Los Angeles

CRYOGEN ME A RIVER The subtitle of Fly Jamerson‘s Frozen Fluid, which opened Saturday night at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre, is “An Antarctic Gender Non-Conforming Creation Myth.” Don’t say you weren’t warned going in. I wasn’t bored, and there were even some sweet moments, but what started as a deconstruction of three scientists working at the…

SPRING HAS SPRUNG Distinguished by its raw emotional resonance, formidable musical composition, and a compelling narrative that plumbs the depths of adolescence, sexuality, and defiance, Spring Awakening, the rock opera adapted from Frank Wedekind’s provocative 19th-century German drama, has held global audiences in thrall since its inaugural performance in 2006. It remains a boldly audacious…

THE FREIGHT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM How fascinating that two bookending one-man shows opened in Los Angeles this past weekend. The first, Just for Us at the Taper, is a play with universalisms and stories through a Jewish lens to largely comedic effect. The second, Freight, contains universalisms and stories told through a Black lens…

LIKE HENRY DRUMMOND, I’M AN AGNOSTIC, BUT THIS PRODUCTION OF INHERIT THE WIND SENT ME TO THEATRICAL HEAVEN Inherit the Wind, a theatrical warhorse authored in 1955 by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, emerges as an eloquent narrative, artfully crafted around the historical backdrop of the infamous 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial.” This legal saga…

SO, WHERE’S THE THUNDER? What a strange and unsatisfying evening. As baffling as the title of the producing company, bAfA TheatreWorks, Suse Sternkopf’s  Slow Thunder is all slow and no thunder. Even with the presence of two of my favorite actors — Ann Noble and Rob Nagle — Sternkopf as director fails to create the undercurrent…