AMERICAN CLASSICS WITH AUDRA MCDONALD & AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE The last time I saw the captivating singer and actress Audra McDonald in concert, she sang the Bernstein/Comden/Green t…
COMEDY TONIGHT More like side-splitting by side-splitting by Sondheim, Impro Theatre–the masters of long-form improvisations in the style of famous authors and genres–are gearing…
GREAT, BUT NOT ALWAYS CLASSIC According to TimeOut London, the term "cabaret" represents an overlapping group of constantly mutating forms of performance that can’t be pinned down"an a…
TIS THE SEASONS Not unlike Timothy Leary and LSD, I have been turning people on to ACB for similar reasons. In an increasingly complicated world, one needs a stimulant to reinforce a sense o…
THERE’S NOTHING GOING ON UP HERE It’s an idea whose time has already come this summer, and with far superior results. In fact, the character of Lindsay, a t-shirt designer who ha…
YOU CAN GO HOLMES AGAIN It turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks, proven by The Old Globe's contemporary stage-spoof treatment of the 1901 Sherlock Holmes classic novel The Houn…
AÂ FINE CLINE Patsy Cline couldn't be more fondly or accurately recalled than by Cori Cable Kidder in Robert Marra's production of Always…Patsy Cline, the oft-produced 1990 paean to the …
THE HOLY GRAIL OF SILLINESS It's been 40 years since the release of the landmark comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and 33 years since the British sketch comedy troupe recorde…
DACHAU DELIVERANCE TO THE MAX More than six million Jews were slaughtered by Nazis. When Martin Sherman wrote Bent in 1979, the yellow star that emblazoned the clothing of Jews was well-know…
GIRLFRIEND, PLEASE! While it's being sold as a rock musical, Todd Almond's gay two-hander is really a play; the songs from Matthew Sweet's 1991 breakout album Girlfriend are indiscrimi…
A FULL-ON KISS Everything is so dang perfect about the construction of Kiss Me, Kate that it's doubly amazing when a revival comes along to match that perfection. With some of the most boffo…
THE MUSIC MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC MAN When Moonlight Stage Productions announced their production of The Music Man, which opens this week at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista, I actually got …
SALUTING SONDHEIM IN SOLANA BEACH Stephen Sondheim is so beyond merely good and light years away from conventional that some may view his musicals as pure art and overlook the slathers of so…
YOUR PURSUIT IS OVER In writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson borrowed a phrase from 17th century English philosopher John Locke, who spoke of "life, liberty and property…
THE DROUGHT ENDS THIS WEEKEND You may know the term "Jukebox Musical" from the ridiculous amount of new Broadway musicals which take previously published songs"most often popular hits that a…
THE WORST OF THE BEST Let me say that I have no idea what I just saw. Clearly, some very clever folk have come up with the very clever idea to spoof a Fringe Festival, which Fringe Festivals…
TWELFTH NIGHT LANDS AT THE OLD GLOBE A comedy’s brewing up in the rehearsal rooms of The Old Globe. Soon, winds will whip, distressed voices will call out and a ship’s timbers wi…
THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MAX AND ELSA Greetings my lovelies! Garrulous Greta here with some glorious news. You may remember not long ago I received a letter from a fan…
MASTERFRINGE THEATRE When Barnaby Hughes reviewed a previous Magnum Opus production of Surf Dogs Unite for Stage and Cinema, he wrote that the show “will leave you doubled over with…
THE PHANTOM MENACE Last night's opening of The Phantom of the Opera, a refurbished revival of previous national tours, proves one thing: Since Andrew Lloyd Webber's baby was born almost 30 y…
MARRIED TO SONDHEIM When I first saw Marry Me A Little in the mid-1980s, it was a revelation. But not because of the story. This revue uses trunk songs of Stephen Sondheim, songs which–…
WHAT A DOG The term "Dog Days" refers to the hottest period of the year, the sultry part of summer when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises in unison with the sun. It's a time marked by sluggishness…
SCULPTED TO PERFECTION Boris Eifman's kinetic Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg is quickly becoming known for full-length ballets, quite often with a plot and literary source. What you will se…
PREGNANT PAUSE A loving, liberal, and somewhat quirky childless couple, Craig and Katie, discovers that the only option to have their own baby is to implant her egg and his sperm in another …
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT 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 Center f…