The Mystery Plays at Ion Theatre
Ion's known for edgy scripts and daring risks. In conversations about new plays you'll often hear someone say "that's an Ion show." Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's one-acts, on paper and in its intimate, blackbox stage, are not Ion shows. The Filmmaker's Mystery …
Postview: Helen said what?
In Book VI of Homer's Iliad - and in the terrific An Iliad at La Jolla Playhouse - Helen makes an unexpected confession to Hector, leader of the Trojans: "My dear brother" (she says in Robert Fagels' translation) "dear to …
See How They Run at Lamb's Players
After 20 minutes of Philip King's 1944 farce it's hard to see why it's hailed as a classic. King parcels out information so slowly you'd swear he should've retitled it See How They Walk. The evening looks to be an …
Pop Quiz Answered
Who wrote the novel and when? Another hint: "Once books appealed to ...people. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths...Films and radios, magazines, books leveled down to a sort of paste …
Pop Quiz
Judging by the following quotations, guess which year this book came out. "Nineteenth-century man with his horses, dogs, cars, slow motion. Then, in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests. Tabloids. Everything boils down to …
Another Iliad
An Iliad, a stage piece based on Homer's epic poem, opens this Friday night at the La Jolla Playhouse. I offer the following as evidence of my lifelong fascination with Homer and the tale of Troy. I think I was …
Altar Boyz at Diversionary
Matthew, front man for the five-person, heart-throb band Altar Boyz, falls in love with a woman coaxed from the audience. He sits her on a stool and confesses he's so deeply smitten, "something about you makes me want to wait" …
Yasmina Reza Week in San Diego
Her God of Carnage is knocking em for a loop at the Old Globe. Depending on your perspective, or the degree of your defense-mechanisms, the play's either a childish farce, in which two seemingly civilized couples devolve into bug-eyed omnivores, …
Post-view: Zoot Suit
Something's always bothered me about the media's process with a theatrical production. As with movies, there's a build-up - previews, interviews, etc. - then the opening night review, and then, much more often than not, nothing. Coverage, flash, and zilch. …
Family Pride
It's become an icon of the games. Opening day ceremonies, 1984 Olympics, Los Angeles Coliseum: the American team comes onto the field. Leading them a man holds the U.S. flag high in the air — with one hand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akCndyEaiL0 An …
Happens Every Four Years
Work ceases. TV goes on. I tolerate the steams of commercials and NBC's infinite stockpile of heart-wrenching stories about the athletes, their parents, pet, song, library card number, favorite brand of mustard. Like a blitz of Hallmark cards. For two …
Vanished at Swedenborg Hall
Soon-to-be-divorced Nancy, her mother Louise, and unwed, six-months-pregnant Jenny are sitting around, trashing men. Jerks're this. Gobs of that. And worse. Men. Can't live with 'em. Can't euthanize... One muses about a "life without men." Next thing you know, eerie …
Fiddler on the Roof at Moonlight
Right before the opening curtain, Moonlight makes the traditional announcement: turn off cell phones, no photographs, etc. They should add another: please don't sing along to the great songs of Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics). Or even hum, …
The Impossible Dream Team
My father used to say: "the older you get, the better you were." Maybe this is a variation: "the better they were." Maybe not. All this bruhaha about Dream Team 2012 (Kobe, Lebron) vs Dream Team 1992 (Magic, Bird) and …
Zoot Suit at SD Rep
Director Kirsten Brandt, choreographer Javier Velasco, and a huge cast are giving Luis Valdez's drama with music a splendid revival. Zoot Suit was the first Chicano play ever performed on Broadway (1979). Its critical reception was almost as brutal as …
Casting Controversy at La Jolla Playhouse
For its current Page-to-Stage project the La Jolla Playhouse is work-shopping The Nightingale, a musical by Duncan Sheik (composer) and Steven Sater (book and lyrics), who wrote the award-winning Spring Awakening. They adapted a fable by Hans Christian Anderson (1843). …
Wherefore Art Thou, Richard III?
Early in Shakespeare's play, Richard, Duke of Gloucester vows that since he's too deformed to "prove a lover," he'll become a villain. The hunchback rolls his eyes, licks his chops, and practically drools blood. Then, as if he studied at …
Grooming the Groom
Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Joe get to watch their own funeral. Shakespeare lets Rosalind do what others would love to do as well: give a potential mate an advanced seminar on loving truly. The exact opposite of speed-dating. As …
Act One
Moss Hart knew "the dark brown taste of being poor." And when he made his considerable fortune on Broadway he bought a country estate, planted thousands of trees and built a gaudy mansion. The place looked so baroque it prompted …
Dames at Sea at North Coast Rep
"When I look into those big brown eyes of yours," Dick says to Ruby, "there's only one thing I want to do - SING!" Dames at Sea's a loving spoof of the Busby-Berkeley-directed glitz-blitzes of the 1930s - Gold Diggers, …