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Theater Review: Big Fish (Coronado Playhouse in San Diego)
REELING IN A SWEETLY SUNG FAIRY TALE Some theater should cause you to think deeply, stir your motivations, and cause you to be a better person for the ride you were on. And some theater is just to make you smile. Big Fish is a smiler : and there’s nothing wrong with that. Will Bloom…
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Theater Review: THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK (Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood)
MAY THE TORSO BE WITH YOU Forget about Broadway or the latest Marvel Comic movie. The fun, hip and cool burlesque Star Wars parody ’” which isn’t just for fans of the franchise ’” is the show to see this winter live onstage in Hollywood. No stranger to L.A., Burlesque started in the nineteenth century…
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Theater Review: CLYDE’S (Mark Taper Forum)
A TURKEY SANDWICH We are at a greasy spoon sandwich shop whose patrons are truckers making the long haul across Pennsylvania. The owner, Clyde, and her four sandwich makers are all ex-cons. But she’s the boss. While she enters and exits with orders and pick-ups, she humiliates her workers, who put up with her browbeating…
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Theater Review: MINDPLAY (World Premiere at The Geffen Playhouse)
MIND FOR ALL ITS WORTH No one can deny that Brooklyn-based mentalist Vinny DePonto is a master showman. As with all magicians, the true context of any one-man show is not the tricks (and there are some beauties here) but the patter with audience members. At Geffen Playhouse’s smaller theater, the patrons barely have time…
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Theater Review: MATILDA THE MUSICAL (Berkeley Playhouse)
A VAULTING MATILDA The holidays are here. It’s the perfect time of year to get into the spirit by seeing a big production musical. Instead of the usual Nutcracker or Christmas Carol holiday fare, consider heading over to The Berkeley Playhouse to check out Matilda: The Musical, the Broadway hit by Dennis Kelly (book) and…
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Theater Review: THE CHINESE LADY (Central Square Theater in Cambridge)
BONE-DEEP CHINA Afong Moy was brought to the United States by Boston-born traders known as the Carnes Brothers, merchants who exhibited Moy in a room filled with “Chinese curiosities” including money, musical instruments, and a bell, along with vases, rugs, and other decorative objects that were available for purchase. Moy, believed to be the first…
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Theater Review: RENT (Couerage Ensemble)
A YEAR IN THE LIFE Jonathan Larson’s Rent is in a musical theater empyrean; indeed, productions are as ubiquitous as the stars in the firmament. The show is about a year in the life of bohemian artists struggling to survive, and if that sounds familiar, Larson based his 1997 work on Puccini’s opera La Bohème,…
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Theater Review: THE CHILDREN (Moxie Theatre in San Diego)
THE CHILDREN IS NOT CHILD’S PLAY One of the challenges of reviewing theater is figuring out how much to divulge without giving away what the playwright wants to let unfold. The Children is one of those plays where it’s almost impossible to say what it is about in any sort of cohesive way because twists…
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Theater Review: MAN’S FAVOR DEVIL’S PLAN (Robey Theatre Company at Los Angeles Theatre Center)
MAN’S FAVORITE CAST On Nathan Stuffel’s terrific set of a loading dock behind a hotel, it is 1938 Los Angeles. These are tough times for everyone, but especially the Black employees who must belittle themselves to keep their jobs as cooks, maids, etc. The unscrupulous white boss Avery (Darrell Phillip) is part overseer and carpetbagger…
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Theater Review: URINETOWN THE MUSICAL (Long Beach Playhouse)
MIND YOUR PEES AND QUEUES People start revolutions because they want something that authorities are controlling. Jefferson wanted to declare independence. Norma Rae wanted to improve factories. Katniss wanted to feed masses. Bobby Strong in the musical Urinetown — now in a truly smashing production at Long Beach Playhouse — wants to pee for free….
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Theater Review: 2:22: A GHOST STORY (Ahmanson Theatre)
CHEAP THRILLS WON’T LIFT YOUR SPIRIT You never forget your first. Mine happened in the West End of London in the year 2000. The Woman in Black (Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s gothic horror novel) marked the first time I was ever scared shitless in a theater. Not a movie theater, mind you: the…
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Theater Review: MOULIN ROUGE! (North American Tour at SCFTA)
A GOOD TIME WITHOUT MUCH TO SAY In 2001, Baz Luhrmann co-wrote and directed the jukebox musical movie, Moulin Rouge! The film was especially praised for its highly stylized costumes and production values. In 2019, retaining much of the flamboyance and style, the Broadway production adapted by John Logan and directed by Alex Timbers opened,…
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Theater Commentary: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (National Tour)
TO READ A BOOK. TO SEE A PLAY. TO CORROBORATE LESSONS LEARNED. I have been an avid reader my whole life beginning at the age of eight. I can’t remember the exact year that I read Harper Lee’s book, To Kill A Mockingbird, sometime around high school, after which I saw the film. Last night…
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Theater Review: RADIO GOLF (A Noise Within, Pasadena)
GOLF IS ON COURSE, BUT JUST A BIT UNDER PAR Pittsburgh in 1997 is the setting for the last of renowned playwright August Wilson’s series of 10 dramas that highlight aspects of African-American life in the 20th century. His is a play about gentrification, but a fascinating aspect of the 2005 work remains a rare…
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Theater Review: A PICTURE OF TWO BOYS (New Conservatory Theatre Center)
San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theater is known for encouraging and developing new artists, actors and directors. This month the new Director in Residence Richard A. Mosqueda is debuting the World Premiere of A Picture of Two Boys by Nick Malakhow. Set in a small town in rural Pennsylvania it’s about the unlikely friendship between two…
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Theater: TERRENCE McNALLY FOUNDATION LAUNCHES
Continuing the legendary playwright’s singular legacy of mentorship and activism, the Terrence McNally Foundation has been launched. The nonprofit organization is committed to supporting bold new voices in the American theatre by providing financial and institutional support to early-career playwrights. In addition, the Foundation is committed to supporting LGBTQ causes, as McNally did throughout his…
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Theater Review: INTO THE BREECHES (North Coast Repertory in Solana Beach, San Diego)
WOMEN IN PANTS? WHERE WILL IT ALL END? It’s 1942 and most of the men in Rhode Island are off to war. As such, most theatres, especially those who focus on the heavily male casts of Shakespeare, are shut down. But Oberon Playhouse’s assistant director Maggie Dalton (Melanie Lora) has another idea. With her husband…
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Theater Review: A FEW GOOD MEN (La Mirada Theatre)
YOU WANT THE TRUTH? SEE THIS ASTOUNDING PRODUCTION. Many are familiar with A Few Good Men, the 1992 courtroom drama film starring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore, which uses clashes of egos and attitudes to bluntly raise provocative issues, including the self-justifying arrogance of power and the complacency of a society that assigns…
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Theater Review: JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE (Huntington Theatre, Boston)
JOE TURNER’S HERE TO STAY Don’t let this gripping production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone come and go without seeing it yourself. This is classic American theater essential to our collective understanding of who we are, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find moments of pleasure in this adept production. From the…
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Theater Review: DAMN YANKEES (Musical Theatre West)
A THREE-HOUR HOME RUN Clearly and cleanly, tried and true director Cynthia Ferrer and choreographer Alexis Carra Girbés trust the heart out of Adler and Ross’s 1955 Broadway classic, Damn Yankees. Musical Theater West’s fall treat at Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach is glowing and glorious fun. Their faithful recreation gets richly rewarded by…
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