2 PIANOS + 4 HANDS = 194Â HAPPY ATTENDEES Around twenty years ago, piano bars started featuring "dueling pianists," who would go back and forth, taking turns playing pop songs and, occasio…
REELING IN A SWEETLY SUNG FAIRY TALE Some theater should cause you to think deeply, stir your motivations, and cause you to be a better person for the ride you were on. And some theater is j…
THE CHILDREN IS NOT CHILD'S PLAY One of the challenges of reviewing theater is figuring out how much to divulge without giving away what the playwright wants to let unfold. The Children is o…
DAY OF THE DEAD, WITH A TOUCH OF KAHLO'S HUMOR If you think this is going to be the story of Frida Kahlo's life set to operatic music, you've got another think coming. Conversely, if you mig…
WOMEN IN PANTS? WHERE WILL IT ALL END? It's 1942 and most of the men in Rhode Island are off to war. As such, most theatres, especially those who focus on the heavily male casts of Shakespea…
WHEN SHERLOCK ISN'T A SURE LOCK Arguably Arthur Conan Doyle's most successful Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hounds of the Baskervilles was actually first run as a serial from 1901-1902. It dre…
PLANT YOURSELF AT SDMT Let's start with the fact that it's a show about a plant that craves human blood. Oh, and there's this nerdy botanist Seymour who raises him, whom the plant intimidate…
A MUSICAL ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS? WELL, SHOOT! At the very least, you have to give credit for anyone coming up with this bizarre idea: A musical about the …
SKI RESORT SKETCH SKILLFULLY SKIPS ALONG AND SKYROCKETS INTO OUR HEARTS Saturday Night Live has been notorious over the years for coming up with some bits that are funny enough to fill an en…
COME SEE THIS CABARET, MY FRIEND One of the wonderful things about period pieces, including musicals, is that they rarely feel dated because the book writer (Joe Masteroff, in this case) sta…
THIS MUSICAL IS RIGHT AT HOLMES When we think of Sherlock Holmes in the dank, foggy streets of London, investigating death and deception, probably the next thought we have isn't, "This would…
QUITE THE AWAKENING Watching Spring Awakening in 2008 at the Balboa Theatre and again in 2022 at the OB Playhouse, it is interesting how different the play struck me. Not because of the q…
WILD ABOUT WILDSONG A relatively new theatre company (and totally new to this reviewer) taking on a musical with a huge cast, intricate costuming, a stage smaller than you find in most eleme…
A TIDE THAT RISES SLOWLY STILL HAS POWER The description on North Coast Rep's website for this show is quite vague and, having just come home from the program, it's clear why. One of the gre…
YOU THINK YOUR DAUGHTER WAS A HANDFUL? Joan of Arc is remembered as a hero and a martyr for her active role in France's defense from British invasion in the 15th century. How much the averag…
NOTHING'S FORBIDDEN IN FORBIDDEN BROADWAY Musicals are dazzling, vibrant, larger than life…and accordingly, simply ripe for parody. Creator Gerard Alessandrini saw that opportunity in 1982…
WHEN THE WELL IS DRY, YOU KNOW THE WORTH OF WATER In Sidney Sheldon's hit 1973 novel, The Other Side of Midnight, every other chapter is about either Catherine or Noelle, the two stories of …
GREAT KAHNCEPT! Jayden (Jerome Beck) doesn't have it easy. He and his mother Crystal (Brittney M. Caldwell) have recently transplanted themselves in a new town and school district. The move …
LIFE MAY SUCK, BUT THE PLAY SURE DOESN'T For those familiar with Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, it might seem an odd choice to modernize. But Aaron Posner's tight script, combined with Cygnet'…
A SHAKESPEAREAN WESTERN MUSICAL? DON'T WORRY, IT MEASURES UP Love Shakespeare? Great. Hate Shakespeare? No problem. North Coast Rep's Desperate Measures may be based on the Bard's Measure fo…
THE PHYSICS OF ATTRACTION If this totally non-physicist reviewer understands what he is reading " the Uncertainty Principle launched by renowned physicist Werner Heisenberg, roughly state…
CRAZY FOR LOVIN' ALWAYS PATSY CLINE Is it a musical? A play with music? A tribute act? A duo cabaret act? Always…Patsy Cline is a little of each, coming together sweetly to be something un…
DOUBLE TROUBLE IN MINEOLA Paula Vogel, likely best known for her Pulitzer prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, isn't afraid to tackle tough themes. In The Mineola Twins, she does so by dren…
ROUTE 66 WAS ONE MOTHER OF A ROAD In John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, we follow along Route 66 the sad travels of Tom Joad and his family, who flee the desperation of Oklahom…
CORONADO PLAYHOUSE'S 2022Â SEASON Coronado Playhouse, the oldest arts organization in Coronado, has announced for its 76th Season six fully-staged productions " three of which are San Dieg…