Tennessee Williams Gets A Smart Stanley & Trans-Blanche by Barry David Horwitz In a storefront theater in Brooklyn, Stanley Kowalski charges in with a roar of “STEEEELLLLAAAA!” that echoes from decades past. Max Carpenter is a down-to-earth Stanley and yet, superhuman in the great role. Carpenter’s Stanley has his feet on the ground—he is…
Shakespeare’s Dark Comedy Illuminates #MeToo, #Resist by Barry David Horwitz At Marin Shakespeare Company, a rich complement of fine comic actors bring on the fun in “Measure for Measure,” a tragi-comedy. First, we admire the two magnificent ancient towers flanking the vast outdoor stage. Then, we admire the lovely Tudor brickwork that swings out…
Millennial Notes Yorkey & Kitt Master the Manic Depressive Musical by Fritz Mad’Laine Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s smash hit “Next to Normal” shatters expectations for a standard romantic musical, uprooting the stigma of mental illness with tenderness and pizzazz. The show depicts Diana (charming Jillian Toby-Cummings), a mother battling bipolar disorder as she…
Sarah Bockel as King Is ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ by Cynthia K. Lopez Theatergoers feel “the earth move under our feet” this week, with an upheaval of musical genius in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” at SHN Golden Gate Theatre. Carol King’s story draws crowds, like bees to honey, even after three tours here….