1,308 stories by "Charles McNulty"
At the Tony Awards, artistic quality and risk-taking win out over commerce as the little musical 'Once' and 'Clybourne Park' triumph.Will wonders never cease: David slayed Goliath in a rare …
“Follies” bid farewell to the Ahmanson Theatre on Saturday night, and the emotion in the house was as charged as the emotion coursing through the Weismann Theatre, where the ex-F…
Should Audra McDonald make room on a mantel? Is the movie world's new Spider-Man golden? And what about all those 'Follies' nominations?The Academy Awards telecast has been such a snooze in …
In a Monkey Wrench Collective production, Mark Ravenhill's play has a darker view of the artistic underground.Mark Ravenhill, the English playwright best known for his play with the unprinta…
The new 90-minute musical by Michael John LaChiusa and Ellen Fitzhugh benefits from its SoCal setting and its study of identity. But it's too diffuse.Commercial success has eluded Michael Jo…
A new body of domestic work on Broadway, including Tony front-runners 'Clybourne Park' and 'Other Desert Cities,' marks a strong change of pace for playwriting.Had you polled theater pundits…
Gershwin purists, this "Porgy and Bess" is probably not for you, even though its official title is "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess." The cast album of the current Broadway production is a str…
The quirky musical at the La Jolla Playhouse about contestants trying to win a pickup could use a tuneup, but its folksy, low-key approach is seductive."Hands on a Hardbody," the new musical…
Visiting L.A. after New York, this landmark Stephen Sondheim work is a dazzling reminder of how brilliantly constructed a musical can be.There's so much to praise in the blissful Broadway re…
Little comfort can be found in this gripping examination of an American miscarriage of justice. But, man, it razzle-dazzles nevertheless.SAN DIEGO — Musicals are supposed to raise your…
Critic's Notebook on 2012 Tony Noms
Seventy-five million dollars can buy you a lot of things in the theater -- good press, bad press and a huge head-start at the box office, as “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” has o…
An essay on Tracie Bennett's portrayal of Judy Garland
At New York's Belasco Theatre, Tracie Bennett is astonishing as the aging Judy Garland in Peter Quilter's biographical account of the final chapter of the performer's life.NEW YORK — J…
John Lithgow leads a strong cast in his portrayal of star journalist Joseph Alsop in 'The Columnist' on Broadway at the height of the writer's public influence during the Cold War.NEW YORK &…
Not even timeless Gershwin songs can help lift the lackluster new musical comedy 'Nice Work if You Can Get It,' starring an oddly uninspiring Matthew Broderick.NEW YORK — Anyone out th…
NEW YORK -- The old “contents may have shifted during flight” warning seemed especially worrying for “One Man, Two Guvnors,” the London smash from the National Theatr…
Director Bart DeLorenzo's nimble staging and an enticing cast make this 'Ivanov' at Odyssey Theatre a winning exploration of confounding humanity."Ivanov," the play in which Anton Chekhov wa…
A look at Beckett's and Pinter's literary origins, with questions raised about how we are educating our playwrights today
Profile of director Emily Mann
"Good People" by David Lindsay-Abaire has its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse.
"In Paris," a theatrical adaptation of a story by Ivan Bunin starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, has its U.S. premiere at the Broad Stage.
Steven Drukman's "The Prince of Atlantis" has its world premiere at South Coast Repertory.
Jordan Harrison's "Maple and Vine" has its West Coast premiere at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre
