CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being …
A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT"FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people's views on social issues, inclu…
OSBORNE TO DO LITTLE SHOP In 1960, a peculiar minor film (featuring a minor appearance by an up-and-coming Jack Nicholson) was released to no particular fanfare with good reason: It was pret…
SMALL IS EPIC In his exceptional how-to book Storyworthy, author and storyteller Matthew Dicks advises us to stop recounting tales that few can relate to " like the time you climbed Mt. Ever…
A GREAT MUSICAL, SUFFS REMINDS US THAT DEMOCRACY ONLY MOVES FORWARD WHEN WOMEN DO While much of what we love in musicals is pure fiction, history has had an undeniable flair for the dramatic…
A GREAT MUSICAL, SUFFS REMINDS US THAT DEMOCRACY ONLY MOVES FORWARD WHEN WOMEN DO While much of what we love in musicals is pure fiction, history has had an undeniable flair for the dramatic…
A FAR CRY FROM MISERABLE (UNLESS YOU'RE ONE OF THE CHARACTERS) There's a lot to gripe about in the world in 2025, but you know what? Spend a little time in 1815 France and you're going t…
GLITTER, GHOSTS AND GOLDEN-AGE GLAMOUR: DESPITE THE SCRIPT, CYGNET'S FOLLIES MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT THE JOAN Cygnet Theatre staked the debut of their new theater complex "The Joan" on a fairl…
BESIDE MYSELF WITH PRAISE When the lights came up at the end of Act I of Beside Myself, my immediate reaction was, "No!" I was so invested in the proceedings of this stupendous world premier…
HOW TO SUCCEED IN HISTORY WITHOUT REALLY TELLING IT Meet Lettice Douffet (Bobbi Randall), an eccentric tour guide at Fustian House, a drab Tudor mansion. Burdened with delivering its painful…
CORN-FED HUMOR LEAVES A SWEET TASTE I entered the Civic Theatre braced for a two-hour version of Hee Haw (not a compliment) and wondered if I'd be checking my watch by halfway through Act I …
EVERYONE WILL LIKE IT HOT It wouldn't be a valid review to simply write, "I loved it!" a hundred times and ship it off to my editor. However, if you're looking for a bottom line or a simple …
BEFORE HANSEL, THERE WAS, HELL YEAH, GRETEL! Witches. Talking dolls. Folk and rock music. Chicken-legged houses. If that doesn't get your attention, then you may already be inside Baba Yaga'…
THE MAGNOLIAS MAY BE STEELY, BUT THEY STILL SMELL PRETTY SWEET For over 80 years, Lamplighters Community Theatre has been providing an important role in San Diego's theatre scene: creating a…
A GREAT 70s TRIBUTE HAS VINYL-LY ARRIVED Normally, calling a show predictable isn't a compliment. But when I heard that director Kerry Meads and musical director Vanda Eggington were once ag…
STILL PLENTY TO DESIRE A Streetcar Named Desire was one of the greatest hits for playwright Tennessee Williams. Born in 1911, he didn't have any major successes until The Glass Menagerie pre…
OKLAHOMA! RIDES AGAIN" THIS TIME WITH DEPTH IN THE SADDLE When gay playwright Lynn Riggs wrote the rather dark Green Grow the Lilacs, his eighth play, and saw it produced in 1931, it's likel…
A MUSICAL SALTIER THAN SALT LAKE ITSELF Let's start the actual religious text called The Book of Mormon, published in 1830. Without going into all its details about other planets, Jesus visi…
UNNECESSARY, PERHAPS, BUT DELICIOUS! Wikipedia defines farce as "a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd,…
FORGET THE USUAL " MOXIE IS SERVING A TENDER STORY WITH A SIDE OF TRUTH Not every good story needs to take you around the world in eighty days or off to a magical land with wizards; sometime…
COMFORTABLE HOMEY FOLK SHARE A SWEET STORY Book and music creators Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell heard a true story from 1902 and became somewhat obsessed with it. …
NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S 1776 Until Hamilton, if you'd asked me if I liked rap music, you'd have gotten a pretty quick, "No." And I still do cringe at the memories of cars driving up my street wit…
MUSICAL ROM-COM PROM IS DA BOMB! Oh, the high school prom! Has any event, short of one's wedding perhaps, ever been given more stress-inducing over-attention? Who to bring, what to wear, how…
SWEETLY PLAYFUL TREATMENT OF A COMPLICATED PLOT The prolific author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was the creator of 66 novels, 14 volumes of short stories and 20 plays, ten of which have been…
WHAT'S IN A NAME? A LOT WHEN IT'S "CLINTON" "Feelings are a terrible way to make decisions, Bill." "Yes, but people don't think you have any." Reviewing this show is almost like reviewing tw…