Month: July 2018

SCREWBALL COMEDY at Theatre 40

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Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review The classic screwball comedy films of the 1930s and 40s have remained popular from that time on because of four basic elements: the ridiculousness of the essential storyline, the crisp and evocative dialogue, the quality of and apt casting of the performers, and timing – always the fast-paced, … Read more

UNDER MILK WOOD – Open Fist Theatre Company at the Atwater Village Theatre

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Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  If one were to attempt to find a work comparable to Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, it would likely be Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Both plays deal with the mundane and the sacred, and both delve into the complexities of small communities.Read more… Now running through August 25

MAYAKOVSKY AND STALIN at the Lounge Theatre

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Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Murray Mednick’s play, having its world premiere, is a tale of two suicides: that of the Russian Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who shot himself in the heart in 1930, and that of Nadezhda Alliluyeva (Nadya), the second wife of Joseph Stalin, who shot herself in her bedroom during a Communist … Read more

PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES at the Sierra Madre Playhouse

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Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld One thing’s for sure – country musicals are an awful lot of fun. There aren’t very many of them and, if you can name one at all, it’s most likely THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS or THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. But there is another rarely produced gem that is just as … Read more

MUTT HOUSE at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could talk to dogs? For Eddie (Ryan McCartan), the main character in Mutt House, a new musical now in its world premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, this is his reality.   Read more… Ellen Dostal … Read more

CRY IT OUT at Atwater Village Theatre

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Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  Caring for an infant is an important part of life, yet its difficulties are rarely depicted in the arts. While there is no lack of stories about pregnancy and birth, once the child is born, the drama seems to be considered less interesting. Playwright Molly Smith Metzler begs to differ…….Read … Read more

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE at the Fountain Theatre

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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Sometimes it’s the most seemingly random interactions that go on to have the greatest impact on our lives. This is the topic explored in Arrival & Departure, a play written and directed by Stephen Sachs and inspired by the 1945 film Brief Encounter. Read more… Ellen Dostal – Broadway … Read more

THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center

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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Love has a tendency to make fools out of people, and that is certainly the case in Three Days in the Country, Patrick Marber’s condensed adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s A Month in the Country, now in its west coast premiere at Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles.Read more… … Read more

ON YOUR FEET at the Pantages Theatre

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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen On Your Feet, the jukebox musical based on the lives and tunes of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, opened at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre last night in colorful, vibrant fashion—but it was not one of Ms. Estefan’s hit songs that drew the loudest applause of the evening.Read more… Ellen … Read more