TRANSCENDENCE DOES BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFULLY Sonoma County's home-grown musical revue troupe Transcendence Theatre Company has launched a wonderful production of Douglas McGrath's theatrical bio…
NEW YORK, NY " For decades, Broadway has been synonymous with dazzling lights, standing ovations, and world-class theatre. But could it also become a market for bettors in the United States?…
TA-DA! AND OTHER QUEER MAGIC TRICKS For Josh Sharp, "ta-da!" is code for gay. As a twelve-year-old magician, it was his entrance line: "ta-da!" Yeah, totally gay. But growing up in the South…
FROM TWEE TO TRÈS MAGNIFIQUE It's fascinating how some stories lend themselves better to one medium than the other. In 2001, the French romantic comedy, Amélie was an unexpected worldwid…
JOHN + SWING 7 = JAZZ HEAVEN Attend a set by John Pizzarelli and you're set for a satisfying songfest, whether it's a solo affair with just the mega-musical Mr. P. playing guitar and singing…
A LOOK BACK AT AN OLD MUSICAL ABOUT STRIKING OIL STRIKES IT RICH AS IT STRIKES ALL THE RIGHT NOTESÂ Â "Kid, when you need the crowd the tickets are hard to sell." That's a line from "He…
TWINS, TWISTS, AND A TENDER TOUCH The Old Globe Theatre closes out its summer Shakespeare Festival at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park with a zippy 90-minute one-act…
FLYING HIGH, CAROLE DEMAS'S FIREFLY LIGHTS UP THE ROOM "I could say life is just a bowl of Jello / And appear more intelligent and smart / But I'm stuck like a dope with a thing called hope …
SONGS OF MR. STROUSE IN THE HOUSE One of the greats of The Great White Way's great golden age, Charles Strouse was the honoree in absentia in an especially splendid presentation on July 2…
NOW SERVING LEGS, LEAPS, AND LIFE: AN EVENING THAT OFFERS PIROUETTES WITH A PURPOSE Dance for Life, the exuberant gala of dance created in 1992 to help address the impact of AIDS on a beleag…
DON'T LET THIS PARADE PASS YOU BY In 1913, in Atlanta, Georgia, the body of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old factory laborer, was found in the basement of a pencil factory. On the flimsiest …
THE WEIGHT OF WHAT REMAINS In Brooklyn's charming Fort Greene, Bubba Weiler makes his playwriting debut with Well, I'll Let You Go, a lightly funny meditation on grief and healing, brought t…
DARWIN DEL FABRO STUNS IN A PERFORMANCE OF BECOMING One reason the queer community has found broader acceptance in America " generally speaking " is that most people today know someone who i…
ONE UP PLAYS TO WIN" WITH A CHEAT CODE FOR CHARM One Up: The Musical, which premiered at this year's Hollywood Fringe and returns for encore performances, is a charming, if uneven, 80s-inspi…
WHY CAN'T A SUPERHERO CATCH A BREAK? (OR A BROADWAY RUN) Foster Cat Productions is taking a gleeful leap off the tall building that is It's a Bird… It's a Plane… It's Superman!, the 1966…
CRYSTAL PALACE: AWAKENING PERFECTS THE IMPERSONAL It opens with darkness. Then light fractures across a sixty-foot glass stage that shouldn't exist but does, spinning and splitting into impo…
FRANK MORGAN Not too long ago in Sag Harbor, Morgan Bassichis spent time at an artist residency. For those unfamiliar with such places, Morgan wryly explained that "an art residency is when …
THE HISTORY, HYSTERICAL HAPPENINGS & HAPPINESS THAT SPELL "BROADWAY" Broadway musicals feature a parade of talent which, like time, marches on. Sometimes it seems that parade of pizzazz …
RHYTHM, RADIANCE, AND RACONTEURS: THE ROOST REVUE OPENS AT THE ROOST LOUNGE This summer, The Roost Lounge introduces a bold new addition to its entertainment lineup, a cabaret series curated…
A GLORIOUS NIGHT OF BROADWAY, FRIENDSHIP AND FEMALE ICONOGRAPHY Wolf Trap could not have conjured a more exquisite evening last night for Sutton Foster and Kelli O'Hara's long-awaited joint …
SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT UNDER A WEEPING MAGNOLIA: SHOTGUN'S HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL STUNNER Now playing with an extended run in Berkeley, Shotgun Players' Magnolia Ballet by Terry Best is the best …
Let there be no mistaking it, Mark Vigeant is so funny that if he was performing on an amphitheater set up in front of Mount Rushmore, after the first five minutes milk would be shooting out…
SINSATIONAL SENSATIONALISM OR, WHAT HAPPENS IN TIMES SQUARE, STAYS IN TIMES SQUARE Escape artistry emerged as a formal performance art in the 1860s, when the Davenport Brothers popularized t…
EVERYONE WILL LIKE IT HOT It wouldn't be a valid review to simply write, "I loved it!" a hundred times and ship it off to my editor. However, if you're looking for a bottom line or a simple …
When audiences settle into their seats and the curtain rises, they're transported into worlds built not just with story and performance, but with texture, music, color, and symbolism. One un…