6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
AN ANCIENT SWEETNESS ON A GOODMAN STAGE Infatuated with alteration, Tony-winner Mary Zimmerman loves transformations, metamorphoses, shape-shifting, and slow to rapid mood swings. Nothing sh…
BORED TO DEATH In Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair's ill-conceived two-hander musical comedy Murder for Two, lively performances and Scott Schwartz's energetic direction are not enough to overc…
A BLAZING-HOT PRODUCTION As Los Angeles heats up to scorching temperatures this week, there is a cool, refreshing theatrical breeze blowing down the pike. It may be wise to avoid the 110-in-…
A PIG WITH WINGS Variety critic Daniel Kimmel identified a thread running through Neil LaBute's work: “He is a misanthrope who assumes that only callous people who use and abuse others…
DAZZLING DOMINGO IN MASSENET’S MASTERPIECE What do world-renowned singers do once they have reached the age of retirement? On the strength of their name, they fill cabarets and concert…
HAS THE BLOOM WORN OFF THE LILY, OR IS IT ME? Dear Lily: I've adored you ever since you burst into my consciousness " and the nation's " way back in 1969 on Laugh-In. Who could forget your E…
THE GHOST OF GERSHWIN: SONGS 10, BOOK 3 There is a lot to sing about in the Group Rep's season closer The Ghost of Gershwin. It contains a bevy of freshly penned ditties by Wayland Pickard (…
THE OLD SONG-AND-DANCE Full of vitality, eagerness, and joie de vivre, the indefatigable, cheerful, and fast-talkin' showman Maurice Hines is offering a walk-down-memory-lane with song, big …
THEATRICAL ANTHRAX In Ellen McLaughlin’s 2011 play Ajax in Iraq, a heroic American soldier, A.J., is raped by her sergeant. Her Iraq War story parallels that of the Trojan War hero…
ALL THAT CHAZZ After nearly a 25-year absence, actor Chazz Palminteri returns to the Los Angeles stage in the world premiere of Unorganized Crime, currently shooting up the joint at the Elep…
GOING WHERE NO FESTIVAL HAS GONE BEFORE Writer and actor David Dean Bottrell came up with a swell idea for Los Angeles"a science fiction theater festival. Consisting of two different program…
INDELICATE AND OUT OF BALANCE When Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 it was no doubt a theatrical revelation. Although it didn't pack the emotional wallop of W…
BEYOND THE BREACH It honors the text. That's praise enough for any production, especially when the drama is the world's greatest propaganda play:Â Henry V. Shakespeare's most patriotic wor…
INTO THE WORDS For his production of Into the Woods, director T.J. Dawson notes that Stephen Sondheim's score is often revered as genius. "However, many of his incredible lyrics rush by most…
JUST DANCE I recently read an email from a dance mentor whose advice for performing was simply, "Let it all go and Dance, Motherfuckers!" I couldn't help but think back to the email as I wat…
WHAT, WOULD IT KILL YOU TO HEAR A JEWISH JOKE, I ASK YOU? A German, a Frenchman, and a Jew are crawling across the desert. The German says, “Mein Gott! I’m so hot and thi…
29 IS THE NEW 19 "If you ever feel stuck in your life," Broadway, TV, and film heartthrob Jeremy Jordan told the adoring throng at his L.A. debut last night, "go back to your childhood and r…
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE DANCED Move over Evita, there's another Queen of Hearts in town. And she likes diamonds too. I'm talking about Imelda Marcos"she of the thousand pairs of shoes"who is …
OOPSY DAISY With enough comic personality to rival Fanny Brice, the droll, deft, dirty, daffy, derisive, delirious, and delightful Daisy Eagan, best-known for being the youngest female Tony …
NOW THIS IS HOW YOU ADAPT A PLAY In 1859 Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon opened in New York City to much acclaim. The plot of this suspenseful melodrama centers on George, a young man of Sout…
BAROQUE AND LOVING IT It begins innocently enough with two nymphs singing, swinging and blowing bubbles"until the gods intervene and mayhem ensues. There are transvestites, lusty satyrs, and…
NOT PREMEDITATED ENOUGH Despite playwright Evelina Fernández' ability to take clichéd problems about marriage and turn them into humorous complaints about men tossing underwear on the fl…
MELTING JIGS INTO DIRGES Whether it's a Jewish family in Awake and Sing! or a black one in A Raisin in the Sun, poverty grinds down its unloved ones and prejudice finishes the ki…
TIME IS RELATIVE FOR THE RELATIVES IN TIME J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways is in some ways a creaky play, yet the production at The Old Globe is so lovingly directed, thrillingly acte…
DIM LIGHTS As part of its 17th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, South Coast Repertory presented a play by Adam Rapp. Unlike Theresa Rebeck's Zealot and Rajiv Joseph's Mr. Wolf, which rec…
