Los Angeles

TELEMARKETING SURE IS A PITCH There’s nothing like a fascinating story, and that’s what’s in store with The Pitch, now at the Odyssey Theatre directed by Louie Liberti. If you’ve ever done telemarketing, it can be a cold and brutal business, because — of course — the bottom line is sales, and as we have…

ESPIONAGE COMES TO GROUP THERAPY There’s a pretty good reason why the world premiere of Gregg Ostrin’s The Spy Who Went Into Rehab, onstage at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, has been extended. It’s a darned good farcical and absurdist comedy. The studly, well-cast Satiar Pourvasei plays Cross. Simon Cross. He’s been dropped off at…

Mayuri Bhandari, an unenthusiastic gorgeous yoga instructor, has something to get off her chest. She’s miffed at how Western folks have commercialized the practice and teaching of yoga, turning an ancient, sacred practice into a commodity. In The Anti Yogi, which I caught at a packed encore performance at The Zephyr Theatre on July 10,…

A TIME-TRAVELING UNBROKEN BLOSSOMS REVEALS BIGOTRY AND MISOGYNY Before seeing the world premiere of Unbroken Blossoms by Philip W. Chung at East West Players, I had never heard of the 1919 American silent film Broken Blossoms, directed by D. W. Griffith  starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess, in which a frail waif is abused by her…

MEET NOËL COWARD’S THROUPLE OF ARTISTS IN THE 1930s Design For Living is one of Noël Coward’s less performed plays but it fair crackles with bons mots — you know you’re in good hands when delightfully old-fashioned words like “horrid,” “bloody,” “cheap,” and “vulgar” are tossed around with, well, gay abandon. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble is…

A NICE EXPAT ON THE HEAD Now, here’s a fascinating show. Two former lawyers (the best kind I say) and whip-smart writers, Dominique Roberts and Candace Leung, wrote and starred in Expatriated at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. In a dizzying series of vignettes, we meet a white lawyer sent to Hong Kong and a Hong…

THERE MAY BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH CYRUS, BUT NOT SO MUCH HIS SHOW Meet Cyrus Deboo. An adult actor who, against all the odds and ends of a traditional Persian upbringing, blossomed into an out gay man in a loving relationship, and with the eventual acceptance from his dad. In There’s Something Seriously Wrong with…

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES I’m rather certain that most folks in the U.S.A. have no idea that Chicago is one of the best theater towns in the world. The reason for this is storefront theaters, which have given birth to amazing companies such as Steppenwolf. Los Angeles used to have these but, especially with Equity…

IT’S SILLY BUT NOT KOOKY (SNAP, SNAP) Every generation, there is an iconic TV family that defines the era. From the perfect clan of The Donna Reed Show to the trashy hellscape of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, American audiences have always been enamored by family drama. After all, is anything more universal than having…

CAMPING ON THE BEACH Psycho Beach Party, a totally campy creation written by Charles Busch, is not your typical 50s and 60s beach blanket movie with Frankie and Annette innocently dancing and singing in the sand. With several cross-dressing cast members, mischief, madness, and the passionate pursuit of the perfect wave — or man —…

AN EVENT TO MAKE YOU HIGH No doubt spurred by William Randolph Hearst’s yellow-journalism against pot (he invested in wood-pulp newsprint because he didn’t want paper made from hemp), a church group in 1936 sponsored a film aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. One of the worst films ever made, Reefer…