NEW YORK " Only a fool would second-guess the transformative power of Audra McDonald, but when it was announced that this five-time Tony Award-winner was going to portray Billie Holiday in t…
Critic's Notebook: Plays based on history are big this year. England has adaptations of Hilary Mantel's Henry VIII novels; we have the LBJ play 'All the Way.' In them, we see parallels to th…
Critic's Notebook: Plays based on history are big this year. England has adaptations of Hilary Mantel's Henry VIII novels; we have the LBJ play 'All the Way.' In them, we see parallels to th…
A flashy adaptation of Woody Allen's 1994 film 'Bullets Over Broadway' illuminates the stage, yet the singing, acting and writing seem out of whack.NEW YORK — "Don't speak! Don't speak…
Theater Review: Dazzling production overwhelms Shakespeare's poetry even as extraordinary music vainly seeks to unify story and spectacle.LAS VEGAS — Telling friends that you're headin…
Excellent writing, fine acting and a touch of neurosis add sparkle to the stark facts of life in an Idaho retirement home.If the producers of the HBO series "Getting On" go to Costa Mesa to …
Despite some horseplay excess, Handspring Puppet Company works wonders in 'Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Broad Stage.While a Punch and Judy version of "The Taming of the Shrew" has possibi…
Old-fashioned grace and signature wit embellish a drama that grapples candidly with the costs of repression. Accustomed to living glamorously in the spotlight, Noël Coward conducted his p…
Critic's Notebook: Inflammatory nature of a statutory rape plot in 'Firemen' is fueled by a lack of moral outrage, yet an excellent cast provides insight and honesty."The aim of the poet is …
Caryl Churchill's bracing modern classic 'Top Girls' — which involves a fanciful meeting of strong women from throughout history — is given a spot-on production by the Antaeus Co…
Theater Review: Three high school buddies back together after 25 years hit all the genre buttons, but the cast sets the dramatic pulse.The cooler of beer in the bland, budget motel room sett…
Spring theater highlights include 'A Song at Twilight,' 'Rest' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'Shakespeare with puppets, a legendary director still breaking ground in his 80s, and a couple o…
An unwieldy mix of geopolitical suspense and domestic turmoil trips up Wendy Graf's 'Closely Related Keys,' having its world premiere at the Lounge Theatre.Julia, the protagonist of Wendy Gr…
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's 'Harmony,' about the Comedian Harmonists, returns retooled at the Ahmanson. The music is beautiful, but the rest is derivative and plays it too safe.A show …
At Walt Disney Concert Hall, the TchaikovskyFest received some starry theatrical enhancement Wednesday under the direction of actress Kate Burton.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar's latest drama ignites a clash of tradition and assimilation through superb acting but uneven structure.The conflict between tradition and assimilation has …
Kneehigh works its own stylized charm on 'Noël Coward's Brief Encounter' at the Wallis Annenberg Center.Some of you, upon hearing that "Brief Encounter" has been adapted to the stage, wil…
Director Barry Edelstein takes chances with a tricky Shakespeare text. The result — 'The Winter's Tale' at the Old Globe — is a happy ending all around.SAN DIEGO — The diff…
Backstage: Artistic director Barry Edelstein hopes to reshape the Old Globe's Summer Shakespeare Festival into a national center for the best in American Shakespeare. And he has the bona fid…
Theater Review: Chekhov's despair and dashed dreams have never been so hilarious as in Christopher Durang's giddy farce 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.'Rarely has middle-aged despair o…
Former newspaper reporter Bernard Weinraub's heavy-handed 'Above the Fold' lacks balance, an element crucial in both journalism and the dramatic arts."Above the Fold," the title of former Ne…
Adam Guettel's music is the essence of 'The Light in the Piazza.' Performed by just five musicians, the score doesn't have Broadway heft. But director Kent Nicholson focuses in on the drama …
Laura Marks' play, concerning squatters in a foreclosed house, features plot points that defy common sense, and the production compounds the problem — though the characterizations most…
As a theater actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman commanded a pile-driving force. He didn’t start softly and build. He came out of the blocks in a fury and steadily ratcheted up to an apoplec…
Sarah Ruhl's 'Passion Play' at the Odyssey Theatre is a bit unwieldy and long, but boldly imaginative and ambitious.Right at the start of Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play," now at the Odyssey Thea…