A BLINDINGLY BRILLIANT PRODUCTION Since its premiere in c. 429 BC, Sophocles' Oedipus the King has been considered the Mount Olympus of Greek Tragedies, largely because it humanizes the them…
OH, OUR MAN, I LOVE IT SO Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Does America export democracy or expand empire? Can an idealistic young man maintain his ideals in the harsh reality of work…
A MUSICAL ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINS & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS? WELL, SHOOT! At the very least, you have to give credit for anyone coming up with this bizarre idea: A musical about the …
SMALLS MAKES A HUGE STORY In January 2017, President Barack Obama issued an executive order establishing Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort County, noting the significance of R…
OKLAHOMA! AS WOKELAHOMA NOT SO OK ON TOUR This ain't your mama's Oklahoma! While Daniel Fish's completely rethought and stripped-down production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 watershed m…
A CLOSER WALK WITH PATSY Patsy Cline couldn't be more fondly or accurately recalled than by Cayman Ilika in Karen Lund's sweet production of Always…Patsy Cline, the oft-produced 1990 paean…
SKI RESORT SKETCH SKILLFULLY SKIPS ALONG AND SKYROCKETS INTO OUR HEARTS Saturday Night Live has been notorious over the years for coming up with some bits that are funny enough to fill an en…
THESE BOOTSÂ AREÂ MEANT FOR WALKING Kinky Boots: The Musical is back in San Francisco, again at the Victoria Theater for a month-long run. Based on the same-titled 2005 film written by G…
A NEAR DISASTER HANDLED BY A MASTER Jones and Schmidt, the creative team behind one of Broadway's longest running hits, The Fantasticks, also wrote another, lesser-know musical called Philem…
ONE TOUCH OF GODDESS Goddess, the exciting new musical at Berkeley Rep with its sights set for Broadway, re-imagines the African myth of Marimba: the goddess of music. In order to experience…
NORM FOSTER'S NEW COMEDY OPENS SEPTEMBER 22 AT THEATRE 40 Norm Foster has been called "the Neil Simon of Canada." The remarkably prolific author of 54 plays (with more on the way) is Canada'…
AS EVERYBODY WILL LIKE IT To the mind of an ordinary Elizabethan, a forest in France might conjur thoughts of fairies, whimsy, beauty and adventure. While there is a Forest of Arden in Engla…
GETTING TO THE MEAT OF HER CAREER Michele Ragusa is blessed and touched by the theater Gods " they're real, trust us. Her career in theater is simply glowing, full of variety, and seemingly …
EARTHA HAS MOMENTS, BUT COULD USE A REPAIR KITT From almost any angle, singer/actress Eartha Kitt was a fascinating person. Born in 1927 into poverty and abuse in the American Deep South, sh…
THE HEAVEN'S BREATH SMELLS WOOINGLY HERE It seems odd to say that I was enchanted and beguiled with Independent Shakespeare Co.'s (ISC's) production of Macbeth, which opened this past weeken…
COME SEE THIS CABARET, MY FRIEND One of the wonderful things about period pieces, including musicals, is that they rarely feel dated because the book writer (Joe Masteroff, in this case) sta…
A SALUTE TO STORYTELLERS Stage and Cinema is grateful to GMCLA Music Director & Conductor Ernest H. Harrison for taking time out of rehearsing to chat a bit about A Salute to Sondheim,Â…
PROM-COM Dust off the Mylar balloons and wrist corsages and head over to The Ahmanson Theatre, where The Prom just landed as part of its national tour. Forget smelly gymnasiums or dated t…
GO TO TOWN I am convinced that me colleague Marc Wheeler nailed the many reasons in his review of Hadestown why you must see this national tour. One of the most original musicals to come out…
Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) has the the lineup for the 38th Marathon of One-Act Plays, works from artists who identify as Black, Indigenous & People of Color (BIPOC). This yea…
THE ANACHRONISMIACS Poetry is all the rage in the madcap comedy, The Metromaniacs, David Ives' 2015 English "translaptation" of La Métromanie (1738), an obscure French farce by Alexis Piron…
IDIOT IS AS IDIOT DOES Inspired by a 2004 rock album by the American pop-punk rock band Green Day, American Idiot has received its share of positive reviews since its premiere in Berkeley, C…
THIS MUSICAL IS RIGHT AT HOLMES When we think of Sherlock Holmes in the dank, foggy streets of London, investigating death and deception, probably the next thought we have isn't, "This would…
A BLOODY BUSINESS WHICH INFORMS "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning or in rain? When the hurley-burley's done, when the battle's lost and won…" These opening lines from S…
A PLAY OFF A rich, black, ball-busting pro-sports super-agent who has worked her way up from poverty to making partner at a major firm. The white male head of that agency who wants his prot�…