6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
SHOW BOAT JUST KEEPS ROLLING ALONG At San Francisco Opera’s summer company premiere of Show Boat, the first image at the War Memorial Opera House is a proscenium-high curtain depicting…
MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYWRITING More of a writing exercise than a fleshed-out drama, Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries begins with an intriguing premise, but sputters to a halt when we …
DON'T MIZ IT Unlike most of the characters in the blockbuster sung-through musical Les Misérables, the show itself will never die. Consistently presented either on Broadway, national tours,…
CYBER COMPASSION, OR PIXELS FAKE PASSION Like his equally probing The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West's 1933 novella Miss Lonelyhearts all but skewers its subject: the loneliness of crowds…
A BLASPHEMOUS BLAST After Dominique Serrand’s jaw-droppingly juicy and insanely inventive production of Molière’s Tartuffe, a South Coast Rep patron was heard to say, “…
FRACTURED FAIRY TALES Director Jessica Kubzansky’s imagination is firing on all cylinders, turning frivolousness into delight with South Coast Rep’s The Stinky Cheese Man and …
TRAGIC FOR HIM BUT GOOD FUN FOR US Hot on the heels of the run of Old Jews Telling Jokes, the Lyceum brings us a very different and more personal look at Jewish humor. Instead of a non-s…
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD Headlining Plácido Domingo and Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, the extravagance of LA Opera’s production of Massenet's 1894 opera, Thaïs, is a veri…
HOME LOST HOME A world premiere from Sideshow Theatre Company, this curious and lengthy offering feels as familiar as it is threatening. In 145 minutes Kathleen Ackerley (who also co-directs…
MORE LANG FOR YOUR BUCK While Jessica Lang has made a name for herself in the dance world as an independent choreographer, dance patrons in Los Angeles may find this dancemaker difficult to …
趙 æ° å¤ å…’ COMES TO A.C.T. Who amongst us can deny that at one time or another we have been wronged or injured by someone else? But how many feel that retaliation by exac…
CHINA SOARS OVER LAKE MICHIGAN For a ninth consecutive summer, Cirque Shanghai (its title actually referring to whatever Chinese city produces these performers) has returned to the well-name…
DEARTH OF DRAMA Steven Drukman’s Death of the Author takes its name, premise, and some of the devices in its dialogue from a Roland Barthes essay on postmodernism. It’s wonde…
AMERICAN HERO OR AMERICAN ZERO? While researching a speech on the origins of "The Star-Spangled Banner," I came across a name that I remembered from a visit to Gettysburg National Military P…
WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE? No question, Black Ensemble Theatre's latest offering boasts the usual superb quality control of sounds and notes, casting, performance, ensemble rapport, and music…
SAY IT, MOTHERFUCKER When you see the word "Motherf**ker" in the title The Motherf**ker with the Hat, what comes to mind? Why, "Motherfucker," naturally. While the asterisks may be necessary…
A SHOW THAT DESERVES AN EXCLAMATION POINT! Broadway's recent bumper crop of musicals has provided spoof-meister Gerard Alessandrini a mother load to mine in the latest installment of his wel…
TWO TONY'S UNITE FOR ONE OF THE BIGGEST THEATER EVENTS OF THE YEAR For anybody starved for smart and thrilling playwriting, your destination is Berkeley Rep, which is unfurling the West Coas…
BUILD-A-BEAR NARRATIVE In this year's Spring Spectacle, Redmoon provides some characters, some comedy, some cruelty, their trademark whimsy, and ornate production values, but the chronologic…
A PRODUCTION FOR TUTTE TO COSÃŒ UP TO For those who think that the "semi-staging" for Così fan tutte, which opens on Friday at Disney Hall, is simply a world-class orchestra accompanyin…
COME HOME TO THE THEATER Statistics vary, but there were approximately 700,000 homeless Americans in 2013. While the government reports that figures are less drastic since the 2007 economic …
NOT SINCE THE REAGAN ERA Alas, it's been 30 years since Paul Taylor Dance Company last played Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Even more alas, the too-brief weekend return ends today, May 28. A…
THERE'S NOTHING LIKE SITTING DOWN WITH A GREAT BOOK As someone who has not been living beneath a rock the past three years, I'd heard about The Book of Mormon. I laughed at the soundtrack, r…
a poem about a play This critic, this poet this pinch faced sailor Blueblack eyes like wet rocks icy sharp nose like a dagger screams I AM A PLAGIARIST this poem MY poem paraphrased from act…
A ROAD TRIP YOU HAVE TO TAKE Some may not know this, but Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor, ex-cowboy, and musician Sam Shepard is also an amazing short story writer. After reading Cr…
