THE ACTORS SHINE IN A  CLOUDY PLAY Playwright Christy Hall comments about her play To Quiet the Quiet, “I am most interested in the complexities of the human condition,” and in her work she truly draws fine character studies. But there is some difficulty in the plot development. In an effort not to give away too…

A NATIONAL LAMPOON While the 2012 presidential election has provided entertainment enough, from Donald Trump’s political posturing to the Sarah Palin bus tour, there’s always room for a little light-hearted comedy. City in a Swamp Productions doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is clearly following every step of the election, even to including a reference…

IT’S THE PERFECT YEAR FOR THIS POWERFUL STORY, BUT FOR THIS PRODUCTION..? It must be an election year, as artistic directors all around the nation are presenting Adrian Hall’s meaty 1987 adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer-Prize winning classic, All The King’s Men. It is a tale of two journeys: Willie Stark, a gubernatorial candidate…

A LITTLE BLUE More than a few friends recently mentioned that there are many “great” things on the boob tube. Since I don’t watch TV, it came as a surprise because I assumed it was mostly pablum. I was equally disturbed by this information not because I hold TV as mindless and addictive, but because…

A MOUTHFUL OF SAND Kiff Scholl’s production of Raymond King Shurtz’s new play, Under the Desert, is a show that’s impossible to discuss without equivocation.   It’s not terrible, and there are good things in it, but I’m not happy I saw it. When one sets a two-character play in a greasy spoon in the desert,…

SEE HOW THIS WARTIME FARCE HOLDS UP The marquee outside of Lamb’s Players declares See How They Run to be “one of the funniest shows ever.”     While never achieving a promise as great as that, Lamb’s has resurrected a sixty-year-old gem with good effect and more than enough laughs. As staged farces go, this one…

SOUR SATURDAY A troubled production is a sad spectacle, especially at a venerable theater that does some fine work.   PRT’s new staging of the John Steinbeck novel Sweet Thursday tries hard, and that it fails to coalesce does not negate the good stuff that makes up the mess.   It does, however, make for a dull…

SUBLIME CITY Son of Semele has consistently produced spectacular productions with scant resources in their awkward garage-like space nestled between lower Silver Lake and Historic Filipino Town.   Forever fearless when it comes to bringing challenging work to a town where theatre is often relegated to an ugly step-sister at the ball, their U.S. premiere of…

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED, BUT THE AUDIENCE WASN’T SO LUCKY Douglas Carter Beane’s 2007 Tony-nominated play The Little Dog Laughed is a comedy. Apparently director Jon Cortez did not get that memo. Under his misguided, clueless and inept   watch at the Zephyr Theatre, what should be a brisk romp turns into a laborious 2 1/2…

WHAT WILL YOU SEE IN RED? John Logan’s 2010 Tony-winning Red is a work of art, and the Mark Taper Forum is presenting the 2009 Donmar Warehouse Production, starring the illustrious Alfred Molina as Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko. Attending the play cannot be recommended enough. The script is in many ways a revelation in…