All stories by Milo Shapiro on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Theater Review: AN ACT OF GOD (Roustabouts Theatre Company at Scripps Ranch Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

LORD HAVE MERCY! Roustabouts Theatre's irreverent comedy lets Samantha Ginn unleash a hilariously blunt deity Samantha Ginn Playwright David Javerbaum pulls no punches in this hysterical, ir…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:32AM

Theater Review: MASTER CLASS (A Joint Venture between Roustabouts and Scripps Ranch Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being …

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:21AM

Theater Review: SOME LIKE IT HOT (National Tour, Hollywood) by Milo Shapiro

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 s…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:21AM

Theater Review: DONNA ORBITS THE MOON (Scripps Ranch Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

A NEIGHBORLY NICE LADY— WITH BUZZ ALDRIN IN HER HEAD Susan Clausen shines in Ian August's funny, surreal one-woman ride Reading the press blurb about Donna Orbits the Moon left me scr…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:21AM

Theater Review: BOOK OF MORMON (National Tour) by Milo Shapiro

A MUSICAL SALTIER THAN SALT LAKE ITSELF Let's start the actual religious text called The Book of Mormon, published in 1830. Without going into all its details about other planets, Jesus visi…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:20AM

Theater Review: LES MISÉRABLES (National Tour in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

A FAR CRY FROM MISERABLE (UNLESS YOU'RE ONE OF THE CHARACTERS) There's a lot to gripe about in the world in 2025, but you know what?  Spend a little time in 1815 France and you're going t…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:15AM

Theater Review: A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL (San Diego Musical Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

NOSTALGIA LOADED — AND EYE SAFETY ENSURED The 1983 film A Christmas Story may not have been universally crowned a "classic” when it premiered, its near-universal popularity and …

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:14AM
Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Theater Review: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (San Diego Musical Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

HOW TO SUCCEED IN PRODUCING A MUSICAL Offices tend not to be much fun, which is why they are ripe for exploring undertones of emotion and comedy in scripts like Office Space, Working Girl…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:00PM
Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Theater Review: OF MICE AND MEN (Lamplighters) by Milo Shapiro

HOPE WITH CALLOUSED HANDS: A QUIET MASTERPIECE REVISITED John Steinbeck's play Of Mice and Men came quickly after the success of his novella by the same name. In fact, the play opened on Bro…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:59AM
Monday, December 15, 2025

Theater Review: CYGNET’S A MAGICAL HOLIDAY (Cygnet Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

A VINTAGE-STYLE HOLIDAY CONCERT A warmly nostalgic night of classic music, crooning, and dance Imagine that it's 1962. You and your spouse decide to get a sitter and go down to the "club�

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:00PM
Thursday, December 11, 2025

Theater Review: 89 CARSON JUNCTION ROAD (Compulsion Dance & Theater at Diversionary Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

THE SOUP OF THE DAY IS A DARK BROTH INDEED There's a game some couples play when they're out and about: they make up lives about the strangers they see in places like diners. Part of what ma…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 04:19PM
Friday, November 28, 2025

Theater Review: THE WAVERLY GALLERY (Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

HER MIND, OUR MEMORY Kenneth Lonergan's family fissures hit hard in Backyard Renaissance's intimate staging What an incredibly robust month November has been for smaller theaters in San Dieg…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:30PM
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Theater Review: BEAUTY’S DAUGHTER (OnWord Theatre at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

BEAUTY GETS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP Beauty's Daughter is a one-woman play by Dael Orlandersmith that centers on Diane, a young Black woman growing up in East Harlem, as she navigates a world mar…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:45PM
Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Theater Review: ARMS AND THE MAN (Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado) by Milo Shapiro

A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT—FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people's views on social issues…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:46AM
Saturday, October 18, 2025

Theater Interview: JAILYN OSBORNE (Artistic Director of Point Loma Playhouse, Presenting “Little Shop of Horrors”) by Milo Shapiro

OSBORNE TO DO LITTLE SHOP In 1960, a peculiar minor film (featuring a minor appearance by an up-and-coming Jack Nicholson) was released to no particular fanfare with good reason: It was pret…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
Saturday, October 4, 2025

Theater Review: SMALL (The Old Globe in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

SMALL IS EPIC In his exceptional how-to book Storyworthy, author and storyteller Matthew Dicks advises us to stop recounting tales that few can relate to — like the time you climbed M…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:00AM
Friday, October 3, 2025

