Matthew Arkin makes the audience feel for the morbidly obese, grieving and suicidal Charlie in Samuel D. Hunter's funny, angry and moving play.The spectacle of Charlie digging into a family-…
The English actress visits L.A. in her Tony-nominated role in 'End of the Rainbow.' Playing the star is draining, but, the actress says, 'I've always had stamina.'For movie musical lovers in…
This faux-Edwardian musical has its charms, but its animating force is Jefferson Mays as a series of doomed, oblivious aristocrats.SAN DIEGO— All the buzz about "A Gentleman's Guide to…
Nina Raine's play, in a David Cromer-directed production at Mark Taper Forum, is noisy but has quiet emotion from Susan Pourfar and Russell Harvard.In the intellectually raucous British hous…
The former heavyweight champion proves to be a riveting stage presence with compelling stories to tell, some of which may be more true than others, however.If there was one ring in the world…
Gary Lennon's twisted comedy, produced by the Echo Theater Company at Stage 52, follows the turmoil of three brothers heading toward a sibling standoff in New York's Hell's Kitchen.So you th…
Critic's Notebook: Disturbing actions can awake an audience's empathy, but lines blur if events tip into a mere celebration of destruction.In one of the most infamous scenes in modern drama,…
The 'louder, larger, longer' edict of so many musicals is vividly at work in 'Jekyll & Hyde' at the Pantages, though Deborah Cox and Constantine Maroulis stand out.Hollywood Boulevard is hom…
In another of Tarell Alvin McCraney's 'Brother/Sister Plays,' a free-spirited young man is pulled between two very different paths.— "The Brothers Size," now at the Old Globe, is part …
Critic's Notebook: The Los Angeles stage legend is sharing his wisdom at USC. Not happy with the commercial aspects of today's scene, he wants to groom a new, passionate generation.Founder o…
The talented cast is far too good for the contrived, superficial moments in Joanna Murray-Smith's new work at the Geffen Playhouse.An appealing and capable cast keeps the flicker of hope ali…
David Henry Hwang's cross-cultural comedy of ideas, now playing at South Coast Repertory, shows how words, manners and mores can get lost in translation.Words aren't the only thing that gets…
The group is shown as a hard-driving cover band working to hit it big in the promising but ultimately disappointing musical at the Ahmanson.To all those graying rockers turned middle-class p…
Amy Herzog's '4000 Miles,' directed by Mark Rucker, is a coming-of-age drama that finds laughter in cockeyed yet utterly believable detail.SAN FRANCISCO — Amy Herzog, a breath of fresh…
'Ganesh Versus the Third Reich,' now at Freud Playhouse, tells a captivating tale of the Indian deity descending to reclaim the swastika from the Nazis.Many of the elements that make up "Gan…
Director Nicholas Martin's sure hand, handsome production and stellar cast make the revival of George Bernard Shaw's classic play a triumph from start to finish.SAN DIEGO — For some th…
This theological meet-up between an ailing Sigmund Freud and author C.S. Lewis at the Broad Stage sticks mostly to the surface.Sigmund Freud considered religion a mass delusion, a sort of gr…
The Stephen Adly Guirgis play at the South Coast Repertory showcases raw authenticity as it weaves the story of an ex-addict stumbling along the path of recovery."The Mother… With the…
Cheek by Jowl's touring production of John Ford's " 'Tis Pity" stirs up the theatricality to a dizzying degree, but remains compulsively, if scandalously, watchable.Before Quentin Tarantino,…
At the Broad Stage, a production gives a fair glimpse of a Shakespeare frolic's glories, both outlandish and refined.Shakespeare throws caution to the wind in "Cymbeline," a late romance so …
The year was enriched by lively pairings of plays and interpreters. Beckett and Chekhov come off especially well, with recent writers Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris doing nicely too.…
Cutting remarks meet tender familiarity in the Mark Taper Forum's production of Jon Robin Baitz's crackling play.If like me you come from a mixed family, meaning there are conservative Repub…
The Oscar winner's mere presence throws off the play's balance, not that the adoring audience would have noticed. But the actor's scattershot approach is distracting as well.NEW YORK —…
For a satisfying alternative to the standard theatrical holiday fare look no further than 'A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!' and 'Coney Island Christmas.'Christmas obviously isn't for …
The playwrights' portrayal — as an actor — of the character George's nature in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is a stunning achievement.NEW YORK — Tracy Letts has his ha…