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Los Angeles Theater Review: SLITHER (Chalk Repertory in Hollywood)
FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES Carson Kreitzer’s 2003 play Slither conforms to a certain category of American text: the women’s empowerment monologue extravaganza. Hallmarks of the genre include plotless, drama-free speeches of subjugation, delivered by female figures unfettered by character; a monologue format occasionally and inexplicably interrupted by thematically related scenes also lacking dramatic tension; and…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: FIGURE 8 (Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood)
ORIGINAL SIN In their fevered exploration of the seven deadly sins, Figure 8 playwright/co-director Phinneas Kiyomura and co-director Jerry Kernion seem hell bent on making sin seem as original as possible. Visually, their approach results in moments of genuine power. Emotionally, it has its limits. Kiyomura rather enigmatically calls Figure 8 a collection of eight…
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Theater Review: NEW JERUSALEM, THE INTERROGATION OF BARUCH DE SPINOZA AT TALMUD TORAH CONGREGATION: AMSTERDAM, JULY 27, 1656 (West Coast Jewish Theatre, L.A.)
A LACK OF PHILOSOPHY Elina de Santos’ production of David Ives’ 2008 New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 is the play’s west coast premiere, although L.A. Theatre Works presented the show last year.* This incarnation, however, is almost certainly the first to contain no moments…
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National Tour/Nightclub Review: MARíA VOLONTÉ (Blue Tango National Tour)
THE DARK STREETS OF PASSION The voluptuous Argentine singer María Volonté glided elegantly onto the stage at The Rrazz Room, caressed her guitar as with a lover, and had me at, “Are you ready to be dragged into the world of passion?” Music historians may debate the origins of tango music, but no one will…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE COST OF THE ERECTION (Blank Theatre in Hollywood)
SUPER STRUCTURE The Cost of the Erection: The title of Jon Marans’ new play sounds like one of those gay shows where comely actors get naked to pump up the box office. There is some veiled nudity here’”integral to the plot’”but this isn’t a Naked Boys Singing knockoff. While the title may be two-edged, clever,…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB (East West Players in Los Angeles)
THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB SWIMS UP STREAM Ever since mankind began telling tales, the “overcoming adversity” story has remained ever-popular. From cave wall pictures depicting a hunter’s prowess over the Woolley Mammoth to David overpowering Goliath to calculus teacher Jaime Escalante’s efforts with underprivileged students, these stories are meant to inspire. The heroes, most often…
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Chicago Theater Review: TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND (The Neo-Futurarists)
A BLUEPRINT FOR ACTIVISM The Occupy Wall Street movement would do well to take a tip from the longest running show in Chicago, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (TML). The event may take place every week indoors at the Neo-Futurarium — above a funeral home in the Andersonville neighborhood — but it…
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San Diego Theater Review: NEXT FALL (Diversionary Theatre)
IT’S THE SCRIPT THAT TAKES A FALL The main thing missing from Next Fall, Geoffrey Nauffts’ play about a gay couple with disparate religious beliefs, is credibility. No matter how much the playwright attempts to tackle some very serious modern issues – religion, gay rights, family values – it is difficult to take the play…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: MAN OF LA MANCHA (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach)
TO STAGE AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM Now in its 60th season, Musical Theatre West (MTW) is currently reviving Man of La Mancha with the astronomical performance of Davis Gaines as its driving force. Technically, the estimable company has never been better, producing sights and sounds the likes of which one would only expect from a Broadway show….
