Los Angeles

SQUEEZABLE THEATER Those dark days all seem so long ago. The face masks, drive-thru testing, fear of crowded indoor spaces, and some idiot assuring us, “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Yes, I’m talking COVID-19, which in 2020 spread worldwide, causing global shortages in ventilators, vaccines,…

Unlike his previous shows at The Hollywood Fringe — Spank the Monkey and Shagadelic: The Origins of Slang Words for Doing It — Michael Blaha has shed his stage persona of Professor Richard Fondler and presents himself in the aptly named Mike Blaha: International Joke. In taking this step, Blaha has proven what was already obvious:…

Have you ever wanted to run away from your own life? In Becky’s New Car, now playing at Theatre 40, playwright Steven Dietz takes that midlife fantasy and drives it straight into a quirky, comedic romp filled with detours, breakdowns, and a few surprisingly sharp turns. Becky Foster (a charming and wonderfully grounded performance by…

FEMINIST CLOWNS COLLIDE WITH CAPITOLISM Clownish perfection poses a unique problem for reviewers in that the blend of Da-Da slapstick and rib-tickling existentialism tends to defy easy description, in that they tell stories that go beyond language. I’ve always suspected the reason for this is that in our evolution, “clowning†preceded language. Holy, Holy: The…

TITANIC SINKS AGAIN Mallie McCown‘s madcap reimagining of Titanic, James Cameron’s $220 million epic, is ambitious beyond words, which is the source for most of the problems that plague this production. Issues aside, however, Oh, Fuck! An Iceberg remains staggeringly clever and more fun than a barrel of monkeys in a lifeboat. I am in…

SMALL LIVES, BIG TRUTHS  What’s a nice girl to do? Upstairs at The Matrix, Rogue Machine Theatre is putting on another winner of a show, Nice Girl by Melissa Ross. It’s a small drama, just four actors, but a deep study of people whose lives don’t go the way they thought they would. And it’s done beautifully….

Synthwave Romance: The Wedding Singer Grooves on Camp, Chemistry, and Crimped Hair If you still belt out “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” in your car or secretly miss the days when big hair was in fashion, The Wedding Singer—which opened last night at The Colony Theatre—has your number. This show doesn’t flirt with nostalgia—it goes…

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…