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Bay Area Theater Preview: AMERICAN BUFFALO (Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley)
A BUFFALO NEVER THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION The dialogue you will hear and the people you will meet in Aurora Theatre’s production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo have both become hallmarks for this prolific writer. The Duck Variations (1972) and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) proclaimed Mamet as a new voice in American theater, but it…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: MILLION DOLLAR HAIR – A COMEDY TRIBUTE CONCERT (Lost Moon Radio)
LOST Lost Moon Radio’s new Hollywood Fringe Festival show is by far the least impressive Lost Moon outing I’ve seen. A departure from their usual late-night free-form radio show format, Million Dollar Hair has a fine enough conceit: it more or less purports to be a piece of musical theater (book: Frank Smith, Ryan Harrison…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE LAST CONFESSION (Center Theatre Group at the Ahmanson)
PERHAPS THE POPE WAS BORED TO DEATH The Ahmanson stage is awash with white-haired old men in long sweeping gowns. No, it’s not the old folks’ home production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Rather, the touring production of The Last Confession crackles and blusters with Cardinals, Archbishops, and Popes; these are the characters inhabiting…
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San Francisco Music Preview: CELEBRATING BENJAMIN BRITTEN’S CENTENARY (SF Symphony)
GREAT BRITTEN Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony conclude the 2013-14 season with three weeks of concerts beginning today and running through June 29 that celebrate the centenary of English composer Benjamin Britten. These smartly compiled concerts explore Britten’s works for opera, vocal music, ballet, and orchestra, and span the prolific career of…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE FANTASTICKS (Good People Theater Company)
FANTASTICKS ON THE FRINGE With the original opening in 1959 and running an astounding 42 years, The Fantasticks is a veritable classic amongst the repertoire of musical theater. By way of the Hollywood Fringe Festival at the quaint Lillian Theatre, Good People Theater Company is taking a crack at capturing the essence of this historical…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: TIME OF MY LIFE (written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn at 59E59)
THE PRODUCTION RUNS LIKE CLOCKWORK, BUT SOME MAY SEE IT AS A WASTE OF TIME Much mastery of theatrical craft is on display in Alan Ayckbourn’s staging of his play Time of My Life, which is part of the Brits Off-Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters. The performances are excellent, the direction sharp, the dialogue snappy,…
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Los Angeles Cabaret Review: JOAN RYAN – ON THE EDGE (with special guest Eric McCormack at Catalina)
WHEN A BELT DOESN’T HOLD UP AN ACT There was a time when American cabaret singers simply sang songs’”no social commentary, no motifs, and no directors were necessary because the audience was accustomed to great songs treated with unique vocal stylings by distinctive entertainers. Even when cabaret began to decline in the 1960s, headline singers’”whether…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: STONEFACE (Pasadena Playhouse)
THE RISE AND FALL OF A TRANSFERRED PRODUCTION When it was originally presented at Sacred Fools, Vanessa Claire Stewart’s play had a subtitle (The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton), but Stoneface Productions and the Pasadena Playhouse have dispensed with that (along with a few scenes), which is good because Stoneface is a…
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Los Angeles Theater Preview: CITY OF ANGELS (Musical Theatre Guild in Santa Monica)
MTG BRINGS ANGELS TO LOS ANGELES The angels of concert-staged-reading productions come winging into town this week with a production of City of Angels, the 1989 musical spoof and homage to hard-boiled detective fiction, 1940s film noir genre, and the men who made both. This rarely produced gem was a huge hit, playing 879 performances…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BROTHERS SIZE (Fountain Theatre)
AFRICAN MYTH ON THE BAYOU An atmosphere of mythic mystery suffuses Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s compelling drama about family, sacrifice, and deceit. Awash with undercurrents of melancholy and rage, here’s a drama that manages to wrestle both powerful themes and ferocious emotions, even within a remarkably intimate context. It’s admittedly true that we find ourselves occasionally…
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Chicago Theater Review: MONSTROUS REGIMENT (Lifeline Theatre)
