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Chicago Theater Review: CROWNS (Goodman Theatre)
IF YOU LET IT, FERVENCY AND JOY COMPENSATE FOR TROUBLING SCRIPT A joyful noise is rising out of the Goodman Theatre this summer. With hearty vibrato and a religious fervor rivaled only by televangelists, writer/director Regina Taylor’s revamped hit Crowns is shaking the rafters, and will have you nodding and tapping and humming for the…
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San Francisco Theatre Review: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Custom Made Theatre)
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE: AS TRUE NOW AS THEN Setting Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the cutthroat world of contemporary finance a la Wall Street is an inspired notion and Custom Made Theatre Co. has produced a timely rendition of a timeless classic that’s creative, just right, and highly satisfying. In this story about…
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Film Review: FACE 2 FACE (directed by Katharine Brooks)
VICTIM AS NARCISSIST AS ICON It makes sense to someone who doesn’t like reality television that a person who makes it for a living (The Osbournes, The Simple Life, others) could feel that she has wasted her life, and that such a person could become a drug addict to escape such feelings. Add that on…
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Chicago Theater Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Chicago Shakespeare)
NOTHING BEASTLY ABOUT IT The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is presenting the best musical production of the summer, but audiences will have to see it in the daytime. The production is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and while it’s billed as a family musical (a code phrase for children’s show), this show distributes its pleasures equally…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: THE BAD AND THE BETTER (The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre)
THE GOOD THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER Watching The Amoralists’ production of Derek Ahonen’s entertaining new play The Bad and The Better, an image comes to mind of a virtuoso juggling act, with Mr. Ahonen and director Daniel Aukin keeping 26 actors, over 30 characters, and an extraordinary number of plot lines in the air…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: COLE PORTER’S NYMPH ERRANT (The Clurman Theatre)
MUSICAL ERRANT Expectations should always be lowered a bit when seeing revivals of musicals written before Oklahoma!. In pre-war musicals, songs weren’t intended to move plots forward or reveal new depths of characterization. Laced with inappropriate racial epithets, the original musical version of Nymph Errant (1933) by Cole Porter and Romney Brent would have been…
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San Diego Theater Review: HARMONY, KANSAS (Diversionary Theatre)
GOLD DISCOVERED IN THE PLAINS I rolled my eyes when I heard about the plot of Harmony, Kansas, a musical having its world premiere at Divisionary Theatre in San Diego. Heath is a gay Kansan farmer who lives with his cultured boyfriend Julian in a rural community, but Julian longs for more than just an…
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Film Review and Commentary: WES ANDERSON & MOONRISE KINGDOM
WES ANDERSON AND THE BOX OFFICE VS YOU HATE A WISE-ASS People who like to hate really like to hate Wes Anderson. Even those whose taste is impeccable in most arenas often fail the Anderson test: “Too quirky,” they’ll say. Or “Too precious.” Or “He’s in love with his shots” or “His camera fetishizes objects.” …
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Los Angeles Theater Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Pantages Theater in Hollywood)
COME FOR GEORGE HAMILTON, STAY FOR CHRISTOPHER SIEBER The national tour of La Cage aux Folles leaves its audience basking in the warm afterglow of a delightful musical comedy. As an enthused audience member behind me exclaimed at intermission, “I want to live inside this show!” – and no wonder. The Broadway revival of this…
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Theater Review: THE EXORCIST (Geffen Playhouse)
NO EVIL. NO GOOD. There are few who do not know the story. The devil possesses Regan, the innocent 12-year-old daughter of movie star Chris MacNeil, who is working on a film in Georgetown. A bevy of fascinating characters, most of whom are experiencing a crisis of faith (religious or otherwise), become tested to their…
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Chicago Theater Review: OEDIPUS EL REY (Victory Gardens Theater)
OEDIPUS REX POTENTLY UPDATED TO THE BARRIO Oedipus El Rey is Luis Alfaro’s vision of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex seen through the prism of modern Latino life, specifically gang culture as it melds with the traditions and values of the barrio in east Los Angeles. The drama at Victory Gardens is powerful and riveting, which proves that a…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE IRISH CURSE (Odyssey Theatre in West L.A.)
