‘Civil’ GOP debate: Trump, Cruz, Rubio attack Washington, not each other
Five days before major primaries in Florida and Ohio, the Republican debate took on a more measured tone after the nasty insults of previous debates. Front-runner Donald Trump even remarked, “I can’t...
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DESERT ENSEMBLE THEATRE PRESENTS NEW DRAMA
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Acclaimed Palm Springs playwright/director Tony Padilla picked up his playwriting pen along with his creative thinking cap and added two new characters to one of...
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ACCLAIMED DRAMA DEBUTS AT CV REP THEATRE
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Personal stories are always powerful, inspirational and complex, as are we the humans upon which they’re based. We are not perfect, but we all strive, or should,...
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COYOTE STAGEWORKS BACK ON STAGE AT ANNENBERG WITH “ART”
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Who would have thought that a ‘white canvas painting’ three feet by four feet without a frame, could wreak such comedy havoc between three old friends? That in a...
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ACTRESS IRINA MALEEVA TACKLES DIVERSITY AND AGING IN HOLLYWOOD WITH STYLE,...
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Serendipity and timing definitely has a place in the world of show business and movies in particular. This past week I was fortunate to interview iconic...
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Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Caterpillar’s Longing – Poetic Kinetics created “Caterpillar’s Longing” for Coachella 2015. Photo: Robert Kinsler The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival – better known simply as “Coachella” – is...
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CV REP THEATRE ENDS 7th SEASON WITH POIGNANT DRAMA
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic “4000 Miles, was the most produced play in the country during 2014 according to American Theatre Magazine, and for good reasons too. It continues to resonate with...
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POWERFUL AND COMPELLING DRAMA FROM DEZART PERFORMSAT PEARL MCMANUS STAGE IN...
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Life and death are a fact of life on this planet. We must all confront the inevitable. No one ever left this planet alive. Death and rebirth are tenets of some...
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OLD GLOBE STAGES A COMPELLING PLAY SURROUNDING THE 1978 MID-EAST PEACE ACCORDS
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic Contrary to what our current Congress seems incapable of doing what it should be doing when it comes to compromise, or to put it in Washington, DC, vernacular to...
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‘Voice’ star Christina Grimmie dies after shooting at Orlando concert, killer...
Singer Christina Grimmie, the former YouTube star who rose to fame on ‘The Voice’ Singer Christina Grimmie, the former YouTube star who rose to fame on ‘The Voice’, was shot dead at her concert in...
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OLD GLOBE DEBUTS “MACBETH” FOR 2016 SUMMER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic It’s been said that there are only 36 plotlines for even the most brilliant and inspired playwrights to render. The progenitor and genius for English speakers in...
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WOODY ALLEN RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS IN “CAFÉ SOCIETY” FILM
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic In a full disclosure confession up front, I have been a fan of Allen Konigsberg, aka Woody Allen, since I saw him perform standup comedy routines in clubs in...
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OLD GLOBE SUMMER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL COMEDY ON STAGE
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic The cast of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost-photo Jim Cox The language of Shakespeare is transformative and universal in its power to elevate or debase in...
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PLAYWRIGHT A.R. GURNEY COMEDY RESONATES AT NORTH COAST REP
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic I can’t think of a better way to launch North Coast Repertory Theatre’s 35th Season of live theatre than to present a sophisticated comedy of manners written by A....
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OLD GLOBE MUSICAL “OCTOBER SKY” A SPARKLING ENERGETIC GEM
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic When the Soviet Union launched their space probe named “Sputnik” into orbit around the earth on October 4, 1957, it was a wake-up call for America signaling that...
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“The Fantasticks”
Photo Jim Cox By Lisa Lyons I have been a musical theatre fan all my life yet I must be the only person in the country who has never seen a production of “The Fantasticks”. I knew some of the songs (I...
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VETERAN ACTOR HAL LINDEN – STILL HERE AND GOING STRONG
By Lisa Lyons Hal Linden From the Broadway stage, where he won a Best Actor in a Musical Tony Award for “The Rothschilds”, to his Emmy-nominated performance as the laid back police captain in “Barney...
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CLASSIC ENGLISH GOTHIC GHOST STORY ON STAGE AT GROVES CABIN THEATRE
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic The Groves Cabin Theatre of Morongo Valley may have only twenty-two seats and a postage-stamp sized stage for the actors to perform their magic, but that has not...
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LIZARD BOY: MODERN MYTHOLOGY + AGE-OLD DESIRES = MONSTER HIT
When Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director Jerry Manning commissioned an original musical piece from Justin Huertas, a talented actor, composer, singer, musician and illustrator, he didn’t know...
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TWO STARS SHINE IN THE MAY/DECEMBER ROM-COM “HEISENBERG” AT MTC
Jack Lyons Theatre & Film Critic May/December romance stories are few and far between. For starters, storylines are usually predictable or implausible for most of the audience, to say nothing of...
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