All stories by Charles McNulty on BroadwayStars

Thursday, May 10, 2018

A revelatory Denzel Washington in 'The Iceman Cometh' by Charles McNulty

The actor's deeply felt performance in Eugene O'Neill's marathon drama on Broadway delivers a profound message about hurting those we care about most.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:12PM

A revelatory Denzel Washington in 'The Iceman Cometh' by Charles McNulty

The prospect of another long wallow in the misery of Harry Hope’s saloon should give even the most intrepid theatergoer pause. “The Iceman Cometh,” Eugene O’Neill’s marathon drama …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:10PM
Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Tony Award nominations reflect an anemic year for original ideas. Here's a critic's take on the bright spots by Charles McNulty

The 2018 list of nominees can be read as Broadway’s lab results, and setting aside the spellbinding Springsteen and the integrity of "The Band's Visit," this year’s slate tells us that t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:18PM

Tony Award nominations reflect an anemic year for original ideas. Here's a critic's take on the bright spots by Charles McNulty

Tony Award nominations can be read as Broadway’s lab results, and it’s clear from the slate announced Tuesday that the patient’s health has taken a turn for the worse. The two big cate…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:15PM
Monday, April 30, 2018

SITI Company and Ann Hamilton set sail for Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' by Charles McNulty

Theatergoers, divided into small groups, are guided to different parts of UCLA's Royce Hall, where Woolf’s 1927 novel, one of the glories of literary modernism, is summoned in a theatrical…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:10PM

SITI Company and Ann Hamilton set sail for Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' by Charles McNulty

Theatergoers, divided into small groups, are guided to different parts of UCLA's Royce Hall, where Woolf's 1927 novel, one of the glories of literary modernism, is summoned in a theatrical s…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:05PM
Thursday, April 26, 2018

My disastrous tea with Glenda Jackson by Charles McNulty

Our theater critic talks with the notoriously difficult actress, whose return to Broadway in "Three Tall Women" has made her the odds-on favorite to lead Tony nominations when they're announ…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM

My disastrous tea with Glenda Jackson by Charles McNulty

Be careful what you wish for. Tea with Glenda Jackson, an actress I’ve admired since watching “A Touch of Class” on TV with my mother as a teenager, turned out not to be the dream enco…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM
Tuesday, April 24, 2018

In 'Belleville,' two Americans in Paris head into Hitchcock territory by Charles McNulty

Anna Camp and Thomas Sadoski costar in an uneven Pasadena Playhouse production of playwright Amy Herzog's drama-with-a-dash-of-"Psycho."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM
Tuesday, April 17, 2018

At South Coast Rep, glimmers of light in 'Little Black Shadows' by Charles McNulty

“Little Black Shadows,” a new play by Kemp Powers at South Coast Repertory, is set in the 1850s, when slavery in the South is an obdurate fact yet glimmers of a distant dawn are starting…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:37PM

At South Coast Rep, glimmers of light in 'Little Black Shadows' by Charles McNulty

Kemp Powers, who found inspiration in historical slave narratives, gets a visually arresting, at times haunting, production of his new play in Costa Mesa.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM
Monday, April 16, 2018

Bette Midler and 'Hello, Dolly!': A match that makes for Broadway heaven by Charles McNulty

Rarely has an exclamation point in a title been earned as thoroughly as the one in the new Broadway revival of “Hello, Dolly!” starring Bette Midler. The show, which opened at the Sam S.…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:12AM

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the farmhouse next door, and unexpected connections in between by Charles McNulty

Lili Taylor stars in artist Suzanne Bocanegra's "Farmhouse/Whorehouse," which combines text, music and film centered on the lives of Bocanegra's grandparents, whose small farm stood across t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the farmhouse next door, and unexpected connections in between by Charles McNulty

Path-breaking artists help us to see the world afresh by challenging our habitual patterns of perception. They shock us into new awareness by joining the disparate and sundering the similar.…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM
Friday, April 13, 2018

Say 'I do' to 'Significant Other,' the rare romantic comedy with depth to match the laughs by Charles McNulty

Joshua Harmon's funny play, in a glorious new production at the Geffen Playhouse, follows a gay man in his late 20s whose female BFFs get married, one by one, leaving him ever more anxious a…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:20PM
Monday, April 9, 2018

Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Shaw's 'Saint Joan': A marathon for four actors, and the audience by Charles McNulty