I AM NOT MY COCK When a new Godzilla movie came out in 1998 the marketing pundits urged, “Size does matter.” But when it comes to a woman’s sexual satisfaction with her partner’s penis size, apparently size doesn’t matter, at least, not to most women. Yet, many men seem to be obsessed with the size…
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Los Angeles Theater “Reviews”: PLAYS IN THE PARK (Santa Monica Playhouse) and GRACE NOTES & ANVILS (Odyssey Theatre)
TWO CRITICS; TWO STAGED READINGS; BASICALLY ONE OPINION From Jason Rohrer: Plays in the Park, Brian Conners’ collection of one-acts (only one of which is set in a park), intends to showcase its writer (who also directs) in the glow of its rotating cast of Actors’ Studio headliners. Mark Rydell, Ed Asner and Esai Morales…
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Theater Review: THREE SISTERS (Steppenwolf Theatre)
TRACY LETTS ADAPTS THREE SISTERS FOR STEPPENWOLF Tracy Letts calls his version of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters an adaptation, but other than some changes in language it’s still the great Russian dramatist’s play, a human and humane account of characters mired in boredom, disappointment, failure, loneliness, and frustration. The Steppenwolf is premiering Letts’ revision in…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE MAGIC PARLOUR (The House Theatre at The Palmer House Hilton Hotel)
WATKINS HAS US IN THE PALM OF HIS HANDS I had one reservation headed into The House Theatre of Chicago’s The Magic Parlour: almost every magic show I had ever been to has been obnoxiously showy, laughably cheap, or both. I grew up seeing magicians at birthday parties, went to magic shops and learned card…
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Theater Review: DEATH AND HARRY HOUDINI (House Theatre of Chicago)
MAGIC ALL AROUND Death and Harry Houdini was the House Theatre’s first production back in 2001 and it’s been something of a meal ticket for the company over the years. The production played in Chicago earlier this year, transferred to Miami for a successful run, and is now back at the Chopin Theatre, selling out…
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Regional Theater Review: INHERIT THE WIND (The Old Globe in San Diego)
CREATIONISM VS. EVOLUTION; RELEVANCE VS. TIMELESSNESS Dubbed “The Trial of the Century” (with rhetorical apologies to O.J.), the actual 1925 trial that inspired Inherit the Wind marks a milestone in the American legal system: The first time science vs. religion found its way to the public courthouse. The Scopes trial (named after defendant John Scopes,…
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Off-Broadway Theater Review: FLYING SNAKES IN 3D (New Ohio Theatre)
HISS HISS BANG BANG Four writers stand onstage and in unison announce their thesis, “We thought that making a show strictly about our poverty and history of abuse would make us severely unpopular: so we decided to splice our story with a science fiction narrative about snakes.” So begins Flying Snakes in 3D!!, a campy…
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San Diego Theater Feature: THE OLD GLOBE 2012 SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (Lowell Davies Festival Theatre)
ALL THE WORLD’S A GLOBE After previewing in the month of June, The Old Globe officially opens the 2012 Shakespeare Festival this week. Adrian Noble returns for his third season as the internationally renowned festival’s Artistic Director, taking the helm on both Inherit the Wind and As You Like It, while British director Lindsay Posner…
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Regional Theater Review: MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY (Woolly Mammoth in D.C.)
I WILL SURVIVE In the opening act of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, a group of campers sits by the warm glow of a trashcan fire and tries to retell a favorite episode of The Simpsons. Matt (the ever-energetic Steve Rosen) recalls and reperforms “Cape Feare” with entertaining accuracy. Maria (Jenna Sokolowski) and Jenny (Kimberly…
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