Email Author Paul Birchall

2010 Stories by Paul Birchall

• THEATER REVIEW: ROCK WITH YOU: THE KING OF POP, LATIN STYLE

  published December 30, 2010

  GO  ROCK WITH YOU: THE KING OF POP, LATIN STYLE For those of us brought up to giggle at Michael... More >>

• Diva on the Verge

  published December 23, 2010

  In her compelling one-woman show, soprano Julia Migenes, who has sung more leading roles at more opera houses than you've had hot dinners, offers... More >>

• Julia

  published December 23, 2010

  Playwright Vince Melocchi's sweet, melancholy drama artfully makes the point that, of all the sorrows, nothing beats the sadness of being haunted... More >>

• Julia

  published December 16, 2010

  Playwright Vince Melocchi's sweet, melancholy drama artfully makes the point that, of all the sorrows, nothing beats the sadness of being haunted... More >>

• Next to Normal

  published December 2, 2010

  Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning family tragedy is that rarity of rarities: a Broadway show that's as... More >>

• The Limitations of Genetic Technology

  published November 18, 2010

  Former L.A. Weekly critic and playwright Luis Arturo Reyes’ darkly cerebral satire opens with a snazzy set of video mock-commercials... More >>

• Head: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

  published November 4, 2010

  Composer-lyricist Kevin Fry's delightfully campy horror musical, based on Roger Corman's 1962 gore-fest The Brain That Wouldn't Die, is not... More >>

• The Train Driver

  published October 21, 2010

  South African playwright Athol Fugard's plays have dealt with the havoc wrought in his country by apartheid, but his more recent works also often... More >>

• Titus Andronicus

  published September 30, 2010

  In his odd, entertaining production, director Steven Sabel gives Shakespeare's sadistic tale of vengeance and bloodlust a True Blood twist,... More >>

• All My Sons

  published August 26, 2010

  With the recent BP oil disaster, the Enron debacle, and the misadventures of financial moguls like Bernard Madoff, it is no wonder that theater... More >>

• Othello

  published July 22, 2010

  When you think Shakespeare in the Park, the first of the Bard's plays to spring to mind as one that makes sense to be staged in an outdoor setting... More >>

• Becky's New Car

  published July 15, 2010

  “When a woman says she wants a new house, she really wants a new husband. When she says she wants a new car, she really wants a new... More >>

• It Ain't All Confetti

  published June 3, 2010

  "Rip Taylor? Isn't he dead?" opined an unkind family member upon learning that this weekend I was reviewing the new one-man show written and... More >>

• Blank

  published May 20, 2010

  In his deceptively simple, powerful solo show, playwright Brian Stanton describes the process of reuniting with the birth mother who gave him up... More >>

• Sarah, Sarah

  published May 13, 2010

  In playwright Daniel Goldfarb's family drama, the generation gap is not so much a gap as it is a gaping crevasse. In 1961, fearsome Jewish mama... More >>

• Exiles

  published April 8, 2010

  Playwright Carlos Lacamara's drama puts a powerful human face on the Mariel Boat Lift, Fidel Castro's mean joke of 1980, when Cuban-Americans were... More >>

• Groundlings Showcase Showdown

  published March 18, 2010

  In this sprightly, very funny revue, The Groundlings again show why they are L.A.’s go-to company for sketch comedy. Of course, the sketches,... More >>

• Exiles

  published February 5, 2010

  Playwright Carlos Lacamara’s drama puts a powerful human face on the Mariel boat lift, Fidel Castro’s mean joke of 1980, when... More >>

• A Song at Twilight

  published January 28, 2010

  "I've been in America too long. It's so lovely to see a steak that doesn't look like a bedroom slipper! . . . Memory is curiously implacable. It... More >>

• West

  published January 28, 2010

  Steven Berkoff's 1983 tale of adrenaline, lust, rage, and violence amongst a group of young thugs in 1960s London is written in modified metrical... More >>