Los Angeles

YOU’RE THE TOPSY TURVY During the forced shutdown of theaters due to the COVID pandemic, The Actors’ Gang in Culver City kept its employees on salary and health insurance, adapted their outreach programs in schools and prisons to a virtual format, and continued workshops with its actors online. The group’s Artistic Director Tim Robbins shared,…

A PLAY NOT WORTH EXPLORING Doggedly determined to fight yesterday’s battles,  Nell Benjamin’s farce  The Explorers Club  manically mocks the heyday of male British explorers. Fuddy-duddy adventure seekers with aboriginal blood on their hands, these intrepid trekkers did a lot more than find the source of the Nile; they blazed a trail for imperialism, colonialism, racism and misogyny….

UNSAVORY IS SAVORY INDEED Those of us who grew up on the Westside of Los Angeles certainly remember hanging out on the Venice and Santa Monica beaches when we were kids. Times then were as innocent as we were, and our parents had no fear that predators were lurking about trying to do us harm….

THE LAST FIVE YEARS AT SIERRA MADRE CAN BE SEEN IN DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS Last weekend, Sierra Madre Playhouse opened what seems like a bewildering number of performance configurations of their new revival production of Jason Robert Brown’s 2001 musical The Last Five Years. The two-hander is double cast and also offers two types of accompaniments:…

A DICTATOR DICTATES MUSIC IN STALIN’S MASTER CLASS In a time when politics collide with state and federal budgets for the arts, Stalin’s Master Class  — a wildly comic, music-filled ride by British playwright David Pownall — is all too relevant for today’s audiences. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble founding artistic director Ron Sossi helms with his unique…

UNDERWEAR TYCOONS AND AERIAL INTRUSIONS: THE UNRAVELING COMEDY OF MISALLIANCE So, you stroll into the theater, right? You see this fancy conservatory set up, all English manor-style, and you think, “Oh, a nice, polite little comedy is about to unfold.” But hold your horses! George Bernard Shaw, that sly old fox, has other plans with…

MAD ABOUT GOING MAD Los Angeles-based Theatre Movement Bazaar is dedicated to developing a unique style of theatre rooted in physical action which merges dance, theatre, music, and cinema, heightening physicality to create provocative storytelling. Their latest production at the Odyssey Theatre, Going Mad: Alice in Hollywoodland, was written by Richard Alger and directed by…

BRINGING BACK ROSAS’ BLOOM The inaugural presentation of the Latino Theater Company‘s 2024 season, Ghost Waltz stands as a testament to the company’s commitment to groundbreaking theatrical endeavors. Commissioned by the company, penned by local playwright Oliver Mayer and deftly helmed by director Alberto Barboza, this production transcends mere entertainment, serving as an enlightening exploration…

TIME TO CHECK-IN TO HOT L HOLLYWOOD Written by Roger Mathey based on his own personal experience working in a three-star hotel in Los Angeles for over a decade, The Night Auditor takes place during the graveyard shift in a seedy Hollywood hotel that attracts the outcasts of society. The stories are all based on…

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OF POPCORN THEATRE In Nocturn Theater‘s inaugural season, the company embarked on a daring journey, presenting some of Broadway’s most iconic works. From Into the Woods to Jekyll and Hyde, this young theater company is carving its own path with a unique blend of theatrical storytelling, variety-show style entertainment, and…

A TWIN-TWIN PRODUCTION In Elizabethan England the entertainments that closed the Christmas season (the Twelfth day) completed the festivities with a topsy-turvy role reversal, peasants pretending to be princes, the sexes switching appearances. Shakespeare’s  Twelfth Night,  with its disguised lovers and mistaken identities ’” and Actors Co-op’s color-blind, gender-fluid revival ’” honor this irreverence. Love, especially in…

WOMEN AND SPACE: THE JOURNEY SO FAR The World Premiere of Singularities or the Computers of Venus, written and directed by Laura Stribling, runs through Sunday, June 2 at The Road Theatre in North Hollywood. Set in three different time periods from 1789 through the present, it examines the lives of women astronomers as they…

IT’S MAN AGAINST AI IN MAINTENANCE With the current threat of AI-generated digital characters taking over roles portrayed by human actors, it’s timely for Peter Ritt  to comically explore this hot topic in his new play High Maintenance at The Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood Directed with insightful clarity by Stan Zimmerman this world premiere…

HOPE IS A WAKING DREAM — Aristotle Close-up magic by master illusionist, storyteller and seeming mind-reader Helder Guimarí£es is mesmerizing and dazzling  in The Hope Theory, an 80-minute wonderment which opened last Friday. This is his fourth collaboration with EGOT award-winning director/producer Frank Marshall at Geffen Playhouse in Westwood (Invisible Tango, The Present streamed during the…