Curtain Call

Little Fish Continues New Year’s Tradition with “Pick of the Vine”

Although COVID threw things out of joint, it’s fair to say that for over 20 years now each January Little…

3 years ago

Standard-Issue “A Christmas Carol” Still Reminds Us How to Be a Better People

Before A Christmas Story, before the classic claymation ofRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, even beforeIt's a Wonderful Life, Charles Dickens’sA Christmas…

3 years ago

Tedious “Love and Information” Has Nothing Substantive to Say About Either

In a 1986 New York Times think piece, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt provides a concise explanation of what literary critics call the…

3 years ago

Shakespearean “Puppet Play with People” Goes All-In on Silly

Yeah, it’s sorta Shakespeare — despite the preponderance of original text, the program’s “adapted from” gets it right — but…

3 years ago

Shakespearean “Puppet Play with People” Goes All-In on Silly

Typically, the Garage Theatre fill their year-end spot with lite fare. For several seasons this was an original multipart melodrama…

3 years ago

Cal Rep Young’uns Conjure the “Rocky Horror” Spirit

Maybe you didn’t know it, but before there was a picture show, Rocky Horror was a 1973 stage musical. Two…

3 years ago

Obvious Shortcomings in “Damn Yankees” Don’t Spoil the Fun

Bob Fosse is an all-time great, and in the film version of Damn Yankees he got to adapt and expand…

3 years ago

Cal Rep Solidly Delivers Flawed Chicano Reimagining of Electra Myth

In Greek mythology, Electra avenges the murder of her beloved father and king by abetting her brother’s killing of their…

3 years ago

“The Drowning Girls” Extra Timely Post-Roe v. Wade

Timing isn’t everything, but the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade provides a sort of serendipity to the two-year delay…

3 years ago

“Valley Song” a Minor, Flawed Meditation on Post-Apartheid South Africa

The Holocaust is Germany’s national shame. For the United States, it’s slavery (and more, but let’s not get into that…

3 years ago