THE PUZZLE BOX OF THE SOUL Critics should avoid discussing plot in their reviews, but playwright Sharr White has unintentionally placed a challenge before me: because the play is a labyrinth…
BYRNE THIS Grammy®, Oscar® and Golden Globe winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree David Byrne along with St. Vincent make their Segerstrom Center debuts in An Evening with Davi…
WILL THE REAL AMERICANS PLEASE STAND UP? I was on a road trip in 2007 seeking to explore the plethora of National Parks that we, the American people, own. While heading through Des Moines, I…
MORE POLEMIC BARK THAN EMOTIONAL BITE IN THIS NORMAL HEART Some eyes will be misty, some guts will be wrenched, and some souls will be startled after attending Larry Kramer's seminal play Th…
A LITTLE BLUE More than a few friends recently mentioned that there are many "great" things on the boob tube. Since I don't watch TV, it came as a surprise because I assumed it was mostly pa…
WHAT WILL YOU SEE IN RED? John Logan's 2010 Tony-winning Red is a work of art, and the Mark Taper Forum is presenting the 2009 Donmar Warehouse Production, starring the illustrious Alfred Mo…
MIND YOUR MANOR Site-specific theater productions"that is, theatre which is performed in unconventional spaces compatible to the script"remain mystifyingly uncommon. For example, why do outd…
O.C. STORY First, scroll down to the bottom of this review; there you will find the information you need to buy your tickets to Oanh Nguyen's magnificently re-interpreted production of West …
BEST BE ON YOUR AVANT-GARDE Understanding the origins of REDCAT, the downtown center for innovative visual, performing, and media arts, will assist the uninitiated in preparation for the ava…
IT COULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL Attendees who had never seen Stephen Sondheim being interviewed in person must have been licking their chops with every juicy morsel that the legend said about h…
GOLD DISCOVERED IN THE PLAINS I rolled my eyes when I heard about the plot of Harmony, Kansas, a musical having its world premiere at Divisionary Theatre in San Diego. Heath is a gay Kansan …
NO EVIL. NO GOOD. There are few who do not know the story. The devil possesses Regan, the innocent 12-year-old daughter of movie star Chris MacNeil, who is working on a film in Georgetown. A…
ALL THE WORLD'S A GLOBE After previewing in the month of June, The Old Globe officially opens the 2012 Shakespeare Festival this week. Adrian Noble returns for his third season as the intern…
LEARNING OF A DEATH PENALTY FOR ONE'S EXISTENCE Uganda has an alarming history when it comes to human rights violations, but recent developments against gay people are horrifying. In 2005, U…
THREE'S COMPANY ON SHROOMS The concept of David Adjmi's flawed but entertaining new play 3C is an intriguing one: to take Three's Company, an iconic, milquetoast ABC sitcom (which starred Jo…
RING IT ON! I hadn't read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring since junior high, and the movie, which is the first installment of Peter Jackson's gorgeous film trilogy The Lord of th…
WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE Somewhere around half-way through Guy Zimmerman's The Black Glass, a "Hollywood Fringe Festival premiere," my mind began to wander. Every opport…
A MISSIONARY'S POSITION At rise: A critic is writing when the doorbell rings. The critic opens the door and reveals Savannah, a perky, Southern, cheerleader-type with pamphlets in her hand. …
ATTEND THIS PLAY Go see Language Rooms now. I bought a ticket with no intention of a review, but Yussef El Guindi is far and away one of the most exciting new playwrights I have heard in yea…
A MUSICAL DIVIDED CAN STILL STAND How I adore Musical Theatre Guild, which is presenting a full-out, highly professional concert staging of the 1975 musical Shenandoah. MTG offers the chance…
NO WAY The current production of No Way Around But Through, a world premiere play by Scott Caan, contains many ingredients that explain why L.A. has little to no reputation as a fountainh…
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO THE WEDDING DINNER? Immediate Family, written by Chicago actor and playwright Paul Oakley Stovall, is part sitcom and part dysfunctional family drama, garnished with ra…
REAPPLYING MAKE-UP ON THE SAME CORPSE Your enjoyment of The Addams Family, now on its National Tour, will depend largely on your expectations. If you are a discerning musical theater aficion…
¿POR QUÉ? I have been trying to figure out sixty ways from Sunday's opening of Los Otros just exactly how to approach a critique. The new one-act musical by composer Michael John LaCh…
VERY IMPERVIOUS AND HARD TO GET, OR WHAT THE HELL..? I'm debating whether or not to tell you to go to Hell. Should you choose to go, playwright Steve Yockey will take you there in the world …