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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles Theater Review: VIEUX CARRÉ (The Wooster Group at REDCAT)
THE PASSION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS “You know, I heard some doctor say on the radio that people die of loneliness’¦.They do. Die of it, it kills ’˜em. Oh, that’s not the cause that’s put on the death warrant, but that’s the true cause. I tell you, there’s so much loneliness in this house that you…
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Tour Review: WEST SIDE STORY (National Tour at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre)
WEST SIDE TRAVESTY If  the West  Side Story at the Pantages Theatre were a college production, it might pass muster, particularly if your favorite niece or nephew had a part in it. Otherwise, what you will see bears as much resemblance to the recent Broadway revival as a farm mule does to a thoroughbred racehorse….
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Tour Theater Review: NEXT TO NORMAL (kick-off of National Tour at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles)
THE NEW TRADITION OF AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL WORKS-IN-PROGRESS In the evolutionary process of the modern Broadway musical,  Next to Normal is still somewhere between ape and man; for all the pioneering and innovative writing, intriguing subject matter, and outstanding performances, the finished product left me  frustrated that it didn’t live up to its own potential. There are…
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Theater review: HYPERBOLE: ORIGINS (Rogue Artists Ensemble at [Inside] the Ford)
ADULT CHILDREN’S THEATRE If Hyperbole: Origins were to be reviewed as a play, I would tell you that I had no idea what the playwright was trying to say; since no writer is credited, we’ll just assume that the Rogue Artists Ensemble is merely musing over the origins of things, such as music, fire, sin…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SECRET GARDEN, THE MUSICAL (Chance Theater in Anaheim)
BAFFLING MUSICAL GETS THE TREATMENT IT DOESN’T DESERVE What do Miss Saigon, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Aspects of Love, Will Rogers Follies, and Meet Me in St Louis have in common? They opened during the 1990-91  Broadway season, and all of them (City of Angels  to a lesser degree) are problematic with either awkward scores and/or…
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Theater Review: THE LIMITATIONS OF GENETIC TECHNOLOGY (Theatre of NOTE)
IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL WITH MOTHER NATURE Tacky commercials for Global Cytodynamics play on large video screens as we enter Theatre of NOTE, advertising improved lifestyles through genetic alteration, including that of learning, memory, pleasure and belief systems. Projection designer Steven Calcote and the always extraordinary sound designer Cricket Myers brilliantly take us into…
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HARPS AND ANGELS music and lyrics by Randy Newman, conceived by Jack Viertel – Mark Taper Forum – Los Angeles Theater Review
AN UNABASHED LOVE LETTER TO MICHAEL McKEAN Dear Michael McKean, I hereby declare that I am unashamedly besotted with love for you. Why? Because last night, I saw you take a handful of songs by Randy Newman and watched you become a different character with every song, turning each into an exquisitely dimensional one-act play….
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LA RAZÒN BLINDADA by Aristedes Vargas / THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE by Stephen Adly Guirgis / THE SUNSET LIMITED by Cormac McCarthy / GREAT EXPECTATIONS adapted by Neil Bartlett from the novel by Charles Dickens / PANDEMONIUM / ROCK’N’ROLL by Tom Stoppard – Los Angeles Theater Reviews
MORE GOOD L.A. THEATER AROUND THAN ONE IMAGINES There is so much theater activity in Los Angeles that there is bound to be a lot of good theater. But I have been so burned out by the extraordinary amount of bad theater I’ve had to sit through that I’ve seriously considered taking a vacation from…
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WATSON, THE LAST GREAT TALE OF THE LEGENDARY SHERLOCK HOLMES by Jaime Robledo – Sacred Fools Theater – Los Angeles (Hollywood) Theater Review
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOLMES The world premiere of Watson, The Last Great Tale Of The Legendary Sherlock Holmes, presented by the Sacred Fools Theatre Company, has a lot going for it: side-splitting Vaudevillian-type sight gags, brilliantly inventive direction, comedic acting that harks back to silent film, insanely luminous and flowery dialogue, a cohesive plot,…
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Theater Review INTRíNGULIS (LAByrinth Theater Company in Hollywood)
IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE TITLE OF THE SHOW MEANS BY THE END OF THE SHOW, THEN SOMETHING AIN’T RIGHT. IntrÃÂngulis is Carlo Albán’s true-life solo show about his family’s move from Ecuador to the U.S. and his life growing up as an illegal alien, even while starring in Sesame Street as a kid….
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Theater Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (National Tour)
SMALLER PRODUCTION, BIGGER HEART Fans of the stage musical Beauty and the Beast will not be disappointed by the newly re-imagined (read: scaled down) version currently on tour. Original Broadway director Rob Roth has assembled the same team, including Tony-winning costume designer Ann Hould-Ward; what we get, instead of a two-ton castle set, is a…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BUTCHER OF BARABOO (Road Theatre in North Hollywood)
WISCONSIN Â IN SENSURROUND What do you get when you mix the styles of Grand Guignol, farce, and situational comedy with the sensibilities of the Coen Brothers (Fargo) and Frederick Knott (playwright of Dial M For Murder and Wait Until Dark)? One would think a bloody, horrific mess, but The Butcher of Baraboo, at the Lankershim Arts…
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Tales From Hollywood – Odyssey Theatre Ensemble – Los Angeles Theater Review
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD In the fascinating (and often funny) Tales From Hollywood, playwright Christopher Hampton pays homage to the true-life émigrés from Nazi Germany who took up residence in Los Angeles to write for the movies. Many of them sacrificed their literary legacy to be paid $100 a week, forced to turn out dreck for…
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Regional Theater Review: BECKY SHAW (South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa)
SHARP AS A DULL RAZOR Gina Gionfriddo is smart. She has gone to no less brilliant a writer than William Makepeace Thackeray for inspiration. Becky. Gionfriddo’s contemporary gold digger, in her desperation to worm her way out of her class and into a marriage that seems recklessly impossible, even owes her name to Becky Sharp,…
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Los Angeles Theater Reviews prior to August 2010
Los Angeles Theater Reviews of the 2010-2011 season 1776 (Tony Frankel) 40 Is The New 15 (Tony Frankel) All My Sons (Tony Frankel) Amadeus (Tony Frankel) Beyond (Tony Frankel) Brewsie and Willie (Harvey Perr) Chess in Concert (Tony Frankel) The Girl Who Would Be King (Tony Frankel) The Good Woman of Setzuan (Harvey Perr) Jewtopia(Tony Frankel)…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: HOBOKEN TO HOLLYWOOD (Edgemar Center for the Arts)
THE CURE FOR THE BLUES HAS ARRIVED I have not been lucky enough to see legendary singers – such as Keely Smith, Dean Martin, or Ella Fitzgerald – perform standards live. Time and again, I am told by people who saw them what magic occurs when an original personality with a distinctive voice interprets songs…
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THE AUTUMN GARDEN by Lillian Hellman – The Antaeus Company at the Deaf West Theatre – Los Angeles (North Hollywood) Theater Review
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A CAST MAKES Let me tell you a story. A tale of two casts. Once upon a time there was a playwright whose name was Lillian Hellman. You may have heard of her. She had a taste for melodrama, it’s true, but, at her best, she wrote some of the most effective…
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PHANTOM LUCK by John Steppling – Gunfighter Nation – The Lost Studio – Los Angeles Theater Review
THE GHOSTS OF GAMBLERS PAST AND PRESENT AND NO FUTURE Someone once said that the only poet Los Angeles ever produced was Raymond Chandler. It must have been said before John Steppling came along. Steppling is the one playwright who has located the rot at the core of our city and its environs and who…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: ANNIE (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
SHE’S BA-A-A-ACK Annie, the sugar-coated phenomenon that seems to have the life of an Everlasting Gobstopper, is back on the boards, courtesy of Musical Theatre West in Long Beach. The show, about comic strip legend Little Orphan Annie, keeps being remounted for a reason: this feel-good Depression-era musical has remarkably melodious tunes (music by Charles…
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Theater Review: THE TRAIN DRIVER (Fountain Theater in L.A.)
LIFE GOES ON, DOESN’T IT? The cemetery is the home of the nameless and it is strewn with pebbles and bits of garbage that serve as headstones. The keeper of the cemetery lives next to it in a shed that is equipped with not even the barest essentials. In this world of death, one does…
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