All stories by Charles Mcnulty on BroadwayStars

Monday, September 24, 2018

Review: 'Nightwalk in the Chinese Garden' is a nocturnal journey at the Huntington that blurs the line between reality and illusion by Charles McNulty

It would be hard to find a more enchanting setting for a play than the Huntington's Chinese Garden in San Marino. This is the locale for playwright and director Stan Lai's "Nightwalk in the …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:35PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 21, 2018

Review: Hotel Modern's 'KAMP' is miniature re-creation of the stark horror of concentration camps by Charles McNulty

Hotel Modern returns to REDCAT with KAMP, a re-creation manipulated by Dutch visual and performing artists Pauline Kalker, Arléne Hoornweg and Herman Helle of the of the Auschwitz concentra…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:30PM[SHARE]

Review: Hotel Modern's 'KAMP' is miniature recreation of the stark horror of concentration camps by Charles McNulty

In "The Great War," the Dutch theater company Hotel Modern simulated the reality of the World War I battlefield in all its muddy, body-mangled horror through the projection of toy soldiers a…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:30PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Review: A workplace comedy turns unpredictably dark in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' 'Gloria' by Echo Theater Company by Charles McNulty

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "Gloria," a workplace comedy set in a toxic Manhattan magazine office, receives its West Coast premiere in an Echo Theater Company production

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:36PM[SHARE]

Review: A workplace comedy turns unpredictably dark in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' 'Gloria' by Echo Theater Company by Charles McNulty

It's a given in a work by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that something startling will sooner or later occur that will have you rethinking everything you thought you understood about the play. In "A…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:35PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Review: The Huey Lewis and the News jukebox musical 'The Heart of Rock & Roll' is more square than hip by Charles McNulty

"The Heart of Rock & Roll," a new jukebox musical inspired by the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, receives its world premiere at San Diego's Old Globe.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Review: The Huey Lewis and the News jukebox musical 'The Heart of Rock & Roll' is more square than hip by Charles McNulty

Even when Huey Lewis was new, he was retro. More old way than new wave, his band, Huey Lewis & the News, is as much a part of the 1980s as the movie "Back to the Future" (which memorably unl…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 13, 2018

Review: José Rivera's 'The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona' stumbles on the stairway to heaven by Charles McNulty

Geffen Playhouse presents the world premiere of Oscar-nominated screenwriter José Rivera's The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona"at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Jo Bonney.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:17PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Review: In 'Native Gardens,' bad fences make for a fun, formulaic comedy about bickering neighbors by Charles McNulty

Jason Alexander directs "Native Garden," Karen Zacarías' comedy about neighbors disputing property lines, horticulture and difference.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, September 10, 2018

Review: 'School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play' is a refreshing take on youthful rivalries and machinations by Charles McNulty

Jocelyn Bioh's 'School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play,' a tale about backbiting teenagers at Ghana's most exclusive boarding school, opens at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:08PM[SHARE]

Review: 'School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play' is a refreshing take on youthful rivalries and machinations by Charles McNulty

The title of Jocelyn Bioh's "School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play," is an accurate description of this entertaining comedy, which transplants a familiar American scenario to a new c…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:05PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 9, 2018

Review: Euripides' 'Bacchae' is spellbinding in modern update at the Getty Villa by Charles McNulty

Anne Bogart directs Euripides' last play about a young, overconfident ruler who rejects the rowdy new religious sect that has swept into Greece.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:20PM[SHARE]

Review: Euripides' 'Bacchae' is spellbinding in modern update at the Getty Villa by Charles McNulty

The surviving Greek tragedies pose inordinate challenges to contemporary theater practitioners, but Euripides' "Bacchae," one of his most beloved works, may be the trickiest of all to stage.…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:15PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 7, 2018

Review: As blue collar jobs leave a Pennsylvania town, Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat' reveals the racial faultlines left behind by Charles McNulty

Review of Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Sweat," set in a factory turn in Pennsylvania, where economic fears are igniting racial tensions

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:38PM[SHARE]

Review: As blue collar jobs leave a Pennsylvania town, Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat' reveals the racial faultlines left behind by Charles McNulty

The state of the nation play has a long tradition in Britain, where playwrights are encouraged to think of the theater as a public forum, a place to debate the issues of the day and track th…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:35PM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 26, 2018

Review: 'Ain't Too Proud,' the Broadway-bound musical about the Temptations: Sensational music, scattershot storytelling by Charles McNulty

