1,373 stories by "Chad Jones"
Am I the only one alarmed to learn that today (Nov. 30) is the birthday of both Mandy Patinkin (Tony Award-winning, over-emoting singer, TV star actor) and Clay Aiken (American Idol and reco…
Last week, in honor of Thanksgiving, the critics of ANG Newspapers gathered an assortment of the year's turkeys. Being one who prefers positive over the negative, I offer my turkeys and prom…
Don't you love it when a celebrated London/Broadway play gets filmed with the original director and original cast? OK, so that hardly ever happens, but it has happend with Alan Bennett's The…
As I understand it, my responsibility as a blogger is that elusive thing called BUZZ. That said, let me buzz a little about Dreamgirls, which I saw last week after spending much of the year …
OK, so my dreams of Amy Sedaris becoming a Broadway musical star in Legally Blonde have been dashed. But with the official announcement of the full cast, I can hardly be disappointed. In add…
Listening to some of this year's holiday CD offerings, I can heartily recommend two so far. "Cool Yule," Bette Midler (Columbia)Divinity and Christmas are, of course, related, so it's no won…
Read our music critic Jim Harrington's excellent review of the Streisand concert here. At first, Barbra Streisand was the kooky kid with the voice. Then she was an Academy Award winner and a…
While I'm at it, I thought I'd share with you this treat from the folks at YouTube.com and SimplyStreisand.com. It's a live recording session of La Streisand singing "Make Our Garden Grow" f…
On Monday (Nov. 13) I will be one of thousands making the trek to San Jose's HP Pavilion to see Barbra Streisand say farewell to live performance (again). I'm admitting it here, in public, a…
This weekend, the Castro Theatre in San Francisco opens a Tennessee Williams film festival sure to excite cats on hot tin roofs everywhere. The fest begins Sunday (Nov. 12) with Marlon Brand…
The great Cherry Jones is coming to the Bay Area at long last! The two-time Tony Award-winner makes her Bay Area performance debut at the Golden Gate Theatre when Best of Broadway hosts the …
At last we get a Dreamgirls preview with some meat on its bones. We get to hear Eddie Murphy sing, and, most important of all, we get a teaser of Jennifer Hudson's "And I Am Telling You."
I've been reading Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, her hilarious guide to home entertaining, and that started me thinking. I adore Amy Sedaris (and I hear her recent…
One of the most famous stage directions in theater history _ other than Shakespeare's "Exit, pursued by a bear" _ is from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. At the end of the absurdist come…
You know it's a new world of technology when they start doing plays in podcast form. Trevor Allen's Black Box Theatre Company is celebrating Halloween in a big way. On Monday night, which yo…
Usually, the sleepy little berg of Santa Rosa belongs to Charlie Brown, the melon-headed lad created by Santa Rosa's favorite son, Charles M. Schulz. Last Saturday night, Santa Rosa was inde…
Here's a sneak peek at my interview with Adam Pascal, who's performing Oct. 27 and 28 at the Post Street Theatre in San Francisco (more info below). Like any good blog item, there are bonus …
From the "now we've heard everything" file. Apparently there's a Gilligan's Island musical, and it's being done by the Actors Theatre Center in Santa Clara (through Nov. 4). The book is by s…
Halloween seems the appropriate time to talk about Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a dark, grisly 1979 musical about murder victims being …
There's always plenty of juicy theater to keep us occupied here in the Bay Area. But we can't help casting an eye toward Broadway. It's sort of like our favorite sports team is having an awa…
Things I'm excited about at the moment: " The new Chorus Line cast recording (stay tuned for more on that one), which came out last week. " Two off-Broadway musicals making their way to Broa…
Thanks to our correspondent Elizabeth for alerting us to the following kerfuffle. Ted Diadiun, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the theater critic from his paper, Tony…
The SHN/Best of Broadway folks threw a party at Ruby Skye nightclub the other night to entice group ticket buyers to show some love for Legally Blonde, which has its out-of-town tryouts in S…
As cute as Reese Witherspoon but with better pipes, Laura Bell Bundy is Broadway's new Elle Woods. Bundy, who originated the role of Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray, has also played Glinda in …
If you've been paying attention to Broadway, you know the current trend is to turn movies into musicals. At one end of the spectrum you have your hits like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beas…
