All stories by Michael M. Landman-Karny on BroadwayStars

Friday, April 24, 2026

Theater Commentary: THE PRICE OF NOT PERFORMING EMPATHY by Michael M. Landman-Karny

CRITICISM VS CONFESSION When analysis starts to look like refusal Editor’s note: Jesse Green was reassigned from his role as chief theatre critic at The New York Times in 2025 and now serv…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:58PM
Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Theater Review: EAT ME (South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

A HUNGER THAT DOESN’T QUITE NAME ITSELF A sharp new play still discovering its center Lewis Carroll understood that eating is never just eating. When Alice stands before the small cake and…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:22AM
Monday, April 20, 2026

Opera Review: FALSTAFF (LA Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THE LAST FOOL A master’s final shrug lands with surprising weight Verdi was seventy-nine when Falstaff premiered at La Scala in 1893. He had not written a comic opera since Un giorno di re…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:24PM
Sunday, April 19, 2026

Theater Review: HELL MOUTH (The Road Theatre Company, North Hollywood) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

A HELL OF A MOUTHFUL A play where grief, faith, and ambition collide —and silence carries the weight Jacobson knows that the domestic and the exalted do not occupy different rooms. Hell Mo…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:51PM
Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Concert Review: LISE DAVIDSEN & FREDDIE DE TOMMASO (BroadStage, Santa Monica) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

TWO VOICES, ONE VOLTAGE An evening of operatic power finds its charge in connection, not just scale BroadStage does not often present evenings of this ambition: a sold-out house, a freelance…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:57AM
Sunday, April 12, 2026

Preview: THE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME DANCE: THE SONGS OF JULE STYNE (El Portal Theatre, North Hollywood) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP JULE Broadway's golden-age hits return in a world premiere revue that treats them as living drama Jule Styne's name tends to arrive attached to titles that feel immova…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:12AM

Dance Review: SYLVIA (American Ballet Theatre at Segerstrom Center) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

DELIBES TAKES THE LEAD In ABT's return of Ashton's Sylvia, the best performance at Segerstrom wasn't onstage Frederic Ashton's Sylvia arrives at Segerstrom Center for the Arts after nine yea…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:50AM
Thursday, April 9, 2026

Theater & Concert Preview: MY FAIR LADY IN CONCERT (Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THE RAIN IN SPAIN, UNRESTRAINED At full symphonic scale, My Fair Lady finally sounds the way it was written to be heard George Bernard Shaw got what he deserved. He spent decades refusing to…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:33PM
Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Theater Review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN (A Noise Within, Pasadena) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THE DREAM ON CREDIT A clear-eyed, unsentimental staging that lets Miller's argument land with full force Arthur Miller finished Act I of Death of a Salesman in a single day and the rest in s…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:02AM
Monday, March 9, 2026

Theater Review: THE SHARK IS BROKEN (Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THREE MEN IN A BOAT, WAITING FOR A FISH At Laguna Playhouse, the making of a blockbuster becomes a chamber piece about ego, craft, and survival Gildart Jackson, Will Block, and Adam Poole Th…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00AM
Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Concert Review: FROM MOZART TO MAHLER (Pacific Symphony) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

INTIMACY AND ENORMITY: MOZART AND MAHLER IN COSTA MESA Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, is a peculiar piece to a classical program. It omits oboes entirely, replacing them …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:10PM
Sunday, March 1, 2026

Opera Review: AKHNATEN (LA Opera) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

STILL THE PHARAOH-EST OF THEM ALL, AKHNATEN STUNS AT LA OPERA An intellectually rigorous, visually arresting production that embraces the opera's challenges rather than disguising them There…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:21PM
Monday, February 23, 2026

Opera Preview: RIVERSIDE LYRIC OPERA (Grand Re-Opening Gala Concert on March 7) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

OPERA RETURNS TO RIVERSIDE, AND IT'S BRINGING A 54-PIECE ORCHESTRA The Riverside Lyric Opera's gala concert on March 7 marks a rare moment for the Inland Empire: a full-scale operatic event …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:00AM
Thursday, February 19, 2026

Theater Review: SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA (Geffen Playhouse) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THREE SYLVIAS, ZERO THRILLS Beth Hyland's world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse arrives with the kind of literary bait that makes theater people clasp their reusable water bottles in deligh…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:56PM
Monday, February 16, 2026

Theater Review: AMADEUS (Pasadena Playhouse) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

PATRON SAINT OF THE SECOND-RATE A rigorously intelligent and theatrically thrilling revival that restores Shaffer's parable to full force Schopenhauer once drew a distinction between talent,…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:00AM
Monday, February 9, 2026