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Chicago Theater Review: SEX, LOVE & THE SECOND CITY: A ROMANTIC DOT COMEDY (Second City)
SECOND CITY GROWS UP Second City is expanding its cabaret empire in a new Chicago venue currently housing five shows. The operation carries the umbrella title of the UP Comedy Club, located on the third floor of Piper’s Alley near the Second City Mainstage and e.t.c. performance spaces. One of three Second City cabaret spaces,…
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Regional Theater Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC (3-D Theatricals at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton)
3-D THEATRICALS MAKES QUITE A SOUND The 70MM, Panavision aerial shot of Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and entourage trekking over the border into Switzerland in The Sound of Music (1965) may be impressive, but it pales in comparison to the final moments of 3-D Theatrical’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 audience pleaser. On a…
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Chicago Theater Review: HUNGER (Lifeline Theatre)
THE ACTING FILLS YOU UP BUT THE ADAPTATION LEAVES YOU HUNGRY FOR LESS Elise Blackwell’s slender 2003 novel Hunger tells the harrowing story of a group of Russian scientists trying to survive the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Blackwell’s novel has been adapted into a drama receiving its world premiere at the Lifeline…
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San Diego Theater Review: THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES (San Diego Musical Theatre)
THEY’RE BA-A-A-A-A-CK Here’s the story: we are at the 1958 Springfield High School senior prom, and the entertainment isn’t coming because the leader of The Crooning Crab Cakes got busted for smoking around the girls’ lockers. Fortunately, there is a replacement four-girl group named The Marvelous Wonderettes who belt and rock sophisticated harmonies as they humorously grapple with adolescent…
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Chicago Theater Review: THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW DRESS (Next Theatre Company in Evanston)
A DRESS THAT’S ALREADY OUT OF STYLE The two-character romantic play typically follows a set pattern. A man and a woman have just met. They are very different in lifestyles and initially they don’t hit it off. But gradually they connect, and by the end of the story they are either in a happy-ever-after clinch…
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Bay Area Theater Review: JESUS IN INDIA (Magic Theatre in San Francisco)
THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD 18 year-old Jesus of Nazareth has heard some distressing news from his sucky carpenter of a father, so he bails Galilee with his whiny, Girl, Interrupted-like friend, Abigail, who’s, like, way in love with Jesus. They arrive in India where Jesus is ready to party. Like, suck on a hookah….
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Chicago Theater Review: ENRON (TimeLine Theatre)
A CRIMINAL SCRIPT OF AN EVIL STORY Lucy Prebble’s play Enron tries to dramatize the Enron financial scandal, one which serves as a poster child for everything greedy and immoral and corrupt in the American financial system. The play was a big hit in London, but the Broadway outing died after a few performances. Interestingly,…
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Chicago Theater Review: HESPERIA (Writers’ Theatre)
A TEPID DISCOURSE ON SEX AND RELIGION IN THE HEARTLAND Hesperia is the name of a small Midwestern town, home to a number of devout Christians. Young Claudia fled here from Los Angeles in spiritual turmoil, seeking peace and consolation from life in the pornographic film industry. She finds succor in Hesperia’s sympathetic Christian fundamentalist…
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Chicago Theater Review: UNNECESSARY FARCE (First Folio Theatre, Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook)
FIRST FOLIO MOVES THEIR BLOOMIN’ FARCE INTO HIGH GEAR Unnecessary Farce is that rarest of theatrical birds: a farce that is actually funny. Sure, it’s silly to the max, but it makes the audience laugh, the primary responsibility of a farce (and a goal rarely achieved). Paul Slade Smith, a popular Chicagoland actor a couple…
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Bay Area Theater Review: A STEADY RAIN (Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley)
MIST OPPORTUNITY I was troubled after the opening of the West Coast Premiere of Chicago playwright Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain at Marin Theatre Company. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this play belongs in a tiny, storefront theatre, if anywhere at all. The dubious construction of the script made it feel like a tele-play:…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: ART (The Pasadena Playhouse)
ART OR NOT, IT’S A FUN PLAY Yasmina Reza’s oft-produced Art (English translation by Christopher Hampton) may be singularly responsible for the current plethora of new plays today billed as “Ninety Minutes No Intermission.” The story, about three long-time friends who are at odds over a painting one of them has bought, is splendidly simple…
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