THE SHAPE OF THINGS After Bruce Norris's A Parallelogram at the Mark Taper Forum, I overheard a few audience members describe the play has "cute." For all of the play's political incorrectne…
IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE HAPPY EVER-AFTERING As San Francisco Playhouse opens a promising and highly anticipated rendition of Camelot this week, I am reminded of T. H. White's The Once and Fut…
I DO BUT I DON'T With all the adorability, simplicity, cliché and generic tone of a Hallmark Card, I Do! I Do! opened last weekend at the Laguna Playhouse. Starring Broadway stalwarts Davis…
ALL THE WORLD'S A GLOBE The Old Globe has officially opened the 2013 Shakespeare Festival, now on through September 29. Adrian Noble returns for his fourth and final season as the internatio…
IN GOOD COMPANY "It's a revue, but not a revue," Stephen Sondheim said about Company when he was interviewed at Segerstrom last year. This surprised me because the groundbreaking 1970 musica…
EASE ON DOWN A fascinating phenomenon has occurred recently in the theater world for this critic. Far and away, my favorite theatergoing experiences have been at revivals of musicals, most o…
IF ONLY IT WENT LIKE THIS MORE OFTEN I can't call Neil LaBute's works timeless, but both his plays and films (In the Company of Men) are a product of our time. As America holds herself to be…
FOUNTAIN'S FANTASTIC FLAMENCO FIESTA While classic and modern dance seem to be continually reinventing themselves, Flamenco remains a bedrock of the moving arts. As Forever Flamenco! at the …
LITTLE MORTAL JUMP TURNS OUT TO BE THE BIGGEST THING OF THE NIGHT The lineup at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion begins with the respected and always impressive Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as …
PARADISEÂ LILY My fanaticism with Lily Tomlin started with her 1972 comedy album This is a Recording. I immediately felt a kinship with Ernestine Tomlin, Ma Bell's switchboard operator and…
MAJESTERIAL MIRREN Although she is a politically neutral monarch, The Queen of England retains the ability to give a weekly audience to a Prime Minister (PM) during his or her term of office…
PHALLUS IN BLUNDERLAND Who has been accused of being a Sexual Reprobate? Satirist? Socialist? Philosopher? The precursor to Freudian psychology and existentialism? Woman-hating pornographer?…
A SHOW OF GREAT IMPORTANCE An anomaly of the Hollywood Fringe Festival has arrived. A gem which alone justifies the Fringe's existence. A nascent troupe named Good People Theater Company is …
DON'T COME TO THE CABARET It's the first time I have ever seen someone on stage in flop sweat. Poor Anastasia Barnes had a rough go in her opening of The Ruby Besler Cabaret. One would suppo…
GIRL, PLEASE! Prior to curtain at Musical Theatre Guild's concert staging of Girl Crazy, we were warned that the Gershwin brothers' 1930 musical was written before "the code" (read: censorsh…
BOBBING FOR APPLES While perusing through a Peanuts anthology recently, I found my mind beginning to wander after about 15 panels. Regardless of Schultz' insightful social commentary and uni…
THE FRUSTRATING LABORS OF A FASCINATING COMPANY It is said that Roman Philosopher and Playwright Seneca's Hercules Furens (c. 54 CE) was never produced but only read in Seneca’s lifeti…
CHICK 'N' SCHTICK THEATER It's no small feat when a play inspires me to do something with my life. While watching Stephen Sachs' Heart Song at the Fountain, I felt compelled to join a Flamen…
PIXIE DUST TO PIXIE DUST After a funeral many years ago, a group of my buddies all declared their desire to be cremated when the time comes. Shockingly, however, all four of us avowed to hav…
AMERICAN TRAGEDY BECOMES MUSICAL COMEDY 1931 was a crossroads in American history. With no economic recovery in sight, the Depression had people edgy, and when Americans are edgy, they are d…
FANTASTIC, INDEED Fantasticks may be the longest running musical in America, but Amanda Dehnert's magical production at South Coast Rep should run forever. The backdrop for this timeless won…
A FRATERNITY OF MASTER THESPIANS At its core, Jeff Stetson's Fraternity is about the two options that face black men in today's society (or, at least, the society of Birmingham in 1987, when…
BEDEVILED An off-stage character is tortured by a Salem court in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a play which dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692. As heavy stones are placed upon his che…
NOW THIS YOU GOTTA SEE Of the 32 shows I attended in Chicago recently, the most charming experiences were with four musical revivals, three from Broadway's heyday — the 1930s through t…
A fascinating phenomenon is occurring in the theater, one which was elucidated by many shows that I saw in Chicago over the past couple of weeks. As the art of playwriting (to wit: storytell…