All stories by Charles McNulty on BroadwayStars

Monday, April 16, 2018

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the farmhouse next door, and unexpected connections in between by Charles McNulty

Lili Taylor stars in artist Suzanne Bocanegra's "Farmhouse/Whorehouse," which combines text, music and film centered on the lives of Bocanegra's grandparents, whose small farm stood across t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the farmhouse next door, and unexpected connections in between by Charles McNulty

Path-breaking artists help us to see the world afresh by challenging our habitual patterns of perception. They shock us into new awareness by joining the disparate and sundering the similar.…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, April 13, 2018

Say 'I do' to 'Significant Other,' the rare romantic comedy with depth to match the laughs by Charles McNulty

Joshua Harmon's funny play, in a glorious new production at the Geffen Playhouse, follows a gay man in his late 20s whose female BFFs get married, one by one, leaving him ever more anxious a…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:20PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 9, 2018

Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Shaw's 'Saint Joan': A marathon for four actors, and the audience by Charles McNulty

Four actors play all the characters of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in Bedlam's touring productions at the Broad Stage through Saturday.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:57PM[SHARE]

Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Shaw's 'Saint Joan': A marathon for four actors, and the audience by Charles McNulty

However you judge Bedlam, this young and adventurous New York company deserves extra points for a program with an unusual degree of difficulty. Imagine four actors taking on all the roles no…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:55PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 6, 2018

With 'A Pink Chair,' Wooster Group conjures from spirits from theater's past by Charles McNulty

With a theme of hope in the face of oppressive politics, the Wooster Group stages 'A Pink Chair,' a piece centered on the work of the late Polish writer and stage director Tadeusz Kantor, so…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:25PM[SHARE]

With 'A Pink Chair,' Wooster Group conjures from spirits from theater's past by Charles McNulty

We live in an age where the internet has become an open archive. YouTube warehouses our collective nostalgia. (Oh, the hours I've lost watching old music videos and classic tennis matches!) …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 2, 2018

South Coast Rep's 'Shrew!' trips along the rutted road of Shakespearean updates by Charles McNulty

Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" belongs to a convention of comedy that isn't coming back anytime soon. The figure of the scolding, abusive wife, a reliable source of hilarity on the …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:30PM[SHARE]

South Coast Rep's 'Shrew!' trips along the rutted road of Shakespearean updates by Charles McNulty

Playwright Amy Freed revisits the character of the scolding, abusive wife with this female-centric update of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 05:29PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 30, 2018

Tony Kushner, thinking citizen: The playwright on 'Angels in America,' 'West Side Story' and surviving Trump by Charles McNulty

The Times' theater critic sits down with the playwright to discuss two new productions of his masterpiece, "Angels in America" " one at Berkeley Rep and the other in New York, where Kushner …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 29, 2018

Glenda Jackson steals the show in a thrilling, emotionally affecting 'Three Tall Women' on Broadway by Charles McNulty

Edward Albee's Pulitzer-winning drama is the vehicle for Glenda Jackson's return to Broadway. Laurie Metcalf, a Tony winner last year, and Alison Pill co-star.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 26, 2018

'Angels in America,' the right play for our fractious times by Charles McNulty

For one critic recalling the experience of seeing "Angels in America" 25 years ago, the current Broadway revival is perfectly timed, proving the political prescience of playwright Tony Kushn…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:46PM[SHARE]

'Angels in America,' the right play for our fractious times by Charles McNulty

The superb new Broadway production of "Angels in America" from London brought back my first encounter with the work at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 1993. I had traveled from New Haven to see t…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:45PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 22, 2018

'Frozen' on Broadway: It's no 'Tempest' (or 'Lion King'), but the musical sings with sisterly appeal by Charles McNulty

When it shrugs off its Shakespearean aspirations, Disney's female-centric fairy tale succeeds with comic sweetness and a charming cast.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM[SHARE]

'Frozen' on Broadway: It's no 'Tempest' (or 'Lion King'), but the musical sings with sisterly appeal by Charles McNulty

No one attending "Frozen," the new Broadway musical that had its official opening on Thursday at the St. James Theatre, is meant to ponder the rise of extreme weather events. Leave it to a s…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PM[SHARE]

At the theater, eager anticipation for Manville, Irons, 'Soft Power' and more by Charles McNulty

Theater critic Charles McNulty notes promising productions in the coming season, including Joshua Harmon's "Significant Other," Stephen Karam's "The Humans," Amy Herzog's "Belleville" and Le…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Taylor Mac on gay history, 'Hamilton' and his epic 24-hour extravaganza at the Ace by Charles McNulty

The performance artist sits down with Times theater critic Charles McNulty to discuss "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music," which explores oppression and resistance throughout American his…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:19AM[SHARE]

Taylor Mac on gay history, 'Hamilton' and his epic 24-hour extravaganza at the Ace by Charles McNulty

The professors and university mandarins having lunch at an elegant UCLA campus restaurant the other day had no idea that seated inconspicuously among them was a cultural revolutionary. Weari…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 2, 2018

As Kennedy bios go, 'Jackie Unveiled' is more sketch than portrait by Charles McNulty

"Mozart in the Jungle" star Saffron Burrows tries to channel Jacqueline Kennedy in this one-woman production at the Wallis, but a big wig can't make up for a thin script.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:45AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 1, 2018

Why 'Three Billboards' and 'Call Me by Your Name' leave this theater critic cold by Charles McNulty

I felt sure two of this year's Oscar contenders would satisfy my seasonal yearning for intelligent screen storytelling, but in both cases, I found myself quarreling with the writing and the …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00PM[SHARE]

Why 'Three Billboards' and 'Call Me by Your Name' leave this theater critic cold by Charles McNulty

Like many Americans, I find it increasingly easy to talk myself out of going to the movies. There's plenty to watch at home and so little to lure me back onto the roads and into those unfath…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Brilliant acting and direction drive a modern 'Streetcar Named Desire' by Charles McNulty

Boston Court in Pasadena presents a new production of Tennessee Williams' classic, set in contemporary times and propelled by Michael Michetti's pitch-perfect direction.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:05PM[SHARE]

Brilliant acting and direction drive a modern 'Streetcar Named Desire' by Charles McNulty

Michael Michetti's revitalizing production of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center shakes out the cobwebs of an American classic that has…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:05PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 26, 2018

In 'Happiest Song Plays Last,' good intentions come with some off-key notes by Charles McNulty

The last play in Quiara Alegria Hudes' trilogy about an Iraq War veteran trying to forge a life back in the States proves more difficult to stage effectively in this Latino Theater Company p…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]

In 'Happiest Song Plays Last,' good intentions come with some off-key notes by Charles McNulty

When we last checked in on Elliot at the end of "Water by the Spoonful," the middle work in Quiara Alegría Hudes' three-play Elliot cycle, he was in Puerto Rico with his cousin Yaz scatte…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 20, 2018

A spectacular new 'Uncle Vanya' at San Diego's Old Globe by Charles McNulty

A new translation of Chekhov's play manages to modernize a classic without updating it. The result is a strong, smartly acted production under the direction of playwright Richard Nelson.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:51PM[SHARE]

A spectacular new 'Uncle Vanya' at San Diego's Old Globe by Charles McNulty

Sometimes you don't know how much you need Anton Chekhov until you re-encounter him. "Uncle Vanya," one of the Russian writer's four dramatic masterpieces, is on view here at the Old Globe's…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:50PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 19, 2018

The Actors' Gang's story of America: The tired, the poor, the huddled masses who bind us all by Charles McNulty

Tim Robbins' theater company looks to its own members' family stories to create a new work about America's immigrants. The result is a little monotonous but ultimately powerful " and deeply …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:52PM[SHARE]

The Actors' Gang's story of America: The tired, the poor, the huddled masses who bind us all by Charles McNulty

"The New Colossus," a performance work created by the Actors' Gang in collaboration with company artistic director Tim Robbins, is inspired by the stories of ensemble members' ancestors who …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:50PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 12, 2018

'Water by the Spoonful' at the Taper: Broken souls, and a cast, in search of connection by Charles McNulty

Quiara Alegria Hudes' powerful, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a family grappling with ghosts of the past opens at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles " but not without some problems.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:33PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 9, 2018

'Ironbound' at the Geffen Playhouse: An immigrant's portrait, painted with piercing realism by Charles McNulty

At a time when the issue of immigration is used like a political football, it's easy for some to distance themselves emotionally from the debate. Martyna Majok's drama pulls us back into rea…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:01PM[SHARE]

All that Chat