Thursday, September 12, 2013
NOT MUCH LIFE IN DEATH The miracle of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is that it contains so many themes relevant to today’s world—the American Dream, the disconnect of father and …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:35PMMonday, September 9, 2013
I SAY YOU WANT THIS REVOLUTION After the Revolution is a chewy new play about family dynamics and the difficulty of making moral judgments, especially after the fact. For audiences thirsting…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:38AMSunday, September 8, 2013
HEAVEN OR HELL? I surmise that opinions will be all over the map for San Francisco Opera’s production of Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito’s 1868 take on the Faust legend. To begin with…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:05AMSaturday, September 7, 2013
SOUND AND FURY INDEED The idea of site-specific theater—theatre which is performed in unconventional spaces compatible to the script—is nothing new, but it seems to be gaining ground. Fr…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:23PMThursday, September 5, 2013
A PRAIRIE THEATER COMPANION As many newer plays fail to grasp the art of storytelling, Word for Word Performing Arts Company offers compelling narratives via short stories which are performe…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:46AMFriday, August 30, 2013
THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL The most unfortunate thing about The Unfortunates is that a lot of talent (five writers, actually), having spent three years developing this new hybrid-musical, lacked …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AMThursday, August 29, 2013
TO THINE OWN SELF BE SHREW What do you get when you cross Carl Perkins, a biker, and Chris Isaak? In David Ivers’ rendition of The Taming of the Shrew, that rockabilly man with a sympathet…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:37AMMonday, August 26, 2013
NOT PLAIN BUT TOO LIQUID In her tale of two slaves who seek passage back to Africa in 1791 Rhode Island, Naomi Wallace has constructed a compelling narrative based on true events and people.…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:01PMSunday, August 25, 2013
GOOD PEOPLE GETS BAY AREA PREMIERE Having seen productions of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People at both the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and Steppenwolf in Chicago, I can attest that t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:48PMSaturday, August 24, 2013
A LOVERLY LITTLE LADY The 1956 musical My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, was so transplendent in production values that the myriad subsequent revivals all strive for …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:02PMThursday, August 22, 2013
AUDRA MCDONALD MAKES A RARE VISIT TO SAN FRANCISCO As if San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) annual opening night galas were not the most anticipated events of any year, SFS and Music Director …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:31PMMonday, August 12, 2013
A PRODUCTION OF AND IN NO MAN’S LAND It seems that people are forever cursed by their feeble attempts to make their lives neat and tidy. Whatever illusion of structure is created—a calen…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:08AMSunday, August 11, 2013
YEAH, I CAN DIG IT The third installment of monologuist Don Reed’s autobiographical coming-of-age trilogy has been extended yet again at the Marsh, and following on the heels of this San F…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:36AMFriday, August 9, 2013
CAL SHAKES’ BIGGEST FAN The titular character in Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan is a vivacious young woman, married only two years, who never coughs or displays any o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:32PMThursday, August 8, 2013
EXTRA INCHES East Berlin expat Hedwig was forced to leave a rather important bit of himself—later herself—behind the Wall in order to pass physical exams and immigrate to America with th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:18PMSaturday, August 3, 2013
STAGE NOIR In many ways, the stage adaptation of James Cain’s novel, Double Indemnity, is a radical departure from the iconic film from director/writer Billy Wilder. The film—co-written …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:58PMThursday, July 25, 2013
I GET THE PICTURE Pageant of the Masters’ The Big Picture is perhaps the most three-dimensional idea from the fertile mind of director Diane Challis Davy. Continuing the 80-year tradition …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:38AMWednesday, July 24, 2013
THE SHAPE OF THINGS After Bruce Norris’s A Parallelogram at the Mark Taper Forum, I overheard a few audience members describe the play has “cute.” For all of the play’s political inc…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:09PMFriday, July 19, 2013
IT’S TIME FOR A LITTLE HAPPY EVER-AFTERING As San Francisco Playhouse opens a promising and highly anticipated rendition of Camelot this week, I am reminded of T. H. White’s The Once and…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:40PMI DO BUT I DON’T With all the adorability, simplicity, cliché and generic tone of a Hallmark Card, I Do! I Do! opened last weekend at the Laguna Playhouse. Starring Broadway stalwarts Dav…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:57AMALL THE WORLD’S A GLOBE The Old Globe has officially opened the 2013 Shakespeare Festival, now on through September 29. Adrian Noble returns for his fourth and final season as the internat…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:40AMSunday, July 14, 2013
IN GOOD COMPANY “It’s a revue, but not a revue,” Stephen Sondheim said about Company when he was interviewed at Segerstrom last year. This surprised me because the groundbreaking 1970 …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMEASE ON DOWN A fascinating phenomenon has occurred recently in the theater world for this critic. Far and away, my favorite theatergoing experiences have been at revivals of musicals, most o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMFriday, July 5, 2013
IF ONLY IT WENT LIKE THIS MORE OFTEN I can’t call Neil LaBute’s works timeless, but both his plays and films (In the Company of Men) are a product of our time. As America holds herself t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:23PMMonday, June 24, 2013
FOUNTAIN’S FANTASTIC FLAMENCO FIESTA While classic and modern dance seem to be continually reinventing themselves, Flamenco remains a bedrock of the moving arts. As Forever Flamenco! at th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:24PMSaturday, June 22, 2013
LITTLE MORTAL JUMP TURNS OUT TO BE THE BIGGEST THING OF THE NIGHT The lineup at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion begins with the respected and always impressive Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:16AMFriday, June 21, 2013
PARADISE LILY My fanaticism with Lily Tomlin started with her 1972 comedy album This is a Recording. I immediately felt a kinship with Ernestine Tomlin, Ma Bell’s switchboard operator and…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:12PMThursday, June 20, 2013
MAJESTERIAL MIRREN Although she is a politically neutral monarch, The Queen of England retains the ability to give a weekly audience to a Prime Minister (PM) during his or her term of office…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:30PMTuesday, June 18, 2013
PHALLUS IN BLUNDERLAND Who has been accused of being a Sexual Reprobate? Satirist? Socialist? Philosopher? The precursor to Freudian psychology and existentialism? Woman-hating pornographer?…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28AMMonday, June 17, 2013
A SHOW OF GREAT IMPORTANCE An anomaly of the Hollywood Fringe Festival has arrived. A gem which alone justifies the Fringe’s existence. A nascent troupe named Good People Theater Company i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:41PMSaturday, June 15, 2013
DON’T COME TO THE CABARET It’s the first time I have ever seen someone on stage in flop sweat. Poor Anastasia Barnes had a rough go in her opening of The Ruby Besler Cabaret. One would s…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:04PM 
