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Chicago Theater Review: HOLIDAZE (Step Up Productions at the Athenaeum Theatre)
BURNING THE YULE LOG AT BOTH ENDS Striking a comfortable balance between sticky and sentimental, schmaltz and cynicism, five short plays by as many Chicago writers (and directed by another skilled quintet) combine to create the rightly named HoliDaze. Happily, none of these furtive glimpses of the holiday season’s well-chronicled underside, most set on Christmas…
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Chicago Theater Review: MIRACLE ON WELLS STREET (The Second City)
FRANKINCENSE, MYRRH AND A FEW LUMPS OF COAL Exchanging gifts with relatives you don’t know well is always a bit disappointing. Sometimes that aunt or cousin will give you something you really want, but most of the time you’ll find yourself with clothes that aren’t quite your style or size, or a gift card to…
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Chicago Theater Review: CHRISTMAS DEAREST (Hell in a Handbag Productions at Hamburger Mary’s)
A CATTY YULETIDE LAUGH RIOT Following the well-earned 15-year run of Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, Hell in a Handbag Productions replaces it with a worthy winner. David Cerda’s wicked holiday musical Christmas Dearest is equally destined for Yuletide glory. This alternately crude and clever caricature, a raucous rouser, combines Cerda’s signature icon/diva/screen goddess/rotten mother Joan Crawford…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: NAKED HOLIDAYS (The Cutting Room)
YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED AND NAKED Directed by Russell Dobular and written by him and the Naked Holiday Ensemble, with additional material by Stacy Lane, Endtimes Productions’ annual Christmastime spectacle Naked Holidays, now in its 7th incarnation, subverts the holy days theme with a delightful burlesque variety show full of dancing, singing, comedy, music, and lots…
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Chicago Theater Review: BLOOD ON THE CAT’S NECK (Trap Door Theatre)
A CHORUS FE-LINE A prolific author and auteur, Rainer Werner Fassbinder exulted in display of the seamy and hypocritical side of the post-war German bourgeoisie. He directed forty films, wrote twenty-four plays and performed thirty-six roles before his death at age thirty-seven. His frenetic pace of production is echoed by the structure of his play,…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: ¡SER! (LATC)
TO BE! (TRAPPED INSIDE YOUR OWN PRODUCTION) The explosion of solo performance pieces in the 1970s and 80s extended the creative lives of fine artists like Lily Tomlin and made stars of social philosophers like Eric Bogosian. A show along the lines of Bogosian’s Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead avoided the ostentation…
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Bay Area Theater Review: TRISTAN & YSEULT (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
A TRIUMPH OF IMAGINATIVE STORYTELLING Monty Python meets Shakespeare meets Cirque du Soleil in Tristan & Yseult at Berkeley Rep. A universal love story with roots in classic times at the storied Cornish countryside is bestowed wry English humor and a four-piece band that offer music spanning from spirited rock to haunting Celtic airs. Riveting…
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Los Angeles Music Review: LE SALON DE MUSIQUES / WAGNER & SCHOENBERG to GLIÈRE & GRIEG (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
I WOULD, BUT I HAVE TO GET TO THE SALON I had attended chamber music concerts in intimate salons before, but until last year I had never seen one in Los Angeles. Le Salon de Musiques changed all that. Now in their fourth season, this sterling outfit continues to offer nine programs a year. The…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BREAKING AND ENTERING (Zombie Joe’s Underground)
WITHOUT TRUTH, EXISTENTIALISM IS INCOHERENT The premise of Colin Mitchell’s Breaking and Entering, which just ended its seven-performance run, is the best element of an existential play that ends up being far less profound and accessible than intended. Milly, a young woman and obsessive fan, breaks into the mansion of WJ Trumbull, a hermetic novelist…
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San Diego Theater Review: SIDE SHOW (La Jolla Playhouse)
YOU CAN’T TWIN THEM ALL There is nothing more fascinating for this Broadway musical aficionado than a flop’”but not for gloating purposes. It’s natural to wonder “What were they thinking?” with any train-wreck, but I’m obsessed with this particular branch of theater: With so many elements, a musical is one of the most difficult art…
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San Diego Theater Review: VENUS IN FUR (San Diego REPertory at the Lyceum)
