ON THE WAY TO PARADISE There is a telling item buried among the bric-a-brac of Stephanie Kerley Schwartz' detailed country set of an economically depressed, coal-mining, hillbilly burg named…
MUSICAL WITH A CHECKERED PAST GETS A CHECKERED PRODUCTION Chess, the musical about two chess tournaments between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, is the 1979 brain child of lyr…
A SIZE THAT DOES NOT FIT ALL Of the three plays which constitute Tarell Alvin McCraney's "The Brother/Sister Plays," The Brothers Size, now playing at The Old Globe, is the most intimate and…
THE DRAG QUEEN TO DRAG YOUR THOUGHTS AWAY FROM YOUR TROUBLES I first saw Coco Peru perform in a B movie sendup " a campy romp called Blood Orgy of the Carnival Queens! But at New York's O…
THE RITE OF JOFFREY One hundred years ago, a new ballet took place in Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. This highly controversial work " for both its music and choreography "…
A CIRCUS BUT NO BREAD The theater space is a cavernous church gym with lousy acoustics. The intrepid thespians at Red Tape Theatre transform it into the title setting, an arena of death with…
GOTHIC OPERA You will notice in the first five paragraphs of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" that the storyteller's description of an ancient decomposing castle, surrounde…
THE ACTORS’ GANG’S TARTUFFE RETURNS FOR THREE NIGHTS BEFORE NATIONAL TOUR The Actors' Gang, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles based ensemble theatre company, will present high…
PETER PAN AND CATHY RIGBY HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: THEY WON'T GROW UP When the musical fantasy adaptation of James M. Barrie's Peter Pan landed on Broadway in 1954, it received rave reviews…
Sometimes in life, it's the last Christmas present we open that makes up for all the lousy ones we unwrapped before. In what is truly the most dismal season of holiday-themed shows, I…
LET’S BE FRANK The dictionary has two main definitions for the word "bash": One is "a thoroughly enjoyable, lively party," which is undoubtedly what the producers of Christmas My Way "…
ALEXANDER THE GREAT…CHARMER, THAT IS When I first heard Cortés Alexander sing in 1992, he wasn't alone. He was part of a group named The Tonics, and they performed a jazzy rendition o…
STUCK IN THE DESERT Don't the powers that be at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum understand that casting is roughly 80% of a play's success? Don't they understand that any play, includi…
BOB'S HOLIDAY OFFICE FIASCO Bob's Holiday Office Party, now in its 17th season, is basically a fifteen-minute Carol Burnett Show-type sketch stretched out to about 100 minutes. And unless a …
RECIPE FOR A CHRISTMAS STEW I sent this recipe to a friend, who will let us know how this Christmas Stew turned out: This is a family favorite, cooked up every holiday season. There are a lo…
SECOND CITY OFFERS A LUMP OF COAL Scene 1"INTERIOR OF SPOOGE AND FARLEY'S CRITIC HOUSE (EVERWHEEZER SPOOGE, an irascible, irritated editor-in-chief and theater critic, is hunched over his la…
LAMC SHINES IN A HISTORICALLY INFORMED PERFORMANCE OF MONTEVERDI'S VESPERS OF 1610 After Los Angeles Master Chorale's (LAMC) astoundingly successful performance of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespe…
BEST TO LOOK AT THE QUILT AS A WHOLE, NOT THE INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS Intimate Apparel is a delicate but persuasive play about Esther (Vanessa Williams), a gifted black seamstress in 1905 who be…
GREAT F. SCOTT! REDCAT'S GOT GATZ A phenomenon is arriving at the Roy and Edna Disney Cal Arts Theatre (REDCAT) this week in Los Angeles. I promise that once its 9-performance run is over on…
CHRISTMAS ISLAND With the superfluity of Christmas-themed theater descending upon America like a Biblical plague, there is one play which is opening this week that has intrigued and even exc…
CALL ME SLACKJAWED It's amazing what critics and audiences alike are willing to forgive when they're in the presence of a true star. Regardless of some bouncy and hummable Irving Berlin tune…
AN OPENING NIGHT SURPRISE It's one of those instances that may just be talked about in the San Francisco opera circle for years to come. In Act One of Puccini's Tosca (1900) at San Francisco…
AÂ DREAMY BEDTIME STORY Theater critics often speak of "universal themes" in the theater"these are topics to which people in any place and at any time can relate. One of the main reasons t…
THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY When Anna Ziegler's world premiere play Another Way Home began, it seemed that the thrust of the play would revolve around Joey (Daniel Petzold), a 17-year-old sp…
FAR FROM WILD Thornton Wilder, especially as a playwright, looks to the commonality of all people to demonstrate the value in appreciating life, especially when the death of a loved one is i…