Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The current production of The Tempest at South Coast Repertory is the best version of the play I’ve ever seen. It does something seemingly obvious, yet not so obvious that I’ve seen it before: It focuses on the magic. This isn’t to say that it skimps on vengeance, forgiveness or young love, but director/adaptors … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Improvising a new play every night is Impro Theatre’s hallmark promise, whether they’re parodying Chekhov, Shakespeare, Jane Austen or, in the case of their latest production at the Falcon Theatre, the American Western genre. Read more… Now running through October 5.
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw One of the hits of this summer’s Hollywood Fringe Festival is back at Theater Asylum. For her hilarious play Women, playwright Chiara Atik has re-imagined the stripped down plot of thebeloved roman à clef Little Women as viewed through the lens of the popular HBO TV series Girls. Read more… Now running through Oct. 25.
Margaret Gray – LA Times It may sit uneasily with our notion of Shakespeare to imagine him tackling the hot-button issues of his era like a Jacobean David Mamet. But Bill Cain’s “Equivocation” at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum takes a scholarly theory — that “Macbeth” is a coded chronicle of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA The weighty ideas expressed in this piece have retained their potency from nearly 2,500 years ago. The skills and vibrancy of the actors here are flawless. Had the two elements meshed, this would be a perfect production. Read more… Bob Verini – Stage Raw Reviewing the 2011 Getty Villa production … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw “Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them.” –Usually attributed, possibly inaccurately, to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894) in “The Voiceless” Irish playwright Ross Dungan might have had this quote in mind -– for sure he had the sentiment –- when he wrote this … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Director Danny Michaels’ and co-director/choreographer Orlando Alexander’s bare-bones production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is a smorgasbord of giddy fluff. Director Danny Michaels’ and co-director/choreographer Orlando Alexander’s bare-bones production, staged in the round with virtually no scenery, makes up for its lack of glitz with spirited comic performances in a … Read more
Bob Verini – Arts In LA The unarguable triumph of is the choreography of Janet Roston, which sets a company of 10, many of them veterans of university ballet and modern-dance programs, to dizzying displays of complex movement. From their first worshipful celebration of the young Psyche (Ashley Ruth Jones), through their incarnation of various … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The Vacancy is one of those dark comedies that challenges you to figure out just what it’s trying to say. Written and directed by Jeptha Storm, it features colorful dialogue and potentially vivid characters, neither of which quite make up for the many question marks that mine the story. On the … Read more