6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
GONE BUT NEVER SILENT Commemorating the 75th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," the terrible nights of November 9-10, 1938 when Nazi thugs unleashed their most public assault on Jewish life and…
OF KNOTS AND TANGLES Johnna Adams’ 2012 play Gidion’s Knot, now receiving its premiere Los Angeles staging by the Furious Theatre Company, lends itself to spoilers. To know m…
THE SPECIFIC ENIGMA OF A BUNNY A play is generally defined as "a staged representation of a story " see: DRAMA." A circle ensues, because drama is explained to be "a piece of writing that te…
A DANCE PIECE THAT'S A KEEPER The frequency of site-specific events continues to grow exponentially in the City of Angels, but Heidi Duckler has been doing it for many years, creating unique…
COMPASSION PLAY Forgetting the ineptitude of Larry Kramer's 1988 farce Just Say No, it's ripe to revive his 1985 masterwork about how a health crisis defined the gay community–as much …
HIT THE WALLIS A brand new theater has opened its doors in Beverly Hills, but nothing could have prepared me for its magnificence in contemporary construction and design. The 500-seat Bram G…
CAMPY SHE-RANTULAS HAS QUITE A BITE Dictionary.com defines “camp” as “something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered…
DREADFUL AT ANY PRICE Back in the1800s, the Industrial revolution was in full swing in merry ole England. The working class was becoming more educated and printing was becoming more affordab…
BALLET SUPERSTAR RETURNS TO SEGERSTROM The title of two world premiere dance pieces at Segerstrom Hall this week could not be more apt: Diana Vishneva of the Mariinsky Ballet and American Ba…
A TITLE THAT LIVES UP TO ITS NAME The circus has rolled into Rosemont again, and the fall classic is worth running off to join (it moves to the United Center after Allstate Arena). This 1…
FORMULAIC IN A GOOD WAY In The Book of Mormon, Trey Parker and Matt Stone proved that subject matter in musical theatre is a lot less important than sticking to the structural formula. There…
MUCH BETTER THAN GOOD The last thing that Brecht would have wanted is the audience to identify with his characters. But that's where the Foundry Theatre's production of Good Person of Szechw…
OOFTA, INDEED The premise of C. Denby Swanson's black comedy The Norwegians is that two women Minnesotan women, Texas transplant Olive (Veronica Cruz) and Kentucky transplant Betty (Karla He…
ROLE REVERSAL For its inaugural production at its new temporary home in Atwater Village, the Celebration Theatre has mounted The Homosexuals (pun intended). As one might glean from the title…
HYDE IN PLAIN SIGHT Actors Co-op does it again! Last year’s re-imagining of The World Goes ‘Round was musical perfection and this year's Ah, Wilderness! was a sentimental d…
A HIGH FLYING, ADORED REVIVAL Composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice released the Evita "rock opera concept album" in 1976, a few years before the first theatrical production…
IS THIS A KEGGER I SEE BEFORE ME? The morning after the Thane has killed his king, and one of those epic, omen-riddled Shakespearean storms has ravaged the countryside, Macbeth snaps out my …
FAST, FURIOUS AND FUNKY Ending tonight at the Harris Theatre, the latest balletic blast from the newly renamed Giordano Dance Chicago delivers six hyper-kinetic pieces. This generous outpour…
A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF ACTING Last August, Time's cover story, "A World Without Bees," brought to light a frightening occurrence: In recent years, there have been mass deaths of honeybee…
A CLOSED-MOUTH KISS There are so many sexual allusions and situations in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate that it is remarkable the musical came out in 1948. I surmise the reason that Porter got …
DEPRESSING DEPRESSION ERA DRAMA What a time! Folks standing on line for charity handouts, companies closing down, destitution and despair all around. Surprise, though, we're not talk…
SEEING WHAT’S INVISIBLE In describing Invisible Cities, allow me to paraphrase Gore Vidal's critique of Italo Calvino's 1972 novel of the same name on which this production is based: O…
MOZART'S SISTER: POSSIBLY MORE TALENTED, DEFINITELY BETTER LEGS In many one person shows that are biographies of historical personages, there's the risk of Wikipedia syndrome, in which the p…
REINVENTING ROCK A huge West End hit for over a decade, this compilation jukebox musical does for Queen what Mamma Mia! did for ABBA, Buddy for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and Jersey Boys …
EAGER FOR MORE A farcical, semi-interactive burlesque fairytale " complete with girls in g-strings and tassels, a pun-spewing, corny joke-telling MC, a Jazz combo, and a working bar inside t…
