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Los Angeles/Chicago Dance Review: THE NUTCRACKER (Joffrey Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler in Los Angeles & the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago)
EVEN WITH A FEW CRACKS, THIS HOLIDAY CHESTNUT STILL DELIGHTS It is a testament to the vision of Robert Joffrey that his 1987 version of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s perennial ballet The Nutcracker has become an annual event both on tour and at the Joffrey’s home base in Chicago. This year, 2011, the Mice, Princes, Sweets…
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Film Review: SHAME directed by Steve McQueen
LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF SEX A man. A woman. An underground train. Traded looks. Traded fantasies. No one looking. No one aware. The train stops. The lick of her lips. The ring on her finger. Will they? Won’t they? The crowd in the station. The man is Brandon. We soon meet the rest…
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Upcoming Los Angeles Theater: ALLEGRO (Perpetual Surrey at the Met Theatre in Hollywood – One Night Only)
UNAPPRECIATED MASTERPIECE OR ABJECT FAILURE? Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein began the Golden Era of Broadway with two musicals that reimagined the previous form of musical comedies – a cluster of songs packaged together by a plot – by using songs to heighten and embellish a striking narrative. After creating Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945),…
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Chicago Theater Review: CHANGES OF HEART (Remy Bumppo at Greenhouse Theater Center)
THE 1700s MEET THE 1960s Back in the early 1700’s, Pierre Marivaux was a major playwright in France, but his romantic comedies never made much of an impact on the American stage until the 1990s, when opera and theater director Stephen Wadsworth translated Marivaux’s plays into English. Wadsworth’s successful adaptations made Marivaux a significant presence…
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Theater Review: MEMPHIS (National Tour)
MEMPHIS PROVIDES RHYTHM BUT ULTIMATELY GIVES YOU THE BLUES Kicking off its national tour, Memphis blew into Chicago trying to sell itself as a romping, stomping celebration of rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll during its turbulent early years in the 1950s. There is plenty of energy on the stage at the Cadillac Palace…
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Film Review: THE ARTIST directed by Michel Hazanavicius
DON’T SPEAK! It is common to think of the Silent Era as cinematic pre-history, a lost era ruled over by tyrannosaurs and Charlie Chaplin. Even the most dutiful moviegoers have left silents for so much pterodactyl meat, with a few known comedy routines kept around as much for anthropology as enjoyment. For most, movie history…
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Movie Review: THE MUPPETS directed by James Bobin
YOU’LL SEE IT AND YOU’LL LIKE IT Who doesn’t love The Muppets? Birds love them. Bees love them. Even monkeys stuck in trees love them. That’s been the case since the 1970s, when Jim Henson first stuck his hand into a green sock and pulled out a cultural icon. (I know, he’s not really a…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE JACKIE WILSON STORY (Black Ensemble Theater)
THE JACKIE TAYLOR STORY TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE JACKIE WILSON STORY Jackie Taylor is a happy lady these days, and everyone with a fondness to Chicagoland theater should rejoice with her. Taylor finally has her new theater, a sumptuous multi-story that is the home of Taylor’s Black Ensemble Theater. The architectural ornament stands just a…
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Chicago Theater Review: SEASON’S GREETINGS (Northlight Theatre in Skokie)
HO HO HUM Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings is an anti-holiday-cheer comedy which should be appropriate for audiences ready for an excursion into the dark side of the Christmas season. There’s drunkenness, attempted adultery, endless family bickering, a shooting, and a preposterous marionette show. For anyone who has endured a dysfunctional family holiday gathering, this show…
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Chicago Theater Review: AN ILIAD (Court Theatre)
A HOMER RUN One-actor shows are by their nature demanding, but Timothy Edward Kane’s volcanic storytelling in An Iliad is a stunning marvel. This retelling of the famous epic The Iliad – attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer – is an exceptionally staggering test of a performer’s physical and emotional resources. The adaptation is…
