6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
MUSICAL WITH A CHECKERED PAST GETS A CHECKERED PRODUCTION Chess, the musical about two chess tournaments between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, is the 1979 brain child of lyr…
THIS IS NOT YOUR TEXTBOOK BRECHT While productions of Brecht’s plays are often weighed down by theatrical theory and didactic political messages, The Foundry Theatre jolts the audience…
AN ARTISTIC PLEA FOR CHANGE In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Blizzard Nemo, global climate change is increasingly palpable. As inclement weather infringes on our day-to-day activities,…
VIRTUAL THEATER Teddy Ferrara, Goodman Theatre's new commissioned work, is almost three hours long. That excess suggests that nobody had the courage to cut or, not knowing what it was about …
PROMISING SCRIPT BUTCHERED BY PRODUCTION VALUES Adam Seidel's sanguinary dark comedy, Catching the Butcher, is an unlikely and eccentric love story in which a secret and utterly sick relatio…
GALATEA COMES TO LIFE Transformation. Evolution. Metamorphosis. These words are often confined to biological definition, abused in a critic's articulation, and criminally under-applied by ar…
AIRPORT FOR BIRDS FAILS TO TAKE OFF In their sketch comedy show Airport for Birds (and Other Great Ideas), Team StarKid seems to have wracked their brains to come up with as many reasons as …
I'D LIKE TO RETURN THIS GIFT, PLEASE The Geffen Playhouse has a proud tradition of staging crackerjack productions of dramatic works by some of the modern theater's greatest playwrights. To …
A SIZE THAT DOES NOT FIT ALL Of the three plays which constitute Tarell Alvin McCraney's "The Brother/Sister Plays," The Brothers Size, now playing at The Old Globe, is the most intimate and…
A DULL DESCENT INTO HELL The charisma and passion Ethan Hawk brings to the title role, Vincent D'Onofrio's powerful stage presence, a gnarly set by Derek McLane, lovely songs by Latham and S…
BENCHED SHOULD HAVE BEEN BENCHED A cantankerous senior gets his dander up when he discovers a stranger occupying his favorite Central Park bench in the L.A. premiere of Richard Broadhurst's …
CROSS OVER FROM ROUTINE AND VIVE LE VIE Napoleon's vision to make the world his grand empire of France was stifled by his winter campaign in Russia and his defeat at Waterloo. However, what …
PIÑATA FULL OF DARKNESS Don't be concerned if you don't receive an invitation to Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party " the Steppenwolf's revival production is still an event not to be mis…
AN IMPROVISED TRUTH Los Angeles-based Impro Theatre opens a run of Jane Austen: UnScripted on Valentine’s Day at the Pasadena Playhouse's Carrie Hamilton Theatre. Their most …
FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE SPANISH GHETTO Octavio Solis' Se Llama Cristina is a gritty, mind-bending trip. The main characters, Man and Woman, slip in and out of past, present, and future …
THE LADY OF THE GARDENIAS Thanks to Lanie Robertson’s bedrock-basic script, Rob Lindley's dedicated staging and the utter effacement of a good vocalist into a great one, courtesy of Al…
THE SEMBLENCE OF A PLAY It is unfortunate that Our Practical Heaven is a relationship-fueled play, because it was difficult to invest in any of the characters. The two-hour play, now rec…
THE DRAG QUEEN TO DRAG YOUR THOUGHTS AWAY FROM YOUR TROUBLES I first saw Coco Peru perform in a B movie sendup " a campy romp called Blood Orgy of the Carnival Queens! But at New York's O…
WHERE’S THE SCANDAL? When I first drove past the Zephyr Theatre looking for parking, I saw what appeared to be anti-pornographic picketers on the sidewalk in front of the building. I w…
TALK ABOUT A LONG AND WINDING ROAD So, this cool cat painter, a blonde Frau, and several Liverpool lads named John, Paul, George, and Pete walk into a bar in Hamburg… While this sounds lik…
SOMEWHAT SOUTH OF WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE Chicago Dramatists' world premiere is a tale of murder, spirituality, and heartbreak: A black man named Stranger, after being accused of the murder of …
READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP, MR. DEMILLE From the start it seemed strange that anyone would make a musical out of a movie that embodies its medium so completely. Yes, the film All About Eve deser…
MOUNTING OLYMPUS Think of it as Twilight for the theater geek or Smash in literary form. You may love to hate it or hate to love it, but Ruby Preston’s new novel Showbiz is an undeniab…
SAD TRIUMPH OF HOPE OVER EXPERIENCE It’s like kicking a puppy dog to dislike Charity Hope Valentine. Charity is the cloyingly-named heroine of the 1966 musical by Cy Coleman, Dorothy F…
THE RITE OF JOFFREY One hundred years ago, a new ballet took place in Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. This highly controversial work " for both its music and choreography "…
