211 stories by "Dan Zeff"
A NICE JEWISH BOY— OR IS HE? Plenty of laughs and genuine feeling power this crowd-pleasing production Sarah Goldman is a young Jewish Chicago teacher in the late 1900s. Her boyfriend is a…
FENCED IN AND LASHING OUT A powerful touring revival of August Wilson’s enduring drama The Old Globe Theatre is presenting August Wilson’s 1987 drama Fences, part of his cycle of plays a…
NO SNOOZE BUTTON HERE Coronado’s Drowsy Chaperone keeps the laughs coming The Coronado Playhouse is reviving the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, hoping to repeat the popularity of the…
LOVE, LOSS, AND LYRICS An earnest musical adaptation that leans into memory, even when it leans too hard The touring production of The Notebook arrives at the Civic Theatre with a built-in a…
BEAUTIFUL, BORED, AND BENT ON DESTRUCTION A brisk new adaptation of Ibsen's classic showcases Katie Holmes's ferocious Hedda"while questioning the modern impulse to excuse her behavior The O…
THREE FELLAS, TWO DAMES, ONE BIRD, AND A LOT OF DOUBLE-CROSSING North Coast Rep's five-actor adaptation of The Maltese Falcon mixes mystery with nimble theatrical trickery The North Coast Re…
A SCRIVENER WHO PREFERS NOT TO A minimalist Melville adaptation turns quiet resistance into compelling theater Andy Grotelueschen as The Lawyer and Michael Crane as Bartleby Fiasco Theater i…
A LATINO MUSICAL ODYSSEY INSPIRED BY IMMIGRATION AND THE WIZARD OF OZ A heartfelt journey centered on resilience, with fantasy touches along the way The Cygnet Theatre is presenting the loca…
A WORLD PREMIERE CHARTING JULIA CHILD'S RISE FROM RESTLESSNESS TO CULINARY ICON A biographical play that finds its flavor in a stronger, more compelling second act The La Jolla Playhouse is …
SUN, SAND & SCROOGE, DICKENS IN THE GASLAMP The Old Globe is presenting Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, reshaping the classic short novel into a parody titled Ebenezer Scrooge's BIG …
RICHARD BERMUDEZ SLAYS TWICE IN SDMT'S JEKYLL & HYDE San Diego Musical Theatre is presenting a gripping revival of the 1997 Broadway musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 h…
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT SKIPPIN' PIPPIN Pippin offers musical theater lovers the complete package: brilliant performances, terrific directing, a stimulating book by Roger O. Hirson and a chee…
In the 1940s, Hollywood seemed awash in films that can be grouped as psychological thrillers. There were variations on the plot, but essentially the films all portrayed a sheltered and sensi…
GO-GO SEE THIS SHOW-SHOW The jukebox musical Head Over Heels is a mash-up of Sir Philip Sidney's long 1590s poem Arcadia and the songs of the iconic 1980s' female rock band The Go-Go's, t…
TWINS, TWISTS, AND A TENDER TOUCH The Old Globe Theatre closes out its summer Shakespeare Festival at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park with a zippy 90-minute one-act…
NOISES OFF, LAUGHS ON English playwright Michael Frayn debuted his farce Noises Off in 1982, and decades of audiences and reviewers have since happily applauded Frayn's work as perhaps the f…
MURDER MOST TUNEFUL In 2013 a new musical called A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder played San Diego's Old Globe on its way to a prizewinning run on Broadway. The show is now back for …
The Old Globe Theatre is opening its summer Shakespeare season with the comedy All's Well That Ends Well, one of the Bard's least presented (and least admired) works. Completists who wish to…
NINETY YEARS IN NINETY MINUTES Playwright Noah Haidel compresses 90 years of story into his 90-minute one-act comedy-drama Birthday Candles at North Coast Rep. However, that's sufficient tim…
Coronado Playhouse is reviving the 2007 musical comedy/murder mystery Curtains through March 30. The show is the final collaboration of the great music theater team of composer John Kander a…
A HOUSE DIVIDED, A MUSICAL UNITED La Jolla Playhouse has struck gold with 3 Summers of Lincoln, a bold world premiere musical that dives into the three critical summers"1862, 1863, and 1864"…
LEARNING HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE DESERT Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities"which opened at Cygnet Theatre last weekend"portrays about 24 hours in the upscale home of the Wyeth home in Palm …
Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past? Â Â " John Leonard, American critic Appropriate won Branden Jacobs-Jenkins the 2024 Tony Award for Best Rev…
ONCEÂ UPON AN AMAZING TIME Once is back at the Lamb's Players Theatre for an extended run through March 30, glorious news for area playgoers. This is one of the must-see musicals of the ea…
NO ONE EATS, BUT THERE'S PLENTY TO CHEW ON IN THE DETERMINEDLY DECEPTIVE BARBECUE Robert O'Hara has been a significant contributor to the American theater scene since his first play debuted …
