An excellent score cannot keep the book and lyrics from sinking this musical in cliché.
Josh BaxtTheaterSan Diego,
Steve Martin once said: “When you’re playing the banjo, everything’s OK.” And that may be what ultimately saves “Bright Star.” Despite some pretty glaring deficiencies, the music is so good you almost don’t care about lyrics, dialogue or plot. This ...
This rather thin comedy gets a boost from the first-rate characterizations of the Old Globe cast.
Josh BaxtTheaterSan Diego,
Let’s just come out and say it. “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is the amuse-bouche of Shakespearean comedies. It doesn’t have the cutting dialogue or villainy of “Much Ado About Nothing” or the many facets of “As You Like It,” ...
An excellent cast saves the script from its own limited perspectives about four opera singers in their golden years.
Josh BaxtTheaterSan Diego,
The premise for "Quartet" seems custom-made for a hilarious evening. Four former opera stars, with long histories, come together to spend their final years in an artist’s home. They share lost glories, simmering resentments and dark secrets. Unfortunately, "Quartet" promises ...
This jam-packed drama relates the intrigue behind the development of anesthesia in a less-than painless way.
Lynne FriedmannTheaterSan Diego,
Faced with the prospect of surgery, most of us consider the cost to our wallet and the inconvenience of recovery to our lifestyle. It would never cross our mind that agony, in the form of excruciating pain on the operating ...
This production probes a deeper, and also more ambiguous, meaning in a black-and-white tale of jealousy and betrayal.
Josh BaxtTheaterSan Diego,
On the page, "Othello" seems like a study in opposites: black and white, good and evil, right and wrong, but the Old Globe’s production delivers unforeseen nuance. The results are tense, horrific, even funny.
Set in Venice and Cyprus, ...
Despite a strong cast and sharp dialogue, this new musical cries out for a rewrite.
Lynne FriedmannTheaterCA,
A man and a woman work for years as a creative team. One is married; the other single. What if suddenly the deck is cleared and they had a shot at romance. Would it ruin their professional relationship? That’s the ...
One family's simmering stew boils over with uproariously funny results in this production of the Tony-winning comedy.
Lynne FriedmannTheaterSan Diego,
Had a good belly laugh lately? You will, courtesy of the side-splitting, Tony Award-winning “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” receiving its San Diego premiere at The Old Globe with an acting ensemble that comes up all aces. ...
This Pulitzer-winning drama's two threads are woven in alternately sad and funny patterns.
Josh BaxtTheaterCA,
There’s an old saying that you can’t choose your family. It’s true, to some extent, but the relationships in "Water by the Spoonful" show it can be a lot more complicated.
Set in Philadelphia, and pretty much everywhere else, ...
An excellent cast elevates this family dramedy, which ultimately relies on easy narrative devices.
Josh BaxtTheaterSan Diego,
Family dramedies have a formula. The first half introduces the family and fellow travelers, their zany personality tics and the explosive revelations that could be their undoing. The second half exposes those revelations and sorts out the mess.
...
Josh BaxtTheaterCA,
In the classic Mel Brooks routine 2000-year-old Man, Brooks’ character says one of the keys to his longevity is eating nectarines. ‘Half a peach, half a plum, it's a hell of a fruit.’ “The Winter’s Tale” is somehow ...
