Wednesday, September 13, 2017
THE EFFECT OF GOOD THEATER “You know, maybe someday you will be pretty,” says Beatrice to her teenage daughter Tillie. Gee, thanks, Mom. Ah, mothers. The Glass Menagerie. Ordin…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMWednesday, August 9, 2017
DON’T CRY, BUT SEE ARGENTINA The crime of being a legend is to be simultaneously loved and hated, while the truth will always be a matter of perspective and interpretation. Eva Duarte,…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 03:31AMMonday, August 7, 2017
THE 90’s ARE BACK AND SOUNDING SWEET While the nineties might not sound that long ago to an older crowd, when was the last time you thought about Lorena Bobbitt? Or tamagotchis? Or won…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 08:00PMMonday, July 24, 2017
IT MAY SUCK TO LIVE ON AVENUE Q, BUT NOT TO SEE IT In the right setting, irreverence is so jovial. Our era of thought-police and political correctness has made it delicious to pervert that w…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 03:18PMThursday, July 13, 2017
A SWEET SAMPLING OF ANIMAL CRACKERS, ALBEIT A BIT DAY-OLD One can easily see why Animal Crackers was a Broadway hit from 1928-1929, followed by a successful movie version. Start with the zan…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 01:52AMMonday, June 19, 2017
HOW’S THE WITHER? (JUST IN CASE YOU WERE WUTHERING…) A complicated nineteenth-century story of love and retaliation, featuring 13 characters, could be tough to pull off in nin…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 04:31AMSunday, June 4, 2017
DAMN, YANKEES DOESN’T HIT IT OUT OF THE PARK While many of Jerry Ross and Richard Adler’s songs from the 1955 Broadway classic hold up rather well, Douglass Wallop and George Abb…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 03:52AMSaturday, June 3, 2017
WHAT A SHOCK In 1845, German psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann wrote a disturbing but popular children’s book featuring the perils of children who misbehave. A century and a half later, …
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 01:49PMSunday, April 9, 2017
A FIRST DATE THAT GOES WELL The device of having characters receive advice from a conscience or someone from their past is tried and true in musicals: They’re Playing Our Song‘s…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 04:35PMTuesday, April 4, 2017
IT’S WORTH SINGING ABOUT GETTING OLDER Perhaps the only thing worse than getting older is thinking about it. So when a nascent theater company puts on a show—a musical no less—abou…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 06:53PMMonday, April 3, 2017
A LONG RIDE ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In today’s world of seeing T-shirts in fancy restaurants, it’s almost difficult to envision that, once upon a time, people would dress to the nines f…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:41AMMonday, February 13, 2017
I COULD WATCH 9 TO 5 24/7 In 1980, an unlikely film trio, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton, was the center of 9 to 5, an amusing feminist romp with lovable characters. Years later…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 01:49AMTuesday, January 24, 2017
BAD JEWS MAKES FOR GOOD THEATRE, BUT OY SUCH AGITA There’s an old joke: “What do you get if you put three Jews in the same room? Four opinions.” In Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews, the jo…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 07:04PMSaturday, May 14, 2016
LAMB’S SERVES UP A TASTY DINNER WITH MARLENE There’s an old parlor game of trying to decide: If you could attend a dinner party and choose any guests you wanted around the tabl…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 03:24PMMonday, March 28, 2016
GIVE YOURSELF OVER TO ABSOLUTE PLEASURE Those familiar with the movie version of The Rocky Horror Show may be shocked to find that there is no typo in the title of the stage version: Here, t…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 07:25AMMonday, January 25, 2016
WHEN IT RAINS, IT SOARS Let’s start with the unavoidable down-side so we can end with the up-side. While Cygnet Theatre’s When the Rain Stops Falling is spectacular, it is terri…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 07:35AMSaturday, August 1, 2015
IN GOOD COMPANY In a world of musicals that are filled with catchy harmonies and melodies that stick in your mind, Stephen Sondheim’s songs have frequently been the rebels. Sondheim is n…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 05:05PMSunday, January 25, 2015
IT DOESN’T SUCK TO BE AVENUE Q AT CORONADO In the right setting, irreverence is so jovial. Perhaps our era of thought-police and political correctness has made it delicious to pervert that…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 03:18PMMonday, July 28, 2014
DRAG YOURSELF DOWN TO PAGEANT Exiting Cygnet’s revival of Pageant, my writing pad, normally filled with pages of barely decipherable notes, had nothing upon it but the title. This su…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:38AMFriday, July 25, 2014
THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA The very nature of adoption can leave a child—and the adult he or she becomes—filled with questions: Who were you, Mother? Why did you make this choice? Do yo…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 05:31PMMonday, June 2, 2014
TRAGIC FOR HIM BUT GOOD FUN FOR US Hot on the heels of the run of Old Jews Telling Jokes, the Lyceum brings us a very different and more personal look at Jewish humor. Instead of a non-sto…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 01:10PMTuesday, May 6, 2014
WHAT, WOULD IT KILL YOU TO HEAR A JEWISH JOKE, I ASK YOU? A German, a Frenchman, and a Jew are crawling across the desert. The German says, “Mein Gott! I’m so hot and thirsty…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 09:44PMMonday, April 7, 2014
A BLINKING YELLOW FOR RED AT THE REP Is a soup can art? To Matisse, probably not. To Warhol, clearly yes. And to everyone else? Ah, that’s when we start getting into what art r…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 05:39PMSunday, March 16, 2014
A LOT OF YOUTHFUL SPRING BUT LITTLE CHARACTER AWAKENING Given harsh themes including child abuse, rape, homosexuality, and suicide, one can easily see why Frank Wedekind’s original Ger…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 04:49PMSaturday, February 1, 2014
THE FOREIGNER HAS GOOD REASON TO STAY PUT Some theatre is staged to raise our awareness. Some theatre is designed to tell a story that will move us emotionally. Some theatre is intended …
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 01:19PMWednesday, January 29, 2014
A TWISTED TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE Imagine yourself transported back to 1955: Forming values in the image of Father Knows Best; solving family problems as cleanly as Ozzie and Harriet; and li…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:32PMSunday, November 3, 2013
CAMPY SHE-RANTULAS HAS QUITE A BITE Dictionary.com defines “camp” as “something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:53PMMonday, October 21, 2013
A NOURISHING TREE While lacking in emotional engagement, Daniel Beaty’s solo outing exploring the life of actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson undoubtedly entertains, educates, inspires, and…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 05:38PMSunday, October 13, 2013
WIT DOESN’T HOLD BACK Years back, Oldsmobile released a new line of sporty, sleek cars with the tagline “This is NOT your father’s Oldsmobile.” For those who associ…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:05AMSaturday, November 10, 2012
HUMANS ARE THE SPECTACLE, NOT ANIMALS Childhood memories of circus fun include ringleaders putting heads in a lion’s mouth, dancing bears, and elephants resting a paw upon a lovely lad…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 04:04PMMonday, October 1, 2012
WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLDFISH As a rising star in San Diego’s theater scene, Cygnet put a lot of eggs in one basket in producing Mistakes Were Made. Fortunately, they invested in the ri…
Linked From Stage and Cinema at 02:58AM 