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Theater Review: I LOVE LUCY®: LIVE ON STAGE (Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles)
BLACK-AND-WHITE MEMORIES IN LIVING COLOR Whether you had viewed the original airings of I Love Lucy or discovered the show during the thousands of reruns, it is undeniable that the breakthrough comedy has a multi-generational appeal. Not only is it fun to watch Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred in that familiar apartment every week, but…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BABY DOLL (Elephant Theatre Company)
A TENNESSEE WILLIAMS CARICATURE A number of theatres in Los Angeles have marked the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams’ birth by staging productions of his plays. Following upon the successful runs of A House Not Meant To Stand at The Fountain Theatre and Five Beauties at the McCadden Theatre is the Elephant Theatre Company’s production…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: HOSEA NOVA: A JEALOUS AND VIOLENT MAN (Zombie Joe’s Underground)
THE BLIND LEADING THE HALF BLIND “It’s The Devils meets Marat/Sade.” someone said to me. “Yes,” I responded. “As performed by the Marx Brothers!” We were talking about the new Zombie Joe’s Underground show, Hosea Nova: A Jealous and Violent Man, Robert Riemer’s wacky baroque take on Hosea, the Biblical prophet of doom (where there’s…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE BAKER’S WIFE (Circle Theatre in Oak Park)
STILL WAITING TO SEE IF THIS DOUGH WILL EVER RISE The Baker’s Wife never made it to Broadway. The musical folded in Washington. D.C. in 1976 before reaching New York City but has since gained something of a cult status in both the United States and England. Area audiences now have the opportunity to see…
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Off-Off-Broadway Theater Reviews: KUTSUKAKE TOKIJIRO and SHE KILLS MONSTERS (The Flea)
UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS AT THE FLEA The Flea Theater is currently providing New York theater audiences an interesting illustration of the cultural gap between Asian-Americans and Asians from Asia. Not that I usually am so divisive — I generally feel that everyone has a lot more in common than they have differences — but this month, the…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE CARETAKER (Writers Theatre in Glencoe)
TAKING CARE TO CREATE EXCELLENT THEATER The plot of Harold Pinters’ The Caretaker is uncomplicated on the surface and densely complex in its subtexts; it is a melding of realism and theatre-of-the-absurd which places a thuggish and volatile young man, his brain-damaged older brother, and a scruffy old tramp together in a rubbish-strewn room. From…
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San Diego Theater Review: THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL (San Diego REP)
CORNED BEEF TRASH The Great American Trailer Park Musical has a misleading superlative. The show mirrors A Tuna Christmas and Sordid Lives, in that it takes a humorous look at the goings-on of America’s trashy lower-middle class, yet these other shows are far superior in writing and character development. The Rep’s solid production can not…
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Los Angeles Theater Reviews: AS IS, RADIANCE, and PEACE IN OUR TIME
SHORT TAKES ON CURRENT LOS ANGELES THEATER AS IT WAS: As Is, written by William M. Hoffman in 1984, when so many of our contemporaries were dying of the AIDS epidemic, still maintains its power. If it is dated at all, it is dated in good ways: it means that our so-called “gay” theater has…
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Off Broadway Theater Review: BURNING (The New Group)
BURNING BRADSHAW Post-modern theater has yet to live up to the hype. Whether deconstructing established forms or employing historical eclecticism, American playwrights writing within a post-modern sensibility struggle to justify their dogged pursuits. Coincidentally, they have yet to produce a single great American play. Thomas Bradshaw, one of the shining stars in the post-modern constellation,…
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Off-Broadway Review: STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY WEDDING PLAYS (Minetta Lane Theatre)
THE FEEL GAY HIT OF THE SEASON If you’re pro gay marriage, come see this show. If you’re ambivalent on the topic, come see this show. And if you’re against gay marriage, come see this show and gain insight from an evening full of laughs and lessons for all. Collectively, this compilation of original one-act…
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