1,324 stories by "Charles McNulty"
"Hamilton" is coming to the Hollywood Pantages Every Hollywood mover-and-shaker ought to see it.
A tremor of excitement ran through the Los Angeles theater scene on Tuesday with the announcement that "Hamilton," Broadway's biggest phenomenon since "Rent," will play the Hollywood Pantage…
A flop with a glittering score. That was the consensus verdict after Leonard Bernstein's "Candide," a musical adapted from Voltaire's slim, satiric 1759 novel, closed on Broadway shortly aft…
There's nothing quite as gratifying as spending 90 minutes in the company of a gifted storyteller. James Lecesne holds his audience rapt at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, where his solo show "The…
They weren't household names, and only one of their faces might be widely recognizable, but the deaths in rapid succession of Myra Carter, Brian Bedford and Alan Rickman represent an incalcu…
When literary classics are adapted for the stage with kid gloves, Masterpiece Tedium is usually the result. The reason is fairly straightforward. Art that makes a lasting impression must pos…
Sandra Tsing Loh's midlife crisis may turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to her career. Adultery, divorce and menopause have given this multidisciplinary humorist a banquet…
Highlights of ten years of theater reviewing
Sometimes the word "unforgettable" can be taken literally. I can still feel that electric charge when I first encountered Rajiv Joseph's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" in 2009. The world …
Still haven't checked off those on your gift list who are of a more melodramatic or histrionic temperament? Never fear. There is a cornucopia of holiday goodies waiting for the thespians and…
Idina Menzel is such a beloved Broadway talent that it only makes sense that a show built around her would give us two Menzels for the price of one. "If/Then," the 2014 Broadway musical now …
Here, in alphabetical order, are my 2015 theater highlights. "Amélie," Berkeley Repertory Theatre: An enchanting act of theatrical translation that brought the French film to the stage in a…
"Identity politics" has an old-fashioned ring, the banner of the academic culture wars of the 1990s, but the conflicts over race, religion, sexuality, gender, nationality and, let us not for…
What a difference a director makes. Having seen the original Broadway staging of "The Color Purple" in New York and then the touring production at the Ahmanson Theatre, I was in no rush to r…
The crowds in the theater district here have been as large and unwieldy as they typically are this time of year. Walk along Broadway or 8th Avenue between 42nd and 50th streets around 7:30 i…
NEW YORK " The youngsters from the new musical "School of Rock" are on a rescue mission. Not only are they trying to salvage their wacko teacher's dream of transforming their nerdy selves in…
With his gray mane and gravelly roar, Al Pacino skulks around the stage like an old lion in "China Doll," David Mamet's yakking character study of an aging oligarch still trying to intimidat…
Thespians, a superstitious lot, insist that "Macbeth" should never be directly referred to inside a theater. If an actor accidentally forgets to call Shakespeare's malevolent masterpiece "th…
This fall season has provided Los Angeles theatergoers the opportunity to become better acquainted with the most exciting generation of playwrights to have burst onto the scene since I becam…
When the drizzle outside is as continuous as the chatter inside, you can be sure the play you're watching is set in Ireland. Such is the case in John Patrick Shanley's gentle dramatic comedy…
Knowledge has been a central subject of Western drama since Oedipus went on a manhunt and discovered that he himself was the culprit. Who are we? What are we doing here? And how shall we car…
An appealing cast and some gorgeous singing enliven "Breaking Through," a new musical about an old subject " the music industry's uncanny knack for destroying the talent it packages for flee…
"Hamilton," which began off-Broadway at the Public Theater and is now happily ensconced at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre, where tickets are fetching a Russian oligarch's ransom, is the …
Courtney Love wears her ghostliness with a rock star's swagger. When she enters the playing area that has been set up at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, where "Kansas City Choir Boy" opened Sunday…
Rajiv Joseph, the boldly adventurous author of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," begins "Guards at the Taj" on a Beckettian note. The play, which opened Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse's …
