Photo by Miriam Geer
Margaret Gray – LA Times
Jon Robin Baitz has never been afraid of putting politics onstage. He has a gift for channeling current events into complex and nuanced plays, practically in real time. Read more…
Now running through September 30
Photo by Ian Flanders
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw
At times, it seems unbelievable that playwright Alice Childress wrote Trouble in Mind in 1955. The show, which features the tried and true dramatic structure of a play-within-a-play, examines racial politics with a razor-sharp wit.
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Now running through September 30
(Photo by Daniel G. Lam Photography)
Terry Morgan - Stage Raw
One of the reasons for the continued popularity of Shakespeare’s work over the centuries is how unusually open it is to reinterpretation — directors or actors can use it as a lens with which to focus anew on some aspect of the world.
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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen
“All the world’s a stage…” William Shakespeare’s classic comedy As You Like It features some of his most famous monologues and a great deal of whimsy.
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Now running through September 10
Photo by Ed Krieger
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw
In playwright Arun Lakra’s quick-witted, if perhaps overly cerebral piece, it isn’t a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover that makes someone lucky — it’s genetic predisposition. Or perhaps it’s an evolutionary adaptation that allows people to peer into the future, quantum physics-style, and somehow bring about their future happiness.
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Frances Baum Nicholson – The Daily Breeze
Imagine writing a play in the hopes of creating as complex a double helix as a strand of DNA. That appears to be the intent of Arun Lakra, whose “Sequence” is at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. Complex it is, at least in volume though not necessarily in nuance. Still, the play proves artfully directed enough that the script’s overt nature is, to some extent, overcome.
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Now running through August 20
(Photo by Kate Danson Photography)
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen
“Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.” This shocking line opens Nocturne by Adam Rapp, an acclaimed play that first debuted in New York in 2001.
Now running through August 13
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
This show is advertised as a one-woman show, but in this case the woman is a guy: Jimmy Fowlie (Go-Go Boy Interrupted), who modestly lists himself in the program as “Co-writer/Star.” The piece purports to be the one-woman show performed by Mia Dolan, the heroine of the movie Lala Land. (I haven’t seen the movie so some of the finer points of this piece may have been lost on me.)
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Now running through August 19
Photo by Vitor Martins
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze
How can people be rhinoceroses? Ask that in the literal and figurative senses and you have Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 landmark play, “Rhinoceros.” Read more…
Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw
It’s difficult to imagine a timelier and more fitting play for the “Make America Great Again,” era than Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 absurdist satire. The playwright wrote it in response to the alarming ascent of fascism during the first half of the twentieth century. Despite the passage of time, it is arguably more relevant now than when it was first written. Read more…
Now running through
Photo by Ed Krieger
Frances Baum Nicholson – The Daily Breeze
Perhaps the two greatest dangers in producing an original work of theater is either directing your own performance or directing your own play. In either case, the absolutely necessary second opinion — the critique needed to make sure the thing is the best it can be — is lacking. Read more…
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw
My favorite episodes of Doctor Who, that amazing TV series about a time traveling alien that’s run for about 40 years, are the ones in which the Doctor meets earlier versions of himself. When the older character meets the younger character, there are always jokes about how the younger version hates how he turned out — while the older version always criticizes the younger version’s taste or intelligence or what have you. Read more…
Now running through August 27
(Photo by Ed Krieger)
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
Premiering at the Skylight Theatre under Eric Hoff’s direction, Tom Jacobson’s latest play is a delectable little fable about free will, human folly and the encounter of a non-believer with God, Hell and the Devil.
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Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
With his latest work, The Devil’s Wife, playwright Tom Jacobson has created a fun piece of fluff. Read more…
Now running through August 20
(Photo by Joshua Scott)
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Anna (Marie Fahlgren) is a dancer and choreographer who not only walks in her sleep — she also dances. She has fled from her former lover, who seems to be stalking her, to strike out on her own. Read more…
Now running through July 30
Photo by Miriam Geer
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze
What happens in other people’s homes behind closed doors? That’s the stuff of so much Great American Theater. Read more…
Now running through October 1
(Photo by Adam Ikaika)
Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw
Continuing its successful run at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Keith Huff’s dark two-character play is centered on the long time, combustible relationship between a pair of Windy City cops, whose professional and personal lives are thrown into freefall by circumstance and tragedy. Read more…
Now running through July 30