227 stories by "Milo Shapiro"
WHAT, WOULD IT KILL YOU TO HEAR A JEWISH JOKE, I ASK YOU? A German, a Frenchman, and a Jew are crawling across the desert. The German says, “Mein Gott! I’m so hot and thi…
A BLINKING YELLOW FOR RED AT THE REP Is a soup can art? To Matisse, probably not. To Warhol, clearly yes. And to everyone else? Ah, that’s when we start getting into wh…
A LOT OF YOUTHFUL SPRING BUT LITTLE CHARACTER AWAKENING Given harsh themes including child abuse, rape, homosexuality, and suicide, one can easily see why Frank Wedekind’s original Ger…
THE FOREIGNER HAS GOOD REASON TO STAY PUT Some theatre is staged to raise our awareness.  Some theatre is designed to tell a story that will move us emotionally. Some theatre is inten…
A TWISTED TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE Imagine yourself transported back to 1955: Â Forming values in the image of Father Knows Best; solving family problems as cleanly as Ozzie and Harriet; and …
CAMPY SHE-RANTULAS HAS QUITE A BITE Dictionary.com defines “camp” as “something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered…
A NOURISHING TREE While lacking in emotional engagement, Daniel Beaty's solo outing exploring the life of actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson undoubtedly entertains, educates, inspires, and l…
WIT DOESN’T HOLD BACK Years back, Oldsmobile released a new line of sporty, sleek cars with the tagline “This is NOT your father’s Oldsmobile.” For those who asso…
HUMANS ARE THE SPECTACLE, NOT ANIMALS Childhood memories of circus fun include ringleaders putting heads in a lion’s mouth, dancing bears, and elephants resting a paw upon a lovely lad…
WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLDFISH As a rising star in San Diego’s theater scene, Cygnet put a lot of eggs in one basket in producing Mistakes Were Made. Fortunately, they invested in the ri…
SEE HOW THIS WARTIME FARCE HOLDS UP The marquee outside of Lamb’s Players declares See How They Run to be “one of the funniest shows ever.”  While never achieving a …
COMEDIC CARNAGE SHARPLY WALKS THE LINE OF TRAGEDY Playwright Yasmina Reza has said, “My plays have always been described as comedy, but I think they’re tragedy. They are funn…
A GREAT KNIGHT, BUT JUST A GOOD NIGHT When a show comes back time and again, the review question is two-fold:  (1) Is it worth reviving? and (2) Does this production offer a re…
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 …
GRIPPING PLAY EXPLORES THE TANGLED WEB BORN OF AN IDEALISTIC WAR Set primarily in Pakistan along the Afghan border, J.T. Rogers' Blood and Gifts begins in 1981, a critical point in the Cold …
CAMPY LAUGHS FROM BROAD CHARACTERS Playwright Zsa Zsa Gershick is best known for her GLAAD and NAACP award-winning play Bluebonnet Court, a drama with humorous moments. With her latest w…
CIRQUE'S PERKS What’s a circus without lions, tigers, and elephants? In the case of Cirque du Soleil's Totem, their eleventh major production in 26 years, it’s a marked impro…
POINTS FOR THE RICH MIX IN BROWNIE Five women consider themselves to be friends because their daughters are in the same Girl Scouts troupe. The bond they share should have been enough to…
THE TORTILLA CURTAIN RISES TO BIG APPLAUSE A frequently-used device in plot is to create two or more distinctively different characters and see how they function once they are thrown togethe…
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 …
SWEET AND WITTY SPOOF IS A CURE-ALL FOR THE BLUES The playbill cover for Coronado Playhouse's highly charming production of The Drowsy Chaperone describes it as “A Musical Within A Com…
CYGNET’S GLASS MENAGERIE SPARKLES It is easy to see why Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie was an immediate hit when it debuted in 1944. In an era of everyone keeping up appea…
MOSTLY EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSES FOR ION PRODUCTION For most theater lovers, Gypsy equals Ethel Merman as Mama Rose, even if you never saw her do it. After a single time hearing…
A SWEET TRIP BACK IN TIME Some shows really make you think. Others are designed to move you to tears. And then there’s miXtape, which is pretty much two full hours of cleverly-…
THERE'S TALENT SOMEWHERE IN THIS FAMILY With West Side Story lighting up Broadway only blocks from their home, the Candelarias are inspired that Chita Rivera has cracked open the doors of op…
