Monday, May 5, 2025
MUSICAL ROM-COM PROM IS DA BOMB! Oh, the high school prom! Has any event, short of one’s wedding perhaps, ever been given more stress-inducing over-attention? Who to bring, what to wear, h…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:14PMFriday, April 25, 2025
SWEETLY PLAYFUL TREATMENT OF A COMPLICATED PLOT The prolific author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was the creator of 66 novels, 14 volumes of short stories and 20 plays, ten of which have been…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 08:49AMFriday, April 18, 2025
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…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 10:52AMWednesday, April 16, 2025
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…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:16AMWednesday, April 2, 2025
I had a blind date. I waited two hours on the corner. A girl walked by. I said, “Are you Louise?’” She said, “Are you Rodney?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, ‘I’m not Louise.”…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 10:05PMTuesday, April 1, 2025
TRUE ZEST IN TRUE WEST As my sixtieth year on earth winds down, I’d like to believe those years have seasoned me with a strong degree of wisdom, patience, and finesse. As I said, I’d lik…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:07PMFriday, March 21, 2025
WE, THE THEATRE, IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION Heidi Schreck wrote this mostly-autobiographical play and starred in it when it played on Broadway, where it was Tony-nominated for Bes…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 08:54AMThursday, March 13, 2025
GANESHA GRANTS GRACE IN A GLORIOUSLY GRITTY JOURNEY The Hindu religion has multiple gods. Ganesha, also called Ganesh, is revered as the god of wisdom, luck, and beginnings. His beloved spir…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 03:15PMTuesday, March 4, 2025
THIS WILD RIDE SHOULD BE DOOLEY NOTED Francis Gercke—both the playwright and Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company‘s artistic director—welcomed the audience prior to the matinee. During…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 04:03PMTuesday, February 25, 2025
CONTINUOUSLY ENTERTAINING What’s most striking about the excellent we are continuous by Harrison David Rivers (The Bandaged Place, This Bitter Earth) is that it doesn’t just break the …
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 08:46AMTuesday, February 11, 2025
GOOD GOLLY, MISS DOLLY! Under Randy Slovacek’s direction for San Diego Musical Theatre, Hello, Dolly! festoons the theater with a cumulatively enchanting restoration of this infectious del…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 08:00PMMonday, February 3, 2025
NEIL SIMON IN PALM SPRINGS WITH AN AGENDA Jon Robin Baitz’ Broadway drama Other Desert Cities —which opens this week at Cygnet Theatre—depicts a crisis of apparent betrayal and imminen…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:19AMFriday, January 31, 2025
EVERYONE WILL LIKE IT HOT It wouldn’t be a valid review to simply write, “I loved it!” a hundred times and ship it off to my editor. However, if you’re looking for a bottom line or a…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 04:39PMMonday, January 27, 2025
IT’S WORTH WAITING UNTIL DARK Playwright Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark debuted on Broadway in 1966, set in the contemporary world of its time in Greenwich Village. Lamplighters is n…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:26AMSunday, January 19, 2025
BACK TO BACK TO THE FUTURE For those of us old enough to remember the summer of ’85, when the movie Back to the Future reigned in movie theaters, here’s a daunting thought: Marty’s 30-…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:49PMMonday, January 13, 2025
YOU’LL BUY THIS HEART In my ninth-grade English class, Mr. Rozran taught that a short story, versus a novel, should aim to capture a small slice of life, leaving much of what happened befo…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 09:08PMTuesday, December 10, 2024
PICTURE IT: MIAMI, 1985, AGAIN, BUT WITH SINGING When Bea Arthur initially gave a firm “No” to participating in the 80s sit-com The Golden Girls, she nearly denied millions of soon-to-be…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:58PMMonday, December 9, 2024
THESE CREATURES ARE DEFINITELY STIRRING UP HOLIDAY SPIRT AT LAMPLIGHTERS Ken Ludwig’s story begins with a homey Uncle Brierly (Christopher T. Miller) wanting to read to us the famous poem …
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 09:08PMTuesday, November 26, 2024
LITTLE WOMEN WITH A BIG PRESENCE Allen Knee took on a daunting task in creating a play from Louise Mae Alcott’s hefty 1868–69 two-volume novel, but he also cuts back the narrative for th…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:11PMFriday, November 22, 2024
A PLAY THAT RAISES THE ESCOBAR Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and corrupt politician who founded and ran the deadly Medellín Cartel. Known as “the king of cocain…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:52AMWednesday, November 13, 2024
EVERYTHING ODD IS NEW AGAIN Before ABC-TV made 114 episodes of the 1970-1975 sit-com The Odd Couple starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugma), there was the movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walte…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:08PMTuesday, October 15, 2024
TALLULAH’S BACK IN TOWN, DAHLING! “Don’t touch my purse! Touching a woman’s purse is like touching her vagina! Except, I can only put so much in my purse.” Not quite a lady-like …
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:49PMThursday, October 10, 2024
WILL YOU STILL NEED ME, WHEN I’M (LOOKING) SIXTY-FOUR? How would you live your life if you knew you were going to die of old age … in your late teens? All teens experience appearance iss…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 03:05AMWednesday, October 9, 2024
THERE’S SOMETHING GOOD IN ROTTEN So you’re a somewhat-talented duo of playwrights, living in 1595 England, with actors eager to work with you and a benefactor hiring you to produce a pla…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 09:43PMWednesday, September 18, 2024
THE WAY SHE WERE Envisioning a Barbra Streisand concert, one pictures $1000 seats at the Dolby for a show where every word has been discussed, rehearsed, and teleprompted. By contrast, at El…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:51AMWednesday, September 11, 2024
HOT PATOOTIE, BLESS MY SOUL, I REALLY LOVE THAT ROCKY SHOW The first shock for some readers may be that there was no typo omitting the word “Picture” before “Show” in the title. Be…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 09:52PMBRIDGING FAMILY DYNAMICS IN THIS CLASSIC North Coast Rep‘s next offering, A View from the Bridge, a landmark drama from 1955, takes on new relevance today. Opening tonight, September 11, a…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:50PMSunday, September 8, 2024
WILDE-LY FUNNY SCRIPT IN GOOD HANDS Many scripts become dated after 130 years, but thanks to Oscar Wilde’s clever wit, The Importance of Being Earnest — which runs at Lamb’s Players Th…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 11:05PMMonday, September 2, 2024
EXTRA! EXTRA! SING ALL ABOUT IT! Wildsong Productions is back with a rousing production of Newsies, doing the best they can with a so-so-script. In Harvey Fierstein’s stage book adaptation…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 03:00AMThursday, August 29, 2024
CAUGHT BETWEEN A RACH AND TSAR-ED PLACE For those not familiar with composer and classical pianist Hershey Felder, he’s something of a living homage to great composers of the last 200 year…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:55PMMonday, August 19, 2024
IF LOOKS COULD KILL … The strength of a person’s spirit would then be measured by how much ‘truth’ he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, d…
SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:15AM 
