Los Angeles

THE VALUE IN SIMPLICITY The purposefully simplistic proceedings of David Cromer’s production of Our Town may seem bold and innovative to some, especially to those weaned on Broadway spectacles. Yet, the gloriously unassuming presentation now on at the Broad Stage is actually a spot-on realization of Thornton Wilder’s vision of his famous 1938 play. Indeed,…

WILL THE REAL MOLLY IVINS PLEASE STAND UP? Molly Ivins was a ballsy Texas-based reporter who became a legend in her own time by calling a spade a spade (or, more succinctly, calling George W. Bush a moron – even before he was President – and who added glorious insult to magnificent injury by saying…

OWNING HER INNER KVETCH In Michael Wex’s treatise Born to Kvetch, he asserts that Kvetching (complaining) is not only a pastime for Jews – it’s a way of life. Kvetching can be applied indifferently to contentment or displeasure: it is a way of knowing, a means of apprehension that sees the world through cataract-colored glasses….

NOT YOUR ORDINARY EVENING OF DANCE Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith’s long-term friendship shapes their every move as a duo dance company. Such a partnership between a straight woman and gay man is not unusual in the dance world. Self-conscious acknowledgement of it in a performance is. Yet fessing up to the friendship that sustains…

BLACK COMEDY AND KITCHEN SINK DRAMA: AN IRISH STEW While the horror and suspense merely simmer in The Beauty Queen of Leenane – Martin McDonagh’s 1996 black comedy – the dark humor, bleakness, and romance positively boil over, making The Production Company’s revival a recommended trip. For 20 years, 40 year-old spinster Maureen (Ferrell Marshall)…

WARLIKE FROTTAGE The Porters of Hellsgate’s production of Shakespeare’s Trojan War essay, Troilus and Cressida, begins promisingly.   A shifting tableau establishes characters and relationships during the Prologue’s welcome, telling visually a story that might be hard to follow due to its many characters, plot lines, and changes of theme.   It’s too bad Charles Pasternak then…

TELL US A STORY, AUNTIE CHARLAYNE If I were a child, I would want Auntie Charlayne to tuck me in and tell me a story. Why? Because Auntie Charlayne –   that’s Charlayne Woodard –   just happens to be a great storyteller. She can get right in there, keeping you interested every step of the way,…

TWISTED LITTLE PASSIONS IN THE SUBURBS Now that A Noise Within –   the Southern California repertory theater company dedicated to the classics – has gotten a snazzy new suburban theater in Pasadena, guess what?   They are doing the same fair-to-middling work on their new stage as they did in their old space in Glendale. I…

UNAPPRECIATED MASTERPIECE OR ABJECT FAILURE? Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein began the Golden Era of Broadway with two musicals that reimagined the previous form of musical comedies – a cluster of songs packaged together by a plot – by using songs to heighten and embellish a striking narrative. After creating Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945),…

A TENNESSEE WILLIAMS CARICATURE A number of theatres in Los Angeles have marked the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams’ birth by staging productions of his plays. Following upon the successful runs of A House Not Meant To Stand at The Fountain Theatre and Five Beauties at the McCadden Theatre is the Elephant Theatre Company’s production…

THE BLIND LEADING THE HALF BLIND “It’s The Devils meets Marat/Sade.” someone said to me. “Yes,” I responded. “As performed by the Marx Brothers!” We were talking about the new Zombie Joe’s Underground show, Hosea Nova: A Jealous and Violent Man, Robert Riemer’s wacky baroque take on Hosea, the Biblical prophet of doom (where there’s…

SHORT TAKES ON CURRENT LOS ANGELES THEATER AS IT WAS: As Is, written by William M. Hoffman in 1984, when so many of our contemporaries were dying of the AIDS epidemic, still maintains its power. If it is dated at all, it is dated in good ways: it means that our so-called “gay” theater has…

A FOOL-IPINO FOR LOVE Just as the “problem” of immigration continues to be debated by our politicians, so does it continue to be presented in our theaters. Earlier this year, in the springtime, Tom Jacobson’s new play The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) was presented at the Atwater Village Theatre. His complex historical drama, which provided little…

AN ERROR IN COMEDY One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors, is also his shortest and most farcical. In fact, while scholars argue over the classification of other Bard works, there is no denying that this play belongs to the category of Comedies: the tale of two sets of separated twins is not…