6,804 stories from Stage and Cinema
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO BAGHDAD: COMEDY BUMPS INTO HISTORY TO CREATE A MASTERPIECE We sometimes forget how much the theatrical stage can be a place of true discovery"until we st…
A RADICAL FAIRY TALE FIT FOR A KING The only marketing I saw for Jordan Tannahill's provocative new play Prince Faggot, which opened last night at Playwrights Horizons (a co-production with …
NOT ENOUGH HEAT The Second Coming of Joan of Arc is the best-known work of American playwright, author, and lesbian feminist Carolyn Gage. Loosely based, scholars will tell you, "very loosel…
THE PICNIC COMES BEFORE PINAFORE, LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY. WELL, SHIP HAPPENS. It's best to approach Pacific Opera Project's new production of W. S. Gilbert (libretto) and Arthur Sullivan…
BROADWAY ON A BASEBALL FIELD: TRANSCENDENCE THEATRE HITS IT OUTTA THE PARK Transcendence Theatre Company has opened a triple-hitter "stars under the stars" summer season with their song-and-…
SICKENINGLY FUNNY Noah Diaz's You Will Get Sick, which opened last night at Steppenwolf, is an odd bird of a play. It begins with an irresistible premise: a middle-aged woman, Callan, respon…
LOVE, LOSS, AND THE PULSE OF PARIS San Francisco Opera's most beloved production is back, and it's as heartbreakingly beautiful as ever. La Bohème, Puccini's timeless tale of love, art, and…
SMART SELLS IT Jean Smart is a phenomenal stage actress of great depth and specificity. Not exactly news but since she's possibly best known as the warm-hearted and slightly naïve "Charle…
BROADWAY STARS UNDER THE STARS If you've ever wanted to hear Michael Feinstein conduct an orchestra while a pulchritude of peacocks prance in the background, you're in for one of LA's most d…
SEA WORTHY Wilds of Sea is an undersea adventure that will leave little ones wide-eyed and utterly captivated. But make no mistake"this all-ages puppet spectacle is as enchanting for the gro…
STORYTELLING THAT LAUNCHES A THOUSAND SHIPS There is a moment in Court Theatre's fourth (!) iteration of An Iliad where The Poet holds a flashlight below his chin"I immediately flashed back …
A BEAUTIFUL TAPESTRY OF SONGS AND STORY Reagle Music Theatre kicks off the summer with a vibrant, lovingly crafted staging of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, directed with finesse and fl…
 I always look forward to the shows of Shelley Cooper at the Hollywood Fringe. They are musical biographies of women who made history not only with their presence but with their voices a…
From Broadway to Cabaret: Sally Mayes on Music, Mentorship, and Meaning She belts when it counts, crafts when it's quiet, and teaches with heart" Sally Mayes is still doing it all, her way. …
A MUSICAL SALTIER THAN SALT LAKE ITSELF Let's start the actual religious text called The Book of Mormon, published in 1830. Without going into all its details about other planets, Jesus visi…
THE SOUND OF FAMILY Berkeley Playhouse has a reputation for doing family-friendly musicals right, and their latest production, The Sound of Music, hits that sweet spot again. With a cast tha…
SQUEEZABLE THEATER Those dark days all seem so long ago. The face masks, drive-thru testing, fear of crowded indoor spaces, and some idiot assuring us, "It's going to disappear. One day " it…
Unlike his previous shows at The Hollywood Fringe " Spank the Monkey and Shagadelic: The Origins of Slang Words for Doing It " Michael Blaha has shed his stage persona of Professor Richar…
A MUSICAL COMEDY TO REMIND YOU WHY YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH THE ARTFORM IN THE FIRST PLACE "In 1982 a man called Larry put himself in a lawn chair, got some 42 balloons, and went to sixteen tho…
EVENTUALLY, EVERYTHING COMES OUT IN THE WASH Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre has found a new home, relocating from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side's WP Theater. Their second…
BEAUTY IN STEP: GRACE, MELODIES, AND ACB'S ELEGANT NEW WORKS Few phrases in the world of classical music fill me with as much excitement and dread as "world premiere." This applies even with…
FROM CASTLE HILL IN THE BRONX TO A DEBUT AT CARNEGIE HALL IN MANHATTAN, SAMARA JOY IN CONCERT AND IN THE GROOVE # # # Most jazz vocalists dream of rapid success: winning a major contest, daz…
Have you ever wanted to run away from your own life? In Becky's New Car, now playing at Theatre 40, playwright Steven Dietz takes that midlife fantasy and drives it straight into a quirky, c…
A REVIEW OF A REVUE Whatever happened to the topical revue format? As differentiated from musical revues that recycle old, established songs by particular writers, the topical revue presente…
FEMINIST CLOWNS COLLIDE WITH CAPITOLISM Clownish perfection poses a unique problem for reviewers in that the blend of Da-Da slapstick and rib-tickling existentialism tends to defy easy descr…
