Thursday, July 16, 2015
SALUTING SONDHEIM IN SOLANA BEACH Stephen Sondheim is so beyond merely good and light years away from conventional that some may view his musicals as pure art and overlook the slathers of so…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:50AMThursday, July 9, 2015
YOUR PURSUIT IS OVER In writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson borrowed a phrase from 17th century English philosopher John Locke, who spoke of “life, liberty and proper…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:49PMWednesday, July 8, 2015
THE DROUGHT ENDS THIS WEEKEND You may know the term “Jukebox Musical” from the ridiculous amount of new Broadway musicals which take previously published songs—most often popular hits …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:31PMFriday, July 3, 2015
THE WORST OF THE BEST Let me say that I have no idea what I just saw. Clearly, some very clever folk have come up with the very clever idea to spoof a Fringe Festival, which Fringe Festivals…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:51PMThursday, June 25, 2015
TWELFTH NIGHT LANDS AT THE OLD GLOBE A comedy’s brewing up in the rehearsal rooms of The Old Globe. Soon, winds will whip, distressed voices will call out and a ship’s timbers wi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:53AMWednesday, June 24, 2015
THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MAX AND ELSA Greetings my lovelies! Garrulous Greta here with some glorious news. You may remember not long ago I received a letter from a fan…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:15PMMonday, June 22, 2015
MASTERFRINGE THEATRE When Barnaby Hughes reviewed a previous Magnum Opus production of Surf Dogs Unite for Stage and Cinema, he wrote that the show “will leave you doubled over with l…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:01PMSaturday, June 20, 2015
THE PHANTOM MENACE Last night’s opening of The Phantom of the Opera, a refurbished revival of previous national tours, proves one thing: Since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s baby was born almost …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25PMThursday, June 18, 2015
MARRIED TO SONDHEIM When I first saw Marry Me A Little in the mid-1980s, it was a revelation. But not because of the story. This revue uses trunk songs of Stephen Sondheim, songs which–…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:23PMSaturday, June 13, 2015
WHAT A DOG The term “Dog Days” refers to the hottest period of the year, the sultry part of summer when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises in unison with the sun. It’s a time marked by sluggi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:17AMSaturday, June 6, 2015
SCULPTED TO PERFECTION Boris Eifman’s kinetic Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg is quickly becoming known for full-length ballets, quite often with a plot and literary source. What you will …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:28PMFriday, May 15, 2015
PREGNANT PAUSE A loving, liberal, and somewhat quirky childless couple, Craig and Katie, discovers that the only option to have their own baby is to implant her egg and his sperm in another …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:19PMThursday, May 14, 2015
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT It was one of those magical evenings in the theater that shall live with me forever. When Kulunka Teatro’s André & Dorine appeared at the Los Angeles Theatre Center…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:48PMMonday, May 11, 2015
IN HARLEM’S WAY We never meet the titular Our Lady of 121st Street, a no-nonsense New York nun who had a profound effect on the characters in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 2003 play. Nor do we …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:48PMMonday, May 4, 2015
COMMERCIAL WITHOUT COMMERCIALS Imagine if the ‘70s sitcom Good Times did not hit TV until 2007. Now imagine a 3-episode arc about the coming out of a black man who brings his white boyfrie…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:44PMMonday, April 20, 2015
GO FACE THE MUSIC+DANCE Assuredly, Artistic Director Lincoln Jones’ American Contemporary Ballet (ACB) has become the go-to organization for thrilling dance in Los Angeles. Along with his …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:16PMSaturday, April 11, 2015
CAROUSEL COMES TO LYRIC OPERA Lyric Opera of Chicago’s stunning new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel opens tonight and runs through May 3, 2015 at the Civic Opera House i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:28PMThursday, April 9, 2015
A GOOD BÊTE Even though it’s written in mostly rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter, David Hirson’s 1991 play, La Bête, is by far the least avant-garde presentation at Trap Door I hav…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:39PMThursday, March 26, 2015
UNLEASHING THE BEAST River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) is blasting into The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University as part of the “Made in Chicago” Series on Saturday, March 28, 2015 …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:37PMWednesday, March 25, 2015
“FEELIN’ GOOD SWEET,” INDEED! Giordano Dance Chicago (GDC), America’s original jazz dance company, returns to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance for its spring engagement, March …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:54PMSaturday, March 7, 2015
LAST CHANCE TO GET THIS WORK Get ready for this 1920s-era feel-good musical, complete with extravagant dance numbers, glittering costumes and an unlikely love story between a wealthy playbo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:47AMMonday, March 2, 2015
MUSICAL THEATRE WEST KNOWS HOW TO SUCCEED Reams can and have been written about the glories of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and b…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:52PMMonday, February 16, 2015
REAWAKENING A TIMELESS BEAUTY Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts once again proves itself as one of the country’s most exciting dance centers by presenting Alexei Ratmansky’s …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:07PMThursday, February 12, 2015
LOVE THAT GOES BUMP IN THE NIGHT Conor McPherson’s plays are so rooted in the characters that plot is really revelation. With unforced warmth, he captures loneliness in the act of self-eff…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:09PMWednesday, February 4, 2015
A FAMOUS LITERARY FEUD MAKES GREAT DRAMA In a 1980 television interview with Dick Cavett, novelist and literary critic Mary McCarthy made an especially biting comment about her longtime adve…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:51PMMonday, February 2, 2015
THEATRICAL TRICKERY TRUMPS A TRAGIC TALE Cheeky, goofy and sassy, Tristan & Yseult at South Coast Rep affectionately mocks and contemporizes a classic love tragedy and literary legend wh…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:24PMTuesday, January 27, 2015
EXCITING QUARTET COMES TO SEGERSTROM I’ve been on a chamber music kick for about four years now. From intimate salons in living rooms to concert halls, I’m discovering composers I’ve n…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54AMSunday, January 25, 2015
EAGERLY I WISHED THE MARROW For all its surface eccentricity, Nevermore, The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, written, composed, and directed by Jonathan Christenson, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:00PMTuesday, January 20, 2015
IN GOOD COMPANY “It’s a revue, but not a revue,” Stephen Sondheim said about Company when he was interviewed at Segerstrom in 2013. This surprised me because the groundbreaking 1970 mu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:26PMSunday, January 11, 2015
¡FIGARO! ¡FIGARO! ¡FIGARO! An updating of The Marriage of Figaro took New York by storm in 2013. Taking the debate over immigration reform, a multi-cultural English/Spanglish adaptation b…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:19PMFriday, December 19, 2014
AN EXTRA CHANCE TO CHECK-IN With ticket sales hotter than the Great Chicago Fire, the even greater Robey Theatre Company has just announced an extension of their wildly popular, sold-out The…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:54PM 
