Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Don’t forget ‘If I Forget’ at the Fountain. Plus ‘Dear Evan Hansen,’ ‘A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill,’ ‘King Liz,’ ‘Trouble the Water,’ ‘Freestyle Love Supreme,’ ‘Cookin’ with Gas’ The present moment is the essence of live performance. Everyone in the audience — or on the stage, for that matter … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Plays about fractious families may be common but toss politics and the Holocaust into the mix and you’ll have an intriguing drama. Steven Levenson’s If I Forget takes place in an upper middle-class home in Washington DC, circa the year 2000. The central character, Michael Fischer (Leo Marks), is a professor of … Read more
Dana Martin – Stage Raw This is calling out to Idiot America: Chance Theater would like to offer a healthy, full-throated Fuck You to the American Establishment with their latest production, Green Day’s American Idiot (music by Green Day, lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong, book by Armstrong and Michael Mayer) — an angsty pop-punk-protest rock opera about a generation … Read more
Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Silly and tender, this might be one of the most beautiful performances you will ever see. Who could ever imagine that mere swaths of fabrics and plastics, a few balloons, and fluttering paper could hold attention as the emotional centerpiece of any single theatrical performance? And yet, here is the proof … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw There are many things to like about A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill, a musical by composer/lyricist Matt Schatz that was developed in a writers’ workshop at Geffen Playhouse, where the production now runs through July 24. A lively upbeat score (performed on stage by a five-member band, musical direction/orchestration by Scott … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania Last weekend, Wayne Brady sashayed onto the runway at the Hollywood Bowl as the iconic drag queen Lola in the Tony-winning musical Kinky Boots. His vibrant performance prevented a miscast Jake Shears from dragging the evening down. With a score by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein, the 2013 … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw, Notes From Arden When it debuted on Broadway in 1970, Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company (book by George Furth) rattled both social and theatrical sensibilities. Imagine having a boy-meets girls scenario where the boy, Robert (Cris Cortez), starts and ends the musical single. Why? He just doesn’t see the point of marriage … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In comedy, silly plots are easily forgiven if the writing is witty or insightful, or if one or more performers is so engaging that other shortcomings can be overlooked. With Clownfish,Theatre of NOTE’s premiere production following the hiatus of the pandemic, none of this is so Written by Amy Dellagiarino, the … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The dumbing down of American musical theater continues apace with Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which throws the past 50 years of popular music into a moronic Mixmaster and performs the stitched-together “songs” with the regrettable aesthetic of a cut-rate Vegas revue or a taste-free ‘70s TV variety show. It’s doubly unfortunate, because … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, originating in the 1500s and one of William Shakespeare’s most beloved and produced plays, has been adapted in countless ways over the past few centuries, including as films, musicals, ballets, operas, an animated Disney short, and even a disco-oriented off-Broadway takeoff called The Donkey Show, while having an … Read more