Carmen

Photo by Robert Millard

By Michael Van Duzer

Bizet’s Carmen with its earthy heroine, nonchalant eroticism, and violent murder may seem an unlikely choice for the holidays. But the enduring allure for prima donnas of both the soprano and mezzo persuasion to get down and dirty in the title role and the fact that the score contains more popular tunes than a Broadway jukebox musical trumps any qualms about its Yuletide suitability.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Bailey Photo by Craig Schwartz

By January Riddle

Banks trembling like earthquakes
Stocks falling like snow
These times are a challenge, a hardship, you know
It’s not tough to imagine a person today
Who’s soured on Christmas, wants it all gone away...

The Grinch might have quite a following this year, and his sympathizers can find extra solace... FULL STORY

Leaving Iowa

North, Brennan, Bennett, Symons Photo by Ed Krieger

By Ben Miles

Leaving Iowa--in its West Coast Premiere, at the Laguna Playhouse, through December 14--is billed as a sentimental comedy. And while Tim Clue and Spike Manton's 2004 play (colorfully, if not quite cartoonishly, directed here by Clue), may be more comedically than sentimentally oriented, the nostalgia of the piece will surely be recognized by many theatergoers-- in a manner similar to the way in which we recognized the symptoms of car sickness on one of those long-ago family-filled vehicular getaways: It's a potent brew of giddiness mixed with queasiness and a splash of aggravation.

Happy Days: A New Musical

Cast Photo by Michael Lamont

By Diana Ford

Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! The King of Cool, the Fonz, is back in town with the gang rockin’and rollin’ 50’s nostalgia at La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts. This show is based on the hit Paramount Pictures television series Happy Days (1974-1984) created by Garry Marshal, and it is now a full-scale musical production. Marshall has teamed up with Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning, Hall-of-Fame songwriter Paul Williams to reunite us with Fonzie, the Cunninghams, Pinky, Potsie, Ralph, and the rest of the Milwaukee gang through song and dance.

Hugging the Shoulder

Pawlowski, Murphy, Hall Photo by Anthony Treme

By Ben Miles

A road-trip is underway at the Ruby Theatre in Hollywood. It takes place in the form of a play titled Hugging the Shoulder, by Jerrod Bogard. Derrick (an emotionally attuned Daniel Pawlowski) and Jeremy (a believably haggard Kevin Patrick Murphy) are brothers. Both in the latter-days of their twenties, the eldest, Jeremy, is hooked on heroin. Derrick's idea is to "kidnap" his beloved big bro and transport him to nowhere in particular, giving him the opportunity to detoxify in-route. The destination is not geographical... FULL STORY

Bus Stop

Gray, Craig, Finn Photo by Robert Craig Photography

By Ben Miles

By the time Bus Stop premiered on Broadway in March, 1955, playwright William Inge had already generated much attention on the Great White Way: In 1950, Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba ran 190 performances in Manhattan, triumphing in Shirley Booth's Tony Award-winning lead performance. Inge himself was honored in 1953 with a Pulitzer Prize for Picnic, which ran for over a year on Broadway's boards.

The Third Story

Van Dyck, Busch, Peil Photo by J. T. MacMillan

By Rob Stevens

Charles Busch is back on the West Coast, on stage and in drag, in his latest play, The Third Story, receiving its World Premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse. He starred in his Die, Mommie, Die! in Los Angeles in 1999. It was only appropriate since most of Busch’s works are send ups of various Hollywood film genres. His latest is no exception to his canon with a gangster-meets-zombie plot as one of the three plotlines.

Il Trittico

Photo by Robert Millard

By Michael Van Duzer

Puccini’s Il Trittico has a fairly spotty history of performance in the country--at least, in its complete form. Comprised of three unrelated one-act operas, individual pieces are often excerpted and paired with another one-act. The choice is usually the comic masterpiece Gianni Schicchii. A full production of Trittico is quite demanding, requiring three distinct sets and, as the operas are vocally challenging and vastly different in style, there is very little chance of double-casting the lead roles. This means that any production of the three operas together is an expensive proposition and most companies settle on reviving one of the warhorses like Butterfly or Boheme.

The Women

Cast Photo by Craig Schwartz

By January Riddle

Friend or Frenemy? Andrea Lavinthal and Jessica Rozler’s saucy best-seller describes women’s alliances and the personal perils that sometimes accompany them. We all know women who can both befriend and backstab within the hour. So, girls’ trashing each other is nothing new. Neither is creatively capitalizing on the concept. “Desperate Housewives,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “Gossip Girl” and gossipy TV shows dishing stars in skirts are just a few modern examples.

Ragtime

Yount Photo by Katrina Rennells

By Ben Miles

It is a nation in turmoil at the start of a new century. Issues of immigration, an immense and growing gap between those who have and those who have not, cultural chasms in the arts, rapid technological changes, and terrorism are all topics of the day. Though these are headlines likely to be found in current editions of Time Magazine or US News & World Report, they are also subjects broached in E.L. Doctorow's epic 1975 novel, Ragtime.

The Fly

Photo by Robert Millard

By Michael Van Duzer

The idea of creating a new opera out of the cult horror film, The Fly, is less bizarre than it might initially sound. After all, the idea of a brilliant, driven, and slightly anti-social man with a “God” complex is as true of Faust as it is of The Fly’s Seth Brundle. And, in the Nineteenth Century, when Opera provided the kind of popular entertainment now centered in film and television, operas delighted in shocking their audiences with mad monks, torture, and gruesome deaths.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

Grinels, Grossman, Maddy, Corey Photo by Aaron Rumley

By Rob Stevens

Brussels singer/songwriter Jacques Brel died in 1979, but his vibrant songs live on in this musical revue which he created in 1966 and which first appeared off-Broadway in 1968. North Coast Repertory in Solana Beach is currently presenting a rousing revival of this cynical, lyrical pastiche.

Dreamgirls
By Rob Stevens

San Diego Musical Theatre ended its first season with a highly ambitious production of Dreamgirls on the stage of the Lyceum Theatre. Unfortunately, their ambitions exceeded their capability. Technical problems plagued the opening night production, from late cues and entrances to falling set pieces. The second act was halted for a few minutes after a set piece, being moved into place behind a black drop curtain, nearly crushed one of the actors performing a scene in front of the curtain. After brooms appeared under the curtain to sweep up the broken pieces, the show went on. Oh, the joys.. . FULL STORY