END-OF-WORLD TRAGICOMEDY CRACKS, BLEEDS AND THRIVES The end arrives not with a sob, but with a drag queen in a glittering black pantsuit, standing in a celestial spotlight, grinning like the…
COUCH SURFING AND CULTURAL BAGGAGE It makes sense that Jeffrey Lo"a Filipino artist who writes, directs, and knows the Peninsula theater scene inside and out"could write a play like Writing …
IN CORKTOWN '39, THE LIVING ARE JUST GHOSTS WITH BETTER TIMING Mark Mendelson's tightly composed set at The Matrix Theatre is a room cloaked in aging wealth at the Keating family's Philadelp…
While visiting New York, I was lucky enough to catch two Scott Siegel events. Similar in structure but with completely different feels were Broadway by the Season at Merkin Hall and 54 Sings…
A PLATE OF MASHED SMASH Let me be clear. I never saw the television series Smash. I know nothing about the series other than that it focused on a community theater working on a show about th…
CHERRIES WITH A FEW PITS Anton Chekhov's final play, The Cherry Orchard, is a masterwork of dramatic irony. It was written in 1903 as a dark comedy but it was always more akin to a tragedy, …
HERE THERE ARE HORRORS Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich's Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Kaufman at Berkeley Rep, involves a fascinating true story. We are at the U.S. Holocaust M…
A HELLUVA HELLAS Ancient drama gets short shrift here in Los Angeles. Sure, we get the stories, but the shows are usually adaptations, hardly ever a straight translation, and when we do, the…
OH, I'VE GOT PLENTY OF SUTTON Rounding out Hobby Center's trio of Beyond Broadway Series concerts following Adrienne Warren, Sutton Foster descended on a rather enthusiastic crowd Friday eve…
MAMET'S HENRY JOHNSON PROVES A DIFFICULT PROTAGONIST Along with blazingly rapid dialog, there's something aggressively determined about David Mamet plays"like Glengarry Glen Ross now being r…
KNEEL AT THE CHURCH OF CHURCHILL A drum roll begins each act and ends with a cymbal crash. Paired with the red front curtain and chaser lights outlining the proscenium arch, one might brace …
A Dazzling Night of Song and Tribute Broadway took up residence on the banks of the Potomac last night as the Anthem Theatre played host to the Signature Theatre's annual Sondheim Award Gala…
TAKE ONE: J2 AND A TALE OF TWO SMILES: THE FINAL SCORE AND WHAT CAME BEFORE While some companies reviving musicals long after their time on the Great White White might restore one or more so…
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…
IT WON'T LAST FIVE YEARS, BUT IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO (THE RELATIONSHIP AND THE BROADWAY MUSICAL) Although the traditional wedding vow includes the pledge to stay together "'til death do you p…
GEORGE CLOONEY'S SENSE OF DECENCY Where are our heroes when we need them?! It takes a Hollywood actor to give us one in these traumatic times. Trouble is, that hero comes from the 1950s. Geo…
THESE WINGS ARE FLAMING IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE In our divided nation, there are still a few universals that bring us together. Puppies. Mother's Day. Pizza. And, tagging close behind on the p…
SIT BACK AND LET THIS CAST TAKE YOU TO CHURCH Aptly described as a powerful mix of gospel music and "hattitude," Moonbox Production's Crowns"which opened last night at Arrow Street Arts"inde…
HALCYON AND ON AND ON Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent's vibrant, pulsing production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream transforms the woods outside Athens into a 1990s dance floor. …
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' SELDOM SEEN PLAY SHOWS WHY IT'S SO SELDOM SEEN It can be a curse to start one's literary or dramatic career with a masterpiece. Doing so serves to intensify the expectati…
FIERCE CRAIC A really enjoyable, light-hearted, raucous comedy just opened at The Irish Repertory Theatre: the world premiere of Irishtown by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, directed by Nicola Murphy…
A REWARDING TIME SPENT SUSPENDED WITH THE ARTISTS OF SUSPENDED IN TIME Some musical performances"in concert or on recordings"while unquestionably or undemandingly enjoyable, may go in one ea…
A RIOTOUS CARRIAGE RIDE THROUGH TIME Somewhere between empire waistlines and leather harnesses, Regency Girls carves out a raucous, messy, and strangely moving place for itself onstage at Th…
TRY TO FIND A HAIRSPRAY WITH BETTER HOLD; THIS ONE WORKS FROM HEAD TO NECK! As I was driving to the Rancho Mirage Amphitheatre I noticed that the regular Friday Night Stress was lifting from…
MAKING THE IMPLAUSABLE APPLAUSEABLE, SMASH IS A WILD, WACKY, WONDERFUL WOW "S" is for "splashy"; "M" is for "Marilyn Monroe"; "A" is for "audience-pleasing"; "S" is for "snarky"; "H" is for …