NOT MUCH UNDERGROUND Author Neil Gaiman writes for the anime and graphic novel era " rollicking adventures that are tonally glib, suffused with whimsy and wit, and full of puns, extraordinar…
ALMOST MAGIC Although the magic tricks in Bullet Catch are not so much ends in themselves as they are tools used to help explore the show's themes, the effectiveness of the play " named a…
A FAMILY HAUNTED BY ITSELF Even among dysfunctional clans " an apparently exhaustible topic for today's theater " Jason Grote's self-haunted family in Maria/Stuart gets laurels for looniness…
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED Henrik Ibsen stated that he had no conscious thought of making propaganda with A Doll's House (1879). Yet many productions have a feminist bent: Nora is the misu…
THE MISCHEVIOUS INDEMNITY OF NOIR You can bring a blanc sensibility to noir, but noir finds a way of seeping in"its luxurious, sweet poison stealing focus when you're not looking. In Billy &…
THE BLEEDING HEART OF DARKNESS Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness concerns an English ship captain’s journey to the Belgian Congo, and the revelatory effect of his encounter …
BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE A soldier named Mario returns from Iraq just in time for the 2005 New Year's celebration with his East Los Angeles family, friends and novia " but he also retur…
THE FUN IN FRAUD Famed impresario P.T. Barnum banked on one cynical truth: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. The undisputed master of the “…
SEEING ISN'T FEELING Blythe Duff and Andrew Scott-Ramsay deliver rich, convincing performances in David Harrower's worthwhile if not completely satisfying play Good with People. Part of the …
A BUTTERFLY THAT’S STILL IN THE COCOON Katherine Noon's latest ensemble workshop-developed hydra creation, The Bargain and the Butterfly, takes its inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne…
A SHOWCASE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS When watching Artistic New Directions' presentation of An Eclectic Evening of Shorts: Boxers and Briefs VI, a collection of six ten-minute plays, plus three s…
DETROIT COMES TO BERKELEY The Berkeley Playhouse production of Guys and Dolls is just the thing for a theater lover, a fan of this timeless musical, or a family to kick back and enjoy. The s…
SHIPSHAPE Imagine a boat named "Utopia" launched in the 1830s, floating towards Moscow. As the boat sails onward, it becomes heavier, taking on cargo, passengers, and the weight of the futur…
MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL Although he wrote at least 15 complete operas, Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) is not a familiar name, even to many in the opera world. The first-generation modernist…
NEW ORLEANS IN VIRGINIA Like many operas in the last 100 years, Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire " recently produced by Virginia Opera " is through-composed with very l…
SCHOOLED BY CALLAS If you've ever been to a master class, then Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Master Class (1995) will seem very familiar. If you haven't, then you're in for a re…
FOOD FIGHT Using Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children (1939) as a template, writer Peter Howard has created a wartime tale about the need to survive in challenging times. But the war isn…
MYTH UNDERSTOOD Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice is classical in its mythological origins but forges a modern path with a point of view modification and feministic flair. The original Greek myth of …
BREAKOUT IN THE OUTBACK There are so many ways to glitter and be gay in American Musical Theater: La Cage Aux Folles depicts the unexpected bourgeois normality in a near-marriage of boa-wrap…
EVERYBODY HAS A BALL AT THIS CINDERELLA Gioachino Rossini's Cinderella (La Cenerentola) was written in 1817 during the bel canto era when operas were written to showcase beautiful singing, b…
GO ASK ALICE “Do you take dictation?” the gentleman asked as he gently closed the door to the study. Seated at an antique rolltop desk, I responded with an eager “Yes,̶…
NETHER NOR Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, right? Not anymore. It's fascinating that the World English Dictionary defines reality as "the state of things as they are o…
APPARENTLY CAT FIGHTING IN TRASH ISN'T AS FUN AS WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE Jami Brandli's ambiguous whodunit, S.O.E., strands three disillusioned and combative rivals together during a state of…
NOT YOUR RANK-AND-FILE PRODUCTION No getting around it: Robert Massey’s Rank is talky and familiar. Without a top-flight cast and director, this show could easily be lost in the va…
HAVING ISSUES WITH ISSUES Ken LaZebnik's On the Spectrum, which opened last week at the Fountain Theatre, belongs to a genre known as Theatre of Identity, aka Social Issues Theatre; the idea…