1,324 stories by "Charles McNulty"
It might be heresy for a theater critic to admit, but Hollywood has done a better job of skewering the theater than the theater has done skewering Hollywood. Give me "All About Eve" over "On…
An emphasis on storytelling rather than star performances or staging pyrotechnics drives a crisp production of the macabre musical "Sweeney Todd" at South Coast Repertory.
Director Stephen Daldry made his name with the National Theatre whodunit "An Inspector Calls." Now the London revival comes to Beverly Hills, seeping with commentary about class divisions.
Sometimes a production can wrest a seemingly outdated play from certain retirement. Director Stephen Daldry did just that when he was a young gun storming the London theater scene in the ear…
Time catches everyone by surprise. For Betty Buckley, the rude awakening happened when director Michael Wilson called to say he was planning a revival of the musical "Grey Gardens."
Time catches everyone by surprise. For Betty Buckley, the rude awakening happened when director Michael Wilson called to say he was planning a revival of the musical "Grey Gardens." She had …
The sensationally acted Steppenwolf Theatre production at the Mark Taper Forum delivers compelling characters and funny dialogue, but at times the pacing sluggishly shifts into cable TV terr…
The plays of Tracy Letts can be broadly divided into two types: Those with men behaving appallingly and those with women behaving abominably. In "August: Osage County," his Pulitzer Prize wi…
Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin: They all starred in "Hello, Dolly!" but no one had the same kind of giddy, goofy charm as the beloved Carol Channing.
The stage adaptation of the '70s film, directed with bold flourishes by European auteur Ivo van Hove at Broadway's Belasco Theatre and co-starring Tony Goldwyn and Tatiana Maslany, has somet…
Two thoughts occurred to me at the end of Ivo van Hove's stage production of "Network": Bryan Cranston is one of the most fearless actors working today, and Paddy Chayefsky attained a kind o…
The cabaret drag star who staged his 24-hour music and social history marathon earlier this year, returns with an L.A. holiday show that takes on this, the most materialistic time of the yea…
Imagine a Christmas tree ornament made by Picasso on an absinthe bender and you'll have some idea of Taylor Mac's initial costume for "Taylor Mac's Holiday Sauce," the festive fandango that …
How much Cher is too much Cher? I mean how much pasteurized celebrity information do you really, really want? A related question posed by the new Broadway musical "The Cher Show," now at the…
Does anyone really expect genuine drama from this kind of commercial jukebox musical? Get past the lackluster writing, and this production directed by Jason Moore and choreographed by Christ…
Aaron Sorkin's production of 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' which opened Thursday on Broadway, is a top-flight interpretation of the Harper Lee novel under the rustically elegant direction of Bart…
How much campiness can a theater audience take? This new musical tests the limits with its tale of Broadway actors who set out to champion an Indiana high school student banned from bringing…
During the deliriously zany setup for "The Prom," a new musical comedy now at the Longacre Theatre, I thought I might have died and gone to campy heaven. The feeling doesn't last, but the la…
The marquee at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre blasts in big block letters "Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird." But all it takes is some slingshot dialogue to reveal that the new blockbuster Bro…
All it takes is a few minutes of slingshot dialogue to reveal that this blockbuster Broadway adaptation belongs to Sorkin, who with director Bartlett Sher and star Jeff Daniels has created a…
The Times' theater critic names his top productions of 2018, including Jefferson Mays' take on "A Christmas Carol," a daring "Streetcar," Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' ingenious "Gloria" and the s…
The year started strong with two revivals that invited us to listen anew to modern classics we thought we knew inside out. Richard Nelson's production of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" at San…
The surprise Broadway hit about a tiny Canadian town's embrace of air passengers diverted on 9/11 arrives at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre a little less polished but ultimately still satisfying.
The surprise Broadway hit about a tiny Canadian town's embrace of air passengers diverted on 9/11 arrives at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre a little less polished but ultimately still satisfying.
When it comes to playwriting, Broadway has a supply problem. Although the new generation of American dramatists is blazingly talented, the great majority of these writers prefer the creative…
