Theatre by Robin Sanford Roberts — as the backdrop of this beautiful family drama. The father, John (Mike Sears), is just about equally bound to his liberal and earth-loving principles, his love of bird-watching,…
-
Theater Review: RIDE THE CYCLONE (Chance Theater)
WHAT A RIDE! NOTHING GOES OFF THE RAILS IN THIS CALIFORNIA PREMIERE Ride the Cyclone is a 2008 musical by Canadians Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. Originally written as a song cycle for the Atomic Vaudeville Theatre Company, it was retooled for its 2015 critically lauded US premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Since then, the…
-
Theater Review: EL HURACíN (Cygnet in San Diego)
A STORM IS BREWING IN THIS FAMILY Perhaps the two most chilling words that can be uttered in a family are “Alzheimer’s” and “dementia.” Physical pain, as horrible as it may be, is something we can relate to and try to bear together, but slowly losing one’s memories, faculties, and function is hell and heartbreaking…
-
Theater Review: THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI (The Old Globe in San Diego)
Boy, did I feel numb leaving The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci at the Old Globe. This co-production with Goodman Theatre is a creation of Chicago’s own Mary Zimmerman, who has perfected dazzling theatrical innovations throughout her career. She is best-known for her trademark cheeky and humorous twists on the classics: The Arabian Nights (my favorite); The…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
