Monday, 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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 …
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: 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…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMTuesday, August 21, 2012
SEE HOW THIS WARTIME FARCE HOLDS UP The marquee outside of Lamb’s Players declares See How They Run to be “one of the funniest shows ever.” While never achieving a prom…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:00PMSunday, August 5, 2012
COMEDIC CARNAGE SHARPLY WALKS THE LINE OF TRAGEDY Playwright Yasmina Reza has said, “My plays have always been described as comedy, but I think they’re tragedy. They are funny …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:05PMTuesday, July 31, 2012
A GREAT KNIGHT, BUT JUST A GOOD NIGHT When a show comes back time and again, the review question is two-fold: (1) Is it worth reviving? and (2) Does this production offer a reinterpre…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:52PMSaturday, July 7, 2012
CREATIONISM VS. EVOLUTION; RELEVANCE VS. TIMELESSNESS Dubbed “The Trial of the Century” (with rhetorical apologies to O.J.), the actual 1925 trial that inspired Inherit the Wind …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:32PMSaturday, June 23, 2012
GRIPPING PLAY EXPLORES THE TANGLED WEB BORN OF AN IDEALISTIC WAR Set primarily in Pakistan along the Afghan border, J.T. Rogers’ Blood and Gifts begins in 1981, a critical point in the Col…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:57PMSunday, June 17, 2012
CAMPY LAUGHS FROM BROAD CHARACTERS Playwright Zsa Zsa Gershick is best known for her GLAAD and NAACP award-winning play Bluebonnet Court, a drama with humorous moments. With her latest wor…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:50PMTuesday, May 1, 2012
CIRQUE’S PERKS What’s a circus without lions, tigers, and elephants? In the case of Cirque du Soleil’s Totem, their eleventh major production in 26 years, it’s a marked imp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:32PMWednesday, April 25, 2012
POINTS FOR THE RICH MIX IN BROWNIE Five women consider themselves to be friends because their daughters are in the same Girl Scouts troupe. The bond they share should have been enough to p…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:30PMSunday, March 25, 2012
THE TORTILLA CURTAIN RISES TO BIG APPLAUSE A frequently-used device in plot is to create two or more distinctively different characters and see how they function once they are thrown togethe…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00PMSaturday, November 19, 2011
CORNED BEEF TRASH The Great American Trailer Park Musical has a misleading superlative. The show mirrors A Tuna Christmas and Sordid Lives, in that it takes a humorous look at the goings-on …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:39PMFriday, November 11, 2011
SWEET AND WITTY SPOOF IS A CURE-ALL FOR THE BLUES The playbill cover for Coronado Playhouse’s highly charming production of The Drowsy Chaperone describes it as “A Musical Within A C…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:07PMTuesday, November 1, 2011
CYGNET’S GLASS MENAGERIE SPARKLES It is easy to see why Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie was an immediate hit when it debuted in 1944. In an era of everyone keeping up appea…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:44PMMonday, October 31, 2011
MOSTLY EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSES FOR ION PRODUCTION For most theater lovers, Gypsy equals Ethel Merman as Mama Rose, even if you never saw her do it. After a single time hearing M…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:29PMThursday, October 20, 2011
A SWEET TRIP BACK IN TIME Some shows really make you think. Others are designed to move you to tears. And then there’s miXtape, which is pretty much two full hours of cleverly-perf…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:09AMFriday, October 7, 2011
THERE’S TALENT SOMEWHERE IN THIS FAMILY With West Side Story lighting up Broadway only blocks from their home, the Candelarias are inspired that Chita Rivera has cracked open the doors of …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:12PMFriday, September 30, 2011
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF SPENDING TIME WITH STRANGERS It’s everyone’s social nightmare brought to life: being trapped next to the annoying stranger who won’t shut up. But when …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:12AMTuesday, September 13, 2011
UNLIKEABLE CHARACTERS STILL LEAVE A RESONATING MESSAGE In Milk Like Sugar, Kirsten Greenidge’s sharply-written world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse, three African-American, inner-city …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:05PM 
