Monday, October 14, 2013
A family of con artists are as ruthless with one another as they are with their marks in Carla Ching's clever but labored drama at South Coast Repertory.In the program for "Fast Company," a …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:50PM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The characters are more involving than the plot in Samuel D. Hunter's play at the Old Globe about unresolved relationships.SAN DIEGO — Characters in drama don't have to be likable, as …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:05PM[SHARE]Stanley Kauffmann, who died Wednesday at 97, will be remembered for his intellectually rigorous, neatly manicured film reviews -- the meditative yin to Pauline Kael’s ecstatic yang.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:15PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 8, 2013
The fusion of Jeff Buckley songs with 'Romeo and Juliet' is sometimes hypnotic at the Old Globe, but more often it jangles.Shakespeare and contemporary popular music might seem strange bedfe…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:30AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 3, 2013
'The Sunshine Boys,' with former 'Taxi' stars Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch at the Ahmanson Theatre, feels dated and a step slow.The knock against Neil Simon in the early days was that he car…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:20PM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Critic's notebook: The festival has created a significant cultural event and allowed us to appreciate the scope of an unorthodox theater town.Nearly all of the shows in Radar L.A. have packe…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:30PM[SHARE]Friday, September 27, 2013
An erotic 1933 story from Japan is beguilingly rendered in a joint production by Complicite and Japan's Setagaya Public Theatre.Rarely has the dance of shadows, the interplay of light and da…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:55PM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 25, 2013
The truths told by, respectively, Luis Alfaro ('St. Jude'), Roger Guenveur Smith ('Rodney King') and Trieu Tran ('Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam') at Kirk Douglas Theatre have a personal quality that…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 24, 2013
The drama chronicling the early AIDS epidemic also serves as an emotionally searing character study.Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" holds such an important place in the history of the AIDS…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Gritty New Hampshire drama presents a truthful psychological study that ultimately proves moving and poetic.John Pollono, author of the much-feted "Small Engine Repair," has supplied Rogue M…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Jessica Kubzansky's ingenious adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Richard II' at the Theatre @ Boston Court uses three actors and focuses on the tale of a ruler who is never more kingly than when g…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 12, 2013
Such exciting new writers as Samuel D. Hunter, Amy Herzog and Young Jean Lee are on tap. So are stalwarts Neil Simon, Reginald Rose and, yes, Shakespeare.Theater festivals have the potential…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:15AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Charlie Robinson rises above inconsistent staging to get to the hard truth of the South Coast Repertory revival of an Arthur Miller classic.It's always a privilege to be in the company of an…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 25, 2013
Julie Harris wasn’t simply one of the great American actors of the 20th century. She represented to those in her profession a reverential ideal.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:20PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 22, 2013
Gina Gionfriddo's 'Rapture, Blister, Burn' at the Geffen Playhouse adds a comical edge to the old question of whether a woman can have it all.To judge by appearances, Catherine is a roaring …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:10PM[SHARE]It's a Pinteresque reunion for English actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, performing the Broadway-bound 'No Man's Land' in Berkeley.BERKELEY — Their Stradivarius voices precede t…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:00PM[SHARE]Saturday, August 17, 2013
Jaunty Actors' Gang entertains mightily in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' but at eve's end it's stretched to the limit.The love games of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are as frolic…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 1, 2013
Critic's Notebook: For Cate Blanchett, it's an inspired trip from 'Streetcar Named Desire' on stage to 'Blue Jasmine' on film.One of the joys for a theater critic of watching Woody Allen's …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:30AM[SHARE]Monday, July 29, 2013
In “Postscript,” a critic returns to works already reviewed to respond to readers, touch on points not covered, share second thoughts and extend the critical conversation. Â
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:04PM[SHARE]A fun Brooke Shields-directed production of 'Chicago' at the Hollywood Bowl features a vivid Ashlee Simpson and a strong Samantha Barks."Chicago" is a perfect fit for the Hollywood Bowl for …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:30AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 25, 2013
A colleague asked me the other day whether there was a character in Shakespeare to compare to disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner, whose New York mayoral campaign has spun out of …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:41PM[SHARE]Rex Pickett's 'Sideways,' directed by Des McAnuff at La Jolla Playhouse, is touching but struggles with both a stage car and memories of the film.The theater can do just about anything in my…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 20, 2013
Adrian Lester, Rory Kinnear star in a can't-miss 'Othello.' You can miss 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' Reviews of 'Passion Play,' more. LONDON — Traveling to London this summer …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:00PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 10, 2013
'Sister Act' is hackneyed. But up-tempo numbers and Ta'Rea Campbell's singing boost the musical at Pantages Theatre."Sister Act" has been on quite the pilgrimage since its world premiere at …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:23PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The much-anticipated West End stage production of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' has little originality, lacks flavor and doesn't live up to its billing.LONDON — All the best ingr…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 22, 2013
Critic's Notebook: There's no arguing with the event's success, but it's worth asking how the quality can improve without compromising its vision of openness.On a crowded sidewalk outside of…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]Friday, June 14, 2013
Guillermo Calderón's powerful drama at the Kirk Douglas Theatre poses more questions than it answers as three actors grapple with the meaning of theater at a time of revolution in early-2…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:10PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tongues wag and accents flag in this witty yet wordy satire from Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Too bad that much of it's lost on an American audience not up on parliamentary rules.Political …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:30PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 11, 2013
In Jackie Sibblies Drury's play at the Matrix Theatre Company, the depiction of a tragic period in African history is at issue.Theodor Adorno's oft-quoted, much misunderstood remark, "It is …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:30PM[SHARE]Monday, June 10, 2013
Charles McNulty , The Times theater critic, shared his insights about the 2013 Tony Awards and the upcoming theatrical season in an hourlong chat Monday with readers.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:52PM[SHARE]A jubilant show marked by another stellar night from Neil Patrick Harris flaunts the Great White Way's unconventional spirit.Few may be popping Champagne corks for a Broadway season in which…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE] 
