SAN DIEGO THEATER REVIEWS

A cadre of chamber music's finest performers performed a program to please Schubert and Mozart lovers alike...

Illusion took center stage in the San Diego area last weekend when Orange County-based master craftsman John Cederquist brought his unique wood pieces to the small but pristine jewel known as the Cannon Gallery in Carlsbad....

Otello. Aida. Don Carlo. The comparisons are irresistible....

It is one of the most wondrous moments in all of Shakespeare's plays; the moment near the end of The Winter's Tale when the statue of Hermione comes to life. Whether it is magic, divine intervention, or merely the resolution of a well-concealed plot, it doesn't matter. It never fails to leave me wit...

Theme: Moliere's 'Misanthrope.' Variations: 'The School for Lies.'...

Once more, with feeling! This year's SDO Valentine offering, Donizetti's 1832 comic masterpiece, 'Elixir of Love,' echoed last season's midwinter love fest, the composer's 'Daughter of the Regiment.'...

With so many theatrical offerings and special events in the desert during "high season" it is easy for a smaller production, without the benefit of a hefty marketing budget, to get a little overlooked. This seems to be the case with a little gem of a musical playing at The Desert Rose Playhouse, and...

I'm almost certain I've said this before about a Coyote Stageworks production - but it bears repeating! 'Run, don't walk' to the box office to see this highly polished, highly entertaining and anything but 'high brow' musical comedy before it's too late. I offer a few critical thoughts below, in add...

This season's San Diego Opera Opening Night incited passion, drama, and nonstop thrills for the audience. The festive atmosphere at the Civic Theatre provided the perfect complement for the exciting intensity of one of opera's grittiest dramas, 'Pagliacci.'...

Ah, yes. 2013 was indeed an outstanding year for theater in Southern California. Even better: Orange County---my home base---boasted some of the best shows, period---marking an exciting theater renaissance in brilliance and artistry that I hope continues to grow here inside L.A.'s next door neighbor...

The National tour of EVITA is in San Diego through Sunday, November 17, 2013 at the San Diego Civic Theatre....

After almost a year of touring North America, the Roundabout Theatre Company's buoyant Tony Award-winning revival of ANYTHING GOES has finally docked its madcap ship of lunatics at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa for a shamefully-short one-week engagement through September 29. Featu...

Broadway, Film and TV phenomenon Kristin Chenoweth's first solo concerts at the Hollywood Bowl was, as expected, nothing short of spectacular. Delivering a highly-entertaining, must-see event filled with plenty of laughs, many touching moments, and lots of opportunities to showcase her unique talent...

San Diego Repertory Theatre brings a little Washington Heights to San Diego with their production of IN THE HEIGHTS playing through Sunday, August 25th. www.sdrep.org...

Leave it to the ultra-talented, uber-enthusiastic folks at 3-D Theatricals to take an okay-ha-ha show into an OMFG-that-was-super-hella-funny triumph of whimsy and heart. In its glorious, colorful presentation of the first Southern California regional production of SHREK - THE MUSICAL, 3-D Theatrica...

To close out its 60th Season in grand fashion, Musical Theatre West has commissioned a lush new revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical SUNSET BOULEVARD on its home stage at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. Directed by Larry Raben and featuring musical directio...

Delightful and down-right hilarious, SISTER ACT - THE MUSICAL---the nun-tastic stage adaptation of the hit 1992 motion picture of the same name---is, frankly, to my pleasant surprise, an unexpected gem of a show. Heavily retooled from its 2006 Out-of-Town premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse and its e...

Hilarious, visually arresting, and surprisingly heart-warming, PRISCILLA - QUEEN OF THE DESERT---the rousing stage musical adaptation of the 1994 Oscar-winning indie film of the same name---is an outlandishly silly show from start to finish, filled with non-stop eye-popping visuals, out-of-this-worl...

Now performing at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through June 9, Director Amanda Dehnert's beguiling new revival of THE FANTASTICKS comes to vibrant life as an old-timey vaudevillian review that just happens to have a love story woven into it. This clever, magical makeover, setting the piece in...

What happens when you cram together the star quality of Barbra, the riffs of Beyonce, Whitney, and Mariah, the sass of Stevie, and the deep, emotional soul of Aretha? You get Broadway star and old-school soul revivalist Shoshana Bean. A gifted powerhouse vocalist, Ms. Bean is one of those entertaine...

THE LAST FIVE YEARS playing at Second Stage Theatre follows a five year relationship of Jamie and Cathy. This production was directed by creator Jason Robert Brown. Now playing at Second Stage Theater, 305 West 43rd Street, through May 18th....

Mike Tyson stops at San Diego's Balboa Theatre on the national tour of his one man show 'Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth'....

Now in the final stretches of its 25-week national tour before ultimately making its sit-down Broadway transfer later this Spring, the brand-new, revamped revival of JEKYLL & HYDE - THE MUSICAL has finally returned to Southern California for the next few weeks, this time playing performances at the ...

Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang's immensely funny CHINGLISH, a recent hit on Broadway, is now playing at South Coast Repertory through February 24. A co-production with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre -- and featuring almost the exact same cast from that Fall 2012 West Coast Premiere ...

Hands down one of the most hypnotic, creatively-staged plays ever conceived for the theater, the Tony Award-winning WAR HORSE--whose National Tour is now on stage at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 3--is an utterly stirring feat of theatrical magic, expertly combining da...