All stories by Paul Birchall on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Broadway Theater Review: JOHN LITHGOW: STORIES BY HEART (Roundabout Theatre Company) by Paul Birchall

YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART Here’s the thing: This solo show written and performed by John Lithgow, the endlessly talented star of more movies, TV shows, and plays than there are stars in the hea…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:29AM
Saturday, January 13, 2018

Off-Off-Broadway Theater Review: DIVINE HORSEMEN (Primitive Grace Theater Ensemble at Access Theater) by Paul Birchall

NOT JUST HORSING AROUND After watching Paul Calderon’s quite gripping tale of thugs and scammers trying to grift a deal whatever way they can, you’ll start to wonder, “Um, wouldn’t i…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:41PM
Saturday, November 25, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: BLED FOR THE HOUSEHOLD TRUTH (Rogue Machine) by Paul Birchall

WHAT WON’T YOU DO FOR A CHELSEA SUBLET? Ambiguity and nuance are qualities in a play to be greatly desired and lauded – and yet, if you do not go “ick” at least four times while…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:46PM
Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: YOHEN (East West Players and Robey Theatre Company) by Paul Birchall

DAMAGED GOODS Playwright Phillip Kan Gotanda’s elegiac drama is a powerful piece that encompasses many themes in a surprisingly tight and concise package; it’s about aging, it’s about …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:40PM
Monday, October 9, 2017

Los Angeles Theater Review: WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN (The Theatre @ Boston Court) by Paul Birchall

A FINE PRODUCTION OF A MINOR ORGAN Midway through playwright Julia Lederer’s feather-light, yet rather droning romantic comedy, a character literally reaches into her own chest and pulls …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:14PM
Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Los Angeles Theater Review: UNBOUND (IAMA Theater Company at the Hudson Theatre) by Paul Birchall

UNBOUND FOR GLORY It takes talent to juggle political activism, sexual tension, and a highly suspenseful thriller plot, but playwright D.G. Watson has done it. His compelling drama hits an a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:18PM
Friday, July 1, 2016

Los Angeles Theater Review: DISGRACED (Center Theatre Group at Mark Taper Forum) by Paul Birchall

ANYTHING BUT DISGRACEFUL Sometimes plays that win the Pulitzer Prize do so less for their content and more for the ideas they embody and the zeitgeist of their time. It’s just an added bon…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:04AM
Monday, May 2, 2016

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BOY FROM OZ (Celebration Theater) by Paul Birchall

A FRIEND OF DOROTHY’S What makes this boisterous jukebox musical about the life of late music and stage legend Peter Allen (whose songs make up the show’s core) so winning, is the co…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:53AM
Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Tour Theater Review: KINKY BOOTS (National Tour at Pantages Hollywood) by Paul Birchall

BOOTS GOT MY KINKS OUT Another bus-and-truck tour of Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper’s Tony Award-festooned musical has “sashayed and shanted” its way back into Los Angeles at the …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:35PM
Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Off-Broadway Theater Review: CLEVER LITTLE LIES (Westside Theatre) by Paul Birchall

NO ONE ELSE IS THAT GIRL Marlo Thomas may not have the iconic stature of one of those luminous performers like, say, Meryl Streep or Cher or Judy Garland, but akin to these illustrious lad…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:56PM
Thursday, December 10, 2015

Off-Off-Broadway Theater Review: TAKE CARE (The Bats at the Flea Theater) by Paul Birchall

HARD TO CARE First of all, I think it’s important to state that I adore The Flea, the fiercely creative performance and theater collective down in Soho. More often than not, they do amazin…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:57PM
Monday, November 23, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: Caryl Churchills’s LOVE AND INFORMATION (Son of Semele Ensemble) by Paul Birchall

TMI I’m a librarian during the day, and one thing I remember from back in Library School (because you have to go to Library School to become a librarian, you know) is that there are many d…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:41AM
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: SAFE AT HOME: AN EVENING WITH ORSON BEAN (PRT in Venice) by Paul Birchall

HOME AND HEART When you go to Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, one of the great pleasures is seeing performers Orson Bean and his wife Alley Mills hanging out in the lobby either manning …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:09PM
Thursday, October 15, 2015

Los Angeles / Tour Opera Review: UCARMEN (Isango Emsemble at The Broad Stages in Santa Monica) by Paul Birchall

BETTER ON THE MARIMBA Such is the life of a theater critic.  On Friday, you might find yourself in a dusty living room in a seedier area of mid-town, seeing a salon-scale show in some half-…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:32PM
Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: FINDING NICK (Zephyr Theater in Hollywood) by Paul Birchall

FINDING JUST A BIT In his solo show, playwright Nicholas Guest describes his life and travels around the world.  He’s accompanied by Hillary Smith on the cello and by Tony Carafone on the…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:44PM
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: SONS OF THE PROPHET (The Blank Theatre) by Paul Birchall

