A STORY OF IMPORTANCE Unlike manipulative Broadway machines such as Priscilla and Kinky Boots, which shove issues down our throats, the societal consequences for a homosexual in A Man of…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:14PMLOOKING FOR PROOF Proofreading: It may be a lost art. As an editor, I have become accustomed to scanning copy everywhere for mistakes, either in grammar or with facts. But lately, the effect…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:26AMWORD FOR WORD’S PERSONAL VICTORY LAP MAY BE THE BEST DEEP KISS YOU’VE EVER HAD San Francisco’s Word for Word has been transforming classic and contemporary fiction into amazing…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:31PMTHE GLOBE MAKES IT LOOK LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon’s second Broadway hit after Come Blow Your Horn, played a staggering 1,530 performances in its initial run,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:20AMSHE’S BA-A-A-ACK For those who think the sun won’t come up until 2020, here comes another Annie, that 1977 optimistic spitfire of a musical — based on the Harold Gray comic st…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:32PMITCHING TO BE SWITCHING ROLES Burt Grinstead and Anna Stromberg’s take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde switches between comedic farce and serious …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:11PMPUMP GETS YOU PUMPED This invigorating, modest little 1980 musical was nominated for both a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Musical in 1982. It may seem commonplace now thanks to John Doy…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:16PMWE NEVER STOP CRYING IT OUT The term “cry it out” refers to the practice of letting babies bawl until their fit subsides without parents coddling and mollifying them; assumedly t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:16PMFRIED, STEWED OR BROILED, THIS FISH WILL NEVER TASTE GOOD So here’s what baffles me: A show which is middling at best is suddenly showing up at regional, community and high school thea…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:11PMDANCE DELIRIUM As jukebox musicals go, the rags-to-riches bio On Your Feet! definitely earns its exclamation point. No question, the upbeat tunes, with their irresistible Cuban-fusion str…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:30PMTHE MONTALBÁN MIXES MOVIES, MINGLING AND MERRY MASTICATING Always fun, outdoor cinema hits the summer ether like the smell of fresh cut grass and smoked meat (or is that fresh cut meat and …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:01PMBETTER THAN FAIR As musical revivals went from a few nostalgic productions in the 1970s to the ubiquity of resurrections we see today — both from the Golden Age (Porter, Rodgers and Ha…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:24AMSWEETER THE SECOND TIME AROUND It’s like kicking a puppy dog to dislike Charity Hope Valentine. Charity is the heroine of the 1966 musical Sweet Charity — a strange amalgam of high h…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:42PMALL TOO HUMAN Stephen Karam’s remarkable Tony-winning play The Humans — which is winding up its national tour at the Ahmanson with members of the Broadway production — begi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:35PMDON’T LET THIS PARADE PASS YOU BY With no intentions of reviewing, I attended 3-D Theatricals’ astounding rendition of Parade, bookwriter Alfred Uhry and composer/lyricist Jason…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:40PMONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH Eugene O’Neill twice turned his troubled youth into all-absorbing drama. His family first appeared as a happy tangle of eccentric loved ones in Ah, Wilderness!, a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:17PMON CONFORMING AND CHRIST Ah, what better fodder for drama is there than the dysfunctional American family? You know the ingredients: accusations hurled back and forth by the walking wounded;…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:06PMBREAKING DOWN FENCES An American requiem, an oratorio, and a choral masterpiece elegantly and movingly performed, Considering Matthew Shepard, which closes tonight at the Ford Amphitheatre, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:06PMFLY TO THIS NEST Boy oh boy, if you like immersive theater, than check yourself into the madhouse over in Burbank. When the rebellious, charismatic and playful Randle McMurphy gets reassigne…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:54PMSORRY TO BURST YOUR BABBLE In this unfortunate world premiere, the winsome cast begins with angry pessimistic post-millennial Benji (Will Choi), an Asian-American comic book artist whose bos…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:39PMPIRATES STEALS YOUR HEART Music Theater Works just unleashed 140 minutes of undiluted ecstasy and hilarious nonsense, and the lucky location is Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium in…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:06PMLULA’S BACK IN TOWN The Ford Theatres presents Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) on Friday, June 8 at 8:30pm, as part of its IGNITE @ the FORD! series. For this joyous evening of da…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:33PMCOME TO THIS CABARET Aside from the fact that it will sell out quickly, there are a number of reasons to rush out and get tickets for Celebration Theatre’s revival of Cabaret. First o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:36AMWHILE HARDLY REVELATIONAL, A REVVED-UP REVIVAL BECOMES RELATABLE It’s a miracle. After seeing the original 2005 musical adaption, it seemed that nothing could fix this show. But then�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:31PMCELEBRATING BROADWAY ROYALTY When I tell you that the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the revue covering Harold Prince’s oeuvre mostly works, it’s an enormous compliment. For…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:12PMNO SHY VIOLET Based on The Ugliest Pilgrim, a short story by Doris Betts, Violet — with book and lyrics by Brian Crawley and music by Jeanine Tesori — takes place in 1964 and fol…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:40PMFILLING THE VOID IN L.A. THEATER Neither my friend nor I were looking forward to this play — I mean, good grief, when I heard that it was about a couple of “fools” going on…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:02PMBLENDING BANANAS AND BORSCHT Mark Harelik’s 1985 play The Immigrant is based on the story of his grandparents, Haskell and Leah Gorehlik, immigrants from Russia who settled in the tiny cen…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:52PMSPLITSVILLE Five years after its world premiere, L.A. is just now getting Amy Herzog’s disturbing domestic thriller. Both praised and not, the controversy with this one-act has been m…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:25PMAN UPDATED BABY IS STILL CAPTIVATING THEATER For all its melodrama, Jane Anderson’s The Baby Dance has always been one of my favorite plays since I first saw it at Pasadena Playhouse in 19…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:01PMA HONEYMOON IN GLENDALE More fun than walking away a few bucks ahead from a black jack table, this pell-mell, silly-sweet, old-fashioned musical comedy (ya know, gangsters, lovers, Elvis imp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:50PM