Areas We Cover
Categories
-
Chicago Dance Review: STORIES IN MOTION (The Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre)
TALESPINNING AT ITS MOST LITERAL Running only through this weekend, Joffrey Ballet’s captivating evening, Stories in Motion, delivers three richly imagined dance narratives, complete with storybook sets, exotic and erotic costumes, and supple choreography to fully explore cunningly contrasted music played by an unimprovable orchestra. The result is unadulterated delight, enriched by the emotions that…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: WESTERN SOCIETY (Gob Squad at REDCAT)
ALL YESTERDAY’S PARTIES A projection reads “1,000,000 Years B.C.,” and the countdown (count up?) begins; that’s a lot of numbers to scroll on a stage bare of performers, and it’s a few minutes of tedium before the counter gets to the 200,000s and a naked man (Sean Patten, in a blond Glam wig and fuck-me…
-
San Francisco Theater Review: OLD HATS (A.C.T.)
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN As a child, I always hated clowns. At best they were weird; at worst just plain scary. And, to top it off, they weren’t even funny, at least not to me. Why then were they always hovering at birthday parties like some ill-dressed stalker? Was there something I was missing?…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: COCK (Rogue Machine)
HARD DRIVING COCK GOES DEEP Love may be “a many-splendored thing” but as Pat Benatar sang it’s also a “battlefield.” In Mike Bartlett’s Cock, making its Los Angeles premiere at Rogue Machine, the gloves are off and all the players come out swinging. For a riveting non-stop 90 minutes they counter and torment each other…
-
Film / DVD Review: THE PROSECUTION OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT (directed by David J. Burke & Dave Hagen; starring Vincent Bugliosi)
THE CAREER OF AN AMERICAN CELEBRITY Providing no evidence unavailable in a half-dozen better documentaries on the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, the 2012 The Prosecution of an American President serves as a 100 minute advertisement for Vincent Bugliosi’s 2008 book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. One may agree with its themes…
-
Chicago Theater Review: KING LEAR (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
A FORCED FRENZY Some well-meant productions make you feel bad because you care so little. That’s perilously close to what transpires in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s louder-than-life revival of King Lear. No question, the drama already detonates on the page. Shakespeare presents a searing ancient-to-present plight: An arrogant monarch mistakenly confuses his daughters’ love for lip…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SIMPSONS TAKE THE BOWL (Hollywood Bowl)
MORE D’OH THAN WOO-HOO The intelligent minds behind The Simpsons already had over 51,000 spectators (over three nights) in the palms of their collective hands before they sat down to write The Simpsons Take the Bowl, a hodgepodge of animated clips, anecdotes, guest star appearances, musical numbers, and fireworks’”all co-hosted by three voiceover artists: Hank…
-
San Francisco Cabaret Preview: CELEBRATING STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (Bay Area Cabaret)
THIS WICKED MAGIC SHOW WILL CAST AN ENCHANTED GODSPELL Teddy Bear’s; Fanny’s; Trinity Place; 132 Bush; the Plush Room; The Mint; Josie’s; the list goes on and on. Time was when San Francisco was overrun with cabarets and showrooms; a close-knit circuit of performance venues, where, for a small cover charge and the price of…
-
Off-Broadway Theater Review: TRADE PRACTICES (HERE at Pershing Hall on Governors Island)
DRAMA IN THE MARKETPLACE Trade Practices, which launches HERE’s 2014-2015 season, takes the audience on a tour into the bowels of the corporate world where deals are negotiated, promises are broken, and fortunes are made and lost. It was created by director Kristin Marting (HERE artistic director) and set designer David Evans Morris, who were…
-
Chicago Theater Review: DEATH TAX (Lookingglass)
REALITY THEFT Twisting a devious course over a mere 80 minutes and across Lookingglass Theatre’s nearly barebones thrust stage, this puzzle play by Lucas Hnath (whose equally treacherous Isaac’s Eye just opened at Writers Theatre) throws us onto a roller coaster ride of shifting sympathies and strategic lies. One mistaken assumption’”a rich mother is certain…
-
Off-Broadway Theater Review: SOLITARY LIGHT (Axis Theatre Company)