ALL IS REALLY WELL In playwright Stephen Karam’s touching and funny drama, characters are frequently spotted quoting the great Lebanese poet-philosopher Khalil Gabran.  “All is well,”…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:32PM
Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: REBORNING (Fountain) by Paul Birchall

UNTO US A CHILD IS MADE This fascinating drama by playwright Zayd Dohrn is set in the bizarre subculture of women who buy dolls that eerily resemble actual babies. Can this possibly be enou…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:49PM
Monday, January 26, 2015

Los Angeles Theater Review: MUTANT OLIVE (Lounge Theatre in Hollywood) by Paul Birchall

MUTANT — AS IN FREAK OF NATURE After watching the roaring, sputtering, and cursing along with regretful descriptions of drug use and parental abuse back in the “bad old days,” I ha…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:24PM
Saturday, December 13, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: NORTHANGER ABBEY (Broad Stages in Santa Monica) by Paul Birchall

JANE AND HER PUPPETS The works of Jane Austen are delightful – and so are puppets.  So, when you hear that this adaptation of Austen’s classic satire of gothic literature, Northanger Ab…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: BROOMSTICK (Fountain) by Paul Birchall

STAY FOR DINNER, WON’T YOU? She’s an ancient crone who lives in a tiny cottage deep in the forest, feared by those near and far.  She brews strange elixirs and ointments, and is rum…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:52PM
Thursday, October 9, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: BITCHES (The Magnum Players in West Hollywood) by Paul Birchall

BITCHY, BITCHY If you like your camp served by the bucket, then this outlandish tour de farce is steaming with it. Imagine if you will one of those appalling movies from the 1990s in which a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:55AM
Monday, September 22, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE WHY (Blank Theatre) by Paul Birchall

COLD DEAD HANDS America’s bittersweet love-and-hate affair with guns is the target of playwright Victor Kaufold’s thought-provoking but lopsided satirical revue, which premiered in 2000 …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:05PM
Sunday, August 3, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE MAX FACTOR FACTOR (New Musicals Inc. at Noho Arts Center) by Paul Birchall

DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME Ah Hollywood.  How it glitters.  How it glistens.  How true it is that when you scrape off the layers of tinsel, you find, well, more tinsel.  This musical (Adria…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:08PM
Saturday, July 5, 2014

Off-Off-Broadway Theater Review: THE MYSTERIES (The Flea Theater) by Paul Birchall

THEATER AS A TEMPLE The Flea Theater commissioned 48 different playwrights to contribute short dramatic pieces to this tremendous production, which basically recounts all the narratives in t…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:02PM

Off-Off-Broadway Theater Review: CLOWN BAR (Pipeline Theatre Company at The Box) by Paul Birchall

RAISING THE CLOWN BAR Did the TV series It give you nightmares for decades?  Does the art of John Wayne Gacy make you tremble?  Does dear old Bozo make you break out in hives?  If you suf…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25AM
Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Off-Broadway Theater Review: THE TASTE OF IT (Ballybeg at Theatre 54 at Shetler Studios) by Paul Birchall

STORMY ROMANCE It is sometimes the case that the plays that seem the simplest – three characters, a few dusty flats, a tiny, shoe-box set in a miniscule theater somewhere on the 12th floor…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:21PM
Sunday, June 29, 2014

Off-Broadway Theater Review: GERTRUDE STEIN SAINTS! (Abrons Arts Center) by Paul Birchall

WHEN THE SAINTS COME DANCING IN Here’s a charming revue that sets to song and dance the words of the great poet Gertrude Stein, mistress of new language and one of the tremendous free spir…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:23PM
Saturday, June 28, 2014

Off-Broadway Theater Review: THE BULLPEN (The Playroom Theater) by Paul Birchall

PRO AND (EX-)CON In telling his true-life tale about being convicted of attempted murder and released following a hefty prison term, Joe Assadourian is proof that you can be a crook and stil…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:33PM
Friday, June 13, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE LAST CONFESSION (Center Theatre Group at the Ahmanson) by Paul Birchall

PERHAPS THE POPE WAS BORED TO DEATH The Ahmanson stage is awash with white-haired old men in long sweeping gowns.  No, it’s not the old folks’ home production of Priscilla Queen of the …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:25PM
Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BROTHERS SIZE (Fountain Theatre) by Paul Birchall

AFRICAN MYTH ON THE BAYOU An atmosphere of mythic mystery suffuses Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s compelling drama about family, sacrifice, and deceit.  Awash with undercurrents of melancholy a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:00PM
Thursday, June 5, 2014

National Tour Theater Review: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (2014 National Tour at Pantages Theatre) by Paul Birchall

TECHNICOLOR TURNCOAT It’s like one of the Great Plagues of Egypt:  Every so often, some producer decides to dust off another production of this old Andrew Lloyd Webber chestnut, and cast …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:45PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards