(Photo by John Dlugolecki)
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
This cheery, lightweight musical — conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with a book by Rachel Scheinkin, and music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos, Falsettoland) — has a proven track-record as a crowd pleaser. Read more…
Now running through August 21
Photo by Ed Krieger
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
As a film, Baby Doll was a little too racy for segments of America when it premiered in 1956. Its poster featured a scantily clad (by that era’s standards) young woman in a slip, curled up in a crib, sucking her thumb. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams (based on two of his stage plays), the movie passed muster with the industry’s regulators but was condemned by the Legion of Decency……Read more…
Now running through September 25
Photo by Ed Krieger
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Lorraine Hansberry is securely enshrined as an important black playwright, but what few people remember nowadays is that she was also a lovely young woman, with gamin charm and an impish sense of humor. Read more…
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze
“What happens to a dream deferred?” asked Langston Hughes in his 1951 poem “Harlem.” “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
Too many deferred dreams have been keeping the Younger family tamped down, in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1958 classic “A Raisin in the Sun,” getting a thoughtful revival at Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre. Read more…
Now running through September 17
Photo by Ed Krieger
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw
There was a time when gas was eleven cents a gallon, a new car might run you a thousand dollars, average wages were under two thousand dollars a year, and thousands of unsuspecting American citizens deemed unfit and undesirable were forcibly sterilized by the government…..Read more…
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Blueprint for Paradise is reminiscent of those 1940s anti-Nazi films in which a superficially charming man with a German accent plots to infiltrate America — but at the last minute is thwarted by brave noble citizens and/or the FBI. (I can’t put my finger on the exact name of the film or films, only that recollections of such linger from my childhood.) Read more…
Dany Margolies – The Daily News
Laurel M. Wetzork’s intriguing and unusual idea for a play falters, largely but not exclusively because of flawed direction, in its world premiere at Hudson Mainstage in Hollywood. Read more…
Now running through September 4
Photo by Gina Long
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA
In the grand scheme of things, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is only as good as its cast, and Sierra Madre has that nailed with a terrific ensemble who enliven William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s amusing take on competition among the young. Read more…
Now running through August 21
Photo by Sean Deckert
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq is a bruising play, an often painful-to-watch drama that serves as a reminder of the toll war takes on body, mind and spirit. Read more…
Now running through August 14