Wednesday, November 14, 2012
THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY When Anna Ziegler’s world premiere play Another Way Home began, it seemed that the thrust of the play would revolve around Joey (Daniel Petzold), a 17-year-old …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:37PMTuesday, November 13, 2012
FAR FROM WILD Thornton Wilder, especially as a playwright, looks to the commonality of all people to demonstrate the value in appreciating life, especially when the death of a loved one is i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:03PMFriday, November 9, 2012
THE HAT’S JUST KEEP ON COMIN’ Billed as the world’s longest running musical revue, Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon is a flamboyant, frivolous, and frothy burlesque that takes a …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:56PMWednesday, November 7, 2012
AN IMAGINATIVE STORY AND SPECTACULAR VISUALS MAKE UP FOR CALCULATED FAMILIARITY It’s quite an accomplishment for Disney that the multitude of elements in Wreck-It Ralph don’t collapse in…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:46AMTuesday, November 6, 2012
HOW TO LAUGH AND CRY AND BE UNMOVED AT THE SAME TIME Playwright Bill Cain, after discovering his mother, Mary, had six months to live, moved into the family home in Syracuse, New York. Like …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:35PMMonday, November 5, 2012
AN AUGUST PROJECT In many ways, playwright August Strindberg’s influence in the theater has been far more significant than his public reception. While theater historians and scholars speak…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:26AMSaturday, November 3, 2012
THAT’S AMORE I hope San Franciscans actually know how advantaged they are to have a company like 42nd Street Moon, which presents fully staged productions of rarely-seen musicals. Whil…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:39PMFriday, November 2, 2012
RED AND BROWN IS THEATRICAL GOLD Los Angeles is usually the last major theater city in the states to see productions of playwrights whose works have received praise in their world premiere…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:19PMATTENTION MUST BE PAID Bootleg Theater continues its run of the world premiere of Death of a Salesgirl, an absurdist tragicomedy with integrated media, about one woman’s struggle to free…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:11PMSunday, October 28, 2012
THE MADNESS OF SITE-SPECIFIC THEATER Back in 2010, First Folio presented David Rice’s site-specific theater piece, The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story. If any show should be heape…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52PMWednesday, October 24, 2012
I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TITLE MEANS Every once in a while, a theater company falls in love with a script and simply must stage it. I can’t imagine any other reason that Seanachaí dec…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:48PMMonday, October 22, 2012
A DEATH OF FRESH AIR During the height of WWII in Germany, a recently orphaned adolescent girl named Liesel is taken in by a poor couple in The Book Thief, now receiving a world premiere pro…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:33PMSunday, October 21, 2012
THE DANGERS OF TECHNOLOGY – ON STAGE AND OFF Playwright Jennifer Haley is definitely onto something in her play Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, now receiving its Chicago premiere at S…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:16AMWednesday, October 17, 2012
AFTERGLOW It’s with good reason that Chad Beckim’s After has been extended at Profiles Theatre. Yes, Beckim’s script undoubtedly tries to cover too much territory as he tells the tale …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:42PMFriday, October 12, 2012
YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO MEET THESE FEET I was led to believe, based on having seen both the original Broadway version of 42nd Street and the humongous Broadway revival, that the slight jukebo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:09PMThursday, October 11, 2012
THE LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL Those who were lucky enough to witness the Joffrey Ballet’s Spring Desire program this year were treated to what may well have been the greatest dance program i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:28PMWednesday, October 10, 2012
A STORY TO TELL Writer/Actress Dael Orlandersmith has many stories to tell in her one-person show at the Goodman, but they all encompass the same theme: abuse. Specifically, involving boys a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:28PMPIECES OF FATE There is quite a bit of buzz surrounding Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s One Thousand Pieces, which will commence the company’s 35th season. Inspired by Chagall’s mas…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:35AMTuesday, October 9, 2012
ONE TIME ONLY FOR ONE NAME ONLY WAS ONE TOO MANY TIMES Yes, America’s got talent. And the performers on stage at Black Ensemble Theater’s beautiful new digs are packed to the gills with …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:11PMSaturday, October 6, 2012
NOISE IS OFF It is 1944 in a field near a watering hole in Kent, England. A strapping, fine-looking, and masculine young man purveys the view and strips off his shirt. Another young man ente…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:43PMFriday, October 5, 2012
GARY GRIFFIN CREATES A TRIUMPHANT MASTERPIECE AT CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE Rare is the theatrical experience that is so haunting and so achingly beautiful that your soul actually feels caressed an…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:02AMFriday, September 28, 2012
TRAGEDY FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY If you have ever wanted to introduce teenagers to Hamlet, the production directed by Leisl Tommy at California Shakespeare is the one to take them to. Staged on …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:14PMWednesday, September 26, 2012
THE PUZZLE BOX OF THE SOUL Critics should avoid discussing plot in their reviews, but playwright Sharr White has unintentionally placed a challenge before me: because the play is a labyrinth…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:54PMBYRNE THIS Grammy®, Oscar® and Golden Globe winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree David Byrne along with St. Vincent make their Segerstrom Center debuts in An Evening with David By…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:03AMSunday, September 23, 2012
WILL THE REAL AMERICANS PLEASE STAND UP? I was on a road trip in 2007 seeking to explore the plethora of National Parks that we, the American people, own. While heading through Des Moines, I…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:18PMFriday, September 21, 2012
MORE POLEMIC BARK THAN EMOTIONAL BITE IN THIS NORMAL HEART Some eyes will be misty, some guts will be wrenched, and some souls will be startled after attending Larry Kramer’s seminal play …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:55PMSunday, August 26, 2012
A LITTLE BLUE More than a few friends recently mentioned that there are many “great” things on the boob tube. Since I don’t watch TV, it came as a surprise because I assumed it was mos…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMSaturday, August 18, 2012
WHAT WILL YOU SEE IN RED? John Logan’s 2010 Tony-winning Red is a work of art, and the Mark Taper Forum is presenting the 2009 Donmar Warehouse Production, starring the illustrious Alfred …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AMMonday, August 13, 2012
MIND YOUR MANOR Site-specific theater productions—that is, theatre which is performed in unconventional spaces compatible to the script—remain mystifyingly uncommon. For example, why do …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:09AMSaturday, August 4, 2012
O.C. STORY First, scroll down to the bottom of this review; there you will find the information you need to buy your tickets to Oanh Nguyen’s magnificently re-interpreted production of Wes…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:39PMWednesday, August 1, 2012
BEST BE ON YOUR AVANT-GARDE Understanding the origins of REDCAT, the downtown center for innovative visual, performing, and media arts, will assist the uninitiated in preparation for the ava…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:04PM 
