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Theater Review: THE JEWELRY BOX (San Francisco Playhouse)
A JEWEL OF A PLAY Forgive me dear reader for the terse review, but I discovered something yesterday that turned out to be the holiday present you never expected but later realized it was something you needed quite badly. In this case, it’s a one-man show offered by The San Francisco Playhouse through December 25, 2020….
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Theater Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (starring Jefferson Mays)
SINGING THE PRAISES OF A CAROL At this time of year, productions about dear old Scrooge are ablaze as usual, even in streaming mode. One-man shows, radio plays, and reruns on film. What’s your favorite? The first widely successful sound version (there were many silent ones) starred Reginald Owen in 1938?; Alastair Sim following in…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Williamstown Theatre Festival on Audible starring Audra McDonald)
THIS STREETCAR ROLLS AND HUMS WITH AUTHENTICITY Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director Robert O’Hara would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times with a multicultural cast, including Audra McDonald as…
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Theater Review: THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER (Lookingglass)
STEADFAST THEATER This “soldier” is well worth saluting: There’s an enchanting Christmas Pantomime streaming from Michigan Avenue in Chicago ’” Lookingglass Theatre Company’s jewel-box of a holiday divertissement. Transformed by music, dance and spectacle more than by words and lyrics, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale from 1838, is the perfect recipient for director…
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Theater Review: CITIZEN DETECTIVE (Geffen Playhouse)
THE BIG SLEEP No crime is as duplicitous as The Geffen’s latest zoom-as-theater project Citizen Detective. This is the point that I say “spoiler alert” but a) nothing I do can spoil this interactive 85 minutes any more than its shoddy execution already has, and b) I can’t spoil who murdered Silent-era Hollywood director William…
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Theater Review: THE PROJECT(S) (Stage Left Theater, Chicago)
THIS YEAR MORE THAN EVER, THE PROJECT(S) MUST BE SEEN It’s a continuing crisis seen from the inside out, fleshed out with warmth and truth. In The Project(s), the late, great American Theater Company artistic director PJ Paparelli and documentarian Joshua Jaeger created a crash course and action meditation on Chicago’s infam0us housing projects. Inspired…
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Theater Review: THE SPIN (Interrobang Theatre Project, Chicago)
THE SPIN IS A SPECTACULAR SPARKLING SPUNKY EXPLOIT Satisfying, enriching, entertaining and proof that Chicago contains some of this country’s greatest actors and theater, The Spin is writer/director Spenser Davis’s brilliant blend of theatric sensibilities in a digital format. This offering from Interrobang Theatre Project in Chicago “opened” last night and it is hands down…
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Theater Review: RUSSIAN TROLL FARM: A WORKPLACE COMEDY (TheaterWorks Hartford, TheatreSquared, The Civilians)
TRENCHANT TROLLS TRIUMPH BY TRANSMOGRIFYING TRUTH Somewhere in the bowels of Saint Petersburg, Russia, there is an agency made up of both Americans and Russians that trolls the internet, creating hashtags and Facebook posts and memes from people who do not exist, and hurl them around the internet so that gullible Americans become so divisive…
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Theater Review: 45 PLAYS FOR AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES (The Neo-Futurists in NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco)
WHO’S ON FIRST, LADIES? The program states: “Rather than presenting a purely biographical story, this project uses the “honorary” office of First Lady as a lens to examine the roles that women and other marginalized individuals have played in the development of America.” That this recorded production is coarse in value only seems to heighten…
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Theater Review: ART (San Francisco Playhouse)
YES, BUT IS IT ART? Yasmina Reza’s oft-produced Art (English translation by Christopher Hampton) may be singularly responsible for the current plethora of new plays today with one set, a small cast, and billed as “Ninety Minutes No Intermission.” Art is a cash cow, and it’s no wonder that so many playwrights seem to be…
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Theater Reviews: STILL. and BOB BAKER’S THE CIRCUS (PlayhouseLIVE from Pasadena Playhouse)