When "Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations," the Broadway-bound jukebox musical, is in motion, it's a force almost as irresistible as any of the powerhouse R&B band's great…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:48PM[SHARE]

Review: 'Ain't Too Proud,' the Broadway-bound musical about the Temptations: Sensational music, scattershot storytelling by Charles McNulty

Review of "Ain't Too Proud," a jukebox musical about the lives of "The Temptations."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:12PM[SHARE]

Neil Simon: How the playwright wrote his own second act and finally won over critics by Charles McNulty

At this peak, his plays were popular in a "Hamilton" sort of way, but that didn't necessarily earn Neil Simon respect among theater writers. The Times' theater critic looks at the trajectory…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:37PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Great acting's tragic flaw is on display with Heath Ledger in 'Dark Knight' by Charles McNulty

In his critics notebook, Charles McNulty opines that Heath Ledger's short legacy as a screen actor offers us enough evidence of the rarity of his talent.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Review: 'Pretty Woman' and 'Head Over Heels' try oh-so-hard to revive beauty and the beat for Broadway by Charles McNulty

Two new Broadway musicals with commercial hooks have opened this summer, one progressive in its approach to gender and sexuality, the other regressive about such matters. But the same proble…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:06PM[SHARE]

Review: 'Pretty Woman' and 'Head Over Heels' try oh-so-hard to revive beauty and the beat for Broadway by Charles McNulty

The rom-com magic that propelled the Julia Roberts movie and the progressive gender politics the drive the Go-Go's jukebox musical can't quite overcome fundamental flaws in two of Broadway's…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:21PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Review: 'Midsummer Night's Dream' with a lesbian twist at New Swan Shakespeare in Irvine by Charles McNulty

The gender bending in the New Swan Shakespeare Festival production of 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is pulled off with aplomb, and if the comic approach goes a little too far, at least the shena…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Review: 'Midsummer Night's Dream' with a lesbian twist at New Swan Shakespeare in Irvine by Charles McNulty

The gender bending in the New Swan Shakespeare Festival production of 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is pulled off with aplomb, and if the comic approach goes a little too far, at least the shena…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 25, 2018

For Pulitzer winner Martyna Majok, 'Queens' is the latest play shining a light into society's shadows by Charles McNulty

The playwright of "Cost of Living" and "Ironbound" invites us into worlds that theatergoers have been trained to look past: domestic workers with foreign accents, factory laborers who strugg…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:12PM[SHARE]

For Pulitzer winner Martyna Majok, 'Queens' is the latest play shining a light into society's shadows by Charles McNulty

Martyna Majok, the Polish-born American playwright whose play "Cost of Living" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, invites us into worlds that theatergoers have been trained to look …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:10PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 24, 2018

On the London stage, 'The Lehman Trilogy' and 'Allelujah!' chronicle worlds warped by money by Charles McNulty

Capitalism and its discontents: Two new plays chronicle worlds undone by money " Ben Power's brilliantly acted adaptation of the origin story for the company too big to fail, with Sam Mendes…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]

On the London stage, 'The Lehman Trilogy' and 'Allelujah!' chronicle worlds warped by money by Charles McNulty

Beyond being two of the most anticipated new dramas in London this summer, Ben Power's English adaptation of Italian playwright Stefano Massini's "The Lehman Trilogy" at the National Theatre…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 29, 2018

Review: Amanda Peet's 'Our Very Own Carlin McCullough': A tennis prodigy learns life's score by Charles McNulty

The Geffen Playhouse premieres Peet's play, which centers on a 10-year-old tennis phenom, her mother and her coach and which stars Mamie Gummer, Abigail Dylan Harrison, Caroline Heffernan, T…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:22PM[SHARE]

Review: Amanda Peet's 'Our Very Own Carlin McCullough': A tennis prodigy learns life's score by Charles McNulty

Amanda Peet, an actress whose conventional beauty is spiked with a refreshing awkwardness, has branched out into writing. Her play "The Commons of Pensacola" made a respectable showing at Ma…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:20PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 26, 2018

'The Tempest' at the Old Globe: Kate Burton casts a benevolent spell as Prospera by Charles McNulty

Kate Burton portrays the parental magician in a gender-flipped take on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," directed by Joe Dowling, at the Old Globe.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:07PM[SHARE]

'The Tempest' at the Old Globe: Kate Burton casts a benevolent spell as Prospera by Charles McNulty

Casting a woman as Prospero in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" is no longer a novelty. Helen Mirren starred as Prospera in the 2010 Julie Taymor film and, more recently, Harriet Walter p…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:05PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off