Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Jessica Goldberg told The Jewish Journal that her new play Better is quasi-autobiographical, written in the wake of her father’s death from brain cancer in conjunction with her own crumbling marriage to actor Hamish Linklater. Read more… Now running through Nov. 16.
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Antony J. Bowman’s afterlife drama begins with his amiable central character, architect Michael (Josh T. Ryan), vividly describing his sudden death in a violent car wreck in upstate New York. Michael then proceeds to narrate the story from a state of limbo, observing his grief-stricken wife and best-friend colleagues during … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw Victor Kaufold’s The Why is a young man’s play, and feels like it. Essentially a series of revue sketches on the topic of school gun violence, it was featured in the Blank Theater’s venerable Young Playwrights Festival in 2000 when Kaufold was 19. Now with a Yale MFA in tow, he doesn’t … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Ann Noble gives a magnificent performance in Edward Albee’s absurd drama The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?, now playing at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre. Ostensibly a study of the irreparable destruction of a perfect marriage, Albee softens us up with his dry humor and jokey lines swirling around a premise, … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times The dilemmas facing the life-battered protagonist of “Good People” are perhaps strategically manipulated, but that doesn’t make them any less relevant, humorous or dramatically engrossing. Read more… Now running through Oct. 12.
David C. Nichols – LA Times The unparalleled sardonic wit of Oscar Wilde sustains “The Importance of Being Earnest” at A Noise Within, where it will doubtless be a crowd-pleasing hit, despite (or because of) its distinct idiosyncrasies, and therein hangs a conundrum. Read more… Now running through Nov.22.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This Mel Brooks musical, adapted from the film by Brooks and Gene Wilder, somehow manages to be both a send-up and homage to Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, and James Whale’s 1931 movie Frankensteinand its 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times Underpinning much of … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA While the material may be a bit questionable, the talent involved in this production is undeniable. This musical tells the story of average men who learn to love their physical selves and the special women who never stopped loving them. Its book, by Terrence McNally, hews to the 1997 … Read more