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Theater Review: FEFU AND HER FRIENDS (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in West L.A.)
FRIENDLY FEMINIST FIRE Fefu and Her Friends is one of the most famous plays by the recently deceased feminist avant-garde playwright María Irene Fornés, a Cuban American who has won nine Obie Awards including the award for sustained achievement. After seeing this production directed by Denise Blasor, I understand why. Fornés brilliantly captures the time…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: FRANKENSTEIN (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
ENDURING THE MONSTER Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) wrote her famous “ghost story,” Frankenstein, in 1818, while on a vacation on Lake Geneva with her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, the explorer Lord Byron, and Dr. John Polidon. It was a gloomy summer and these Romantic poets each wrote a Gothic story of some kind to…
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Theater Review: EARLY BIRDS (Moving Arts)
EARLY BIRDS GETS THE BIRD The phrase “early bird” generally denotes someone who is an early-morning riser or who shows up anywhere early, words usually attributed to the elderly. In Dana Schwartz’s light comedy, two senior women — one rich, one middle-class poor — find themselves on the first day of an ocean voyage beating…
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Film Review: FIVE GREAT JAPANESE HORROR PICS
JAPANESE HORROR FILM REVIEWS One might ask what is so special about Japanese horror movies, as Japan’s input into global culture is now strongly associated with animation, fashion, and toys. However, the names of the horror films listed below are so widely known that a specific tendency becomes almost apparent. Let’s read on and try…
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Theater Review: 33 1/3 – HOUSE OF DREAMS (San Diego Repertory Theatre)
TRIBUTE TO THE HITS FROM GOLD STAR Gold Star Recording Studio might not be a household name, but the musicians they recorded for certainly are: Tina Turner, Sonny and Cher, and the Beach Boys are just hint at the long list. Gold Star turned out over 120 Top-40 songs in their thirty year history. With…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Music Theater Works in Evanston)
A SERMON IN FLESH WOW spelled backwards! In almost forty seasons it’s their biggest show, with full orchestra and a cast of over 40, including a seated choir. It sprawls with spectacle but it’s also tight as a stark story requires. Music Theater Work’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame — a “medieval” musical spun from the 1996 Disney…
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Theater Review: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Red Tape Theatre and Greenhouse Theatre)
ALL QUIET MAKES A BIG NOISE One of the saddest truths about humanity is that we always need to be warned against war, so tempting is its license to kill. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, was not, alas, the anti-war novel to end all anti-war novels. It arrived half-way between…
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Chicago Theater Review: ALL THAT HE WAS (Pride Films and Plays)
MEMORIES IN MUSIC FORGE A GREATER WHOLE We’re witnesses to an aftermath and its collateral healing, the unsought legacy of a gay guy who died too soon: Newly revised after its 1993 inception and directed by bookwriter/lyricist Larry Todd Cousineau, All That He Was (with music by Cindy O’Connor) is a beautifully structured and powerfully performed valedictory….
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Theater Review: SHREK (3-D Theatricals in Cerritos)
SHREK IS A SHRUG OF A MUSICAL; BUT THIS PRODUCTION IS SURE AND SHARP Shrek The Musical is a mystifying experience. The whole thing is rather inane, versus the sophisticated silliness of Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The first time I saw the show was the final performance of the National…
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Theater Review: BOOGIEBAN (Chicago Dramatists and 13th Street Repertory Theatre in New York)
COLLATERAL HEALING It’s a justified transfer. A very enterprising theater called none too fragile from Akron, Ohio has come to Chicago (and later to New York City) to offer a pretty powerful play. Presented at Chicago Dramatists in the West Loop, it’s a world-premiere production of a one-act about the hard healing that comes after…
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Review: ALL SHOOK UP (San Diego Musical Theatre)
A HUNK-A HUNK-A BURNING FUN On the heels of Cygnet’s Rock of Ages, in which every tune is an 80s hit, comes San Diego Musical Theatre’s staging of All Shook Up, in which every musical moment is an Elvis Presley song. (It played Broadway in 2005 with 213 performances.) It’s an interesting trend, fitting in…
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DVD Review: LES MISÉRABLES (PBS, 2018)
C’EST MAGNIFIQUE Boy-o-Boy!!! When Art is flung in your face, you best wear it rather than wash it off for, if nothing else, your long-range emotional sake. This latest iteration of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel about the struggles of the1830s archconservative French government’s effect on the disenfranchised sections of the country, especially concerning the life…
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DVD Review: THOSE WHO KILL [DEN SOM DRí†BER] (MHz Releasing)
DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT Here comes the Danish version of the newly named “Scandi Noir” or “Nordic Noir,” a genre of crime fiction set in the Scandinavia countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Greenland (although the last one is run by the Kingdom of Denmark); this genre would seem to reflect the nature…
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Interview: VINCE MELOCCHI (writer of world premiere ANDY WARHOL’S TOMATO at Pacific Resident Theatre)
PEELING A TOMATO If you’ve ever wondered what Andy Warhol was like as a kid, perhaps writer Vince Melocchi’s new play will give you a better understanding of the iconic artist, far beyond his eccentric persona. This curiosity became the biggest challenge for the playwright, finding the voice of a teenage Andy Warhola who was…
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Review: COME FROM AWAY (North American Tour)
THE OTHER SIDE OF TERROR Maybe because we need them so much, miracles are hard to take but crucial to believe. Come from Away is a miracle musical in every way. Just as Lanford Wilson wrote The Fifth of July to reckon with the aftermath of a too-hopeful holiday, this Canadian wonderwork confronts — and redeems — the horrors…
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Film Review: MOLLY’S GAME (directed by Aaron Sorkin)
MOLLY’S GAME: HOW DOES THE FILM COMPARE TO THE REAL STORY? Molly’s Game is based on the real story of Molly Bloom; an Olympic Skier turned entrepreneur who made a lot of money running high-stakes underground poker tournaments. When a movie is based on a person’s life, some of the sections are likely to be…
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Theater Review: SCRAPS (Matrix Theatre Company)
GIVE US A SECOND ACT WE DESERVE; ALL WE END UP WITH IS SCRAPS The angry young man syndrome is nothing new — think Protestant reformer Martin Luther! — but it sure found a home in the theater when British playwright John Osborne wrote the seminal Look Back in Anger in 1956. Jimmy, the uptight,…
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Theater Review: WEST SIDE STORY (5-Star Theatricals in Thousand Oaks)
A RESONATING STORY It rarely happens. “The Broadway Chill” I call it. That moment when an already amazing show is given the perfect and unexpected staging which heightens emotion, inducing moist eyes and gooseflesh as only can happen in the theater. Having seen West Side Story staged many times, I can say that rare is…
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Theater Review: YOU CAN’T FAKE THE FUNK (A JOURNEY THROUGH FUNK MUSIC) (Black Ensemble Theater in Chicago)
PUTTING THE FUN IN FUNK Taking us as far from death as is humanly possible, some shows just reward you for being alive. In perhaps their most joyous musical celebration yet, the 43-year-old Black Ensemble Theater continues its “Legends and Lessons” season with a major party: You Can’t Fake the Funk (A Journey Through Funk Music) is…
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Theater Review: STRAIGHT (Loud Fridge Theatre Group in San Diego)
WALKING THE STRAIGHT LINE 1982’s groundbreaking film Making Love gave us our first cinematic look at a man torn between the woman he loves and the man who fulfills his needs. Since then, we have been many such stories in the arts about one who genuinely cares about an opposite-gender partner while feeling incomplete because…
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