GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER? At first, we have no idea why a well-to-do couple has invited another couple and their son over for dinner. The hostess Debora (Ann Hearn) is on edge …
A WHALE OF A PRODUCTION Moby Dick, Herman Melville's 1851 whale of a tale (or tale of a whale), is as unsinkable as its title cetacean. It's never been more so than in Lookingglass Theatre C…
CUMMING AND SAPPY Yes, Disney Hall is a large venue for a cabaret act, but you can expect Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming to turn the venue into the most intimate hotspot when he prese…
BAD JEWS MAKES FOR GOOD THEATRE, BUT OY SUCH AGITA There's an old joke: "What do you get if you put three Jews in the same room? Four opinions." In Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews, the joke is …
LANG LANG RETURNS TO DISNEY HALL The first time I saw Chinese pianist Lang Lang perform live was at Disney Hall, and I must admit I was somewhat taken aback. For years, I had heard about …
SPOILER ALERT: THE PLAYWRIGHT DID IT Here's the warning issued to the press on Monday night. It's about critiquing Goodman Theatre's imported New York staging of Gloria: "In the hopes of mai…
JERRY HERMAN’S LEGACY ISN’T IN JEOPARDY, BUT TRIBUTE CONCERTS ARE With an evening of Jerry Herman tunes sung by Broadway powerhouses Ron Raines, Karen Morrow, Debbie Gravit…
ANOTHER BAND OF BROTHERS At a certain "tipping point" in the mid-20th century, passing for straight became one lie too many. A generation before the Stonewall riots, a generation after Henry…
THE PURITY OF INFINITY Mathematics can be maddening. Unless reflected in music (as in Bach), the "numbers game" feels stuck in a seemingly sterile realm of abstract entities, perfect in thei…
A CONSECRATION AND A CONCERT FIT FOR A KING Chicago Sinfonietta's annual concert to commemorate Martin Luther King"now in its fourth decade"held more relevance and righteousness than usual, …
THE HERO JOURNEY OF AÂ DRAG QUEEN Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is, of course, a much-loved 1994 "staying out" film from seemingly straight Australia. It spins the peripatetic tale of thr…
LEARNING TO BE DEAD Orpheus usually gets top billing in the classical Greek legend. He is of course the master of music who literally goes to Hell to retrieve his beloved Eurydice, abducted …
WHAT OF OURÂ SUFFERING IN THE NIGHT? Ambition should be made of smarter stuff. Nearly three hours of unfocused agitation, What of the Night? begs its own incoherent question. It's not the …
CATHARSIS IN A BASEMENT It's not easy for actors to lose control without losing the role as well. A master of concentrated dread and systematic despair, Kate Buddeke haunts this solo show. S…
A VERY DISPENSABLE DOOM Famed for her sardonic 1948 short story "The Lottery" and the scary novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson was a Go…
JAMES CAMERON MEETS CIRQUE DU SOLEIL Cirque du Soleil writes a new chapter in make-believe with Toruk " The First Flight, a not so typical two-hour fantasy inspired by (but not based on) Jam…
A SALUTE TO GREAT SONGS AND A GREAT CLUB Any excuse to expose selections from the Great American Songbook to a modern audience works for me. And a cabaret revue entitled A Night at the Stork…
THE MANE EVENT Watching the Los Angeles premiere of writer/performer Benjamin Scheuer's one-man show The Lion, directed by Sean Daniels, the element I am most taken with is Mr. Scheuer's …
‘TWAS BRILLIG, AND THE SLITHY TOVEY The witty, charming raconteur and conductor Bramwell Tovey has never failed to have the audience in the palm of his baton-filled hand. As ener…
WHIMSY WASHOUT Adapting a film or play into a musical is a dicey proposition. There’s no perfect formula, but theater’s great librettists"Oscar Hammerstein, Alan Jay Lerner, et a…
FIXING FICTION It's not your usual detective story: A quaint couple works to restore a villain suddenly lost from countless fairy tales. Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth depicts a very proper Edwardi…
DROPPING THE DROPPINGÂ CHANDELIER Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega-musical wants to be an opera about opera to end opera. Ironically, "Hannibal," its first-act spoof of a 19th-century grand oper…
THOROUGHLY THESPIAN Youth theater is mostly musicals, and many musicals are essentially infantilizing entertainments, most appropriate to teaching children how to perform. The kids themselve…
TAKING NOTES TO THE NEXT LEVEL Los Angeles native Stew, born Mark Stewart, is one of today’s most fascinating songwriters. He has released both solo albums and with his band, The Negro…
TCHAIKOVSKY MEETS THE WORLD'S FAIR: A PERFECT NUTCRACKER RECIPE It was a marvel of the ages and the crowning achievement of the 19th century (except maybe the Eiffel Tower). Now, happily, th…