Three years ago, theater artist Aaron Posner had a postmodern field day updating Chekhov in his frisky comedy with the unprintable title that we've taken to politely calling "Stupid … Bird…
Monologist Mike Daisey has made his name channeling outrage on a range of contemporary issues while seated calmly behind a desk before an audience. His manner may be that of a homeroom teach…
David Mamet once described two of New York's leading drama critics as the syphilis and gonorrhea of the American theater. Edward Albee, whose death at age 88 on Friday marked the end of his …
When playwright Robert O'Hara writes comedy, outrageousness is a given. His play "Bootycandy," a series of connected skits about growing up black and gay that was produced last year by Celeb…
From London to NY and now in LA this Ivo Von Hove-drected Olivier/TONY-Winner arrives starring a dazzling cast lead by FREDERICK WELLER, CATHERINE COMBS and ANDRUS NICHOLS running through Oc…
In Ivo van Hove's celebrated production of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge," the direction is the star. The Belgian auteur, who leads Holland's preeminent theater company, Toneelgroe…
Calls for a national conversation on race are routinely made in the wake of crises, but a better idea would be a requirement for all citizens to familiarize themselves with the work of playw…
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 BC) has been described by classicist and novelist Erich Segal as "the least admired and most imitated" of the ancient Greek and Roman dramatists. His plays,…
The new theater season is a loaded lineup, with offerings from Deaf West, Ivo van Hove and Anna Deavere Smith. Here are 13 picks: Sept. 10-May 21 A Noise Within's 25th anniversary A quart…
The theater world lost two giants this summer, Zelda Fichandler, co-founder of Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage and a heroic pioneer of the regional theater movement, and James Houghton, found…
SAN DIEGO " The Old Globe's staging of "Love's Labor's Lost" proves that it is possible to fall in love with a production at first sight. John Lee Beatty's scenic design transforms the outdo…
Summer Shakespeare. These words can strike fear in the heart of a reluctant theatergoer. Yes, the plays are supposed to be good for you. But semiprofessional productions in which the artisti…
SAN DIEGO " Steve Martin, the beloved comic whose career has branched out in unforeseen directions (bluegrass composer, art collector and curator, playwright) is often described as a modern …
LA JOLLA " Forget about all the TV pundits and op-ed columnists droning on about America's problems. Playwright Ayad Akhtar is the diagnostician the nation needs to interpret its faltering h…
No point in mincing words: Tennessee Williams is the greatest playwright America has ever produced. Yet more and more his reputation seems preserved in amber rather than renewed through reve…
Barbra Streisand didn't give us a foretaste of her Rose in "Gypsy," the classic musical about a formidable stage mother and her showbiz-bound daughters that she has been trying like Sisyphus…
"A Chorus Line" is an ideal musical for the Hollywood Bowl, and this weekend's presentation faithfully staged by Baayork Lee didn't disappoint. The show's presentational style works well …
SAN DIEGO " Feeling overwhelmed by this summer of tumult, when the news seems to go only from bad to worse? I have just the remedy:Â an English novelist who wrote delectable comedies of ma…
"The Last Tiger in Haiti," a new play by Jeff Augustin that's receiving its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse, begins in a tent shack in Port-au-Prince that is the home for a group of…
"Beautiful " The Carole King Musical" is that rare Broadway offering " a jukebox musical with a soul. The touring production, which opened Friday at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, reveals t…
Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2013, but for anyone encountering the work for the first time at the Mark Taper Forum, where the play opened Sunday in a sensati…
The setting for "Big Sky," a new comedy by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros that opened Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse, is a Ritz-Carlton condo in a deluxe vacation community in Aspen, Colo.,…
"Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda's landmark musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, had its coronation Sunday at the 70th Tony Awards. As expected, the show won for best musical, cap…
The suspense over the Tony Awards is usually about which show will win for best musical, the prize with the most lucrative consequences. But this year we all know that "Hamilton," nominated …
The most memorable acting of the year was a group affair.