WELL ABOVE PAAR FOR THE COURSE David Corlew gives a gripping performance as Oscar Levant in this darkly funny and increasingly tense backstage drama To put it mildly, Oscar Levant, the brill…
I COULD BEGIN AGAIN SEVERAL TIMES WITH THIS WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL A predictable story matters little when the music, performances, and sheer good feeling are this irresistible Sometimes a s…
YOU WILL BE WON OVER Cygnet delivers a moving, beautifully acted production with terrific voices Hooray for misunderstandings! Where would theatre be without them? And in Cygnet Theatre’s …
OLD-SCHOOL PHANTOM, FIRST-RATE RESULTS This return to Phantom’s original theatrical roots delivers spectacle, superb singing, and one nagging sound problem Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of…
A DEVILISHLY GOOD TIME WITH THE NOT-SO-ANGELIC Paul Slade Smith’s delightful farce earns hearty laughs from a terrific cast Playwright and actor Paul Slade Smith is on a winning streak. Be…
HOME SWEET HOME-ICIDE Joseph Kesselring’s dark comedy classic still delivers its lethal dose of laughs Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace, now revived by Coronado Playhouse, was a …
FARCE MAJEURE This inventive adaptation trades reverence for revelry, with hilarious results Not everything ages well: milk, dress codes, and comedies are among the many things that are ofte…
READY, SET, SPONGE! A colorful musical that’s tailor-made for kids and SpongeBob devotees SpongeBob SquarePants debuted on Nickelodeon in 1999 and was a quick success, becoming a must-watc…
SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG SONG Megan Carmitchel delivers a knockout performance in Backyard Renaissance’s latest gem During a recent move, I handed down dozens of DVDs. One I couldn’t…
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS HOMBRE Tony Meneses explores the hidden costs of masculinity with humor, compassion, and insight For centuries, women and gay men have fought to carve out power in a …
THE WOMEN LEFT OFFSTAGE Lauren Gunderson reclaims Shakespeare’s sidelined women in a sharp, emotionally intelligent companion piece to Hamlet The women in Hamlet exist largely to reflect H…
LORD HAVE MERCY! Roustabouts Theatre's irreverent comedy lets Samantha Ginn unleash a hilariously blunt deity Samantha Ginn Playwright David Javerbaum pulls no punches in this hysterical, ir…
HOW TO SUCCEED IN PRODUCING A MUSICAL Offices tend not to be much fun, which is why they are ripe for exploring undertones of emotion and comedy in scripts like Office Space, Working Girl…
HOPE WITH CALLOUSED HANDS: A QUIET MASTERPIECE REVISITED John Steinbeck's play Of Mice and Men came quickly after the success of his novella by the same name. In fact, the play opened on Bro…
A NEIGHBORLY NICE LADY" WITH BUZZ ALDRIN IN HER HEAD Susan Clausen shines in Ian August's funny, surreal one-woman ride Reading the press blurb about Donna Orbits the Moon left me scratching…
TENDERNESS IS BOUNTIFUL IN LAMB'S PRODUCTION A Horton Foote gem, staged with patience, grace, and heart The Trip to Bountiful began as a staged-for-TV play in early 1953 and then had a very …
A VINTAGE-STYLE HOLIDAY CONCERT A warmly nostalgic night of classic music, crooning, and dance Imagine that it's 1962. You and your spouse decide to get a sitter and go down to the "club" be…
THE SOUP OF THE DAY IS A DARK BROTH INDEED There's a game some couples play when they're out and about: they make up lives about the strangers they see in places like diners. Part of what ma…
NOSTALGIA LOADED " AND EYE SAFETY ENSURED The 1983 film A Christmas Story may not have been universally crowned a "classic" when it premiered, its near-universal popularity and nostalgic loo…
HER MIND, OUR MEMORY Kenneth Lonergan's family fissures hit hard in Backyard Renaissance's intimate staging What an incredibly robust month November has been for smaller theaters in San Dieg…
BEAUTY GETS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP Beauty's Daughter is a one-woman play by Dael Orlandersmith that centers on Diane, a young Black woman growing up in East Harlem, as she navigates a world mar…
CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being …
A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT"FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people's views on social issues, inclu…
OSBORNE TO DO LITTLE SHOP In 1960, a peculiar minor film (featuring a minor appearance by an up-and-coming Jack Nicholson) was released to no particular fanfare with good reason: It was pret…
SMALL IS EPIC In his exceptional how-to book Storyworthy, author and storyteller Matthew Dicks advises us to stop recounting tales that few can relate to " like the time you climbed Mt. Ever…