Four actors play all the characters of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in Bedlam's touring productions at the Broad Stage through Saturday.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:57PM

Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Shaw's 'Saint Joan': A marathon for four actors, and the audience by Charles McNulty

However you judge Bedlam, this young and adventurous New York company deserves extra points for a program with an unusual degree of difficulty. Imagine four actors taking on all the roles no…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:55PM
Friday, April 6, 2018

With 'A Pink Chair,' Wooster Group conjures from spirits from theater's past by Charles McNulty

With a theme of hope in the face of oppressive politics, the Wooster Group stages 'A Pink Chair,' a piece centered on the work of the late Polish writer and stage director Tadeusz Kantor, so…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:25PM

With 'A Pink Chair,' Wooster Group conjures from spirits from theater's past by Charles McNulty

We live in an age where the internet has become an open archive. YouTube warehouses our collective nostalgia. (Oh, the hours I’ve lost watching old music videos and classic tennis matches!…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:25PM
Monday, April 2, 2018

South Coast Rep's 'Shrew!' trips along the rutted road of Shakespearean updates by Charles McNulty

Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” belongs to a convention of comedy that isn’t coming back anytime soon. The figure of the scolding, abusive wife, a reliable source of hilarity…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:30PM

South Coast Rep's 'Shrew!' trips along the rutted road of Shakespearean updates by Charles McNulty

Playwright Amy Freed revisits the character of the scolding, abusive wife with this female-centric update of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:29PM
Friday, March 30, 2018

Tony Kushner, thinking citizen: The playwright on 'Angels in America,' 'West Side Story' and surviving Trump by Charles McNulty

The Times' theater critic sits down with the playwright to discuss two new productions of his masterpiece, "Angels in America" — one at Berkeley Rep and the other in New York, where Kushne…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PM
Thursday, March 29, 2018

Glenda Jackson steals the show in a thrilling, emotionally affecting 'Three Tall Women' on Broadway by Charles McNulty

Edward Albee's Pulitzer-winning drama is the vehicle for Glenda Jackson's return to Broadway. Laurie Metcalf, a Tony winner last year, and Alison Pill co-star.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM
Monday, March 26, 2018

'Angels in America,' the right play for our fractious times by Charles McNulty

For one critic recalling the experience of seeing "Angels in America" 25 years ago, the current Broadway revival is perfectly timed, proving the political prescience of playwright Tony Kushn…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:46PM

'Angels in America,' the right play for our fractious times by Charles McNulty

The superb new Broadway production of “Angels in America” from London brought back my first encounter with the work at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 1993. I had traveled from New Haven to s…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:45PM
Thursday, March 22, 2018

'Frozen' on Broadway: It's no 'Tempest' (or 'Lion King'), but the musical sings with sisterly appeal by Charles McNulty

When it shrugs off its Shakespearean aspirations, Disney's female-centric fairy tale succeeds with comic sweetness and a charming cast.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM

'Frozen' on Broadway: It's no 'Tempest' (or 'Lion King'), but the musical sings with sisterly appeal by Charles McNulty

No one attending “Frozen,” the new Broadway musical that had its official opening on Thursday at the St. James Theatre, is meant to ponder the rise of extreme weather events. Leave it to…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM

At the theater, eager anticipation for Manville, Irons, 'Soft Power' and more by Charles McNulty

Theater critic Charles McNulty notes promising productions in the coming season, including Joshua Harmon's "Significant Other," Stephen Karam's "The Humans," Amy Herzog's "Belleville" and Le…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM
Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Taylor Mac on gay history, 'Hamilton' and his epic 24-hour extravaganza at the Ace by Charles McNulty

The performance artist sits down with Times theater critic Charles McNulty to discuss "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music," which explores oppression and resistance throughout American his…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:19AM

Taylor Mac on gay history, 'Hamilton' and his epic 24-hour extravaganza at the Ace by Charles McNulty

The professors and university mandarins having lunch at an elegant UCLA campus restaurant the other day had no idea that seated inconspicuously among them was a cultural revolutionary. Weari…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM
Friday, March 2, 2018

As Kennedy bios go, 'Jackie Unveiled' is more sketch than portrait by Charles McNulty

"Mozart in the Jungle" star Saffron Burrows tries to channel Jacqueline Kennedy in this one-woman production at the Wallis, but a big wig can't make up for a thin script.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:45AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre