Portrait of the Autist as a Young Boy
New musical Max Understood brings us into the world of an autistic boy.
Read my review on KQED Arts. Read more
Life, the Proletariat, and Everything
Tony Kushner’s latest takes a long time to say, and even longer to watch. My review of The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures at Berkeley Rep is on KQED Arts.
Masochism Tango
American Conservatory Theater’s masochistic backstage comedy isn’t exactly hard-hitting.
Play’s the Thing
The announcement late last year that American Conservatory Theater would be staging Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and Play this season in lieu of the previously scheduled Twelfth Night was great news on several counts: It would feature the return of world-class physical comic Bill Irwin to the ACT stage, it would be another always-welcome opportunity to savor the challenging texts of the modernist pioneer, and after artistic director Carey Perloff’s lackluster productions of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore I hadn’t been looking forward to her staging of Shakespeare’s popular comedy.
Portrait of the Artist as an Egomaniac
British-born director Les Waters has been a consistently outstanding artistic presence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for the last eight years as associate artistic director for the company. He’s now been named the new artistic director of the prestigious Actors Theatre of Louisville, home of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, so his latest production at Berkeley Rep is also his last as a staff member. At least he’s going out in style, with a superb production of Red, John Logan’s play about legendary abstract expressionist painted Mark Rothko.
Hollywood Neverending
American Conservatory Theater has kicked off its season with an oddity: Once in a Lifetime, a revival of a 1930 Hollywood satire by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the writing team much, much better known for the comedies You Can’t Take It With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
It’s All About Rita
Berkeley resident Rita Moreno is a bona-fide show business legend, one of the first people to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony award. She’ll be 80 in December, but boy, you wouldn’t know it from her performance in her autobiographical show at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup. The play was postponed from June to give Moreno time to recover from knee-replacement surgery, which has slowed down her dancing somewhat, but her energy and stage presence.
