Ernest Kearney

A TREE GROWS ON 24TH STREET Mike Kenny’s lyrical world premiere makes magic Simplicity fused with memory is one of the foundations of poetry, and truth finds its most eloquent expression in an economy of words. This is certainly exquisitely exhibited in Mike Kenny’s Winter’s Bench, presently enhancing the stage of the 24th Street Theatre….

PERICLES IS WORTH THE VOYAGE A questionable framing device doesn’t sink Boston Court’s lively take on Shakespeare’s rarely staged adventure The groundlings who attended William Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre back in 1608 (or 1619, hard to nail these dates down) would certainly have gotten their penny’s worth, as did the audience at the West…

PIAF, WITHOUT THE PARROTING Eleanora Owen finds the heartbreak and defiance inside the Little Sparrow’s songs Édith Piaf’s life overflowed with the severest of extremities: the writhing, rapturous harmony of joyous consonances and agonized dissonances, hastened with the rapidity of a tempo that flamed out after a brief 47 years, and woven with counterpoints of…

SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THIS A gloriously excessive spectacle eventually falls victim to an overdose of songs The Nocturne Theatre in Glendale is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues in the City of Angels. Justin & Melissa Meyer are masters of high theatricality and demigods of over-the-top razzle-dazzle, what I have lovingly dubbed “Kitchen…

WHEN THE MESSAGE OUTSHOUTS THE DRAMA Keith Szarabajka’s timely war drama is fueled by conviction but overwhelmed by its own rhetoric Slava Ukraini! (Or Waiting for Elon) by Keith Szarabajka presents a reviewer with the worst possible dilemma. Produced by Brad Bentz and directed by Tony Pasqualini, the work is the inaugural production of A…

THE POLITICS OF MARRIAGE Strong writing and performances outweigh a staging that plays it safe The worst that can be said of Ray Richmond‘s Another Distraction From the Epstein Files at Bad Ladder is that it’s not very “fringy.” Richmond’s smart two-hander is a homage to the works of Clifford Odets (1906–1963), a classic kitchen…

THE WAR THAT FOLLOWED HIM HOME Rather than celebrate a legend, Brian Rohan reveals the man still haunted by war At the outset of World War II, Jimmy Stewart (1908–1997) became the first major Hollywood star to enlist. A flying enthusiast from early on, Stewart was already a licensed pilot when he joined the Army…

LIFE IN A BLENDER A chaotic solo show anchored by an engaging performer. Kelly Mullis‘s solo show Army Brat at the Broadwater Second Stage carries a very accurate subtitle: “The Fever Dream into the Life of a Military Kid.” As penned by the performer, the show is a splattering of her life, her father’s life,…

BURNED BY AMBITION Sometimes the bravest artistic choice is asking for help. In Theft of Fire, Garrett Hildebrandt is presentable, well-spoken, talented, and smart. However, he’s not as talented as he believes himself to be and not smart enough to recognize that. (It’s excusable; he’s young.) Hildebrandt strides the stage at The Actors Company Let…

FROM BARK TO HEART A barking-dog complaint grows into something far more interesting I have been a fan of Richard Lucas since I reviewed his short, humorous, autobiographical novel The Dog Log, which chronicles life next door to two constantly yapping Yorkies and their hoarding, annoying owner as told through the device of a “dog…

ET TU, SHOESTRING? An ambitious historical comedy collapses under its own weight— but not without flashes of promise There are many different reasons for failure. All of them sting. The Fall of the Roman Republic… On a Shoestring Budget, now striding the stage at the Actors Company’s Other Space Theatre, is a failure. But a…

UNDER PRESSURE Ann Noble directs Ann Loud in a nicely twisted mystery set in a multi-crew submersible some 30,000 deep. Ann Loud, who penned the script and plays all five characters, skillfully captures the raw nerves of the crew and captain as they struggle to set the world’s record for longest sustained deep dive while…

CALAMITY JANE MEETS LAS VEGAS A charming tribute delivers plenty of Doris Day favorites, even if the biography occasionally takes a back seat Day After Day (The Life and Music of Doris Day) is like a slick—very slick—lounge act, the type you’d expect to see during Vegas’s heyday. Penned by Tony Santamauro, with Christy Mauro-Cohen…

SEND IN THE CLOWNS. ALL OF THEM. Will Thomas McFadden assembles a joyful showcase of clowning talent and comic invention Will Thomas McFadden has created a Jackson Pollock experience, only with clowns. (Really, talented clowns.) McFadden has gathered at the Broadwater Main Stage a kaleidoscope of the city’s top chuckle-creators for nightly romps. The clowning…

GHOSTS WITH HEARTBEATS Jon Schnitzer finds warmth and wonder beneath the bumps in the night Something Spooky, written and performed by Jon Schnitzer, is more about heart than haunting. Yes, there are strange goings-on, but the “investigation,” while focusing on things that go bump in the night, uncovers the spirit of an altogether different sort:…

A FREQUENT FLYER OF FUNNY Mike Blaha’s globe-trotting tales land more often than they miss Mike Blaha is a tall tumbler of funny. His show, Pivotal Nomad at the Broadwater Studio, starts with a blast as he relates doing stand-up around the world while pondering whether it’s time to click those ruby loafers three times…

A COMMUNITY OF ONE Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer-winning drama finds theatrical poetry in loneliness and hope Primary Trust is the sort of play that reminds us why theater matters. I want to state this at the outset, to avoid any risk of it becoming entangled in the words that follow: If you are impassioned by theater—or…

MAD SCIENCE, SANELY STAGED Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Cold War satire still packs a comic sting The Actors’ Gang has been a pillar of L.A. theater since 1988, when they burst onto the scene with their staging of Freaks at the old Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Boulevard, a production heralded by a poster sketch of Shannon Holt…

REACHING FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM Henry Ong’s final play transforms one man’s remarkable life into a timely cautionary tale Ascent is a small gem. It is not ostentatious enough to be affixed to the crown of some monarch, nor sumptuous enough to be a gaudy piece of “bling” dangling about some rapper’s neck, but it…

LONG LIVE THE ABSURD Michael Michetti’s visually stunning staging transforms Ionesco’s meditation on death into a thing of eerie beauty It is rare, nowadays, when a play by the Romanian Godfather of absurdist theatre, Eugène Ionesco, is staged, and rarer still when it is staged well. That happy convergence can be currently experienced at the…