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Paul Birchall

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: THE RIVALS (The Actors’ Gang)

    By Paul Birchall | October 29, 2012
    in

    THE SHTICK MAY DETRACT FROM THE PLAY, BUT JUST TRY TO RIVAL THE ACTORS’ GANG The Rivals (1775), Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s wonderful Comedy of Manners, is a play about pretension; everyone in the work is pretending to be better in station or morality than they actually are’”from a military officer who mimics being a sexy…

  • Off-Broadway Theater Review: LAST MAN CLUB (One Sheridan Square).

    By Paul Birchall | October 17, 2012
    in

    THE JOADS AT HOME Playwright Randy Sharp’s one act drama takes place during the Dust Bowl catastrophe of the 1930s, when a monstrous drought descended on the central plain states turning fertile fields and prairies into alkali hellpits.   Of course, most of us are familiar with Steinbeck’s great novel, The Grapes of Wrath, which followed…

  • Off-Broadway Theater Review: HIM (59E59 Theaters)

    By Paul Birchall | October 13, 2012
    in

    THE FAMILY THAT STAYS TOGETHER HATES TOGETHER The legacy of emotional damage inflicted on children by their parents is one of the main themes in Him, a new play by Daisy Foote – but the subtext is given an even more delicious dimension by the fact that Foote herself is the daughter of the magnificent…

  • Off Broadway Theater Review: CLOSER THAN EVER (York Theater)

    By Paul Birchall | October 13, 2012
    in

    SOPHISTICATED SONGWRITING IN CLOSER THAN EVER One might well approach this musical about growing into middle age with some trepidation.   The fact is that plays about midlife usually tend to possess more than a whiff of self indulgence – they’re either full of characters who spend their time whining about the fact that they aren’t…

  • Off-Broadway Theater Review: CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (3LD Theater)

    By Paul Birchall | October 5, 2012
    in

    REAL TERROR IN THE AIR AND IN THE THEATER If this play doesn’t make you want to travel by train instead of by air, nothing will.   Here’s a performance project (credited to creators Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels, and Irving Gregory) that consists of a cast of actors performing the transcripts of recordings retrieved from the…

  • New York and Tour Theater Review: HAMLET (Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts)

    By Paul Birchall | October 4, 2012
    in ,

    THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DANE The Globe Theater of London brings its touring production of Shakespeare’s tale of the Melancholy Great Dane to the Michael Schimmel Center, and one is tempted to joke that something is indeed stinking in this State of Denmark, since  just outside the theatre, one can perceive the odors emanating from  the…

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: POTENTIAL SPACE (Theatre of NOTE)

    By Paul Birchall | October 2, 2012
    in

    IN LOVE OR IN LOVE WITH BEING IN LOVE Playwright Kristen Vangsness’ intriguing, but ultimately frustrating comedy features as its center a gal who makes the mistake of confusing love with, well, let’s charitably call it the desire “to be” in love.   It is what folks brought up in civilized company would call “passion”’”but it’s…

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: A KIND OF LOVE STORY (Sacred Fools)

    By Paul Birchall | September 25, 2012
    in

    THE LONG MEET CUTE If you’re inclined to think in terms of film noir, you could very easily give playwright Jenelle Riley’s quite charming romantic comedy the subtitle “The Long Meet Cute”:   Her play, A Kind of Love Story, is a love affair that truly takes its time in igniting; the central couple who’s destined…

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: THE FULL MONTY (Third Street Theater)

    By Paul Birchall | September 17, 2012
    in

    THE SCHLONG AND SHORT OF IT The great local critic Wenzel Jones, writing about the play “Naked Boys Singing,” (another play in which men happily doffed their clothes to showcase their Full Monties) drolly noted that “for best results” the show “should be seen on a warm night.”   It is  tough to avoid making a similar…

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: ENCOUNTER (East West Players)

    By Paul Birchall | September 14, 2012
    in

    THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING, NOT THE PRODUCTION Set amidst the teeming, verdant jungles of South India, Encounter is an often compelling dance theatrical production from the Navarasa Dance Theater, a group that has origins in South Asia and India (though the company is currently based in Massachusetts); it is a tale of atrocity, tyranny, and…

  • Los Angeles Theater Review: THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING (Elephant Stage Theatre)

    By Paul Birchall | September 11, 2012
    in

    NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE Author Joan Didion’s powerful piece of writing, the elegiac monologue The Year of Magical Thinking, receives its Los Angeles premiere in this intimate production at the Elephant Theatre.   Didion’s play, adapted from her book, describes what can only be called a bona fide annus horribilis, in which her beloved husband…

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