ASPHYXIATING Neither the excellent quartet playing quality pieces that are at times rousing, nor Karl Ruckdeschel’s lovely period costumes, are enough to make Solitary Light, with music and lyrics by Randy Sharp and Paul Carbonara, a tolerable experience. With an artless libretto that is sentimental and always on-the-nose, the lack of a meaningful, or even…
-
Film Review: KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON (Directed by Alan Hicks; Produced by Quincy Jones)
“PLATEAU OF POSITIVITY” If you’re not into watching groundbreaking, legendary, nearly century-old jazz musicians tenderly calling each other “motherfucker” while helping to train the next generation of high-end artists, this may not be the documentary for you. If on the other hand you are a fan of inspirational films that manage not to cloy while…
-
Chicago Opera Review: MACBETH (Chicago Opera Theater at the Harris)
VIDEO WILL OUT Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy becomes, appropriately, a 115-minute, one-act opera by Ernest Bloch, a dour offering first produced in 1910 at the Opera-Comique in Paris. An inventive local premiere by Chicago Opera Theater at the Harris Theatre in Millennium Park, this “lyric drama in seven scenes,” which employs Bloch’s English translation from Edmond…
-
Bay Area Theatre Review: AN AUDIENCE WITH MEOW MEOW (Berkeley Rep)
THE CAT’S MEOW MEOW: PURRRRRFECT When you hear the words “performance art,” do you envision a motionless Marina Abramovic allowing a 10-foot boa constrictor to wrap itself around her head? Well, prepare to have your preconceptions, and your mind, blown away by the fabulous Meow Meow. This gorgeous and accomplished singer, dancer, librettist, lyricist, comedienne,…
-
Los Angeles Theater Preview: THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? (Renberg Theatre)
ALBEE SEEING YOU AT THE RENBERG On the surface, Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? is about a middle-aged architect, Martin, who has a zoophilic love affair that threatens to destroy his family and everything he’s worked for, including an international prize for architecture. Look a little deeper, and you’ll see that this extraordinary…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER (East West Players)
INTO THE FOLD Recently divorced, and abandoned by her beloved three-legged dog, well-respected origami artist Ilana has fortified herself in her studio. Surrounded by paper, Chinese take-out boxes, and a giant, hovering origami hawk, the dejected, worn-down, and corrosive Ilana will be coaxed back to life by high school teacher Andy’”a goofy, kindhearted, and energetic…
-
Los Angeles Theater Preview: VOX LUMIERE–”THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (L.A. Theatre Center)
SHINING NEW LUMIERE ON A FABLED CLASSIC Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera created a sensation when it was first unveiled as a serialization in the French newspaper Le Gaulois from September 1909 to January 1910. Based partly on actual events that haunted the Paris Opera in the late 19th century, the tale…
-
Chicago Theater Review: THE MIDNIGHT CITY (Firecat Projects at Steppenwolf Theatre)
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A CITY As artist, poet, and actor Tony Fitzpatrick prepares to leave Chicago for New Orleans, he presents his theater piece, The Midnight City: a personal conversation that documents the Windy City, certainly, but also history, heroes, and art. Friend and co-writer Stan Klein’”who previously appeared with Fitzpatrick in This…
-
Los Angeles Theater Review: RACE (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City)
A FLAT-FOOTED RACE In April 2014, lawyer and LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by the league after private recordings of him making racist comments were made public by TMZ, a gossiping media outlet that I believe is a far greater threat to humanity than…
-
Chicago Theater Review: ISAAC’S EYE (Writers Theatre)
GROUNDING GENIUS IN LIFE Lucas Hnath is a curious writer who likes to pit truth against fantasy to see which captures the most actuality. His Isaac’s Eye, now in an enthralling Midwest premiere at Writers Theatre, plays fast and loose with the facts behind two seminal 17th century scientists, Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton (what…
Search Articles
Please help keep
Stage and Cinema going!
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Find beautiful trendy gowns for girls' special events.
Need to order an essay? Hire our top writers to complete the most challenging papers at an affordable rate.
For professional writing support, hire essay writers at Edubirdie for high-quality help.
Discover top-rated Australian online casinos with fair games, fast payouts, and generous bonuses for every type of player.
Explore the best paying pokies Australia games with high RTP and clear bonus terms
