All stories by Samuel Bernstein on BroadwayStars

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE ANDREWS BROTHERS (Glendale Centre Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE GIRLS OF THE U.S.O. Deanna Durbin is all but forgotten now, but there was a time when her movie musicals were so popular, they were said to have literally saved Universal…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:50AM
Sunday, July 2, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS (Odyssey) by Samuel Bernstein

JACQUES IN THE BOX I think if I had been alive and living in New York in 1968, I would have been beguiled by Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Eric Blau and Mort Shuman tra…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:00PM
Friday, June 30, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: LETTERS FROM A NUT BY TED. L NANCY (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood) by Samuel Bernstein

MY SHOW, THE NUT Dear Mr. Ted L. Nancy: You are a funny letter writer. In fact, you are the best letter writer who reads his own letters in a show with an actress reading replies to his lett…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:56AM
Friday, June 16, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: CONSTELLATIONS (Geffen Playhouse in Westwood) by Samuel Bernstein

PARALLEL UNIVERSES AND THE PHYSICS OF LOVE I have a brother-in-law who is a mathematician and a brother who’s an astrophysicist. Both have tried to explain to me what they do, with little …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:08PM
Thursday, June 15, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE PRIDE (The Wallis) by Samuel Bernstein

LOVING YOUR OPPRESSOR The audience is delighted when a character in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s beautifully written play The Pride tells another, “Stop sucking the dick of your oppressor!” I…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:26PM
Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Theater Review: THE BODYGUARD (U.S. Tour at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

REQUIEM FOR WHITNEY Even if you’ve never seen the 1992 film that gave birth to the musical in 2012 in London’s West End, the story is familiar: A pop superstar falls in love with her bod…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:46PM
Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: LOST GIRLS (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

WOMEN WITH HEARTS OF IRON Before going to see Rogue Machine Theatre’s latest production, Lost Girls, I turned to my companion and asked, “Why is everything that Rogue does so good?” Th…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25PM
Saturday, September 14, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE END OF IT (Matrix Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

MID-LIFE MYSTERIES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS A long-married couple says good-bye to the final guests who leave their house after a party. They are known for their parties; for their happy marri…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:44PM
Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: BARE (Hayworth Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

I COULDN’T BARE IT There’s a kind of desperate seriousness about the “rock” musical Bare — more pop than rock — first produced in 2000, now back with updated music and a tele…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:40PM
Monday, April 29, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS (The Blank Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

THE NEVERLAND AFTER DARK This ain’t Mary Martin’s Peter Pan. Or Walt Disney’s. Or Stephen Spielberg’s. With Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers, playwright Michael Lluberes’ has h…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:26PM

Los Angeles Theater Review: FALLING FOR MAKE BELIEVE (Colony Theatre in Burbank) by Samuel Bernstein

BEWITCHED, BEGUILED AND THRILLED Mark Saltzman is one smart cookie. He approaches his new bio-musical of the legendary Lorenz Hart with a passionate curiosity about the great man’s life an…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:15PM
Sunday, April 7, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: BILLY & RAY (Falcon Theatre in Burbank) by Samuel Bernstein

THE MISCHEVIOUS INDEMNITY OF NOIR You can bring a blanc sensibility to noir, but noir finds a way of seeping in—its luxurious, sweet poison stealing focus when you’re not looking. In Bil…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:59PM
Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Los Angeles Theater Review: TOMORROW (Skylight Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

WHEN ‘TOMORROW’ ISN’T ANOTHER DAY Anyone who cares about acting or classical theater or Shakespeare (particularly Macbeth) must see Donald Freed’s new play Tomorrow. It has moments o…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:45PM
Monday, January 14, 2013

Los Angeles/Regional Theater Review: THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT (South Coast Repertory) by Samuel Bernstein

THE HONESTY OF HYPOCRISY The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis is a crackling, compelling play that finds genuine comic pathos not only in its characters’ struggles with ad…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:14PM
Thursday, December 6, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: DONNY & MARIE: CHRISTMAS IN LOS ANGELES (Pantages Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

A JOLLY OSMOND HOLIDAY To fans and detractors alike, Donny and Marie represent a cultural and show business ethos so strong, and so specific, that their actual talents sometimes get lost in …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:16AM
Sunday, November 18, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: MRS. MANNERLY (Theatre 40) by Samuel Bernstein

