1,308 stories by "Charles McNulty"
Octavio Solis' new play might get you thinking about a lot of 20th century writers, but the nightmarish 'Se Llama Cristina' — at Theatre @ Boston Court — can't speak for itself.I…
The skilled Shakespeare interpreter and film star Christopher Plummer roams a lifetime devoted to books in the elegant one-man stage show 'A Word or Two.'If you've ever said to yourself afte…
Critic's Notebook: For plays with a refreshing otherworldliness, there's nothing quite like the recent L.A. productions of 'The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart' and 'Penny Plain.'Playwrigh…
In 'I'll Go On,' Barry McGovern performs well chosen excerpts from three Samuel Beckett novels. He is a superb interpreter, but these morsels leave the listener wanting to taste more.Irish a…
Zoe Kazan's play, starring Aya Cash and Michael Weston at South Coast Repertory, wrestles honestly with the fiction of happy endings, but the dramatic stakes are small. "Trudy and Max in Lov…
Annette Bening performs Ruth Draper monologues, Ayad Akhtar premieres his next play and Taraji P. Henson stars in 'Above the Fold'The Times asked its reporters and critics to highlight figur…
Notes on the Year: The performance year was a marriage of well-played canonical classics and intriguing work by provocative playwrights, even if from afar.Much that was old was new again in …
In the Southland and elsewhere, these onstage performances stood out.In this time when news is disseminated ever more quickly, we asked our critics to list the best of culture in 2013 in twe…
Critic's Notebook: Missing in a panel hosted by the Pasadena Playhouse is how to broaden the theater world's artistic diversity.In 21st century America, there is one subject even more diffic…
Critic's Notebook: 'Twelfth Night' and 'Richard III' with English actor Mark Rylance at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre face off against 'Macbeth' with Ethan Hawke at Lincoln Center.NEW YORK &md…
Brian Dennehy's performance at the Mark Taper Forum is forceful and heartfelt, but the Sebastian Barry play that nods to Irish history lacks momentum. Whatever form Irish novelist and playwr…
Handcrafted magic in the cheeky prequel to Peter Pan employs simplicity and audience imagination to cast its spell.These days it seems as though every time I turn around there's another inst…
LOS ANGELES — Ever since Stephen Sondheim reached the four-score mark three years ago, the spotlight has shifted from his work to the legend himself. There have been birthday galas, mu…
Despite a cumbersome setup, the romantic comedy 'Parfumerie' playing in fancy Beverly Hills digs makes a festive holiday treat for adults.Scrooge still holds a monopoly on holiday theater, b…
One-woman show 'I'll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers' turns out to be just the right fit for the Divine Miss M.NEW YORK — Tea time at Sardi's, and in rushed Bette Midler too busy…
Playwright Young Jean Lee shares the bleak facts of life in her delightful hipster cabaret.Death and denial were made for each other, but for those facing tragedy, the raw truth can be a ton…
The musical 'Side Show' flopped on Broadway in 1997 but won an enduring audience. Bill Condon enters the scene to relaunch the musical. Not all problems are solved, but there's power aplenty…
Anne Barton, one of the 20th century’s foremost Shakespeare scholars, died Monday in Cambridge, England. She was 80 years old. The announcement was made by Cambridge University, wh…
The blunt '12 Angry Men' at Pasadena Playhouse confronts racial relations by remaking Reginald Rose's jury into six black and six white men.Direct from the age of black-and-white television,…
Critic's Notebook: The hot-ticket Broadway revival of 'The Glass Menagerie,' Tennessee Williams' breakthrough play, underscores the poetry-tinged beauty of his writing. More productions like…
The Latino Theater Company drama at the Los Angeles Theater Center is tantalizing but feels like a work in progress.Marcus Gardley taps into some fascinating, and for many little known, hist…
'The Black Suits,' a new musical co-created by Joe Iconis, offers a no-stakes, Partridge Family/After School Special sort of tale about a fledgling band. Still, Iconis is a talent in the mak…
Set in one room, the South Coast Rep production goes further than many works in presenting meaningful character interaction.Amy Herzog's "4000 Miles" is a small drama that's confined to one …
Audra McDonald, in an L.A. Opera-presented concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, digs deep into musical theater songs old and new, combining purity of emotion with purity of sound.Audra …
Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall wrangle for the emotional upper hand in Harold Pinter's 'Betrayal,' directed by Mike Nichols. The guys get the focus; Weisz's character is odd man o…
