All stories by Charles McNulty on BroadwayStars

Saturday, September 17, 2016

The genius of Edward Albee and the inner voice that brought difficult truths to the stage by Charles McNulty

David Mamet once described two of New York’s leading drama critics as the syphilis and gonorrhea of the American theater. Edward Albee, whose death at age 88 on Friday marked the end of hi…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:40PM
Friday, September 16, 2016

'Barbecue' at the Geffen finds a ferociously funny way into the subject of race and identity by Charles McNulty

When playwright Robert O’Hara writes comedy, outrageousness is a given. His play “Bootycandy,” a series of connected skits about growing up black and gay that was produced last year by…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:55PM

Review: A Smoldering "View from the Bridge" Turns Up the Heat at the Ahmanson by Charles McNulty

From London to NY and now in LA this Ivo Von Hove-drected Olivier/TONY-Winner arrives starring a dazzling cast lead by FREDERICK WELLER, CATHERINE COMBS and ANDRUS NICHOLS running through Oc…

SOURCE: touch.latimes.com at 08:54AM
Thursday, September 15, 2016

A smoldering 'View From the Bridge' turns up the heat at the Ahmanson by Charles McNulty

In Ivo van Hove’s celebrated production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” the direction is the star. The Belgian auteur, who leads Holland’s preeminent theater company, …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:55PM
Monday, September 12, 2016

Resilience and dignity are the rich, bluesy music of 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' by Charles McNulty

Calls for a national conversation on race are routinely made in the wake of crises, but a better idea would be a requirement for all citizens to familiarize themselves with the work of playw…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:35PM
Friday, September 9, 2016

The Troubies turn an ancient Roman comedy into a modern 'Haunted House Party' by Charles McNulty

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 BC) has been described by classicist and novelist Erich Segal as “the least admired and most imitated” of the ancient Greek and Roman dramatists. His pl…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:45PM

Amélie, Big Daddy, Hedwig: Familiar names hit SoCal stages this fall by Charles McNulty

The new theater season is a loaded lineup, with offerings from Deaf West, Ivo van Hove and Anna Deavere Smith. Here are 13 picks: Sept. 10-May 21 A Noise Within’s 25th anniversary A quart…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PM
Thursday, August 25, 2016

Seeking answers to L.A.'s 99-seat theater crisis in the legacies of two theatrical trailblazers by Charles McNulty

The theater world lost two giants this summer, Zelda Fichandler, co-founder of Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage and a heroic pioneer of the regional theater movement, and James Houghton, found…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:50PM
Monday, August 22, 2016

Shakespeare's 'Love's Labor's Lost': Kathleen Marshall directs a winner at the Old Globe by Charles McNulty

SAN DIEGO — The Old Globe’s staging of “Love’s Labor’s Lost” proves that it is possible to fall in love with a production at first sight. John Lee Beatty’s scenic design transf…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:11PM
Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Summer Shakespeare: A critic's take on the secret to theatrical success by Charles McNulty

Summer Shakespeare. These words can strike fear in the heart of a reluctant theatergoer. Yes, the plays are supposed to be good for you. But semiprofessional productions in which the artisti…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:33AM
Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Steve Martin's 'Meteor Shower' plunges into the absurd at the Old Globe by Charles McNulty

SAN DIEGO — Steve Martin, the beloved comic whose career has branched out in unforeseen directions (bluegrass composer, art collector and curator, playwright) is often described as a moder…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:21PM

Seduced by Ayad Akhtar's 'Junk,' the new play that picks apart the Wall Street playbook by Charles McNulty

LA JOLLA — Forget about all the TV pundits and op-ed columnists droning on about America’s problems. Playwright Ayad Akhtar is the diagnostician the nation needs to interpret its falteri…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:21PM
Sunday, August 7, 2016

Tennessee Williams: What three lesser known works say about the playwright's legacy by Charles McNulty

No point in mincing words: Tennessee Williams is the greatest playwright America has ever produced. Yet more and more his reputation seems preserved in amber rather than renewed through reve…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:50PM
Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Barbra Streisand, still gunning for 'Gypsy,' samples some Stephen Sondheim at Staples Center by Charles McNulty

Barbra Streisand didn’t give us a foretaste of her Rose in “Gypsy,” the classic musical about a formidable stage mother and her showbiz-bound daughters that she has been trying like Si…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:58PM
Sunday, July 31, 2016

Still a singular sensation: 'A Chorus Line' at the Hollywood Bowl by Charles McNulty

