LIVING EVITA LOCA Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber " together with lyricist Tim Rice " released the Evita "rock opera concept album" in 1976, a few years before the first theatrical production came t…
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD Ever since Crimes of the Heart won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1981, a cloud of skepticism has followed the award. The announcement that last year's winne…
THERE'S MUCH TO DESIRE One of the most truly inspiring films of the last year was Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, not just for its devotion to Joffrey's legacy, but because the docu…
SECOND CITY KNOWS EXACTLY WHO THEY ARE Second City calls its 100th mainstage revue Who Do We Think We Are? The question is rhetorical. For more than half a century, Second City has been the …
GET THEE TO BEING SHAKESPEARE There's simply no other way to encourage your attendance to Being Shakespeare than to submit my unequivocal good word. Those who fret at comprehending Shakespea…
ONE HIT, TWO GUVNORS Once upon a time, you could attend theatre by Americans and watch actors who had worked together for decades. Long rehearsal periods to explore classical texts were …
A YOUNG MAN’S PLAY Would-be writers are often given the advice, "Write what you know." Of the many reasons why writers should write what they know is that it lends authenticity to thei…
POLITICS AS USUAL Given the nastiness of the recent Republican primary debates and a sense of even worse nastiness to come with the next election, it is no surprise that thoughts of reviving…
A LITTLE OUTDATED, ANGELS IS STILL MANNA FROM HEAVEN In 1994, Tony Kushner's two-part Angels in America plays " Millennium Approaches and Perestroika " opened locally at the Royal George The…
I SAY YOU WANT THIS REVOLUTION After the Revolution is a chewy new play about family dynamics and the difficulty of making moral judgments, especially after the fact. For audiences thirsting…
THE ALIENS CUTS CLOSE TO THE BONE The Aliens was already sailing high when it made its West Coast premiere at the SF Playhouse, as it has been hailed by the New York Times as a "gentle and e…
DAMES AT SEA: NOTES ON CAMP When Dames at Sea opened in 1966 at the Caffe Cino, a small coffee house and performance space in New York City’s Greenwich Village that was at the heart of…
AS GOOD AS IT GETS In his extraordinary production of Good People at the Geffen, director Matt Shakman has validated the necessary ingredients of a great show: First: Storytelling. In descri…
THE IDEA WORKS BETTER THAN THE ACTUAL PRESENTATION Jackie Sibblies Drury's new play could have the longest title in the history of the theater: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About t…
MUSICAL STRIKES A UMBILICAL CHORD Motherhood the Musical doesn't break any new ground in taking on the joys and tribulations of motherhood, nor does the 100-minute revue deliver any surprise…
A VERY F***ING SPECIAL SHOW One of the big dramatic moments in Billy Elliot, making its Los Angeles premiere for a month-long run at the Pantages, comes late in the second act, when Billy's …
THE BOYS ARE BACK, AND BETTER THAN EVER Maybe it's the law of averages. Put enough jukebox musicals on the American stage and one of them is bound to come up a classic. That may explain the …
THE IMPORTANCE OF A BIG BROTHER When you hear of Billy Elliot being a phenomenal world-wide success, it is almost shocking that the popular musical (music by Elton John, book and lyrics by L…
UNFETTERED AND ALIVE In Paris, Dmitry Krymov’s adaptation of an Ivan Bunin story, traces in words, music, and movement a few moments in the lives of two Russian émigrés (Anna Sinyaki…
AWAKENING TO THE FACT THAT IT’S A POORLY-WRITTEN MUSICAL I feel sorry for the cast and crew of Over the Moon Productions (OTM). The hard-working Broadway-caliber talent in Spring Awake…
IT'S NOT SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE KITCHEN Along with cutting meat for a living, Valerie, the butcher in Marisa Wegrzyn's impressive The Butcher of Baraboo, is a middle-aged woman who is the ce…
A GRIPPING PLUNGE INTO THE DARK SIDE Watching Marin Theatre Company's Othello, I wondered if William Shakespeare was determined " with teeth-gritted ferocity " to make the audience squirm wi…
YOUR OLD-AGE HOME FOR THE CLASSICS Julia Rodriguez-Elliott’s production of Moliere’s The Bungler reminds me of nothing so much as the last two shows I’ve seen at A Noise Wi…
A TRIUMPHANT TRAINWRECK If you've never applauded a trainwreck, be prepared to do so when you see Peter Quilter's End of the Rainbow. I am not talking about the gossip-driven, hardly revelat…
SIMON'S LOST IS FOUND The disappointing turnout for The Neil Simon Plays on Broadway in 2009 suggested that Neil Simon's style of dysfunctional family comedy, a mainstay of The Great White W…