"The Funniest Man I Ever Saw"
In The Scottsboro Boys, Haywood Patterson is condemned to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit. In the Old Globe production, Clifton Duncan plays Patterson and sings "Nothin'" two ways: he blasts out angry lyrics, then pulls back …
Master Harold...and the Boys at Lyceum Theatre
For its inaugural production, Living Light Theatre performs Athol Fugard's autobiographical drama. The intermissionless piece talks about an unexpected twist in a short story - then delivers a shocking one on stage. The twist is based on fact: as a …
Arts Left Behind?
Nilaja Sun's No Child opens this Saturday at Mesa College's Apolliad Theatre. It's based on her experiences directing a play during No Child Left Behind. Kevin Six, former arts administrator and arts education advocate, offers an insider's view. "No Child …
The Cast Looks at Brownie Points
On the surface, Janece Shaffer's comedy-drama sounds pleasant enough. Girl Scouts go camping in the Northern Georgia pines. Five mothers tag along: two are troop leaders, three want to watch their daughters earn Brownie points. Things fall apart when Allison …
The Hound of the Baskervilles at North Coast Rep
I saw a preview of Phil Johnson and Cynthia Stokes' work-in-progress. Johnson, in fact, was performing before his first live audience. So this won't be a "review" in any formal sense. Just two heartfelt plugs. The first, for the enterprise. …
Respect: A Musical Celebration of Women at the Lyceum
About half way into Dorothy Marcic's revue, a shiny black rotary phone sits on a chair center-stage. Kelsey Venter kneels before it transfixed. When it doesn't ring, she grows antsy and begins singing the Vikki Carr hit "It Must Be …
Lucille's Ashes
As he recalled his process for a recent blog about Cygnet Theatre's Parade, director Sean Murray added an anecdote that gives the musical another telling dimension. Leo Frank was accused of raping and murdering a young woman in 1913. The …
A Look Back
Cygnet Theatre's extraordinary Parade must close this weekend. The musical tells the story of Leo Frank, a Southern Jew wrongly accused of murder and lynched by vigilantes in 1913. It ran only 84 performances on Broadway, many speculate, because it's …
Deconstruction of a Drag Queen at Circle Circle dot dot
Shaun Tuazon's terrific performance shoots a sure arc through a production filled with highs and lows. He plays Michael, a super-bright student with a clearly-defined path: get top grades, go pre-med. at UCSD, then med. school, Hippocratic oath, heal humanity. …
Ripples from Walden Pond
I used to teach in humanities programs. We began one with Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Student read it, took its message of self-reliance to heart, and quit school, vowing to live an authentic life from then on. Walden can do …
This at North Coast Repertory Theatre
Slouching towards 40-something. A year ago Jane and Roy had an ideal marriage, if seen from afar; Tom and Marrell were expecting their first child; and Alan's mnemonic ability made him a popular TV personality. He could recite long swaths …
The Pride at Diversionary Theatre
For Alexi Kaye Campbell's difficult drama, Diversionary imported director Glenn Paris, from Ion Theatre, and three Craig Noel Award-winning actors: Francis Gercke, Jessica John, and Brian Mackey. In spite of its accolades, The Pride's uneven script requires top shelf performances, …
A Man, His Wife, and His Hat at Moxie Theatre
Sir Isaac Newton was wrong. Gravity isn't the only law of the land. In Lauren Yee's 90-minute, surrealistic piece, love also grounds people. And the un-loved float away. Oliver Sacks wrote *The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, …
Turn of the Screw at Intrepid Shakespeare Company
In Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation, Henry James' spooky tale isn't a traditional ghost story. It's more like a demonic possession. Or seduction. A young governess on her first assignment can become "easily carried away." Like Jane Eyre, and the heroines of …
Stage Directions
Someone once said, "to write a mystery, you can't be mysterious. You must be precise." Sam Shepard's experiments with form and surreal atmospheres have always been ahead of their time. But in one sense he's an old school playwright. His …
Holy Week
Want to watch a golfer get stupid right before your eyes? CBS TV shows a lane lined with magnolias. At the end is a vague yellow something or other on a grassy mound and a white two-story building behind. Music …
Almost, Maine at Scripps Ranch Theatre
It's not a good sign when you're watching a play and it reminds you of another play, or playwright, more adept at similar material. John Cariani's Almost, Maine recalls Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon, the TV show Northern Exposure, and the …
Ghosts and the Brothers James
Next week, Intrepid Shakespeare Company will stage an adaptation of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw, hailed by many as one of the, if not the, greatest ghost stories of all time. Seemed so to me the first …
Tortilla Curtain at San Diego Rep
In his recent, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, Charles Murray argues that a new upper class - well-educated and affluent - has a "we're better than the rabble mentality." The group now resembles a gated community, and …
How to Choose Which Play to Tour?
(One of my brother's many creative hats: he does freelance development for a TV production company in Minneapolis. He's proposing a non-fiction series that will follow a touring Broadway show around the country. He asked for my input). Michael: I …