Theater Review: MY SON THE PLAYWRIGHT (Rogue Machine) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

TWO MONOLOGUES IN SEARCH OF A DIALOGUE Justin Tanner has spent decades making chaos look easy. Those early Cast Theatre productions like Pot Mom and Zombie Attack trafficked in a particular …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:28AM
Friday, January 30, 2026

Obituary: CATHERINE O'HARA (1954-2026) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THE ACTRESS WHO MADE THE RIDICULOUS PROFOUND Catherine O'Hara, who has died aged 71, could make you laugh and break your heart in the same scene. Most performers pick a lane; she moved betwe…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:04PM
Saturday, January 10, 2026

Theater Review: THE NOTEBOOK: THE MUSICAL (North American Tour) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

Three Couples, Zero Accumulation With a score that forgets to remember, The Notebook drowns in its own mawkish bathwater There's a musical version of The Notebook that might actually work. A…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:00AM
Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Theater Obituary: TOM STOPPARD (1937"2025) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THE PLAYWRIGHT WHO CHOSE RADIO OVER JAWS Steven Spielberg had asked Tom Stoppard to write the screenplay for Jaws, and Tom said he couldn't as he was writing a play for the BBC. Spielberg sa…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:43PM
Thursday, November 13, 2025

Opera Review: FRA DIAVOLO (Pacific Opera Project) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

A Night with a Gentleman Thief: Pacific Opera Project's Delightful Fra Diavolo Daniel Auber's Fra Diavolo amassed over 900 performances at the Opéra Comique during the 19th century before b…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:35PM
Monday, October 20, 2025

Theater Review: JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE (A Noise Within in Pasadena) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

AMAZING THEATER HERE AND NOW Kai A. Ealy stands in a doorway wearing a coat that looks like it weighs forty pounds. Maybe it does. His Herald Loomis has just walked off seven years of forced…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:51AM
Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Theater Review: ANTHROPOLOGY (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

WHEN GRIEF MEETS THE ALGORITHM The terrible beauty of grief is that it makes us do irrational things with the most rational tools. In Lauren Gunderson's anthropology, now in its North Americ…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:58PM
Saturday, October 4, 2025

Dance Review: FRANKENSTEIN (San Francisco Ballet at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

When creation becomes choreography in Frankenstein, the laboratory turns into a stage of desire Mary Shelley's creation continues to haunt not only literature but the stage, where movement a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:45AM
Monday, September 29, 2025

Theater Review: HUZZAH! (The Old Globe) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

HUZZAH AND HO-HUM The curtain speech at Huzzah! " which opened Thursday at The Old Globe " comes with bassoon and tambourine: silence thy phones, feed not ye actors. This bit of business tel…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:00AM
Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Theater Review: COME FROM AWAY (La Mirada Theatre) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

A Town, a Tragedy, and the Triumph of Kindness The musical Come From Away " with book, music and lyrics by married couple Irene Sankoff and David Hein " tells the remarkable true st…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:00PM
Monday, September 22, 2025

Theater Review: A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER (Laguna Playhouse) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

MURDER NEVER SOUNDED SO SWEET The gentleman killer returns to Southern California with a smile that could polish the silver. In a joint run between Laguna Playhouse and North Coast Repertory…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:06PM
Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Theater Review: EUREKA DAY (Pasadena Playhouse) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

OUTBREAK OF MANNERS: WHEN POLITENESS TURNS CONTAGIOUS The play begins with a picture of composure. Five parents sit at a polished library table in a progressive private school in Berkeley. T…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AM
Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Theater Review: THE HEART (La Jolla Playhouse) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

THEATRICAL ARRHYTHMIA La Jolla Playhouse has always been fairly adventurous in its programming, but its latest premiere chooses a subject that feels less like theatrical fodder than a medica…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:30AM
Saturday, September 6, 2025

Opera Review: PAGLIACCI (Pacific Opera Project) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

OPERA WITHOUT WALLS: VERISMO IN THE PARK Pacific Opera Project opened Pagliacci into the open air of Heritage Square Park last night, and the result was a strangely festive collision of carn…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:58PM
Friday, August 22, 2025

Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour in Hollywood) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

A FIELD OF PUNS IN FULL BLOOM Corn puns are like tequila shots. A few will make you smile and loosen you up, but by the time you are ten or twelve deep you start to wonder how you got here a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:25AM
Saturday, August 16, 2025

Theater Review: & JULIET (National Tour in Los Angeles) by Michael M. Landman-Karny

SHAKESPEARE, INTERRUPTED About five minutes into & Juliet, Juliet belts "…Baby One More Time" with such raw confusion you half-believe Britney's lyrics might hold the secrets of the un…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:59PM

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off