FAR OUT The Los Angeles premiere of British choreographer Wayne McGregor's FAR opened at Royce Hall last night, and you are advised to cancel all plans and catch the last performance tonight…
WHEN A WORD OR TWO WILL NOT DO A Word or Two is an apt title for Christopher Plummer's solo show about Christopher Plummer and Christopher Plummer's love of language. He wants to celebrate l…
THAT AIN’T THE WAY TO HAVE FUN, SON One of the most exciting events to come out of Los Angeles theater in the last few years was Zombie Joe's Urban Death, a naturalistic horror show…
MORE JAZZ, PLEASE Interestingly, the work that opened Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal's program last night at the Bram Goldsmith Theater in the brand new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Perfor…
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID The two most important aspects of the right kind of cabaret act are the singer and the songs. But when you go to see Laura Benanti's new cabaret In Constant Search of …
TAKE A CHANCE Merrily We Roll Along is a notoriously difficult musical to get right. Even with Sondheim's magnificent score, the nature of the show"its lopsided cynicism and moving-back-in-t…
AN UNCONVENTIONAL ROMANCE Meet Max, a celebrity novelist who is single, and Trudy, a happily married woman who is working on a new novel. They meet in a writer's room and form a fast friends…
MORE LIKE ONE STARRY STARRY STARRY NIGHT If anybody knows how to put together a night of eclectic songs and singers, it's Bruce Kimmel. While he has created some terrific revues, this prolif…
CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND THEATER LOVERS, UNITE! Remember E. Howard Hunt? This intelligence officer was one of Nixon's White House Plumbers, that clandestine band of operatives who were assig…
I AM EXHILARATED In 1978, on the night of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone's assassinations, an unprecedented candlelight march brought mourners to San Francisco's City Hall. The newly f…
CABARET SAUVIGNON She received a Tony nomination for both the Broadway revue Swing! and for playing Cinderella in the revival of Into the Woods. She won a Tony for portraying Louise in the P…
ORACLE’S THE MOTHER GETS A WELL-DESERVED REMOUNT My annual theater sojourn to the Windy City this year was a bit of a let down. Spoiled by previous pilgrimages, in which no less than 5…
DRAGULOUS I love The Kinsey Sicks. Is it because I love barbershop quartets? Is it because I love drag queens? Is it because I love community activists? Is it because I love irreverent, chee…
PLEASE MAKE IT STOMP When I first saw the Blue Man Group at the Astor Place Theatre in 1991, it was performance art nirvana. Sadly, what started as a sweet and satisfying event became a corp…
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE’S RICHARD II COMES TO WESTWOOD Brits had already heard about Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Richard II, directed by Gregory Doran and starring former Docto…
A HIT-AND-MISS HOLIDAY HYBRID IS AT LEAST MORE HO HO THAN HO HUM Silliness and charm reign supreme in The Actors' Gang's original Christmas show, The Queen Family’s Very Special Holida…
JOCKEY-SIZED JORDAN REMAINS A COMICAL CLYDESDALE Have you ever been to a sultry party that has the oppressive feel of a languid, humid day in the Deep South, only to have the energy shift dr…
WOULD YOU LIKE COFFEE, TEA OR THE AMERICAN DREAM? Sometimes we take a short vacation just to get away from it all. A few days. No big tourist attractions or monumental natural sites are nece…
YOU CAN'T TWIN THEM ALL There is nothing more fascinating for this Broadway musical aficionado than a flop"but not for gloating purposes. It's natural to wonder "What were they thinking?" wi…
WHIPPED INTO A FRENZY If I had any doubts prior to attending San Diego REP's production of Venus in Fur (an on-again, off-again playwright; two characters; two directors), they were vanqu…
UPDATING THE OLD, PRESENTING THE NEW As part of the North American tour celebrating its 45th season, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company arrived at Valley Performing Arts Center last Saturday wi…
A HITCH IN THE BOURNE LEGACY It's a shame that Matthew Bourne's narrative began to fizzle out in the second act of his Sleeping Beauty, for up to then this extraordinarily imaginative and en…
MUSICAL THEATRE GUILD GOES TO TOWN "Charming" doesn't begin to describe Musical Theatre Guild's offering of the 1953 musical Wonderful Town. Even with a recent 2003 Broadway outing starring …
CHEAPENED BY THIS DOZEN Words such a "tolerance" and "acceptance" are bandied about as America continues a national dialogue on race, oversimplifying the subject of prejudice. Sadly, politic…
ROGUE MACHINE'S PRODUCTION KEEPS SCRIPT FROM FALLING In Deanna Jent's Falling, a mom is reaching burnout: Her 18-year-old autistic son is consuming her time, her marriage is shaky, her mothe…