In 2010, I witnessed the work of playwright Terrell Alvin McCraney for the first time. I knew immediately that his would prove to be an important voice in the theater. Since that fateful day…
GREAT STUFF IS COOKING IN THIS KITCHEN The world premiere of new coming-of-age musical, HELL'S KITCHEN, with music and lyrics by New York's own 15-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and pl…
OUR DEAR DEAD PLAYWRIGHTING In Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, which opened last Sunday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, feral feminism from sociopathic fledglings starts out fantastic but goes off the…
THE GOSPEL AT GETTY Created by Lee Breuer and Bob Telson, The Gospel at Colonus " a Greek tragedy turned Pentecostal revival " had its original 1983 production at the fBrooklyn Academy of Mu…
AN UNSTOPPABLE TRAJECTORY Ruskin Group Theatre's season-opener, a landmark drama from 1955, exploded into relevance last Friday night. A rarity worth a return, Arthur Miller's drama of an in…
CABARET JUST GETS BETTER WITH AGE Cabaret was and remains one of the boldest and most innovative experiments in the history of musical theater, a ravishing work that has neither lost its pow…
GREAT (F.) SCOTT! If you love literature, have fond memories of being read to or of reading to others, and feel, as so many do, that F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby " the story of Jay…
A composite play by four playwrights, Mecca Is Burning " which closes Sunday at the Harlem School of the Arts " confronts social and racial themes through the use of protest poetry, dialogue…
DON'T MIZ IT Unlike most of the characters in the blockbuster sung-through musical Les Misérables, the show itself will never die. Consistently presented either on Broadway, national tou…
A PIPELINE TO THE TROUBLED SOUL One of our era's greatest dramatists, Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew, Ain't Too Proud) sheds light on the complicated realities of urban African-Americ…
CRAB'S LAST TAPE Ah, Theatre of the Absurd. a place where characters can grapple with existentialism, that which is the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent det…
PERFECTLY MARVELOUS You better tell Momma and everybody else to come see Wildsong's production of Cabaret, which opened last weekend in Ocean Beach. When you take into consideration that thi…
GOOD NEWS: PIPPIN'S A PIP Some shows stay young by never growing up: With a book by Roger O. Hirson, this 1972 hit show originally directed by Bob Fosse is the perfect example of a musical t…
THEATER AS THERAPY The waiting room at a psychiatrist's office is an emotional airlock between the chaos of the outside world and the sanctuary of the therapy office. It's public yet private…
THE TEMPEST AS RADIO PLAY One can only wonder why productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest have been sprouting up like magical vines in the jungle. Is it because the tale is about revenge as…
ANTSY The subject of "haves" and "have-nots" in the theater is nothing new, having been explored from The Greeks to Molière. More recent hallmarks are the Industrial Age's The Hairy Ape by …
LAST SUMMER THIS SUMMER Written in 1976 by the late Jane Chambers, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove " which opened in 1980, NYC " is a milestone in lesbian theatre history. Chambers' name is leg…
DANCING THROUGH WAR Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center, which has presented world premieres by Alexei Ratmansky for more than a decade " including American Ballet Theatre's Of Love and Rag…
BETTER MAKE THAT LATER Christopher Shinn clearly understands the American consciousness. In Now or Later, a 2008 one-act which opened at the Royal Court Theatre with a fresh-faced Eddie Redm…
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOU TO SEE RAINEE BLAKE AS JONI MITCHELL LIVE During the 2018 Music Center concert, Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration Live, Peter Gabriel sent a prescient message to the a…
THIS SOUL NEEDS DOCTORING Soul Doctor is a 2010 musical about Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach, a.k.a. The Singing Rabbi and The Rock and Roll Rabbi, from his childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna to his O…
MUELLER IS COOLER IN UP-CLOSE CABARET The Wallis in Beverly Hills lays claim to being the place to see and be seen on Friday June 16 at The Wallis in Beverly Hills, as one of Broadway's brig…
EVERYONE IS WELCOME AT THESE PARTIES With a fierce commitment to inclusivity and celebrating the beauty of individuality, Company XIV captivates audiences throughout Pride Month with its …
A NEOPHYTE BROWNSHIRT UNDER A BLUE WALL OF DEFENCE Written by June Carryl and directed by Michael Matthews, Blue is a 60-minute nailbiter which has been extended to June 5. Rogue Machine …
THE SONERO, THE BETTER Here's what tipped me off that we were about to see something special: Pianist Carlos Ordiano enters with four band members ("The Razor Blades") at Los Angeles Theatre…