Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw The Brontë sisters were part of a talented, tightknit family whose contributions to the canon of English literature included Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte and Emily respectively. Tragically, none of the siblings lived long; Charlotte died at 38, surviving her brother and four sisters, none of whom made it past 30.Read more… … Read more
Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld What would Christmas in LA be without the Troubies? A lot less funny. Happily, artistic director, writer, and head jokester Matt “Mashup” Walker and his coterie of clowns aren’t about to let anyone down. Not only are they back with their seventeenth annual holiday show, they’re proving just how smart they … Read more
Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld The countdown to Christmas begins and ends with an all-out love blitz this year in For the Record’s latest world premiere, LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, a hybrid entertainment that blends scenes from Richard Curtis‘ 2003 film Love Actually with live performances of the movie’s soundtrack. Co-produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily News Sure, “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” keeps its audience amused. The show also educates, teaching us a bit about the history of Tupperware and the woman, Brownie Wise, who invented the Tupperware party. But mostly, at least if you’re interested in comedy as an art form, this solo show is mighty … Read more
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Around this time of year, productions of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol are a dime a dozen, but none is quite like the moody, spooky version currently running at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.Read more… Now running through December 16
Margaret Gray – LA Times The eponymous, fictional Kansas City rock band in Stefan Marks’ new play, “Middle8,” now at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, almost made it big — 20-some years ago. Now losing their hair, paunchy, slogging away at ordinary jobs to support ordinary families, the five of them are still haunted … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In A Mile in My Shoes, writer and solo performer Kathryn Taylor Smith dramatizes the crisis in homelessness by portraying various homeless people and some of the community figures who interact with them. The production has heart and a message that needs to be heard, but its staging requires some finessing … Read more
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen On paper, it feels a bit wrong to call a musical about September 11th, 2001 “uplifting.” It is easy to wonder how that could possibly be true…until seeing Come From Away, a true marvel of a show that manages to take a large story everyone knows about one … Read more