QUINTESSENTIAL QUINTIN Essential jazz, effortless swing, and a trio's genuine chemistry Jazz fans bid farewell to January with a smile at Birdland Jazz Club by settling into a sublimely sati…
HISTORY IN DIALOGUE WITH ITSELF Dominique Morisseau's time-splitting drama refuses easy parallels On paper, Dominique Morisseau's Confederates might read as high concept: two Black women in …
HISTORY, POWER, AND WHO GETS TO DECIDE Rajiv Joseph's epic drama offers no comfort"only urgent questions For those seeking entertainment as a refuge from the nightmare of our current politic…
COSÃŒ FANTASTIC This was my third time seeing Mozart's Così Fan Tutte. The second was Lyric's 2018 production. While I was concerned about the three-and-a-half-hour runtime on a Sunday …
RISING WATER CAN'T FIND ITS CURRENT A powerful premise sinks under miscasting and flat pacing John Biguenet's Rising Water, a Pulitzer-nominated drama set in the immediate aftermath of Hurri…
SHAKESPEARE AS LIFELINE Jacob Ming-Trent turns the Bard into a blazing solo tour de force at Berkeley Rep We are all on our personal journeys of living and being in the world. Everyone encou…
A CONTEST AND A CONCERT The Mabel Mercer Foundation nurtures the next generation of cabaret artists Three cheers for the Mabel Mercer Foundation (MMF) and its ongoing commitment to introduci…
A packed ballpark has its own sound check. You hear the sharp pop of warmup throws, then the softer murmur that settles in once the first hitter digs in. Even on a late night broadcast, the …
THEATER IN STEREOPHONIC A terrific docudrama about artistic temperament and the torment of creation David Adjmi's Stereophonic, now playing at the CIBC, is an unusual piece of theater. It's …
JOYCE'S ODYSSEY ON STAGE Elevator Repair Service turns the impossible into a joyous theatrical sprint Beloved, despised, or abandoned halfway through by most readers, Joyce's Ulysses is one …
A SELF-INFLICTED WOUND POSING AS THEATER. SAFE WORD: CURTAIN An erotic psychological thriller script without the erotic, psychology, thrill, or script Dear Gay Theater-makers, I am writing t…
AN INTERGENERATIONAL, SENSATIONAL THEATRE GROUP Creative Stage Collective's annual revue proves that age is irrelevant when imagination leads To get to their Sunday rehearsals, the many memb…
SWEENEY TODD SLICES DEEP " EVEN WITH A FEW MISSTEPS Jason Alexander's ambitious concept does not blunt the impact of a blisteringly performed revival McCoy Rigby Entertainment has been doing…
COMEDY UNDER PRESSURE A writers' room in early television on deadline, and a production that hits every punchline Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor fictionalizes the writers' room behi…
POETRY AS ACTIVISM, MEMORY, AND INVITATION A moving, participatory tribute to June Jordan that insists poetry still matters June Jordan was a seminal feminist poet and essayist who"beyond ge…
For decades, music videos have been a meeting point between sound and image"a space where rhythm becomes motion and emotion takes visual form. From experimental cinema to theatrical performa…
A PRESSURE COOKER OF A PRODUCTION A thriller that examines the effects of social media Josephine Moshiri Elwood (Jane) and Dennis Trainor Jr. (Loyd) pull out all the stops in Job, an 80-minu…
ZANDER RAPHAEL SPINS PUPPETRY INTO GOLD Gilded Spindle offers Shannon L. Reagan's retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale with a slight #MeToo twist. While the talents and artistry of Reagan, …
Kind Stranger … A Memory Play, conceived and performed by Rick Simone-Friedland is successful as a historical rendering of Playwright Tennessee Williams' life. It is also successful as a r…
About midway through Martha Graham's powerful Chronicle, performed last Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, I realized that the elevated platform at center stage was not just a pl…
THE ACTRESS WHO MADE THE RIDICULOUS PROFOUND Catherine O'Hara, who has died aged 71, could make you laugh and break your heart in the same scene. Most performers pick a lane; she moved betwe…
A REIMAGINING OF A HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC Frothy fun with an affirmingly progressive perspective The art deco sets (Scott Pask, scenic design), broad-shouldered plaids (Gregg Barnes, costumes), a…
ALGORITHMS, ETHICS, AND THE COST OF INFORMATION A sleek, jargon-charged tech thriller that trades in privacy, prediction, and moral gray zones Between ownership battles over data-rich social…
OSCAR WILDE, REWIRED FOR NOW David Zippel brings star power and modern snap to Palm Springs Tony-winner for Liza's at the Palace, David Zippel"one of Broadway and Hollywood's sharpest comic …
A DELICATE CHAMBER PIECE THAT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART One of the advantages of a small performance space is that, in the right hands, one can set the mood even before the play has begun. In th…