1,308 stories by "Charles McNulty"
A transformation happens to the students of Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys whenever they open their mouths to sing. As soon as these feisty adolescents give themselves over to the Negr…
Comedy isn't the genre that springs to mind when one thinks of school shootings. But that is the unusual " and not insensitive route " Victor Kaufold, a fledgling 19-year-old playwright, too…
Jordan Harrison explores the fraught subject of memory from a variety of fascinating angles in 'Marjorie Prime' at the Mark Taper Forum. Ultimately, it's more intriguing than dramatically sa…
The one thing you can count on with Gob Squad, the always-surprising European performance collective now at REDCAT, is that the audience won't be excluded from the multimedia act.
One day a comprehensive literary biography of Tennessee Williams will be written that won't resemble a psychiatric case study. Until then let's savor John Lahr's "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pil…
Don't look now, but a positive trend seems to be developing: A bumper crop of talented American playwrights more interested in artistic expression than commercial validation is being recogni…
The fall season always brings the hope that something new will astonish us. I'm betting that a few old works might fit the bill.
Extravaganza isn't the word that first springs to mind when thinking of Shakespeare, but in the newfangled version of "The Tempest" at South Coast Repertory the goal is clearly to dazzle.
Tarell Alvin McCraney, one of the brightest American playwrights to come along in some time, showed up for our interview at the Geffen Playhouse with the buttoned-up demeanor of someone abou…
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
In my recent critic's notebook on the Shakespeare in the Park production of "King Lear" with John Lithgow, I listed the illustrious actors I've seen take on this fearsome role in the last 10…
Now that baby boomers are reaching their seniority, it's no surprise that there has been a rush on "King Lear." Graying actors of a certain magnitude want their crack at the greatest role le…
Cate Blanchett is spectacular in Sydney Theatre Company's patchy production of Jean Genet's 'The Maids' in New York. Isabelle Huppert is also fierce, but seemingly at odds with the rest of t…
The tourist shops dotting the streets of downtown Ashland may leave the impression that this picturesque town was designed by Martha Stewart in a chichi Western mood, but a weekend spent her…
The kitsch factor was high, but "Hair" proved to be a congenial choice for the Hollywood Bowl, where this counterculture classic from the late 1960s breezed in for three performances this pa…
When last seen in Robert Schenkkan's "All the Way," Lyndon B. Johnson was being serenaded with "Happy Days Are Here Again." After brokering the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with a…
Critics often grouse about James Lapine's script. Some find Stephen Sondheim's music too muted. But a beautifully balanced production in Oregon shows how strongly connected the two parts are…
At last, a Broadway show that doesn't feel the need to conk its audience over the head with hollow flash and empty dazzle. "Once," the Tony-winning musical based on John Carney's 2006 indie …
After the lights are dimmed on Broadway in honor of Elaine Stritch, who died Thursday at 89, I'm not sure that they'll ever burn quite as fiercely again.
Plays, regardless of when they were written, take place in the eternal present. Updating a classic " for example, resetting Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in late-1920s Los Angeles, as Sha…
Some actors are too good for stardom.
David Suchet, best known for his television portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, plays another canny scrutinizer of nefarious human behavior in Roger Crane's "The Last Confession,"…
David Suchet, best known for his television portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, plays another canny scrutinizer of nefarious human behavior in Roger Crane's "The Last Confession,"…
"A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder," the musical with no marquee names or obvious marketing hook, won big at the Tony Awards on Sunday night, proving that a droll Edwardian tale of homici…
"A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder," the musical with no marquee names or obvious marketing hook, won big at the Tony Awards on Sunday night, proving that a droll Edwardian tale of homici…
