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Theater Review: A LETTER TO LYNDON B. JOHNSON OR GOD: WHOEVER READS THIS FIRST (SoHo Playhouse & Edinburgh Fringe)
WAR IS FOR CLOWNS Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland join the thrilling ranks of clown-trained performers (Julia Masli is another) reshaping the boundaries of theatrical storytelling. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First is an electrifying 65-minute performance that plays only through June 29 at the Soho Playhouse (formerly the…
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Dance Review: SWAN LAKE (Miami City Ballet)
NO MIST, NO MERCY, JUST SWAN LAKE Forget what you think Swan Lake is. Forget the gauzy tragedy, the white tutus, the endless fluttering. At Segerstrom Hall tonight, Miami City Ballet, under Alexei Ratmansky‘s choreography, has cracked open the windows. Something sharper moves through the air now. The story’s cruelty remains intact. It is a…
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Theater Review: PARADE (National Tour, Ahmanson Theatre)
NEITHER FOOLS NOR COWARDS Michael Arden is a Renaissance artist. He approaches his work with a humanist curiosity, an intricate yet organic perfectionism, and a keen eye for composition, movement, and light. He’s a two-time Tony Award-winning director, the first of which was for his 2023 Broadway revival of Parade. This production is now on…
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Theater Review: SMILE: THE STORY OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN (Broadwater Main Stage)
NOT A DETAILED BIO, BUT MARCEL COLE IS THE REEL THING Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin is wildly successful for many reasons, only not for the reasons it would succeed with me. As a major film geek, I confess to being a certified PITAP (“Pain In The Ass Purist”). For me, the show was…
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Theater Review: BOOK OF MORMON (National Tour)
A MUSICAL SALTIER THAN SALT LAKE ITSELF Let’s start the actual religious text called The Book of Mormon, published in 1830. Without going into all its details about other planets, Jesus visiting America, and more–suffice it to say that if you weren’t raised with it, it sounds a bit bizarre. So when you give already-unconventional…
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Concert Review: A QUIET CELEBRATION (Paul Simon on Tour With “Seven Psalms”)
A QUIET BENEDICTION FROM A MASTER SONGWRITER Paul Simon is not done speaking softly. At a time when much live music clamors for attention, his recent performance felt like a whispered benediction—one that asked the audience to lean in, listen closely, and reflect. The evening, A Quiet Celebration, was structured in two halves: the first devoted…
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Theater Review: LIFE OF PI (National Tour at Segerstrom Hall)
TIGERS, TRAUMA, AND THEATRICAL MAGIC: LIFE OF PI ROARS TO THE STAGE Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel’s story has found enormous commercial success — first in Yann Martel’s Booker Prize–winning novel, and then in Ang Lee’s visually stunning film adaptation. Now, in its national tour, Life of Pi makes an ambitious leap to the stage at…
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Theater Review: ECHO (Cirque du Soleil)
ECHO: A CUBE WITH BIG DREAMS IN A SHOW STILL FINDING ITS SHAPE It opens with a cube. Glowing, two stories tall, and unmistakably the star of the show, this bold architectural gesture doesn’t just set the tone; it declares intent. ECHO arrives with a whiff of manifesto, promising reinvention, disruption, a new kind of…
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Theater Review: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE (National Tour)
THIS RETROSPECTIVE ON NEIL DIAMOND SPARKLES When one thinks back to the top solo music acts of the 1970s, the biggest names to come to mind are likely Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer. But one man, with less fanfare perhaps, outsold them all. In fact, he outsold…
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Theater Interview: DAVID DEAN BOTTRELL (New Solo Show “Teenage Wasteland” Now on Tour)
Teenage Wasteland: David Dean Bottrell Brings His New Solo Show to Revolution Stage Company An award-winning actor and writer dives into the awkward, hilarious, and heartfelt moments of adolescence—ages thirteen to fifteen—with his signature wit and warmth. David Dean Bottrell, acclaimed actor and storyteller known for his roles in Frasier, Modern Family, and his work…
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Theater Review: HAMILTON (National Tour in San Diego)
NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S 1776 Until Hamilton, if you’d asked me if I liked rap music, you’d have gotten a pretty quick, “No.” And I still do cringe at the memories of cars driving up my street with offensive lyrics played at sonic boom levels, because that had been my primary exposure to rap. So why…
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Theater Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (National Tour at Hollywood Pantages Theatre)
WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARDS (AGAIN) The line between fan fiction and canon can be a blurry one. In a world where Twilight fan fiction inspired the best-selling book of the last decade and a Wizard of Oz flip became one of last year’s most prolific movies, it’s clear that capitalizing on existing IP…
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Theater Review: MEAN GIRLS (National Tour in Boston)
PREDATORS IN PINK Tina Fey (book), Jeff Richmond (music), and Nell Benjamin (lyrics) hit all the standard Broadway musical marks with Mean Girls, now in Boston as part of a national tour. It offers an impressive mix of dazzling choreography (Casey Nicholaw) and soaring voices from a young cast bursting with entertainment talent. Ironically, however,…
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Theater Review: THE EMPLOYEES (A Performance-Installation by Łukasz Twarkowski at NYU Skirball)
HUMANS, BEST BE ON YOUR AVANT-GARDE The Employees, originally produced at Studio Teatrgaleria in Warsaw, is a visionary performance and installation work by Polish-born artist, writer and director Łukasz Twarkowski, who masterfully blends theater, visual art, and cinema. Tonight’s North American premiere, playing through Saturday at NYU Skirball—unfolds across the vast expanse of the stage,…
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Off-Broadway Review: A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER (Alan Smyth at New York Irish Center)
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER Walking into the New York Irish Center in Long Island City for the first time to see a show feels a bit like stumbling into a well-kept secret; it’s an intimate gathering place and an unassuming, cozy, cultural enclave. You hear snippets of conversation in lilting accents, laughter echoing from the…
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Theater Review: HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES (Tectonic Theater Project at Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
HERE THERE ARE HORRORS Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich’s Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Kaufman at Berkeley Rep, involves a fascinating true story. We are at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., where archivists study, document, and interpret Holocaust history—people often donate letters, photographs, and personal mementos from family members of that…
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Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour)
IT DON’T GET MUCH CORNIER– AND THAT’S THE POINT In Shucked, the jokes fly fast as exploding kernels of popcorn in this Tony-award winning musical comedy—part Brigadoon, part Music Man, and wholly the old TV show Hee Haw (which I’ve never actually seen but instinctively recognize). Quinn VanAntwerp and Miki Abraham Jake Odmark and Mike Nappi Shucked is the…
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Film, Concert and Tour Review: RIGHT IN THE EYE (Alcoléa)
MOONSHOTS AND MUSICAL SAWS: MÉLIÈS GETS A MAKEOVER Georges Méliès wasn’t exactly Spielberg. He was cinema’s first mad scientist—half director, half magician, all-around agent of chaos. In the early 1900s, he wasn’t so much directing films as he was recording fever dreams: rocket ships crashing into eyeball moons, skeletons dancing Irish jigs, ghost houses with…
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Theater Review: DIETRICH (Tour at Revolution in Palm Springs)
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN Last night, Revolution Stage Company presented Cindy Marinangel‘s in her one woman show, Dietrich. Inspired by the legendary Marlene Dietrich, this is a captivating night of theater. Marinangel fully inhabits Dietrich, bringing a fresh and compelling take on her life and career. From the moment she steps onto the stage she…
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Theater Interview: TOM MORAN (Starring in National Tour of “Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar”)
AN HONEST INTERVIEW ABOUT LYING Tom Moran is many things: a stage and film actor, a writer, a voice-over artist, a budding author, and a podcast host of Personality Bingo. Under the auspices of The Abbey and Culture Ireland, he’s been to Sydney and Melbourne with his one-man comedy show, Tom Moran Is a Big Fat…
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