FANTASTIC, INDEED Fantasticks may be the longest running musical in America, but Amanda Dehnert’s magical production at South Coast Rep should run forever. The backdrop for this timeless wonder is now a defunct seaside amusement park, instead of the normally simple and open stages of countless productions past. A captivating cast recounts a tale of [...]
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NOT SO DULCE It’s a shame that so much love, talent and money was bestowed upon the new opera, Dulce Rosa, which is the inaugural project of LA Opera’s Off Grand series, a program which offers new operatic works in venues other than the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Opening at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica [...]
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A FRATERNITY OF MASTER THESPIANS At its core, Jeff Stetson’s Fraternity is about the two options that face black men in today’s society (or, at least, the society of Birmingham in 1987, when the play was written): Either become part of the white establishment or cling passionately and tenaciously to the tenets of the early [...]
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SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES In a rare clash of film noir, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is the ultimate voyeuristic thrill. Audience members don Venetian masks and explore the depths of the 1930s-style McKittrick hotel in pursuit of the dubious characters of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who run amuck throughout. [...]
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SKETCHY BLUEPRINT The great John Turturro stars as the architect Halvard Solness in David Edgar’s translation of Ibsen’s enigmatic chef-d’oeuvre The Master Builder, which is currently being performed at the BAM Harvey Theater under the direction of Andrei Belgrader. Mr. Belgrader chooses to take what might be called a more traditional approach to staging the [...]
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ALL THE WRONG MOVES The musical Chess highlights the tongue-twisting, swift, and pithy lyrics by Tim Rice and the soaring, dazzling music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame. In previous Stage and Cinema reviews of productions at MTG and the Met Theatre, its history has been well-documented: The super-partnership of Rice-Andersson-Ulvaeus in 1979; [...]
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ALIVE WITH AMBIGUITY If you require a neat and tidy ending, a feeling of clarity, and a sense of completion to insure your theatrical enjoyment, then Dying City – making its Los Angeles premiere at the Rogue Machine Theatre –is not for you. If on the other hand you appreciate that a life examined offers [...]
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HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTACHE IS Moments before the arrival of Hope (a domineering mother-in-law, not the aspiration), newly-married Melody jests with her handsome corporate attorney husband, Craig: “Don’t talk about your mother and then try to kiss me.” Although funny dialogue such as this may seem more sitcom than theatrical in Bekah Brunstetter’s Be [...]
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THE TITLE CHARACTER IS TOO PURE FOR PEOPLE, BUT THIS PURE PRODUCTION IS FOR EVERYONE Of all Moliere’s comedies, The Misanthrope (1666), now gloriously and faithfully revived at Court Theatre, is the one literary critics and Moliere fans most take to heart. The master’s most personal and most ambiguous work, The Cantankerous Lover (its telling subtitle) delivers [...]
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SCULPTED TO PERFECTION Dance should never be dull: That’s the acting credo of Boris Eifman’s kinetic Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, now erupting across the huge Auditorium Theatre stage through Sunday. Chicago may be a huge dance town already, but this amazing company is always welcome for their frenzied dancing, electric mood swings, pulsating lighting on swirling [...]
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