STILL. WAITING FOR THEATER No one has articulated the black American experience in such a way that I, as a white man, “get it,” as has James Baldwin. His cool, unflappable, authoritative delivery is one thing, but his writings — which brilliantly connect the dots between American slavery and growing up Black in America in…
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Theater Review: WIESENTHAL (The Wallis)
WIESENTHAL ENTHRALLS Writer/performer Tom Dugan’s solo show Wiesenthal capitalizes on the strengths of the famous Nazi hunter – his resilience, tenacity and humor. Dugan has crafted a show in which the retiring Simon Wiesenthal — who claimed he flushed out nearly 1,100 war criminals — addresses us as he packs up memorabilia and memoranda in…
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Theater Review: A WEEKEND WITH PABLO PICASSO (feature-length film adaptation at San Diego Rep)
When I first saw Herbert Siguenza’s solo show A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, I knew this tour-de-force triumph would live among the greatest one-person shows I could ever see, including James Whitmore as President Truman in Give ‘em Hell, Harry, Robert Morse as Truman Capote in Tru, and Ann Randolph as the kookiest daughter on record in Loveland….
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Theater Review: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Lifeline)
A PRODUCTION TO BE PROUD OF Pride and Prejudice is Austen’s best-known novel, and its rich tapestry of characters and urbane dialogue have made it a natural for the stage, television, and motion pictures — and now, virtual streaming. To kick off its new line of digital programming, Lifeline Theatre presents Pride and Prejudice, adapted…
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Theater Review: CRUSH (No Puppet Co.)
WORLD PREMIERE OF PUPPET PLAY, CRUSH, FINALLY GETS ITS DUE No Puppet Co. is offering the World Premiere of CRUSH, an ingenious, fun video puppet play presented in six parts and released in separate installments on YouTube through August 20 (the delicious segments will remain there for viewing later on). Picking up roughly from where Kafka left off —…
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Theater Review: THEATER IN QUARANTINE (The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy and more)
VOYAGE IN A CLOSET Whereas many theater companies are becoming experimenters with video during the COVID-19 shutdown, Theater in Quarantine has been actually transforming theater into a small space successfully. Now, Theater in Quarantine debuts its most technically ambitious production, The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy, tonight live at 7pm and 9pm EDT. This slapstick science-fiction adventure adapted from…
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Theater Review: MARGIN OF ERROR (The Roustabouts)
CATCH THE VIRTUAL WORLD PREMIERE OF MARGIN OF ERROR As with many companies, San Diego’s The Roustabouts have had to restructure due to COVID-19. Now, they are presenting productions and readings in the virtual world. This week, they begin with their archival recording of the 2017 play, Will Cooper’s Margin of Error, a fast-moving drama…
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Theater Review: BETTE DAVIS AINT FOR SISSIES (live streaming)
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS “Stardust” was the name for what made Bette Davis shine. With playwright Jessica Sherr’s solo recreation of more than big eyes and flouncing cigarettes, the magic is back to cast a second spell as Sherr presents a new 80-minute version directed for the small screen by Karen Carpenter. Each of the six…
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Theater Review: BLEEDING LOVE (Musical Podcast)
BLOODY GOOD! You know, Stage and Cinema has received hundreds of podcasts and other streaming paraphernalia since April when COVID-19 shut the arts down, but most are technically awkward, strangely self-congratulatory, or simply meh. So it took a month for me to finally listen to a podcast of Bleeding Love, a wholly accessible and instantaneously…
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Theater: STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S “FINISHING THE HAT” (Poetry in America Live)
HOW YOU GET TO FINISH THE HAT This has been a milestone year for America: but aside from an epidemic and protests — and all that is entailed therein — we have Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday to celebrate. Until we can rejoin the masses to enjoy Sondheim’s works in person, there are events recorded live…
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