Saturday, April 21, 2012
James Corden, in a war of choice with himself.
There's something about being in the presence of performers who will do anything to make us laugh"whose sole aim is to tickle us"that is at on…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 07:12PM[SHARE]Friday, April 13, 2012
Something strange is happening in Los Angeles: Its two biggest nonprofit theaters, on either side of town, currently feature plays not only cast largely with L.A.-based actors but directed b…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 02:39PM[SHARE]Thursday, April 12, 2012
"No one who believes in the greatness of certain plays would go to any one of our houses to enjoy them. They exist as thundering productions in the mind only. We know they might be done (Ki…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 03:46PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 8, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
It's my first trip to Mother Russia, and my first Golden Mask Festival, so most likely no posting for the next week.More anon. Till then, do svidaniya!
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:30AM[SHARE]Monday, April 2, 2012
"There's a guy who wrote a book about SITI Company, and he saw [Room] a number of times, and in rehearsal once, he asked Ellen Lauren (the performer of Room) what she was thinking or doing i…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:03AM[SHARE]Friday, March 30, 2012
The criminally underrated Charlotte Hatherley.This spring's Menken vs. Webber showdown (each has three musicals running on Broadway, and when's the last time that was true of even one compos…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:04PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Today's best, most versatile musical theater performers have one thing in common, as different as they are: the uncanny ability to bring utter conviction and vitality to a form too often see…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:40PM[SHARE]Monday, March 26, 2012
Busy busy with deadlines galore but recent readings have turned up a few items of interest...Stefanie Zadravec was writing a play about a baby with a rare disease when she got pregnant and h…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 02:07PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 21, 2012
I've got an essay in the program for the Ahmanson Theatre's West Coast premiere of American Idiot, a show I quite like. A sample:Blame it on Rodgers and Hammerstein...The match between rock …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 07:44AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The onslaught from all quarters has become tedious, I know, but I want to direct attention to three thoughtful pieces by folks who actually know Mike Daisey's work in the theater, whose view…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:42AM[SHARE]Above, the poster image for Artist Repertory Theatre's current production of Race, which certainly ups the ante on the original Broadway art, below:
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:36AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 17, 2012
Mike Daisey, right, with his wife and director Jean-Michele GregoryThe swirling meta-drama around Mike Daisey's solo show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs has often competed with the …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 03:15AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 11, 2012
I've been hearing good things about Jeff Whitty's The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, a camp fantasia imagining Ibsen's heroine in a kind of post-suicide purgatory with a number of other…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:45AM[SHARE]Friday, March 9, 2012
"Don't forget that there are people in this audience tonight who are seeing live theatre for the first time...there are also some who are seeing it for the last." -Emily Anderson, a theater …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:18PM[SHARE]I don't endorse everything rural-arts gadfly Scott Walters has to say, but I am grateful that he persists in making his case for arts funding redistribution, because frankly, who else is doi…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:58AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Today on American Theatre's Facebook page I asked what sorts of souvenirs folks take away from productions they've been involved with. Apart from the usual programs, postcards, and bits of s…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 02:43PM[SHARE]Friday, March 2, 2012
From Hotel Torgo, a shambling documentary about the making of the epic Manos The Hands of Fate
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 1, 2012
"The word 'Africa' is not uttered until deep in the second act of Hurt Village, but the continent hangs like a specter over Katori Hall's new play at the Signature Center. The African-Americ…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 29, 2012
"There are only three kinds of scenes: 'fights, seductions and negotiations.' " -Mike Nichols, quoted by Riedel today
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:17PM[SHARE]Friday, February 24, 2012
Most of the time the press releases I receive can also be located somewhere online, but some of the smaller theaters that send info to American Theatre aren't quite at that level of informat…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 03:22PM[SHARE]Monday, February 20, 2012
Not that these are presidentially themed...Bad reviews as a potty-training tool? That's one way to put them behind you.Smash superfan sez: Don't watch it tonight.Looking for some good news a…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:02AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 18, 2012
I don't agree with every particular in Charles McNulty's big, bold, fed-up editorial on the artistic leadership void at SoCal's major resident theaters, centrally the Old Globe and Center Th…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 08:26PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 16, 2012
Harrily We Roll Along.Against the paranoid style in criticism.So Godspell is doing Santorum jokes now?1-800-Flowers epic fail (I post because it happened to me, dear readers).Spacey: Ham wha…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 12:40PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Last June, I found myself running the Power Point for a session at the TCG Conference in L.A. titled "What If…We Could Bridge the Divides? The Role of Theatre in Iraqi-US Reconciliation", …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 12:33PM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 14, 2012
If I've got one pet peeve in criticism, both in print and in water-cooler form, it's the "not likeable" canard. I don't mean to dismiss what people experience as sincere aversion to fictiona…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:53AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
"If Shakespeare saw most of the productions of his work today, he'd probably say: 'Roland Emmerich was right. Edward de Vere actually wrote this.' "-Michael Musto (h/t Charles McNulty)
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 08:37AM[SHARE]Monday, February 6, 2012
This kind of thing makes me batty: Producer Ken Davenport tells theater folks it's our duty to watch Smash tonight:It's about Broadway, it's shot on Broadway, it's written by a Broadway writ…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:18AM[SHARE] 
