Theater antireviews
Over the last several weeks I’ve read a novel, watched a film, and attended a play all set in WWII — specifically, the Nazi occupation of Guernsey and Normandy. Given that Schindler’s List and Life …
I’d never seen Into The Woods live, so I took a chance and went up to Torrey Pines to see Steven Sondheim’s fractured fairytale. The production was impressive but more importantly, the emotional content of …
Diana, a new musical at the La Jolla Playhouse, is running through Sunday, April 7. Given La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical we might expect Diana to be The Diana Ross …
It is a play based on a book based on an online advice column which was called “Dear Sugar”. I had previously read some of the Dear Sugar material, and found it to be spotty …
To most, Guys and Dolls is a light-hearted, toe-tapping musical about streetwise gamblers who find redemption through the power of love. But consider how it looks from a grifter’s perspective. These guys and dolls cover …
To assimilate or not to assimilate, that is the issue in Familiar, which plays at The Old Globe through March 3, 2019. This mixed cocktail of comedic cultural exchanges was written by Danai Gurira, who …
Led by a generation of young dudes from England, rock and roll was enjoying its hair-flying heyday in 1973, the year Sister Rosetta Tharpe was laid to rest, without a tombstone. While British guitar heroes …
The crisis in this play-about-a-play comes when an actor doesn’t make his entrance, leaving an increasingly desperate actress on stage alone, ad-libbing. It is hilarious. The real thing: not so much. The scene brought me …
The theater is in a strip mall, up an ugly staircase. On the landing stands a sad, dusty, fake ficus. The door is unmarked and doesn’t look inviting, but it’s the only door, so I …
In the play Always… Patsy Cline (which ran December 12 through December 30 at North Coast Rep), a country music star befriends one of her biggest fans, forming a close relationship with someone who has …
A Christmas Carol at Cygnet is unique in that the book and lyrics were adapted by Cygnet co-founder Sean Murray, with music by frequent Cygnet collaborator Billy Thompson. This year marks the fifth the show …
With 2019 only weeks away, I watched world premiere play The Year to Come open at the La Jolla Playhouse. Every scene in the play takes place at a family New Year’s Eve party, and …
I arrived at the theater dressed in my usual inconspicuous black dress pants, simple blouse, and low heels, only to realize immediately that I hadn’t gotten the memo. Among all the red and sparkles, I …
They can’t completely ruin Christmas — the commercialization, the gaudy lights, the atrocious, omnipresent, fake-happy “holiday” music that is the very antithesis of holy (it’s just “day” music if you think about it). Then the …
What interests me most about Miracle on 34th Street is the way it juxtaposes belief in Santa Claus against common sense and practical thinking while expounding upon the Santa Claus archetype. Over the past six …
In theater’s early days, did a budding playwright sit through a performance, hoping and praying the actors might suddenly pause in their dialogue, turn toward the audience, and specifically include him or her as part …