I have to confess that 1920s and 30s movie star, William Haines, has escaped my notice all these years. A box office draw, he was a leading man at MGM. Handsome and debonaire, he was a close friend of Joan Crawford. He successfully made the transition from silents to talkies and became increasingly popular. “The … Continue reading “Taming the Lion” at Theatre 40
I knew, as we approached Theatricum Botanicum on Topanga Canyon, that the opening night would be special. How? There were more cars lining the road than I had ever seen in five years of covering shows there. I bravely opted to take a chance that there might be a slot in the small parking lot. … Continue reading “Julius Caesar” at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum
What a joy it was last night to once again be seated with an audience in a real theatre in anticipation of a great show. It was in The Fountain Theatre’s splendid new outdoor stage with the audience seated in pairs and social distancing. And the company does not disappoint. Their production of An Octoroon, written by Branden … Continue reading “An Octoroon” at The Fountain Theatre
Ric Iverson is a consummate Bay Area theatrical treasure, who, as reported in Tabard Theatre’s press release for his new one man show, The Good Times & The Rain: 50 Years in Denver, “has performed all over the Bay Area as a musician and musical theatre actor, including such roles as Teen Angel in Grease, … Continue reading “The Good Times & The Rain: 50 Years in Denver” at Tabard Theatre Company
The splendid soprano, Gabriela Carrillo, kicks off Jason Robert Brown’s well regarded 2001 musical,The Last Five Years, softly, with “Still Hurting,” a song that presages the story of love and loss that builds to a soaring, heart rending cri de cœur that foreshadows all that is to come in this passionate, emotional play. The playwright … Continue reading “The Last Five Years” at International City Theatre
In his solo performance of The Latrell Show, actor-writer and social justice advocate, Brandon Kyle Goodman, swishes onto a tiny stage in the outrageously camp persona of the high-energy, self-promoted, flamboyant Latrell, the host of his own show with his logo looming on a screen behind him. The bearded show-boy festooned with jewels and make-up … Continue reading “The Latrell Show” at IAMA Theatre Company
Steven Yockey’s play, Reykjavík, now available as a streaming performance produced by The Road Company Theatre, is a conundrum right from the start. At a table in an Icelandic hotel, a conversation between three men and a seemingly comatose woman is barely heard over the sound of blaring techno-pop so loud that the conversation has … Continue reading “Reykjavík” at The Road Theatre Company
Production photos courtesy of Pam Levin. In actor-playwright Pam Levin’s new solo performance piece, Astrologically Screwed and Other Psychic Revelations, she takes on the character of a woman who has just turned forty, a day that causes her some trepidation. A believer in the super-national, she recalls a session she had with an astrologer she … Continue reading “Astrologically Screwed and Other Psychic Revelations” at Whitefire Theatre
Last October, after having endured fully a half-a-year of no live, in-the-house theatre, I was offered the opportunity to review a real, in-person show at something called Dugan’s Backyard Playhouse. The excellent actor-playwright, Tom Duggan (Wiesenthal, Tell Him It’s Jackie, Oscar to Oscar and Frederick Douglass- In the Shadow of Slavery), intrigued me with the … Continue reading “The Ghosts of Mary Lincoln” at Dugan’s Backyard Playhouse
West Coast Jewish Theatre’s ambitious fund raising extravaganza, Magical Musical Mystery Follies, is loaded with a range of talent, some superb and some so so. The show clocks in at two hours. For streaming audiences. I would recommend taking a break half-way through. The amiable Howard Teichman serves double duty as jokemeister as well as … Continue reading “Magical Musical Mystery Follies” at West Coast Jewish Theatre
