GLAMOUR BEFORE THE FALL A pansexual Richard II struts through power, pleasure, and ruin in the 1980s In its current staging at the Astor Place Theatre, Red Bull Theater serves up a Richard I…
GO ON AND BITE INTO THIS DONUT" YOU'VE EARNED IT It must have been quite a shock to Tracy Letts fans when Superior Donuts premiered at Steppenwolf in 2008. Chicago Theatre's favorite adopted…
A Night with a Gentleman Thief: Pacific Opera Project's Delightful Fra Diavolo Daniel Auber's Fra Diavolo amassed over 900 performances at the Opéra Comique during the 19th century before b…
BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL INTO THE WHITE HOUSE This play-within-a-play probes power, mythology, and who gets to tell the story Making its West Coast premiere at Marin Theatre Company is Sally…
THE SANDWICHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD A wickedly funny historical fantasia delights even as it stares catastrophe in the face Roundabout Theatre Company's Archduke, which opened last night a…
THIS WAY TO THE AMERICAN DREAM" MIND THE TRAP DOORS Kafka's story still needs an ending, but Open Fist delivers a wildly inventive Amerika If you think America is in an existential crisis ri…
SHARP CAST, BLUNT SATIRE A Fierce Ensemble Fights for Meaning in Angry Fags Topher Payne's Angry Fags first made its appearance in 2015, in a world that was decidedly different from what it …
Bluebeard's Castle, A Medieval Musical Thriller by Russian director and playwright Sofia Streisand, making her U.S. debut at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, displays immense ambition that achi…
425 YEARS LATER, THE O.G. ROMCOM STILL CASTS A SPELL Writers Theatre in Glencoe, a charming North Shore Chicago suburb, has developed a reputation for impeccably produced theater of extremel…
FROM FRIDA TO FUNK, MATTERS OF THE HEART THRILLS When words fall short of capturing the fullness and depth of life's experience, there is dance"or more broadly, art itself. That truth was ma…
NO PLACE LIKE HOME" UNLESS MICHAEL FEINSTEIN TAKES YOU THERE Let's Get Away From It All proves the Great American Songbook is still first-class travel When Michael Feinstein opened his show …
Raymond Munro (photo by Stephen DiRado) TWO RAYS UNITE IN A JOURNEY OF STORY THEATRE Theatre, by its nature, is ephemeral. That is part of its allure, and part of what we love about it. It f…
A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT"FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people's views on social issues, inclu…
SUPER ZEROES UNITE! Aging heroes, flat jokes, and laughs that need life support Golden Age by Thomas J. Nisuraca is the roughest of rough theatre. Staged by Force of Nature Productions and d…
RAISING THE CURTAIN AGAIN Palm Springs Plaza Theatre celebrates its grand reopening with a free community open house After a two-year, multimillion-dollar restoration, the historic Palm Spri…
A GREAT PREMISE GETS LOBOTOMIZED Laguna Playhouse offers a dazzling wall of doors and not much behind them Paul Slade Smith's new play Beside Myself arrives with a knockout premise: Gemma, a…
GUNNING FOR PUERTO RICO Stephen Sondheim chose an unlikely topic for his 1990 Assassins, a musical that portrays assassinating or attempting to assassinate a president is as American as popu…
THE QUIET COST OF BELONGING Suh's Thanksgiving duet is lovely and lived-in, but leaves one wishing for deeper stakes The Heart Sellers at South Coast Rep offers a focused, uninterrupted glim…
A SPELLBINDING CAULDRON BOILS OVER, SUMMONING THEATER'S WILD GODS Suffice it to say, there's nothing else in New York quite like Anne Washburn's new play The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, …
MUCH TOO GAY? JUST GAY ENOUGH! This past Thursday evening, Revolution Stage Company presented a dazzling, high-energy celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, self-acceptance, and joy"filled with wit, g…
THIS HOUSE STANDS ON FAITH AND FURY Invictus Theatre's The House That Will Not Stand blazes with wit, grief, and grace Following the smashing success of its production of Angels in America, …
A LOVE LETTER TO THE OBAMAS THAT BRINGS THE WHITE HOUSE DOWN The biggest surprise of the season for me has been 44 the Musical, which opened last night at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Billed as a…
WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT? CV REP'S PINOCCHIO CARVES OUT A WINNER The Conservatory program at Coachella Valley Repertory opens its arms wide to the next generation of theatre lovers with Pinocchio…
NOSTALGIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MODERNITY IN THE WINGS At a time when most new musicals chase novelty, Reunions looks lovingly backward. Conceived as a pair of one-act chamber pieces performed b…
POP-UP, FLOP-DOWN: WHEN DINNER UPSTAGES THE THEATER The foundational idea of Suite 524's Pop Up Dinner Theater at Barlume Downstairs is solid " four courses from Barlume's excellent kitch…