WHAT THEATRE 40 NEEDS IS A GUIDE TO AN EXCRUCIATINGLY CORRECT PRODUCTION Miss Manners, the alter-ego of writer Judith Martin, is my heroine. Her “Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior�…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:39PM
Monday, October 29, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: BUILD (Geffen Playhouse) by Samuel Bernstein

AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF SILICON VALLEY Build hasn’t started yet, but the minute you walk into the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse you feel drawn into another world b…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:15PM
Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: A BRIGHT NEW BOISE (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

HIS OWN PRIVATE BOISE We’re in Boise, Idaho, in the break room of an arts and craft chain store called Hobby Lobby. Two men appear on closed circuit television doing a sort of home shoppin…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:58PM
Thursday, October 18, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: JUSTIN LOVE (Celebration Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

JUSTIN IS JUST IN THE MIDDLE The best thing about Justin Love, Celebration Theatre’s 30th season opening production, is the fun of watching the stylish performance of Grant Jordan, who giv…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:03PM
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BELLE OF BELFAST (Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA) by Samuel Bernstein

THE ‘TROUBLES’ WITH FAITH Choosing to write about the Irish Troubles comes with baggage—many people have come before you, and many will come after. Like the Holocaust, it can conjure a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:45AM
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK (Geffen Playhouse) by Samuel Bernstein

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD The history of people of color on the screen is complicated, to say the least. The great Hattie McDaniel was hurt and bewildered by criticism from some in her own community…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:04AM
Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: ORESTES 3.0: INFERNO (City Garage in Santa Monica) by Samuel Bernstein

GODS AND MONSTERS Oedipus gets all the attention, what with his Freudian mixture of patricide and mommy love, but an arguably much more influential character in the Greek pantheon is the dee…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:04AM
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: THREE VIEWS OF THE SAME OBJECT (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

THREE DEGREES OF SEPARATION A woman asks for a martini in a highball glass and accuses her husband of peeing in the sink… again. He doesn’t cop to it, but doesn’t deny it. The couple s…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:09PM
Saturday, August 11, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: MARY POPPINS (Ahmanson Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

PRACTICAL PERFECTION There is a good natured pragmatism at work in the stage musical version of the film classic Mary Poppins, now back in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson through September 2. It…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:32PM
Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: ASSASSINS (Actors Circle Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

THE TRUE AMERICAN DREAM: KILL A PRESIDENT The cast is terrific in the Coeurage Theatre Company’s revival of Assassins at the Actors Circle Theatre—and it is their commitment to the mater…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:29PM
Saturday, August 4, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF SAVAGES (LATC in Los Angeles) by Samuel Bernstein

POETRY OUT OF MOTION I was quite keen to see Amy Freed’s The Psychic Life of Savages; curious about its fictional take on Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, the dead, messy poet heroines of my …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:57PM
Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: A RING IN BROOKLYN (NoHo Arts Center in North Hollywood) by Samuel Bernstein

DIS HERE’S A DIFF’RENT KIND OF HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL There is something very sweet going on in Eric Dodson’s and Alan Ross Fleishman’s new musical A Ring in Brooklyn. The unusu…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:20PM
Saturday, July 28, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION (Odyssey Theatre in West L.A.) by Samuel Bernstein

A VERY COLD WAR BETWEEN THE SEXES I was a huge fan of Peter Lefcourt’s 1999-2001 Showtime series Beggars & Choosers. It was something of a bomb financially but a great favorite of thos…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:21PM
Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Samuel Bernstein

THE GIFT OF SPEECH There is no possibility of love or happiness in Enda Walsh’s play The New Electric Ballroom, produced by Rogue Machine, winner of 2010 and 2011 Ovation and L.A. Drama Cr…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:09PM
Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: SUKIE AND SUE: THEIR STORY (Blank Theatre in Hollywood) by Samuel Bernstein

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT A demon-possessed, bleeding-eyed, pyro-maniacal Raggedy Ann doll with pre-cum on her face is the vortex around which Michael John LaChiusa’s new comedy Sukie and Su…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:52PM
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Los Angeles Theater Review: CLOUDLANDS (South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa) by Samuel Bernstein

EXPOSITION, THE MUSICAL SPOILER ALERT in this first paragraph! There are attempts at surprising plot twists in Octavio Solis’ and Adam Gwon’s new musical drama Cloudlands, but this new p…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:27AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards