What does it say about us when that quintessential symbol of union and hope " the wedding cake " becomes a flashpoint in the culture war? Bekah Brunstetter's new dramedy, "The Cake," grapple…
The boundaries between human civilization and the animal kingdom become very blurry indeed in "Grimly Handsome," an appropriately titled grim fairy tale from Santa Monica's longtime purveyor…
With ominous stories of right-wing extremism in parts of the world, there's a solid case to be made for a revival of the Holocaust drama "Bent" so soon after the high-profile Mark Taper Foru…
Can a sci-fi-themed, classic rock musical stand measure to measure with Shakespeare? "Return to the Forbidden Planet" at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura seeks to boldly go where no outer spac…
Friends, readers, theatergoers, lend me your eyes; I come to praise "The Tragedy of JFK (as told by Wm Shakespeare)" at the Skylight Theatre, not to bury it. Daniel Henning's adaptation of "…
Try to remember a greener "Fantasticks," when props were leaner and sets were matchsticks ... Ah, well, memory of the original lyrics fades, and it may be hard at first to recognize the no-f…
Reenvisioning "Twelfth Night" through millennial-tinted glasses, Coeurage Theatre Company's revival in Burbank transposes Shakespeare's plot and theme of cultural alienation into a contempor…
The year is 1886, the Civil War is over, slaves are free and everything is all right. That's wishful thinking, alas, which only incites crusading abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe to bristl…
Children of alcoholics are at significantly greater risk of exposing others to an unfortunate self-penned solo show about their life experiences " at least according to a 2011 faux research …
Who knew housecleaning could be life-threatening? The revelation may offer welcome relief to slobs everywhere, but it comes a bit too late for the hapless heroine of "Dirt," Bryony Lavery's …
Purists beware: "Tempest Redux" at the Odyssey Theatre boldly transposes Shakespeare's play to a darker, more unsettling key, but the inventive staging and solid command of source text make …
Faith and reason, spirit and matter, head and heart " all are aspects of a division so constant throughout history that it seems to be genetically hard-wired. Exploring this inherently confl…
With so many dramas these days built around bad behavior " the worse the better, it seems " it's a downright anomaly to come across a genuinely compelling story about ordinary people trying …
Having been more or less inundated, year after year, for good or ill, by the surplus of yuletide theatrical stagings of "A Christmas Carol," that most ubiquitous of the literary creations of…
Wikitheatre (wik-i-thee-¿-ter) is a newly-coined term for a subgenre of stage docudrama, characterized by slender fictional narrative and dialogue threading various quotes and biographica…
A signature unease with the facile promises of the American Dream "Â and its inherent moral contractions "Â runs through the plays of Arthur Miller. Where Miller's iconic salesman Willy …
"A normal person is just someone you don't know well enough," playwright Tracy Letts once said.
Consider this a well-deserved Like for "As You Like It" at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga. As part of the company's Americana-themed summer repertory season, the production rese…
Back in ancient Greece, Oedipus set the gold standard for mommy issues. Nowadays, though, his story can seem to hit the stage lugging three millennia worth of psychological baggage " a Dr…
Amid the updated dialogue, some of the retained verse is an awkward fit at times, but assured delivery by Stehlin, Strong and London ensures the poetic resonance.
For nimble minds seeking a more cerebrally challenging alternative to the commercialized platitudes that tend to crop up around Earth Day, the Theatre@Boston Court's West Coast premiere of "…
In the aftermath of a mass shooting, the sole survivor narrating Neil LaBute's "The Break of Noon" at City Garage resolves to mend his selfish ways, attributing his escape to divine interven…
To tell the truth or not? That question proves the splintering wedge for a young couple who find themselves stuck in "A Dog's House" of their own making.
The creation of brilliant music counterpoints the tormented amorous lives of three prominent composers in "Fugue," Echo Theater Company's edgy historically based meditation on genius, sexual…
Talk about burning a candle at both ends: Jason Robert Brown's semi-autobiographical 2001 two-character musical, "The Last Five Years," is a song cycle about a youthful love affair going …