Joy, love, passion and some heartbreak overflowed at Revolution Stage Company this past Monday as Broadway veterans and best friends Craig Ramsay and Catherine Wreford kicked off a multi-cit…
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER Walking into the New York Irish Center in Long Island City for the first time to see a show feels a bit like stumbling into a well-kept secret; it's an intimate gathering…
SWEETLY PLAYFUL TREATMENT OF A COMPLICATED PLOT The prolific author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was the creator of 66 novels, 14 volumes of short stories and 20 plays, ten of which have been…
The Inmates are Easy to Like in Palm Canyon's Cuckoo's Nest Upon entering Palm Canyon Theatre, one first sees the onstage set for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Designer J. W. Layne has cr…
HORRORSÂ IN THE ROUND Little Shop of Horrors, based on the 1960 science-fiction film by Roger Corman, opened off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre in Manhattan's East Village on July 27, 198…
JUDGING THE BOOK OF GRACE BY ITS (VERY IMPRESSIVE) COVER The Chicago Premiere of The Book of Grace at Steppenwolf Theatre is an expertly executed production of an underwhelming family drama.…
FALSE WITNESS HAS NOT CHANGED An ear-splitting blast from a punk-rock band opens this thought-provoking glimpse into an ancient event. Playwrights Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett pieced tog…
AN ABSURDIST ROMP INTO MODERN LOVE AND MADNESS Desert Ensemble Theater presents Christopher Durang's hilarious comedy, Beyond Therapy, through April 27. The play is an exploration of neur…
NOTHING HAPPENS. EVERYTHING HURTS. If you're a fan of Annie Baker"whose plays of quiet revelatory naturalism include The Flick, Circle Mirror Transformation, John, and my personal favorite, …
NOT A FALSE NOTE IN DEZART PERFORMS' WONDERFUL PRODUCTION William Finn and James Lapine's two-act musical Falsettos follows Marvin (Tim Ewing), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, weal…
ONE MAN. 60 MINUTES OF DISASTER. EVERYTHING FAILS MAGNIFICENTLY! Ron Campbell is a clown all right. This is apparent from his first pratfall, which occurs about eleven seconds into his show,…
CYRANO GETS A CONFUSING NOSE JOB Why anyone involved in Los Altos Stage Company's current production of Cyrano thought it would be a good idea to make Cyrano a woman"and without the trademar…
Palo Alto Players' Jersey Boys Finds the Beat, Even When the Staging Stumbles Opening night at Palo Alto Players' Jersey Boys had the Lucie Stern audience itching to jump out of their seats …
END-OF-WORLD TRAGICOMEDY CRACKS, BLEEDS AND THRIVES The end arrives not with a sob, but with a drag queen in a glittering black pantsuit, standing in a celestial spotlight, grinning like the…
COUCH SURFING AND CULTURAL BAGGAGE It makes sense that Jeffrey Lo"a Filipino artist who writes, directs, and knows the Peninsula theater scene inside and out"could write a play like Writing …
IN CORKTOWN '39, THE LIVING ARE JUST GHOSTS WITH BETTER TIMING Mark Mendelson's tightly composed set at The Matrix Theatre is a room cloaked in aging wealth at the Keating family's Philadelp…
While visiting New York, I was lucky enough to catch two Scott Siegel events. Similar in structure but with completely different feels were Broadway by the Season at Merkin Hall and 54 Sings…
A PLATE OF MASHED SMASH Let me be clear. I never saw the television series Smash. I know nothing about the series other than that it focused on a community theater working on a show about th…
CHERRIES WITH A FEW PITS Anton Chekhov's final play, The Cherry Orchard, is a masterwork of dramatic irony. It was written in 1903 as a dark comedy but it was always more akin to a tragedy, …
HERE THERE ARE HORRORS Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich's Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Kaufman at Berkeley Rep, involves a fascinating true story. We are at the U.S. Holocaust M…
A HELLUVA HELLAS Ancient drama gets short shrift here in Los Angeles. Sure, we get the stories, but the shows are usually adaptations, hardly ever a straight translation, and when we do, the…
OH, I'VE GOT PLENTY OF SUTTON Rounding out Hobby Center's trio of Beyond Broadway Series concerts following Adrienne Warren, Sutton Foster descended on a rather enthusiastic crowd Friday eve…
MAMET'S HENRY JOHNSON PROVES A DIFFICULT PROTAGONIST Along with blazingly rapid dialog, there's something aggressively determined about David Mamet plays"like Glengarry Glen Ross now being r…
KNEEL AT THE CHURCH OF CHURCHILL A drum roll begins each act and ends with a cymbal crash. Paired with the red front curtain and chaser lights outlining the proscenium arch, one might brace …
A Dazzling Night of Song and Tribute Broadway took up residence on the banks of the Potomac last night as the Anthem Theatre played host to the Signature Theatre's annual Sondheim Award Gala…