Los Angeles

HATE THE MUSICAL, BUT LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THE PRODUCTION Whether you love or hate the musical version of The Color Purple, no one, and I mean no one, can or will deny that this is one of the finest productions ever staged in a small theater in Los Angeles. Director Michael Matthews has taken a…

TWO MORE ONE-PERSON PLAYS AT THE SKYLIGHT Burke Byrnes’s  The Yellow House (Fridays) and Harry Hart-Browne’s  Special Delivery (Saturdays) both possess the virtues and weaknesses of one-person shows. Both have the bracing intelligence of their creators. Both are very well performed. Both are highly personal and yet avoid the narcissism that personal works are often guilty of….

WHY DO WE HAVE WHY WE HAVE A BODY? Every few years a vanity project comes along so appalling that one’s jaw hangs open for its entire running time, saliva connecting the lower lip to the floor in a single unbroken strand.   The planets have to align very particularly for a travesty of this magnitude…

A GROUNDED SEAGULL In Chekhov’s The Seagull, the young, angst-ridden writer Tréplev maintains that “What we need are new forms! We need new forms, and if we can’t have them, then we’re better off with no theater at all.” Yet when Chekhov wrote this line in 1895, he was referring not to the interpretation of…

A NEGLECTED CLASSIC GONE AWRY The story of Antony and Cleopatra shares with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet those two indispensable elements of tragedy: love and death. While Romeo and Juliet is perhaps Shakespeare’s best known play, Antony and Cleopatra is all but neglected. This is all the more surprising considering contemporary interest in its principal…

THRILLING HOPELESSNESS Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. – Jeremiah 42:11. In 1964, Lanford Wilson wrote a play startling in its representation of a gritty present, and even more surprising now for its continued relevance.  …

ACTS OF CONSCIENCE All theater is inherently political, in that a story is only as objective as its teller.   But some plays go straight to the 24 hour news cycle definition of politics, addressing problems of international diplomacy divisive enough that only a stage may politely host them.   Sarah’s War, Valerie Dillman’s play enjoying its…

RISE ABOVE THEATRE MOVEMENT HANDLES THE TRUTH Just three years after Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men (1989) was produced on Broadway, the play’s popularity was eclipsed by the film version with Tom Cruise. Revivals of the play are rare, but based on the vivid production by Rise Above Theatre Movement (RATMO), the courtroom drama…

FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES Carson Kreitzer’s 2003 play Slither conforms to a certain category of American text: the women’s empowerment monologue extravaganza.   Hallmarks of the genre include plotless, drama-free speeches of subjugation, delivered by female figures unfettered by character; a monologue format occasionally and inexplicably interrupted by thematically related scenes also lacking dramatic tension; and…

ORIGINAL SIN In their fevered exploration of the seven deadly sins, Figure 8 playwright/co-director Phinneas Kiyomura and co-director Jerry Kernion seem hell bent on making sin seem as original as possible. Visually, their approach results in moments of genuine power. Emotionally, it has its limits. Kiyomura rather enigmatically calls Figure 8 a collection of eight…

SUPER STRUCTURE The Cost of the Erection: The title of Jon Marans’ new play sounds like one of those gay shows where comely actors get naked to pump up the box office. There is some veiled nudity here’”integral to the plot’”but this isn’t a Naked Boys Singing knockoff. While the title may be two-edged, clever,…

THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB SWIMS UP STREAM Ever since mankind began telling tales, the “overcoming adversity” story has remained ever-popular. From cave wall pictures depicting a hunter’s prowess over the Woolley Mammoth to David overpowering Goliath to calculus teacher Jaime Escalante’s efforts with underprivileged students, these stories are meant to inspire. The heroes, most often…

TO STAGE AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM Now in its 60th season, Musical Theatre West (MTW)  is currently reviving Man of La Mancha with the astronomical performance of Davis Gaines as its driving force. Technically, the estimable company has never been better, producing sights and sounds the likes of which one would only expect from a Broadway show….

ART OR NOT, IT’S A FUN PLAY Yasmina Reza’s oft-produced Art (English translation by Christopher Hampton) may be singularly responsible for the current plethora of new plays today billed as “Ninety Minutes No Intermission.” The story, about three long-time friends who are at odds over a painting one of them has bought, is splendidly simple…

THE CLYBOURNE CONNECTION There are two reasons to revive a play. One: to see if the play has retained its power over the years. And two: to look at the play afresh, with eyes that see now what we may not have seen when the play in question was first produced. The beauty of Phylicia…

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN Have you ever been to a sultry party that has the oppressive feel of a languid, humid day in the Deep South, only to have the energy shift dramatically when a raconteur blows in like a refreshing breeze off the Gulf Coast? Usually, it is someone who can recount their adventures…

CHEATED OF FEATURE The joy of watching Shakespeare in performance largely depends on the ensemble’s ability to make sense of the language.   In this regard, Sacred Fools’ new Richard III succeeds, and before the intermission, it boasts the equally rare Shakespearean virtue of velocity.   But any staging of any play has responsibilities beyond diction and…