Tamara Summers, Dakin Matthews, Jefferson Mays, and Michael McKean
Photo by Michael Lamont
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA
Before you hear this production described as “sitcomish,” know it was written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, the writers of the 1980s British television series Yes Minister and then Yes, Prime Minister. And if the humor of those series was good enough to keep the Brits giggling, it’s good enough for this reviewer.
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MISS JULIE by August Strindberg.
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
Turn-of-the-century Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s naturalistic drama Miss Julie was remarkable in its day for its scandalous subject matter and frank dialogue exchanges. With its scathing commentary on the entrenched class system, passion and power, the play was banned in Britain for nearly fifty years after its publication. Now an updated version is currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse, as re-imagined by one of the most controversial playwrights of our day, Neil LaBute.
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Photo by Michael Lamont.
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage.
Terry Morgan – LAist.com
Lynn Nottage’s play, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, is more intriguing as a concept than a reality. It looks at the marginalization of African-American actors in the twentieth century, an undeniably interesting subject, but then stumbles in multiple ways. The fault, unfortunately, is in the writing, and the strong cast in the new production at the Geffen Playhouse isn’t able to overcome this problem. Read more…
David C. Nichols – Backstage
In By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, playwright Lynn Nottage, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for Ruined, again turns her incisive eye on the objectification of African-American women. The West Coast premiere of her 2011 satire of racial identity in the Hollywood studio system is an often enjoyable fusion of wry comedy and gritty comment, at least until polemic overtakes the proceedings. Read more…
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
Lynn Nottage’s play By The Way, Meet Vera Stark is light years apart from her recently staged play (also at the Geffen) entitled Ruined, which was a potent portrayal of unspeakable tragedy in war-torn Congo. Yet the main focus of this play is once again the plight of black women, to which Nottage gives thoughtful examination coupled with wry commentary. Ostensibly a comedy, this time her primary setting is the Hollywood studio system during the 1930s. We gain an unusual insight into the close friendship between two actors. One – Gloria (Amanda Detmer) – is white, privileged and desperate for the lead role in an upcoming Southern saga. The other – Vera (Sanaa Lathan) – is black and also desperate for a good movie role – any role. Unfortunately for a ‘colored girl,’ the only screen roles available are menial ones such as maids and mammies. