Friday, August 1, 2014
THE PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS IS ON THE CASE On March 18, 1990, two young men dressed as Boston police officers walked unchallenged into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Some 81 minutes lat…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:17PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 30, 2014
ETHER IS NEITHER/NOR A dramaturgical mess, Elizabeth Egloff's strangely shapeless historical drama about the mid-19th-century advent of ether as an anesthesia contains a fascinating story bu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:35PM[SHARE]FINDING NEW MOMENTS IN THE WOODS I wondered at the intermission of Fiasco Theater's production of Into the Woods why they hadn't cast amazing singers. Up to this point, the ten-member ensemb…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:39AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 29, 2014
FOUR PLAY The setting for Ronald Harwood’s 1999 play is a retirement home in England for former opera singers. Three of the residents,  Reginald, Cecily, and Wilfred, try to pers…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:59PM[SHARE]Friday, July 25, 2014
FATHERS AND SONS The sensitive, expressive, and pensive son. The emotionally cool, impatient, and badgering father. Together, this family dynamic seen throughout history is so familiar that …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:15AM[SHARE]L.A.'S BIGGEST FAN It surprises me that Lady Windermere's Fan isn't produced as frequently as the ubiquitous The Importance of Being Earnest. Beginning Friday, Chalk Rep is remounting las…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:09AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 17, 2014
WE WILL SCHLOCK YOU A huge West End hit for twelve years (just closing last May), this awful compilation jukebox musical does for Queen what Mamma Mia! did for ABBA, Buddy for Buddy Holly an…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:12AM[SHARE]Friday, July 11, 2014
I DREAM’D A DREAM TO-NIGHT The National Ballet of Canada (TNBC), which presented its thrilling rendition of Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the Dorothy Chand…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:40PM[SHARE]Monday, July 7, 2014
A HOT AUGUST CAST Having witnessed many Broadway hits at the beginning and end of their runs (and the touring companies they spawned), it is fair for me to say that the magic and crackling e…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:25PM[SHARE]Friday, June 27, 2014
EXPECT NO ERRORS IN THIS COMEDY One of Shakespeare's earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors is also his shortest and most farcical. In fact, while scholars argue over the classification of oth…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:41PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 25, 2014
DARK SUBJECT MATTER LEAVES US IN THE DARK Inspired by Theater of the Absurd, Cuban expatriate MarÃa Irene Fornés (b. 1930) cut her teeth during the Off-Off-Broadway avant-garde movement.…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:21PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 24, 2014
DELIVERING THE GOODS WITH INTO THE WOODS Somewhere between "Once Upon a Time" and "Happily Ever After" there is a very adult world of tests, losses, disappointments, and grief. Despite this,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:01PM[SHARE]Friday, June 20, 2014
I HAVE A LOVE Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have just released a live recording of the first ever complete concert performances of West Side Story. I wanted …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:46PM[SHARE]MEGALOMANIA WAS NEVER SO MUCH FUN Move over Evita, there's another Queen of Hearts in town. And she likes diamonds too. I'm talking about Imelda Marcos"she of the thousand pairs of shoes"who…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28PM[SHARE]CAVE-IN The press release refers to The Cave as being inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Persephone. In Greek mythology, Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the Underworld. B…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 19, 2014
A WORLD APART FROM TYPICAL FRINGE FARE Like a breath of fresh air, Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World far exceeded my expectations of both the Fringe and Brown's uneven song cycle. T…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:38PM[SHARE]FAR FROM FABULOUS A young gay man named Charlie has had a breakup. Feeling despondent, he enters an empty theater and performs a ritual aided by a copy of Witchcraft for Dummies. He conjures…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:52PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 18, 2014
GIVE US THE OL' RAZZLE DAZZLE There are some perfect pairs in entertainment: Laurel and Hardy, Bert and Ernie, Simon and Garfunkel, Gumby and Pokey, Cheech and Chong, and Shaggy and Scooby c…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:34PM[SHARE]LINDEN HOPS Based on the lyrics of Van Morrison's "Linden Arden Stole the Highlights," Colin Mitchell's one-man play of the same name may have a sketchy narrative, but a combination of genui…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:39PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 17, 2014
CANDY MAN Yes, this is a superficial “And then I…” retelling of Anthony Newley’s life, but Jon Peterson’s one-man outing at the Hollywood Fringe Festival is fun…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:24PM[SHARE]ONCE NIGHT ONLY Pretend for a moment that One Night Only Cabaret wasn't a fundraiser for both Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation (REAF). Pretend that yo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:15PM[SHARE]Monday, June 16, 2014
SEXY AND SWEET NUITS Since the creation of the Company Preljocaj in 1984, Angelin Preljocaj has become an international superstar; some refer to the French-born Albanian choreographer as the…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:57PM[SHARE]Sunday, June 15, 2014
WE DELIGHT IN THE BEAUTY OF THE BUTTERFLY For those who saw the visually striking production of San Francisco Opera's The Magic Flute (2012), designed by the ceramic artist and sculptor Jun …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:49PM[SHARE]Saturday, June 14, 2014
A BUFFALO NEVER THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION The dialogue you will hear and the people you will meet in Aurora Theatre's production of David Mamet's American Buffalo have both become hallmarks…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 11, 2014
WHEN A BELT DOESN'T HOLD UP AN ACT There was a time when American cabaret singers simply sang songs"no social commentary, no motifs, and no directors were necessary because the audience was …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:08PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 10, 2014
MTG BRINGS ANGELS TO LOS ANGELES The angels of concert-staged-reading productions come winging into town this week with a production of City of Angels, the 1989 musical spoof and homage to h…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:40PM[SHARE]Saturday, June 7, 2014
HARDLY THE ANIMAL IT WANTS TO BE Life comes to this new chamber musical, but only in the center of the second act, giving a hint of what the creators intended. Unfortunately, the flimsy prem…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:31PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 5, 2014
AN ACTOR WITH A NORMAL HEART I met Eric Lange in 1996 when I was producing The Normal Heart. I'll never forget that charming, at-ease magnetism he had walking into the audition room, and I k…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 4, 2014
MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYWRITING More of a writing exercise than a fleshed-out drama, Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries begins with an intriguing premise, but sputters to a halt when we …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 3, 2014
DON'T MIZ IT Unlike most of the characters in the blockbuster sung-through musical Les Misérables, the show itself will never die. Consistently presented either on Broadway, national tours,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:12PM[SHARE]Monday, June 2, 2014
A BLASPHEMOUS BLAST After Dominique Serrand’s jaw-droppingly juicy and insanely inventive production of Molière’s Tartuffe, a South Coast Rep patron was heard to say, “…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:59PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