A FEMINIST FANTASY SOAKED IN WHIMSY In Lifeline Theatre’s semi-delightful 150-minute romp, the war between the sexes is replaced by a war against sexism. The latest adaptation from this literature-loving ensemble is Chris Hainsworth’s faithful adaptation of Monstrous Regiment, the 31st novel in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. This prolific author manages to meld sword-and-sorcery, 18th-century fantasy, and a…
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Chicago Theater Review: DAMN YANKEES (Light Opera Works in Evanston)
A THREE-HOUR HOME RUN Clearly and cleanly, tried and true director/choreographer Kevin Bellie trusts the heart out of Adler and Ross’ 1952 Broadway classic. Damn Yankees, Light Opera Works’ summer treat at Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium, is glowing and glorious fun. Their faithful recreation gets richly rewarded by complete and accurate orchestrations, clever 50’s costumes,…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BRIGHT LIGHT CITY (Los Angeles Theatre Center)
BRIGHT LIGHTS ON A DIM HORIZON Two hit men wait in a shitty Vegas motel for the boss to give them a goddamn call. One of ’em (Leon Russom) is an all-business, no-shit guy on the verge of retirement; the other (Garrett Michael Langston) is a congenital fuck-up first-time gunman twitchin’ to get in over…
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San Diego Theater Review: DOG AND PONY (World Premiere musical by Rick Elice and Michael Patrick Walker at The Old Globe)
HARDLY THE ANIMAL IT WANTS TO BE Life comes to this new chamber musical, but only in the center of the second act, giving a hint of what the creators intended. Unfortunately, the flimsy premise and one-dimensional protagonists in librettist Rick Elice and composer/lyricist Michael Patrick Walker’s Dog and Pony result in a book with…
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San Francisco Opera Preview: LA TRAVIATA (SF Opera)
THE HEROINE MIGHT: BUT THIS OPERA WILL NEVER DIE When the theater lights fade to darkness at the War Memorial Opera House, the first notes of La Traviata will introduce a somber musical theme heard again in Act III’s prelude, leading to the final tragic ending. In between, you’ll get to know Violetta Valéry, and…
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Chicago Theater Review: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO THE ANDREWS SISTERS (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre)
HEARKENING BACK TO HAPPY HARMONIES Too sweet to be termed a blast from the past, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s latest reclamation brings back, with all their pep, pizzazz and patriotism, the greatest sister act of all time (Lennon who? Boswell what? McGuire huh?)’”Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews. Under director/choreographer David Heiman’s loving recreation, conceived in…
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National Tour Theater Review: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (2014 National Tour)
TECHNICOLOR TURNCOAT It’s like one of the Great Plagues of Egypt: Every so often, some producer decides to dust off another production of this old Andrew Lloyd Webber chestnut, and cast some past-his-sell-by date TV star in the role of Joseph, the hot young Biblical fellow whose dreams and visions earn him fame and favor…
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Interview: ERIC LANGE (starring in the world premiere of Donald Margulies’ THE COUNTRY HOUSE)
AN ACTOR WITH A NORMAL HEART I met Eric Lange in 1996 when I was producing The Normal Heart. I’ll never forget that charming, at-ease magnetism he had walking into the audition room, and I knew at once he had to be in the play. Unfortunately, his two roles encompassed about 15 minutes of stage…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES (written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn, 59E59 Theaters)
HALF AND HALF Kim Wall delivers a brilliant performance as Barry, an aging municipal employee, in Alan Ayckbourn’s Arrivals and Departures, part of the Brits Off-Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters. Mr. Wall carries the show, and although surrounded by a fine cast, without him there’s not much to see here. Still, the first act of…
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San Francisco Theater Review: SHOW BOAT (SF Opera)
SHOW BOAT JUST KEEPS ROLLING ALONG At San Francisco Opera’s summer company premiere of Show Boat, the first image at the War Memorial Opera House is a proscenium-high curtain depicting an enlarged expressionistic image of a steamer’s paddle wheel and two narrow, black smoke stacks. There’s an alluring monumentality to the image, and the solid,…
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