Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Consider this a friendly public service announcement from a concerned theater critic: Please, unless there's a truly compelling reason, let's agree to a moratorium on revivals of "Hamlet," "…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:39AM[SHARE]As I was leaving the theater the other night, an older gentleman with a lapel-grabbing voice and a friendly jack-in-the-box manner stopped me dead in my tracks.
"What was the point of that?…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:39AM[SHARE]It might be heresy for a theater critic to admit, but Hollywood has done a better job of skewering the theater than the theater has done skewering Hollywood. Give me "All About Eve" over "On…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:33AM[SHARE]An emphasis on storytelling rather than star performances or staging pyrotechnics drives a crisp production of the macabre musical "Sweeney Todd" at South Coast Repertory.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Friday, January 25, 2019
Director Stephen Daldry made his name with the National Theatre whodunit "An Inspector Calls." Now the London revival comes to Beverly Hills, seeping with commentary about class divisions.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Sometimes a production can wrest a seemingly outdated play from certain retirement. Director Stephen Daldry did just that when he was a young gun storming the London theater scene in the ear…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 24, 2019
Time catches everyone by surprise. For Betty Buckley, the rude awakening happened when director Michael Wilson called to say he was planning a revival of the musical "Grey Gardens."
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:52AM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Time catches everyone by surprise. For Betty Buckley, the rude awakening happened when director Michael Wilson called to say he was planning a revival of the musical "Grey Gardens." She had …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 17, 2019
The sensationally acted Steppenwolf Theatre production at the Mark Taper Forum delivers compelling characters and funny dialogue, but at times the pacing sluggishly shifts into cable TV terr…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:07PM[SHARE]The plays of Tracy Letts can be broadly divided into two types: Those with men behaving appallingly and those with women behaving abominably. In "August: Osage County," his Pulitzer Prize wi…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:05PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin: They all starred in "Hello, Dolly!" but no one had the same kind of giddy, goofy charm as the beloved Carol Channing.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:48PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 20, 2018
The stage adaptation of the '70s film, directed with bold flourishes by European auteur Ivo van Hove at Broadway's Belasco Theatre and co-starring Tony Goldwyn and Tatiana Maslany, has somet…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Two thoughts occurred to me at the end of Ivo van Hove's stage production of "Network": Bryan Cranston is one of the most fearless actors working today, and Paddy Chayefsky attained a kind o…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 16, 2018
The cabaret drag star who staged his 24-hour music and social history marathon earlier this year, returns with an L.A. holiday show that takes on this, the most materialistic time of the yea…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:25PM[SHARE]Imagine a Christmas tree ornament made by Picasso on an absinthe bender and you'll have some idea of Taylor Mac's initial costume for "Taylor Mac's Holiday Sauce," the festive fandango that …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:20PM[SHARE]Friday, December 14, 2018
How much Cher is too much Cher? I mean how much pasteurized celebrity information do you really, really want? A related question posed by the new Broadway musical "The Cher Show," now at the…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:09PM[SHARE]Does anyone really expect genuine drama from this kind of commercial jukebox musical? Get past the lackluster writing, and this production directed by Jason Moore and choreographed by Christ…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:30PM[SHARE]Aaron Sorkin's production of 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' which opened Thursday on Broadway, is a top-flight interpretation of the Harper Lee novel under the rustically elegant direction of Bart…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:40PM[SHARE]How much campiness can a theater audience take? This new musical tests the limits with its tale of Broadway actors who set out to champion an Indiana high school student banned from bringing…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:19PM[SHARE]During the deliriously zany setup for "The Prom," a new musical comedy now at the Longacre Theatre, I thought I might have died and gone to campy heaven. The feeling doesn't last, but the la…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:15PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 13, 2018
The marquee at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre blasts in big block letters "Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird." But all it takes is some slingshot dialogue to reveal that the new blockbuster Bro…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:50PM[SHARE]All it takes is a few minutes of slingshot dialogue to reveal that this blockbuster Broadway adaptation belongs to Sorkin, who with director Bartlett Sher and star Jeff Daniels has created a…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 11, 2018
The Times' theater critic names his top productions of 2018, including Jefferson Mays' take on "A Christmas Carol," a daring "Streetcar," Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' ingenious "Gloria" and the s…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]The year started strong with two revivals that invited us to listen anew to modern classics we thought we knew inside out. Richard Nelson's production of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" at San…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 29, 2018
The surprise Broadway hit about a tiny Canadian town's embrace of air passengers diverted on 9/11 arrives at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre a little less polished but ultimately still satisfying.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:12PM[SHARE]The surprise Broadway hit about a tiny Canadian town's embrace of air passengers diverted on 9/11 arrives at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre a little less polished but ultimately still satisfying.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:20PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 20, 2018
When it comes to playwriting, Broadway has a supply problem. Although the new generation of American dramatists is blazingly talented, the great majority of these writers prefer the creative…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:39AM[SHARE]Friday, November 16, 2018
Tony-winner Brian Dennehy stars in a double-bill of short works by Eugene O'Neill and Samuel Beckett
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:47PM[SHARE]Brian Dennehy needs no coddling from critics. A two-time Tony-winning heavyweight, he has nothing left to prove, having triumphed (through the blunt force of his acting) in Eugene O'Neill's …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:30PM[SHARE]Monday, November 12, 2018
Review: 'Cost of Living': Martyna Majok's 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama brings an unflinching realism about the disabled and their caregivers to the Fountain Theatre.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:37PM[SHARE]Two of the best productions this fall have happened at intimate theaters that are keeping up with the exciting developments in American playwriting. Earlier this season, Branden Jacobs-Jenki…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:35PM[SHARE] 
