Theater

HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF? William S. Burroughs said, “Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.†Well, what a relief it is to see the venerable Pasadena Playhouse open for business again after a financial housecleaning. There are indeed angels in our midst that came to the rescue after the Playhouse closed on February 7 and…

WHERE GRIEF GOES TO DIE There is a Turkish expression: “He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it.” A train driver named Roelf (Morlan Higgins) is doing everything he can to remedy his all-consuming trauma caused by the death of a black woman and her baby, whose faces he saw immediately before they…

MEET THE CROWS Neighbors is a mess, but it is the most vibrant and ground-breaking mess you are likely to encounter in any theater in Los Angeles at the moment and I apologize for being delinquent in getting this review out because it has come to my attention that Neighbors is offering all sorts of…

RUINED AND SAVED If history is really an argument without end, then Lynn Nottage, among contemporary American playwrights, is our most compassionate historian. Although I prefer Intimate Apparel for the elegance of its writing and for the freshness of its approach to discovered facts, it is easy to understand why Ruined is her breakout play….

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO OUR CLASSICS? You can fragmentize a familiar Shakespeare play like Macbeth, if you have a clear concept of what you want to do with it and then give it a witty and inventive production, as was proven recently when Psittacus Productions presented A Tale Told By An Idiot, but if…

PREPARE TO ROLL YOUR MOISTENED EYES If you are into political rallies that are jam-packed with guilt-inducing inspiration, then bundle up your harmonica, washtub bass, guitar, picket signs, seat cushions, and picnic; call forth a sense of injustice, and march to the hippie hills of Topanga. No, you’re not on your way to a fundraiser…

TEENAGERS YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH It’s a wonder when a playwright can capture the vernacular of three misfit teens, but to intersperse an uncanny insight into the angst of these determining years is a feat of magic. In Speech and Debate at the Secret Rose Theatre, playwright Stephen Karam has not only…

NUDIE PARODY GOES LIMP You should know how seriously I take theatre: when I review a production of Hamlet, I study Hamlet; the same applies to a theatre style, such as avant-garde. So it was for you, dear reader, that I rented and watched L.A. Tool & Die, the 70’s male porno movie by Joe…

IGNITING A PASSION FOR THE ARTS Have you ever been in the mood for something – a museum, play, concert or lecture – but you couldn’t decide which? Well, here is your chance to see all of these at once: Pageant of the Masters, produced by the Festival of the Arts of Laguna Beach, is…

CHECK OUT CHESS, MATE It’s stunning and brilliant with talent just oozing out of the MET Theatre You know, it mystifies me when friends ask for a recommendation on what musical to see and I mention the first thing that pops into my head, only to have it discounted. Case in point: I told someone…

THE PLAY THAT COULD BE KING ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Once upon a time, Mark Twain wrote the short story A Medieval Romance, in which a girl is secretly raised as a boy for the purpose of inheriting the King’s throne from her uncle, the King. The Girl is sent…

WHEN A SCRIPT IS NOT COMMENSURATE WITH ACTOR There are two compelling reasons to see Laurence Fishburne portray Justice Thurgood Marshall in  Thurgood, a transplanted production currently running at the Geffen Playhouse: one is its subject matter, Thurgood Marshall, and the other is the actor who plays him, Laurence Fishburne. Mr. Fishburne is a towering, commanding,…

GET BEAT UP AND ENJOY IT TWICE The dazzling Antaeus Ensemble, creators of the sweeping masterpiece Cousin Bette earlier this year, has created another miracle with Shakespeare’s sledgehammer of a play, King Lear — the miracle being that this unrelenting, unforgiving and oft times unredeeming tragedy is handled with such mastery and skill that you…

TO LAUGH OR NOT TO LAUGH The Westmorelands of Vicksburg, Mississippi, are, on the surface – at least when one first encounters them – just too perfect for words. Bobby and Kate have been married for nineteen years and are still in a state of wedded bliss, he still romantic with her, she still horny…

DARK? NOT SO MUCH. WORTHWHILE? OH, YEAH. The real stars of  Oklahoma!, presented by the Musical Theatre of Los Angeles, are Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Hammerstein’s 1943 book is solidly funny and sweet – it avoids creaking with age because it shuns overt sentimentality, and the lyrics are chock-full of poetic imagery and clever internal…

GOOD THING PICASSO STUCK TO HIS DAY JOB When addlepated Michel Leiris (pronounced LAY-REE) pops out of the upstairs bedroom in his darkened Paris home to prepare for the visit of Pablo Picasso, he begins a series of pratfalls, antics and missteps that thrust us into the world of farce. Early into Act I of…

ALL OVER TOWN: FROM HOLLYWOOD TO TOPANGA After all is said and sat through, there is no profoundly new revelation in Joel Drake Johnson’s carefully observed Four Places that would finally illuminate the wrenching drama that takes place, but it is nevertheless invigorating to hear the cool intelligence of the writing and the way the…

THE BOYS IN THE BEDROOM In the fifth of the ten scenes which comprise Joe DiPietro’s  Fucking Men, a free-wheeling adaptation of Arthur Schitzler’s  La Ronde, the production at Celebration Theatre finally takes hold and grips its audience in an irresistible vise and doesn’t let go right through the next three scenes. But more about that later….