Theater Review: SUFFS (National Tour) by Milo Shapiro

A GREAT MUSICAL, SUFFS REMINDS US THAT DEMOCRACY ONLY MOVES FORWARD WHEN WOMEN DO While much of what we love in musicals is pure fiction, history has had an undeniable flair for the dramatic…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:57AM

Theater Review: SUFFS (National Tour) by Milo Shapiro

A GREAT MUSICAL, SUFFS REMINDS US THAT DEMOCRACY ONLY MOVES FORWARD WHEN WOMEN DO While much of what we love in musicals is pure fiction, history has had an undeniable flair for the dramatic…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:57AM
Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Theater Review: FOLLIES (Cygnet Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

GLITTER, GHOSTS AND GOLDEN-AGE GLAMOUR: DESPITE THE SCRIPT, CYGNET'S FOLLIES MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT THE JOAN Cygnet Theatre staked the debut of their new theater complex "The Joan” on a…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:58AM

Theater Review: BESIDE MYSELF (North Coast Rep in Solana Beach/San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

BESIDE MYSELF WITH PRAISE When the lights came up at the end of Act I of Beside Myself, my immediate reaction was, "No!” I was so invested in the proceedings of this stupendous world p…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 12:42AM
Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Theater Review: LETTICE & LOVAGE (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

HOW TO SUCCEED IN HISTORY WITHOUT REALLY TELLING IT Meet Lettice Douffet (Bobbi Randall), an eccentric tour guide at Fustian House, a drab Tudor mansion. Burdened with delivering its painful…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:03PM
Thursday, August 14, 2025

Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour at San Diego Civic) by Milo Shapiro

CORN-FED HUMOR LEAVES A SWEET TASTE I entered the Civic Theatre braced for a two-hour version of Hee Haw (not a compliment) and wondered if I'd be checking my watch by halfway through Act I …

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:48PM
Friday, July 18, 2025

Highly Recommended Theater: GRETEL! THE MUSICAL (Riot Productions in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

BEFORE HANSEL, THERE WAS, HELL YEAH, GRETEL! Witches. Talking dolls. Folk and rock music. Chicken-legged houses. If that doesn't get your attention, then you may already be inside Baba Yaga'…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:11PM
Sunday, July 13, 2025

Theater Review: STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

THE MAGNOLIAS MAY BE STEELY, BUT THEY STILL SMELL PRETTY SWEET For over 80 years, Lamplighters Community Theatre has been providing an important role in San Diego's theatre scene: creating a…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 11:54PM
Friday, July 4, 2025

Theater Review: THE 70s! THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ALBUM (Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado) by Milo Shapiro

A GREAT 70s TRIBUTE HAS VINYL-LY ARRIVED Normally, calling a show predictable isn't a compliment. But when I heard that director Kerry Meads and musical director Vanda Eggington were once ag…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:45AM

Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company) by Milo Shapiro

STILL PLENTY TO DESIRE A Streetcar Named Desire was one of the greatest hits for playwright Tennessee Williams. Born in 1911, he didn't have any major successes until The Glass Menagerie pre…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:18AM
Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Theater Review: OKLAHOMA! (Cygnet Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

OKLAHOMA! RIDES AGAIN– THIS TIME WITH DEPTH IN THE SADDLE When gay playwright Lynn Riggs wrote the rather dark Green Grow the Lilacs, his eighth play, and saw it produced in 1931, it'…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Theater Review: UNNECESSARY FARCE (Scripps Ranch Theatre) by Milo Shapiro

UNNECESSARY, PERHAPS, BUT DELICIOUS! Wikipedia defines farce as "a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd,…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Theater Review: THE COUNTER (Moxie Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

FORGET THE USUAL – MOXIE IS SERVING A TENDER STORY WITH A SIDE OF TRUTH Not every good story needs to take you around the world in eighty days or off to a magical land with wizards; s…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:55AM
Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Theater Review: BRIGHT STAR (Lamplighters Community Theatre in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

COMFORTABLE HOMEY FOLK SHARE A SWEET STORY Book and music creators Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell heard a true story from 1902 and became somewhat obsessed with it. …

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:57AM
Sunday, May 11, 2025

Theater Review: HAMILTON (National Tour in San Diego) by Milo Shapiro

NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S 1776 Until Hamilton, if you'd asked me if I liked rap music, you'd have gotten a pretty quick, "No.” And I still do cringe at the memories of cars driving up my stre…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:46PM

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off