PHALLUS IN BLUNDERLAND Who has been accused of being a Sexual Reprobate? Satirist? Socialist? Philosopher? The precursor to Freudian psychology and existentialism? Woman-hating pornographer?…
A SHOW OF GREAT IMPORTANCE An anomaly of the Hollywood Fringe Festival has arrived. A gem which alone justifies the Fringe's existence. A nascent troupe named Good People Theater Company is …
DON'T COME TO THE CABARET It's the first time I have ever seen someone on stage in flop sweat. Poor Anastasia Barnes had a rough go in her opening of The Ruby Besler Cabaret. One would suppo…
GIRL, PLEASE! Prior to curtain at Musical Theatre Guild's concert staging of Girl Crazy, we were warned that the Gershwin brothers' 1930 musical was written before "the code" (read: censorsh…
BOBBING FOR APPLES While perusing through a Peanuts anthology recently, I found my mind beginning to wander after about 15 panels. Regardless of Schultz' insightful social commentary and uni…
THE FRUSTRATING LABORS OF A FASCINATING COMPANY It is said that Roman Philosopher and Playwright Seneca's Hercules Furens (c. 54 CE) was never produced but only read in Seneca’s lifeti…
CHICK 'N' SCHTICK THEATER It's no small feat when a play inspires me to do something with my life. While watching Stephen Sachs' Heart Song at the Fountain, I felt compelled to join a Flamen…
PIXIE DUST TO PIXIE DUST After a funeral many years ago, a group of my buddies all declared their desire to be cremated when the time comes. Shockingly, however, all four of us avowed to hav…
AMERICAN TRAGEDY BECOMES MUSICAL COMEDY 1931 was a crossroads in American history. With no economic recovery in sight, the Depression had people edgy, and when Americans are edgy, they are d…
FANTASTIC, INDEED Fantasticks may be the longest running musical in America, but Amanda Dehnert's magical production at South Coast Rep should run forever. The backdrop for this timeless won…
A FRATERNITY OF MASTER THESPIANS At its core, Jeff Stetson's Fraternity is about the two options that face black men in today's society (or, at least, the society of Birmingham in 1987, when…
BEDEVILED An off-stage character is tortured by a Salem court in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a play which dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692. As heavy stones are placed upon his che…
NOW THIS YOU GOTTA SEE Of the 32 shows I attended in Chicago recently, the most charming experiences were with four musical revivals, three from Broadway's heyday — the 1930s through t…
A fascinating phenomenon is occurring in the theater, one which was elucidated by many shows that I saw in Chicago over the past couple of weeks. As the art of playwriting (to wit: storytell…
I REMEMBER THE AMUSEMENT PARK BUT FORGOT WHAT THE RIDE WAS ABOUT The more I think about the Hypocrites' latest theater spectacle, Ivywild, the more entranced I feel about the imaginative pro…
CORNOGRAPHY It's been 70 years since Rodgers and Hammerstein ushered in the "golden era" of Broadway musicals with Oklahoma! and some dust has settled on the green corn of the 40s. Well, an …
DYING TO DIRECT It turns out that a career as a top literary agent at William Morris and CAA served as a solid stepping-stone for Michael Peretzian's dream job: directing in theater. As an a…
PERFECTED STORIES Ever since Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories premiered at South Coast Rep in 1996, and especially after it hit the Broadway boards starring Linda Lavin in 2010, the…
LEAVE IT TO CHILDREN’S THEATER TO MAKE THE BIGGEST STATEMENT OF ALL The biggest opening in Chicago last week was the behemoth pre-Broadway spectacle Big Fish, but right across to…
BLIZZARD TALE In meteorology, the phenomena known as Lake Effect occurs when a cold system glides over the warmer water of a large lake and dumps huge amounts of precipitation, usually snow,…
PLOUGHED UNDER BYÂ GOOD INTENTIONS AND BADÂ SONGWRITING What a great idea: Create modern folk songs to represent Americans whose voices have been given short shrift (or ploughed under) b…
FAUST IN SPACE Just because I recommend Trap Door's latest production doesn't mean that I understand it. Core of the PUDEL (pronounced "poodle") is an Avant Garde/Experimental/Movement Theat…
ALMOST A FULL MOON The theater has been sorely affected by electronic communication. Since the advent of the internet, at least, the cumbersome amount of news bits and twittering has infecte…
OH BROTHERS! Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: Talk about a musical with a strange history! It begins with the Ancient Roman legend "The Rape of the Sabine Women" " attributed to Plutarch " f…
THE MUSICAL WITH LEGS Musical Theatre West's (MTW) exuberant production of A Chorus Line proves that the musical is as fresh as the day it appeared almost forty years ago, when the standard …