1,324 stories by "Charles McNulty"
Now 80, Dame Edna's alter ego Barry Humphries has decided to bring her theatrical globe-trotting to an end with 'Dame Edna's Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour,' which began two years ago i…
The delightful British theater troupe Kneehigh keeps finding ways of demonstrating that whimsicality on stage is perfectly compatible with emotional grace.
Dame Edna, the imperious suburban Melbourne, Australia, hausfrau with the purple wig and lacerating tongue, has never seen any connection between winning friends and influencing people.
There's no shortage of acting in the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie." Accents are adorned like fake noses, illnesses resemble those found in 19th century…
Theater critic Charles McNulty sits down with Barry Humphries, now launching the American leg of Dame Edna's farewell tour
Barry Humphries sat at a table overlooking the pool of his Beverly Hills hotel and blew his nose. He had just arrived from his home in London and was suffering with a common cold " something…
Now that screen technology has overrun our lives, it makes sense that the Wooster Group would take a break from its multimedia revels and turn to the austere Shakers for inspiration.
"Silent Witnesses," a modest and compassionate solo work written and performed by Stephanie Satie at the Odyssey Theatre, is based on interviews and conversations with child survivors of the…
In his most recent book, "The Meaning of Human Existence," Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson challenges the humanities to stop being in effect so darn man-crazy.
The year isn't exactly ending on a high note. Rage over racial injustice, shocking reports of U.S. torture and the promise of even more governmental gridlock in 2015.
Here is Charles McNulty's look at the best of 2014 in theater in Southern California and beyond.
When Angela Lansbury takes the stage as Madame Arcati, the lovably outlandish medium in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," a supernatural charge is instantly detectable. This five-time Tony winn…
The words "political drama" may evoke finger-pointing lectures to some, but the subtlest works of dramatic literature have a political dimension, and the most enduring political dramas have …
Still wondering what to get your theater-obsessed nearest and dearest? Theater critic Charles McNulty shares his gift ideas for those with the right kind of histrionic nature.
A conversation with Dame Angela on her legendary career and return to the stage with "Blithe Spirit"
As gracious and unpretentious as her Brentwood home, Angela Lansbury radiated hospitality as she ushered me into her living room, where her honorary Oscar sits as casually as a figurine plac…
This OSF production may not have the star power of the film coming out at Christmas, but it has the buoyancy & complexity of feeling that turned "Into the Woods" into a modern classic.
The actors mingle with one another and audience members before the show as if what lies ahead is not an official performance but just another rehearsal. The casually dressed musicians take t…
Rebecca Gilman, the talented author of such plays as "Spinning Into Butter," "Boy Gets Girl" and "The Glory of Living," is known for confronting social problems head-on. Racism and white hyp…
There are no household servants in Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw," which is appropriately set in a psychiatric clinic. The title, once popular for blue movies, is a British phrase referri…
The setting for Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance" is "the living room of a large and well-appointed suburban home," and scenic designer Santo Loquasto has conjured the scene so sumptuously…
Whenever Mike Nichols worked in the theater, it was inevitably an event, the focal point of the season " the show you simply had to get tickets to or be left in the conversational cold.
When the newly reworked version of Bill Russell and Henry Krieger's "Side Show" opened at the La Jolla Playhouse last year, the production didn't fix all the musical's flaws, but it did reve…
NEW YORK -- Broadway bid farewell to one of its favorites on Monday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in a tribute titled "Everybody, Rise! A Celebration of Elaine Stritch."
NEW YORK " If Hugh Jackman decided to headline a musical tribute to the Yellow Pages, Broadway theatergoers would line up around Times Square. But the Tony-winning song-and-dance man/"X-Men"…
