Los Angeles

GRINNING FROM LEAR TO LEAR Redux, adjective From the Latin, returning, from reducere to lead back To be brought back or returned, especially in a new way. When it comes to repackaging Shakespeare, nothing’s off-limits. Indian director Vishal Bhardwaj’s noir-flavored trilogy (Maqbool, Omkara, Haidar [or Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet]) turned the plays into modern crime sagas. for…

EXIT, PURSUED BY A PRODUCTION In taking on a production of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Play On Shakespeare at Skylight Theatre is to be commended. The last of the Bard’s plays-–Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, portions of Pericles, and The Tempest—present substantial difficulties in staging. But, for my money, The Winter’s Tale sits at the…

THE GOOD AND EVIL IN BOTH WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION The concept sounded so intriguing that I begged to review this experimental theatre piece, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Iranian German playwright Nassim Soleimanpour. The hook is that every performance is an “opening night” because every performance features a new actor who…

HARE FORCE ONE With White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour currently at the Fountain Theatre, what you encounter is an interesting and provocative theatrical game, a hybrid of “Story Theatre” and immersive Role Playing Game (RPG). On stage is a sparse set that displays the sharp divisions of red and white conveying…

THIS BIRD AIN’T SO STUPID There is a strange little niche tucked away in the theatre world which, for lack of a better term, could be called “Travesty Theatrics.” It’s when a classic drama is taken and reworked as a caricature, parody, or mockery of itself. (More on that later.) A new, actor driven company,…

Wilde at Heart: The Quiet Theatrics of A Man of No Importance Some musicals don’t announce themselves. They drift in quietly, settle beside you, and before you know it, you’re sitting there, wrecked, wondering when the tears began. That’s the spell cast by A Man of No Importance, now playing at A Noise Within. Based…

Coming to Hollywood Fringe: A Fatherhood Story You Didn’t Know You Needed Fatherhood isn’t always what you expect — and Best. Dad. NEVER. proves that’s exactly where the magic happens. Haig “Hike” Chahinian didn’t set out to write a feel-good story about fatherhood. Good thing, because this one-man outing is something better: honest, funny, and…

A STRIKINGLY RESPECTFUL TAKE WORTHY FOR A MUSEUM The Antaeus Theatre Company first began offering audiences superbly mounted productions over a quarter of a century ago, and for their continued success in doing so, they are recognized as one of the true jewels in the crown of the Los Angeles theatre community. An actor-driven company,…

THE TRUTH IS RARELY PURE, AND NEVER SAFE, IN TASTY LITTLE RABBIT There is a tender brutality in the way Robert Mammana shatters a glass plate negative under his heel in Moving Arts’ aching new production of Tom Jacobson’s Tasty Little Rabbit. It happens early. The crack is too small to be mythic, too large to ignore….

REASONABLE DOUBT? NOT ABOUT LEGALLY BLONDE‘S PINK POWER Let’s get one thing straight. Legally Blonde: The Musical is not highbrow theater. It is not Sweeney Todd with meat pies and too-close shaves. It is not The Light in the Piazza with yearning strings and emotionally repressed tourists. This show is pink, peppy, and rides a…

PILLOW FIGHTS, PLOT TWISTS AND PARENTAL PANIC If you like your family comedies with a hearty dose of mayhem, secrets, slapstick humor, and the occasional gymnastic leap off a sofa, Fostered at Pacific Resident Theatre delivers the goods. Written by Chaya Doswell and directed by Andrew D. Weyman, Fostered is a lively world premiere that plays…