“A Chorus Line” is an ideal musical for the Hollywood Bowl, and this weekend’s presentation faithfully staged by Baayork Lee didn’t disappoint. The show’s presentational style wor…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:25PM
Tuesday, July 19, 2016

'Sense and Sensibility' musical at the Old Globe: Happy endings for a world that could use more by Charles McNulty

SAN DIEGO — Feeling overwhelmed by this summer of tumult, when the news seems to go only from bad to worse? I have just the remedy: an English novelist who wrote delectable comedies of ma…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:13PM
Monday, July 18, 2016

At La Jolla Playhouse, 'Last Tiger in Haiti' still finding its footing by Charles McNulty

“The Last Tiger in Haiti,” a new play by Jeff Augustin that’s receiving its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse, begins in a tent shack in Port-au-Prince that is the home for a gr…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:31PM
Sunday, June 26, 2016

'Beautiful' makes a fetching Los Angeles debut at the Pantages by Charles McNulty

“Beautiful – The Carole King Musical” is that rare Broadway offering – a jukebox musical with a soul. The touring production, which opened Friday at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, r…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:08PM
Monday, June 20, 2016

'Disgraced' at the Taper: Islam, America and the cloudy prism of perception by Charles McNulty

Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced” won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2013, but for anyone encountering the work for the first time at the Mark Taper Forum, where the play opened Sunday in a s…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:09PM
Thursday, June 16, 2016

Rage and resentment as a last resort in the Geffen Playhouse's 'Big Sky' by Charles McNulty

The setting for “Big Sky,” a new comedy by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros that opened Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse, is a Ritz-Carlton condo in a deluxe vacation community in Aspen, Co…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:11PM
Monday, June 13, 2016

What those 11 Tony Awards for 'Hamilton' mean for Broadway and the art of theater by Charles McNulty

“Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s landmark musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, had its coronation Sunday at the 70th Tony Awards. As expected, the show won for best musica…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:38AM
Friday, June 10, 2016

A race for the record books: Can anything stop 'Hamilton' from making history at the Tony Awards? by Charles McNulty

The suspense over the Tony Awards is usually about which show will win for best musical, the prize with the most lucrative consequences. But this year we all know that “Hamilton,” nomina…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:37PM

And the winner is ... the ensemble cast: How Broadway's best acting was a group effort by Charles McNulty

The most memorable acting of the year was a group affair.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:46AM
Thursday, June 9, 2016

And the winner is ... the ensemble cast: How Broadway's best acting was a group effort by Charles McNulty

On Sunday, the Tony Awards will recognize artists who did exceptional work in the 2015-16 Broadway season. As always, there’s a rich bounty of nominated talent to choose from, but the m…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:04AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Race, inequality, polarized politics: Why Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio matters in 2016 by Charles McNulty

A precious First Folio of Shakespeare plays, one of several on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, has arrived at the San Diego Central Library, where it will remain for the next month…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:32AM
Thursday, May 26, 2016

The theater of Trump: What Shakespeare can teach us about the Donald by Charles McNulty

Harold Bloom subtitled his magnum opus on Shakespeare "The Invention of the Human" in recognition of the Bard's unprecedented ability to imagine the lives of others.  The question I've bee…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:52PM
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Eugene O'Neill's 'The Hairy Ape' is a rallying cry for the Bernie Sanders crowd by Charles McNulty

Eugene O’Neill’s “The Hairy Ape,” written in 1921, still has the tang of an experiment by a relatively young writer testing the frontiers of what the drama can do. Mixing brutal expr…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:51PM
Monday, May 16, 2016

But does it deserve an encore? 'Amadeus' returns to South Coast Rep by Charles McNulty

Antonio Salieri, relegated by posterity to the shadows as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s journeyman contemporary, will always have Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” to augment his notoriety, if n…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:43PM
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Meet Ivo van Hove, the most provocatively illuminating theater director right now by Charles McNulty

For those who have been tracking the thrilling career of the Belgian-born, Amsterdam-based director Ivo van Hove, the last place you'd expect to find him working is Broadway. But the Flemish…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:12PM

A critic's take: Why 'Hamilton's' Tony Award record ushers in a new era for theater by Charles McNulty

Last year, the Tony Awards could have adopted the hashtag #TonysSoBritish. This year, the nominees announced Tuesday morning look like the anti-Oscars, so diverse is the roster. There may no…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:12PM

A critic's take: Why 'Hamilton's' Tony Award record ushers in a new era for theater by Charles McNulty

The historical significance of "Hamilton"'s trove of Tony nominations

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:15PM

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