IT'S A LOT TO TAKE IN, BUT TAKE IT IN YOU MUST Fake Friends, which co-created the zany streaming event This American Wife (review), are very very bright and insightful, au courant about the …
HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THEATER Some plays take time to come into their own but they're well worth a wait. Twenty-five years after its Off-Broadway debut, Paula Vogel's seminal wonder How I Le…
N-WORD, PLEASE! In six words, Samuel Beckett devours the human experience: "Birth was the death of him." This line permeates not just A Piece of Monologue (1979), but all of the master's wor…
THIS TIGER IS KING Tiger Style! at South Coast Rep is refreshing for many reasons. First, it's really funny. Playwright Mike Lew crafts his script like a super-smart teenager, mixing insight…
DID EVERYONE AT THE WALLIS NOT REALIZE THAT THE PLAY'S THE THING? One of the greatest travesties in L.A. theater history arrived at The Wallis last weekend, and I still have the emotional sc…
I NEVER MET A METAMORPHOSES I DIDN'T LIKE, BUT THIS ONE IS GREAT Critics often speak of "universal themes"Â " these are topics to which people in any place and at any time can relate. One…
THERE ARE NO WORDS It was one of those magical evenings in the theater that shall live with me forever. When Kulunka Teatro's André & Dorine appeared at the Los Angeles Theatre Cente…
Follow the Drama Desk Awards at Drama Desk and @DramaDeskAwards on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates 2022 DRAMA DESK NOMINATIONS: (click links for Stage and Cinema reviews) Outsta…
IF A SHOW IS CALLED DANCIN', SHOULDN'T IT BE ALL ABOUT THE DANCING? With seemingly hundreds of thousands of Bob Fosse footsteps in Dancin' " now receiving a pre-Broadway updated revival at S…
PLENTY OF RAINBOW BUT LITTLE COLOR In feminist Ntozake Shange's 1976 "choreopoem" (a term coined by the late playwright), the experiences of Black women in America are transformed into poetr…
75TH ANNUAL TONY AWARD NOMINATIONS This year's Tony nominees were announced this morning. I must say, it's difficult to argue with the majority of the noms. As usual, it seems that some of t…
SINS I FELL FOR YOU Mae West, the sage and sybarite from Brooklyn, used to say, "Let joy be unrefined," a point of view that also suits Austin McCormick, artistic director and choreographer …
WHERE THE RHYTHM SWOOPS AND SWIRLS, THIS IS THE JAZZ CORNER OF THE WORLD It amazes me how many of my NY friends haven't been to Birdland Jazz Club on 44th near Times Square (I'm an L.A. boy …
THE MINUTES WILL LEAVE YOU SLACK-JAWED AND SPEECHLESS Superbly civic, the vast council chamber created by set designer David Zinn reeks of rectitude. Filling the stage at Studio 54 is a coff…
PUT YOURSELF IN HARMONY'S WAY I can't remember the last time I have been so entranced with a new musical. And while Harmony may be having its New York premiere in the Off-Broadway house that…
DOWN IN HARLEM Following the quirky, audacious Slave Play (see review) " the first show of Center Theatre Group's season at The Taper " the company has done a complete 180 with their product…
AILEY IS ALWAYS AÂ REVELATION(S) Bringing with them three complete programs of dazzling dance, this 2022 edition showcases Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's (AAADT) vital verve, remindi…
After the acclaimed, record-setting run at Arizona's Phoenix Theater Company, ¡Americano!, a new American musical, is now playing a 12-week limited engagement through June 19, 2022 at New…
A PLAY THAT'S A RIOT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO RIOT While loading items into my trunk after shopping at a Fortune 500 store recently, I realized that an item had gone unchecked by the cashier. M…
THE MINUTES FINALLY GETS ITS TIME Steppenwolf's production of The Minutes by Tracy Letts, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, will resume performances at Studio 54 on Broadway two years af…
WITH TWO WINNERS OUT OF THREE WORKS, ABT'S PROGRAM STILL SOARS AT SEGERSTROM Bursting with happiness, joy and beauty, The American Ballet Theater opened its program last night at Segerstrom …
THANKS TO SONDHEIM'S SONGS, THIS MUSICAL WILL NEVER DIE The cast is quite terrific with some extraordinary standouts in East West Players' revival of Assassins, but it is Snehal Desai's awes…
MORE LIKE POWER PLAY THAN SLAVE PLAY Boy, if you want audacious theater " even one with higgledy-piggledy results " than I've got one for you: Slave Play, which opened last week at the Mark …
A ROOM OF THEIR OWN Actors Co-op is reviving Scott McPherson's extraordinary play Marvin's Room. While it has always been one of my favorite plays, it's a daunting choice for any company. Th…
BRINGING BACK BYRNE Talking Heads superstar David Byrne re-opened his acclaimed rock spectacle American Utopia last September 17 at Broadway's St. James Theatre after the pandemic shutdow…