WHIPPED INTO A FRENZY If I had any doubts prior to attending San Diego REP’s production of Venus in Fur (an on-again, off-again playwright; two characters; two directors), they were vanquished within minutes of curtain. This funny and fascinating look into the world of dominant/submissive relationships proved itself to be one of a handful of “must-see” shows…
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Los Angeles Music Review: BEYOND LA DOLCE VITA (L’Orchestra Italiana Del Cinema at Royce Hall)
MAGNIFICENT MUSIC, MESSY MULTI-MEDIA Last Friday, 50-plus members of the Orchestra Italiana Del Cinema (beefed up with local talent) gathered under the baton of Daniele Belardinelli for artistic director Marco Patrignani’s multimedia symphony concert, Beyond La Dolce Vita. Since the concert was co-presented by the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in…
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Bay Area Theater Review: A BRIGHT NEW BOISE (Aurora Theatre)
A BRIGHT NEW PRODUCTION Salvation can’t come soon enough when you’re a long-term, low-wage slave worker at the local Hobby Lobby. Samuel D. Hunter’s tragicomic look at life within the cultural wasteland of post-Capitalist middle America in the Obie award-winning A Bright New Boise goes beyond the stereotypes in an imaginative Bay Area premiere by Berkeley’s…
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Los Angeles/Tour Dance Review: LAR LUBOVITCH DANCE COMPANY (Valley Performing Arts Center)
UPDATING THE OLD, PRESENTING THE NEW As part of the North American tour celebrating its 45th season, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company arrived at Valley Performing Arts Center last Saturday with a program of mostly newer works and some older duets. With Picasso’s 1905 Family of Saltimbanques as inspiration, we are taken through the creative…
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San Francisco Theater Review: ARLINGTON (Magic Theatre Company in Fort Mason)
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS San Francisco’s Magic Theatre prides itself on cultivating new plays and giving up-and-coming playwrights the opportunity to produce new and thought provoking theater. The estimable company lives up to this manifesto by presenting the world premiere of Arlington, an innovative show which takes the audience on an entertaining…
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Off-Off-Broadway Review: FAMILY FURNITURE (The Flea Theater)
THE GOOD WASPS There’s nothing especially remarkable about A.R. Gurney’s latest offering Family Furniture, a play that investigates a family of 1950s WASPs spending the summer at their Lake Erie vacation home. There are no terrible conflicts or unsolvable problems, no new ideas or exciting subtext, it isn’t suspenseful or particularly dramatic, and its relevance…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: PLAY DEAD (Geffen Playhouse)
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: A DARK CARNIVAL OF DEATH AND TERROR! This tour de force of trickery from creators Todd Robbins and the magician Teller (the traditionally silent half of the famous magician duo Penn and Teller) is a magic show. However, be warned before attending: This is not a cheerfully sweet show…
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Chicago Theater Review: BURNING BLUEBEARD (The Ruffians at Theater Wit)
ASHES TO THEATER Now moving from Andersonville to Lakeview, the best production of 2011 is back to rival any currently playing: No longer sprawling the width of the Neo Futurarium’s stretched-out stage, The Ruffians’ superb, 100-minute Burning Bluebeard is concentrated in Theater Wit’s proscenium space. Its glorious, dream-like make-believe and contagious magic realism feel even…
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Los Angeles/Tour Dance Review: MATTHEW BOURNE’S SLEEPING BEAUTY (Ahmanson Theatre)
A HITCH IN THE BOURNE LEGACY It’s a shame that Matthew Bourne’s narrative began to fizzle out in the second act of his Sleeping Beauty, for up to then this extraordinarily imaginative and enthralling retelling was close to proving itself another feather in the cap of this British director known for his Dance Theater productions….
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Los Angeles Theater Review: WONDERFUL TOWN (Musical Theatre Guild)
MUSICAL THEATRE GUILD GOES TO TOWN “Charming” doesn’t begin to describe Musical Theatre Guild’s offering of the 1953 musical Wonderful Town. Even with a recent 2003 Broadway outing starring Donna Murphy, this breezy and buoyant musical comedy is rarely produced, making it perfect for a company whose mission it is to present concert staged readings…
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