Theater

BLACK-AND-WHITE MEMORIES IN LIVING COLOR Whether you had viewed the original airings of I Love Lucy or discovered the show during the thousands of reruns, it is undeniable that the breakthrough comedy has a multi-generational appeal. Not only is it fun to watch Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred in that familiar apartment every week, but…

DANSE MACABRE At Bootleg Theater, David J‘s The Chanteuse and the Devil’s Muse is not so much a play as it is an art installation. But, as an art installation, it has a terrible beauty and some moments of bizarre theatrical innovations that linger in the memory. While it purports to be an investigation of…

TOUCHING MOMENTS DO NOT SUSTAIN FAMILY DRAMA In Collaborative Artists Ensemble’s production of Jon Courie’s new play, To Carry the Child, the oldest daughter, Ashley (Meg Wallace), her life in shreds, is facing a serious disease and finds her lover, Diane (Justine Woodford) running from the crisis. She returns to her family home in Caraprice…

A PUZZLE TO RELISH SOLVING As both theatergoer and theater writer, this reviewer is decidedly unenthusiastic about absurdist, avant-garde, or post-modern theatre.   It’s not so much the concept or ideas behind these movements as it is the execution. Playwrights and theatre companies get so caught up in approaching the presentation of their story – vignettes,…

THE MANY FACES OF VIVIEN LEIGH The one woman play Vivien, presented by Rogue Machine at Theatre Theater, is a stunning showcase of two talents, both of which make this a recommended outing: the superlative acting of Judith Chapman and the extraordinary directorial guidance of Elina de Santos. Unfortunately, Rick Foster’s play is more like…

THIS BEAU IS JEST FINE Do you ever just want to go home, eat your mother’s comforting chicken soup, put on your oldest fuzzy slippers and find some old-fashioned comedy on AMC? Well, you’ll get no soup or slippers at Beau Jest, but you will be glad you got away from home for this old-fashioned,…

AN OUNCE OF MISSTEPS IS WORTH THIS POUND OF FLESH Before you run off to see The Porters of Hellsgate production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice — and I surely hope that you do — let us clear something up once and for all regarding the nature of its topicality. It would be…

I HAD A GAY OLD TIME A letter to Sandra Bernhard: Dear Sandy: Oh my God, it thrilled me to no end when I was assigned to review your latest show at REDCAT: Sandra Bernhard: I Love Being Me, Don’t You? Ever since you took off your clothes and sang, all feline-like, to a tied-up…

WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT? At the top of Melissa James Gibson’s This, five urbanite thirty-somethings take part in an innocent parlor game that inadvertently goes awry for one of them: an unsuspecting woman just before the anniversary of her husband’s death. Not only does the scene become the best 10-minute play ever written, but the…

A SHOWCASE FOR ORSON WELLES PROVES DIFFICULT TO REVIVE Whitmore Eclectic, a non-profit theatre company now in its second season, brings us a presentation of the tricky Moby Dick Rehearsed, Orson Welles’ 1955 theatrical adaptation of Herman Melville’s famous story. In this version, a Nineteenth Century theatre company must adjust to the fact that they…

A LIBERTY BELL OF A SHOW STILL RINGS TRUE Strength. Courage. Character. Fortitude. These are traits that have inspired Americans, both in our leaders and in folklore. The 1968 musical 1776, now receiving a splendid production at Glendale Centre Theatre, is chock-full of the spirit that audiences need to experience in uncertain economic and political…