Add "Shout Sister Shout!" to the growing list of musicals that would make a more potent impression as a straightforward revue. The show, which is having its world premiere at Pasadena Playho…
Eugene O'Neil brought gravitas to the American theater. Tennessee Williams allowed it to lyrically sing. Arthur Miller raised its political temperature. And Edward Albee infused it with an a…
"Sweet are the uses of adversity," the exiled Duke Senior asserts from his campground in the Forest of Arden in "As You Like It." For a drama critic attending a lackluster production of Shak…
LONDON " For an American theatergoer in London this summer, there can be little doubt that the best new play of the year so far is Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" at the National Theatre.…
Since David Lean's 1945 film "Brief Encounter," no romantic has been able to look at a banal railway station as simply a commuter hub. Each connecting line poses new amorous possibilities; e…
Enter any theater and an usher will probably volunteer answers to the questions on everyone's mind: How many minutes is the show, and is there an intermission? Why the answers matter more th…
Dear Ted L. Nancy: Congratulations on the success of your series of "Letters From a Nut" books. I have to admit I never heard of them until I received an invitation to attend your show at th…
Shakespeare clearly lies outside the right-wing attack machine's area of expertise. While Breitbart News and friends were busy waging a full-scale war against the New York Public Theater's p…
'Escape to Margaritaville,' Jimmy Buffett, La Jolla Playhouse, Christopher Ashley
Hero Theatre organized a festival last year in celebration of Cuban American playwright MarÃa Irene Fornés, a key figure in the off-off-Broadway theater movement who has had an influence…
The opening scene of "Constellations," the play by British dramatist Nick Payne that had a Broadway production in 2015 with Ruth Wilson and Jake Gyllenhaal, offers variations of the meet-cut…
You know it's an interesting year for the Tony Awards when a critic is still arguing with himself in June over what should win best musical and best play. I'm divided between "Dear Evan Hans…
Inequality is a brute fact of American life and Broadway, increasingly divided between blockbuster hits and struggling also-rans, is hardly immune. But the Tony Awards tried to impose some j…
The secret to Tony Award nominee Laurie Metcalf's success? Brilliance and a whole lot of hard work
In turbulent times, history itself becomes a source of suspenseful drama, as anxious citizens look to the past to predict what fresh hell is in store for them. "Hold These Truths," a solo dr…
For many aspiring thespians, the dream is to become a working actor. For Laurie Metcalf, a three-time Emmy-winner for her role as hapless Jackie on the sitcom "Roseanne" and a strong contend…
Center Theatre Group's "50th Celebration," which gathered celebrities, devoted patrons, philanthropists and swells in their spiffiest attire for a Saturday night shindig at the Ahmanson, was…
"Jersey Boys," that perennial jukebox moneymaker, is back at the Ahmanson Theatre for reasons that are easily surmised. The coffers at Center Theatre Group are clearly crying out for repleni…
Peter Brook talks about his production of "Battlefield" and the process of stripping away to get to theater's essence.
A note in the press packet for the West Coast premiere of Guillermo Calderón's "Kiss" at the Odyssey Theatre requests that critics "not give away details of the plot" in their reviews. Th…
Comedy of the crowd-pleasing variety is making a comeback on our stages this season. The Geffen Playhouse notched a hit with Matthew Lopez's "The Legend of Georgia McBride," a giggly romp ab…
"Archduke," the title of Rajiv Joseph's new play, sounds like the answer to a high school social studies quiz on 20th century European history. As I hope all of you remember, the assassinati…
What a difference a year makes. When the 2016 Tony nominations were announced, the suspense was over how many "Hamilton" would get. The show was a lock in most of the major categories, shift…
Andy Karl, the star of the new Broadway musical "Groundhog Day," reported for duty on Monday night at the August Wilson Theatre for the production's official New York opening. It was uncerta…
A door dominates the backdrop of Lucas Hnath's "A Doll's House, Part 2," which picks up the story 15 years after Henrik Ibsen's landmark drama ends. This is the door that Nora slammed (famou…