Nearly 30 years ago, Marlene Dietrich — a German actress who rose to stardom via the 1930 film Blue Angel — left Berlin for Hollywood. There, and later in Paris, she spent years charming moviegoers, making free love, and being an international icon …Read more

The Property, produced by New Light Theater Project and now playing at The Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row is an innocent light-hearted play with a bubbling cauldron of simmering rage just below the surface. Written by Ben Josephson and efficiently di …Read more

Apartheid and succulents might seem like odd bedfellows, but centuries of racial oppression and violence can make metaphors reverberate. Athol Fugard’s 1980 three-character drama, A Lesson From Aloes, now playing through June 29th at San Francisco’s …Read more

Shakespeare’s King Lear is one of the greatest roles in the Western canon, and the true test of any Lear production is how convincingly (and how devastatingly) the lead actor can portray Lear’s fall from the first to final scene. So when I read in th …Read more

Long before Nas rapped the line, “Life’s a bitch and then you die,” Edward Albee percolated on similar sentiments, resulting in his Pulitzer Prize winning work Three Tall Women, which was first staged in New York in 1994. The, dare I describe it, tow …Read more

I would pay to see any production that features 87-year-old actress Lois Smith, even if she were only reading the telephone book. In her latest role, Smith plays 90-year-old Mary Frances who, having lived a long good life, is now ready to die, surrou …Read more

Women on Fire: Stories from the Frontline, produced by Royal Family Productions, has a vibrant message to impart to young women today — vibrant, but tricky too, because it is as complex as it is compelling. It’s an energizing evening, a well directe …Read more

Operation Crucible by Kieran Knowles (who is also a cast member, playing the affable Tommy) is part of the Brits Off Broadway series at 59E59 Theaters.  Alternating between harrowing and charming, the play tells the story of a quartet of lads from Sh …Read more

As a former 13 year old girl myself, I was struck by “Dance Nation,” Clare Barron’s brash, bittersweet ode to the brief and awkward period of life that tends to have a profound impact on who we become as adults. The play, now onstage — and twice exte …Read more

It seems sometimes that every other entertainer working these days has a Trump impersonation at the ready, though many seem to miss the mark by a mile. I’ve never been especially enthused about either Alec Baldwin’s blustery turn on Saturday Night Li …Read more