Theater

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE FATIGUE One must admire Antony Zioni for his aspirations with Tales of the Ancient East, which, regrettably, makes the failure of this production all the more lamentable. Tales of the Ancient East is a tribal experience. Entering the Hudson Guild Theatre one is confronted by an environment cloaked in a primitivism that…

A GAME OF HEARTS PLAYED FACE DOWN There is no question that Ann Noble is one of the most talented actresses gracing the stages of Los Angeles. There are moments in her bitter-sweet, two-person clown show 52 Pick-Up at the Broadwater Studio, where this shines through. However, the show itself does not work. At the…

ALL IN ONE AND ONE IN ALL With Except Myself at the Broadwater Black Box, playwright Drew Petriello has achieved a clever, slick, and absolutely entertaining deconstruction of the solo show concept. Using the template of the classic absurdist play Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, Petriello has fashioned his own “five…

THE GOOD ANDREW BYRON CREATES A LONG AND WINDING RUSSIAN Andrew Byron frames his one man show The Good Russian within the historical context of 2018, when Sergei Skripal, a Russian expatriate who had worked as a double agent for MI6, the British Intelligence Agency, was found poisoned along with his daughter in his home in…

SHAKESPEARE GOES BRAT PACK The trouble with tribute plays is that not all audiences are necessarily as knowledgeable about the subject of the homage as the creators are.  In the case of Phil S. Gould’s faux Shakespearian The Club of Broken Fasts, the object of his retooling is the 1985 coming-of-age teen comedy-drama The Breakfast…

PULP FRICTION Reservoir Dolls is a witty, sharp satire of several sociological concerns currently occupying center stage in the cultural consciousness of both “tinsel town” and the nation: the exploitation of women in films and their limited access to roles in an image-driven industry; the institutional gender inequality and barriers facing women in the studio…

THE BIG SLEEP MEETS BIG QUESTIONS IN MR. BIG “Mr. Big” is the final entry in Woody Allen’s Getting Even (1971), his first published collection of 17 tales and essays, most of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. The main character in “Mr. Big” reflects a recurring motif for Allen: Sam Spade. Kaiser Lupowitz,…

NOT ENOUGH HEAT The Second Coming of Joan of Arc is the best-known work of American playwright, author, and lesbian feminist Carolyn Gage. Loosely based, scholars will tell you, “very loosely,” on the history of the teenage “Maid of Orléans,” who led the French armies to a series of victories over those of the English…

SEA WORTHY Wilds of Sea is an undersea adventure that will leave little ones wide-eyed and utterly captivated. But make no mistake—this all-ages puppet spectacle is as enchanting for the grown-ups as it is for the kids. Directed by Shannon Reagan, who also built the stunning life-sized puppets, Wilds of Sea follows a mischievous seal…