6,804 stories from Stage and Cinema
A POIGNANT LOOK AT FEMALE FRIENDSHIP What are the makings of female friendships? What holds them together and what causes them to shift off course? These are just two of the philosophical qu…
A LIVING PORTRAIT Regular patrons of the theatre are accustomed to passively sitting back, letting the story flow off the stage and course through them. Life & Times Of Michael K is not …
DEAD ON ARRIVAL The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, adapted for the stage by Mark Shanahan from Agatha Christie's 1926 novel, premiered at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas in 2023. It's no surpr…
A PLAY THAT RAISES THE ESCOBAR Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and corrupt politician who founded and ran the deadly MedellÃn Cartel. Known as "the king of cocain…
MASQUERS KNOWS THE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL, MAGICAL COMEDY Alfred Hitchcock gets a good-natured but thorough pummeling in The 39 Steps at Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond, through December…
DEATH BECOMES HER IS NOT FOR PURITANS OR VICTORIAN GRANDMOTHERS. BUT HOW MANY OF THEM ARE AROUND TODAY? Death Becomes Her, the new musical based on the eponymous 1992 black comedy/fantasy an…
A GENERATIONAL GAP AND A PLAYWRITING GAP As a result of the #MeToo movement, there has been much brought to light about women working in America. But here's a note to the younger generations…
WHAT'S YOUR STORY? In the "It's Not the Story, It's in How You Tell It" Department, an incredible number of shows I saw in the last month have incredible tales to tell, but falter in their c…
THE REAL TRAGEDY WOULD BE MISSING THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET Legendary director Robert Lepage and dancer/choreographer Guillaume Côté reunite to re-imagine theatre's most timeless, persistent…
LA CAGE: STRIPPED OF ITS FEATHERS In Sam Pinkleton's well-intentioned but ultimately discordant revival of La Cage aux Folles at the Pasadena Playhouse, that old showbiz maxim about the show…
THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OF POLITICS When you hear the name Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton there are three visceral reactions that may occur. The first is deep respect for a woman who gave her e…
LOOT IS A HOOT Loot is Joe Orton's darkly comic masterpiece that eviscerates societal norms and exposes the hypocrisies of authority figures with razor-sharp wit. Two young men, Hal and Denn…
A TIME-TRAVELING JANE AUSTEN What if Jane Austen had managed to read The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan's groundbreaking 1963 exploration of why well-educated and prosperous women were so …
MIND FOR ALL ITS WORTH The antidote to anxiety is control " or so the mind would have us believe. Our knee-jerk reaction to worrying about a situation, event, person, outcome, or (let's face…
PAWFECT FOR THE KIDDIES I have often felt that anything that gets children exposed to live theatrical productions is such a gift. A staged show can have such an enormous impact on both creat…
BURNING BRIDGES It takes a brave soul to speak out about getting back at those who got you cancelled, especially when the names that are blamed can theoretically destroy any chance of contin…
JUST AS PROMISED, IT'S BIG! IT'S GAY! IT'S JAMBOREEING! Yes, there is a way to escape the post-election blues for 90 minutes: The Big Gay Jamboree at the Orpheum Theatre is the sublimely …
VOICES INSTEAD OF BULLETS Although Arms Around America, which opened last night at The Nimoy in Westwood, is about guns and their people (or "ammo-sexuality," to steal a wonderful phrase fro…
THE GOOD-NATURED BUFFOONERY IN FORUM IS THE TONIC FOR WHAT AILS YOU A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, currently at Signature Theater, is knee-slapping farcical fun à la vaud…
70 YEARS ON, AND WE'RE STILL WAITING You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. " Alber…
SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES No plague can kill a great show. It came back after COVID. In a rare clash of film noir, performance art, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Pun…
"HOW LUCKY YOU ARE" TO SEE SEUSSICAL No one does youth and family theater better in the Bay Area than The Berkeley Playhouse. Everything they offer features classic and family friendly shows…
YOU'LL BE GRINCHING FROM EAR TO EAR For the 27th year The Old Globe is presenting its hit musical Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, continuing its position as one of t…
A NEOLITHIC AND LEAN LEAR Shakespeare's works can be read in many ways and I have witnessed so many diverse stage interpretations that I never know what I am about to see when I venture towa…
THE ZZZZzzz TEAM The Z Team, currently playing at Theatre Row, is a new work by father-and-son team Jeff and Jacob Foy. Directed by Jeff Whiting, it's advertised to be uproarious: "If The…
