50 years of 'Cabaret': How the 1966 musical keeps sharpening its edges for modern times by Margaret Gray

The musical "Cabaret" will turn 50 this year, and its latest incarnation opens Wednesday at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. It comes with a slightly complicated provenance: This "Cabaret" is…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:58pm on July 20, 2016[SHARE]

The couple behind the 'Beautiful' tunes: How L.A. hit-makers became characters in the Carole King musical by Margaret Gray

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, the married songwriting team behind "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "On Broadway" and some of the most enduring hits in the history of pop music, have been fi…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:50pm on July 5, 2016[SHARE]

Sister act: Abby Mueller has star turn in national tour of 'Beautiful - The Carole King Musical' by Margaret Gray

To star in a national tour of the Broadway hit "Beautiful " The Carole King Musical," which opens this weekend at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, is to brave comparisons not only to King her…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:32am on June 24, 2016[SHARE]

Second City Hollywood throws a political party 'In Trump We Trust,' the musical by Margaret Gray

The line between political reporting and parody is blurrier than ever these days, especially since Donald Trump launched his presidential run. It's not always obvious whether a headline come…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:37pm on June 10, 2016[SHARE]

Winning back the girl he left behind at 'The Pavilion' by Margaret Gray

Craig Wright's oft-produced play "The Pavilion," now in a lovely revival at Malibu Playhouse, takes place in the early 2000s, in the fictional town of Pine City, Minn. (That's where Wright, …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 2:05pm on May 5, 2016[SHARE]

When superstar and superfan collide: It's 'Future Thinking' at South Coast Rep by Margaret Gray

In the opening scene of Eliza Clark's "Future Thinking," commissioned by South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa and now in its world premiere there, a middle-aged man sits alone in a hotel room…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:57pm on April 14, 2016[SHARE]

Irish actress Lisa Dwan to perform Beckett's dark, tortured 'Not I' for last time at the Broad Stage by Margaret Gray

The Irish actress Lisa Dwan is visiting the Broad Stage in Santa Monica one bright morning when she asks theater staffers one key question: "How is the blackout coming along?" For five shows…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 3:21pm on April 6, 2016[SHARE]

'Women Laughing Alone With Salad': A playwright's raucous riff on sexism and body shame by Margaret Gray

Is "Women Laughing Alone With Salad" the first play inspired by an Internet meme? In 2011 the feminist website the Hairpin published stock photographs of slender models appearing to exult ov…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:54pm on March 14, 2016[SHARE]

Passion and fame in the digital age: Watching 'Sex With Strangers' at the Geffen by Margaret Gray

It could be the setup for a Harlequin romance: A beautiful novelist curls on a couch in a bed-and-breakfast in rural Michigan, proofreading a manuscript, completely alone. Heavy snow has det…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 6:34pm on March 13, 2016[SHARE]

East West Players finds the laughter behind the tears in 'Criers for Hire' by Margaret Gray

Culture shock, like grief, progresses through distinct stages: There's the honeymoon period, when an expatriate is enchanted by a new country. Bliss gives way to withdrawal an…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:02pm on February 19, 2016[SHARE]

In 'Red' at South Coast Repertory, Rothko and the art of connection by Margaret Gray

"I am not your rabbi, I am not your father, I am not your shrink, I am not your friend, I am not your teacher," the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko warns his new assistant in the …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:05pm on February 2, 2016[SHARE]

The new 'Empire: The Musical,' in La Mirada, is more scaffolding than skyscraper by Margaret Gray

New evidence suggests it's easier to build the world's tallest skyscraper than to create an original American musical.  "Empire: The Musical" has just opened at La Mirada Theatre for t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:13pm on January 26, 2016[SHARE]

'Bullets Over Broadway' makes up for its lack of new music with strong choreography and acting by Margaret Gray

How seriously do you take your art? Would you kill for it? Literally? Those are the questions that animate "Bullets Over Broadway," Woody Allen's delicious cinematic parable about the strugg…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:44am on January 7, 2016[SHARE]

'The Bridges of Madison County' at the Ahmanson: After the seduction, the story drags by Margaret Gray

It happens so often in Iowa that the housewives have come to expect it: Moments after their husbands and children head off to the state fair, hunky photographers arrive, asking directions to…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:35pm on December 12, 2015[SHARE]

'Guys and Dolls' at the Wallis: Pared down but still full of punch by Margaret Gray

The stripper whose wildest dream is of marriage. The high-stakes gambler who falls for a missionary. Both live on the sweet, homely Broadway of Damon Runyon, whose short stories about …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:42pm on December 6, 2015[SHARE]

Antaeus Company's 'Uncle Vanya' is a sharp execution of midlife drift by Margaret Gray

As a child, I couldn't understand why anybody would attend a production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya"; surely not even the most pretentious adult would choose to watch gloomy Russians with inte…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 5:42pm on October 22, 2015[SHARE]

Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal, 45 years later: 'Love Letters' loaded with nostalgia by Margaret Gray

You could counterfeit money, risking jail time, or you could cast the stars of one of the most profitable romances in movie history and hit the road with a perennially popular stage show. Th…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:50pm on October 15, 2015[SHARE]

'Bright New Boise' at Chance Theater: Secrets and scandal in the break room of Hobby Lobby by Margaret Gray

Some of us try to jury-rig meaningful lives using the disheartening fragments at our disposal; others dream of wiping the slate clean and starting anew. Both approaches prove painfully unsat…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:52am on October 15, 2015[SHARE]

The young and the self-involved: 'Cafe Society,' an L.A. story at the Odyssey by Margaret Gray

One unintended consequence of the communications age is the increased difficulty of putting together a believable plot.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:16pm on August 27, 2015[SHARE]

A megachurch's backstage drama plays out at the Blank Theatre by Margaret Gray

The ensconced veteran reluctant to give up the spotlight. The impatient successor nipping at his heels. This scenario has launched plots from "Paradise Lost" to "The Late Shift."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:41pm on August 20, 2015[SHARE]

'Oklahoma!' sweeps audience back to prairie in lush show by Margaret Gray

The first collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, "Oklahoma!," which debuted in 1943, is often credited with reinventing musical theater - although "Showboat," from 1…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:13am on July 24, 2015[SHARE]

Highly engaging low farce in 'The Heir Apparent' at ICT by Margaret Gray

Struggles over inheritance are always painful -- unless, of course, they take place in a French farce, in which case they are endlessly prankish and ribald.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 2:47am on June 26, 2015[SHARE]

An 'Effort' that feels familiar at Skylight Theatre by Margaret Gray

"When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you. But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh," the late Nora Ephron once wrote, neatly summing up the power of…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:38pm on June 5, 2015[SHARE]

Theater review: 'Satchmo at the Waldorf' at the Wallis Annenberg Center by Margaret Gray

Aeschylus introduced the second actor to Greek plays, adding dialogue, conflict, action " in other words, drama " to what had been a primarily lyrical art form. It seems like a no-brainer, t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:50am on May 29, 2015[SHARE]

Class, race and motherhood in 'Samsara' by Margaret Gray

When women have babies, expectations are born at the same time --  dream children, made up of assumptions and hopes, that grow up alongside the real ones.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 8:00pm on May 21, 2015[SHARE]