Credit: Craig Schwartz via Center Theatre Group

Eric Schaeffer’s direction of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies is an utter triumph of performance, production, and play. Not since the original production of Les Miserables have I been so breathlessly enthralled and completely swept away in a night of theater.

Driving to the Ahmanson, Thom reminded me that we saw the 2001 revival of Follies at the Roundabout Theater in New York; I had no memory of it. The minute we entered the transformed house of the Ahmanson, I remembered. Though that 2001 production boasted a star-studded cast – one of Sondheim’s most memorable shows was utterly forgettable. But last night – all was redeemed. The Kennedy Center revival come to L.A. is nominated for 8 Tony Awards and I am rooting for every last one of them.more

Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

A fully restored print of Bob Fosse’s 1972 classic Cabaret will be screened with a full red carpet spread very wide tonight for stars Liza Minelli, Joel Grey, and Michael York, as the 3rd annual TCM Fest kicks off at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

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Image by Vanja Scholls

No Chance In Hell is a new play by Tony Robinson. A gripping story that carries us from the turbulent summer of 1968  right up to the present.

No Chance In Hell

Photo: Doug Hamilton

If you remember only one thing from my review of Green Day’s American Idiot playing now at the Ahmanson Theater, let it be this: see it. Seriously. The innovation of dance alone is reason enough to spring for this 90 minutes of movement. With such a proud history of dance in American musical theater, it is no small trick to actually surprise the audience with new expressions of movement.

Raucously in-your-face performances, a wicked band sprung from the pit and dispersed across the stage, a back drop of over thirty t.v. screens flashing hot-topic imagery, along with Cirque-worthy flying, all add up to a kick in the pants night of theater. That said…

American Idiot at the Ahmanson Theatre

Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images

American Idiot opened to a huge positive response last night at The Ahmanson Theater. After 448 Broadway performances, the rock opera has now hit the road.

American Idiot is A Smart Play

Photo: Craig Schwartz

With great expectation, I came Sunday to the Mark Taper Forum to see Clybourne Park the companion piece to A Raisin in the Sun. And while I couldn’t wait to review A Raisin in the Sun I walked away from Clybourne Park wondering how in the world I could talk cogently about this play.

Clybourn Park at the mark Taper Forum

Photo: Craig Schwartz

Sunday Night found me pulling easily into the Culver City Hall parking lot for opening night of A Raisin in the Sun at the Kirk Douglas Theater. By the middle of the first act I was holding tightly to my husband Thom’s hand and barely let go until curtain. So compelling is Lorraine Hansberry’s play inspired by her childhood move into an all white neighborhood, you will find yourself silently punctuating each beat of the play with a prayer for each member of the Younger family as they struggle to stay whole.

With its full frontal telling of a black family and their dramatic struggle to overcome racism it must have been electrifying when it opened on Broadway on March 11th, 1959. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a black woman and the first ever directed by a black director to be produced on Broadway.

Reviewing ‘A Raisin In The Sun’

Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

In all the rush approaching the holidays do we set aside enough quality time devoted to our children?

My friends Melissa and Marla tell me there’s a great holiday show for the entire family, especially if you have little ones. It’s called The Elves and the Shoemaker.  It plays Saturday nights through December 24th, Christmas Eve, at the West Valley Playhouse in Canoga Park.
The Elves And The Shoemaker

Photo: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images

Perhaps it’s my Mediterranean heritage or that I was raised on a very ‘long’ island, but I love all things akin to the sea.  Combined with my love of parades, I’m thrilled to be named Santa’s Co-Grand Marshal in the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade this Saturday!
Details on the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade

Photo: Joan Marcus

It all began with the Red Carpet stars from the worlds of Television, Film and Stage walking the carpet, posing for the photogs and generally carrying on as they do when they get together for a festive occasion. Air kisses were blowing as hard as the Santa Anas in front of the Pantages…and if the celebrity hair styles were blowin’ in the wind, nobody seemed to mind too much!

Here’s a partial list of “Wicked” celebs who strutted their stuff as admitted super fans of the Broadway blockbuster musical.

Wicked at The Pantages

Photo by: Craig Schwartz

Live theater has been a vital part of our personal and professional lives since long before my husband Thom and I were married and taking in shows two nights in a row is not unheard of.  Saturday night we caught the well-produced To Kill a Mockingbird at the Actors Co-op and on Sunday enjoyed the opening night performance of Vigil starring Olympia Dukakis and Marco Barriecelli at the Mark Taper Forum. I came away with a new appreciation for both marriage and live theater.

Reflections on Marriage and Theater

Photo: © 2011, JOAN MARCUS

Sunday night, my husband Thom and I had an early dinner with the kids and headed for the Pantages for an early evening performance of Twyla Tharp’s new show, Come Fly Away.

Seated in the historic Pantages Theater, gazing up at the magnificent golden-gilted ceiling, I was caught off guard when the house went dark and the a cappella voice of Ol’ Blue Eyes filled the space. Stage left – a steel-bodied dancer appeared. Stage right – another. Quickly, the stage burst into a joyful journey through the music of Frank Sinatra driven by the genius of Twyla Tharp.

‘Come Fly Away’ at The Pantages

Photo: Craig Schwartz

Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright Theresa Robeck’s Poor Behavior is billed as an “adult comedy”, and quite right, there were laughs aplenty from the opening night audience, Thom and me included. But be warned – it is the kind of humor that makes you wince, for it comes at a great expense in the lives of two married couples on a weekend getaway in the country. The Mark Taper Forum has staged another first-class production replete with designer John Lee Beatty’s exquisite set that had women in the ladies room at intermission exclaiming, “I’m going to do that with my kitchen.”

Poor Behavior At The Mark Taper Forum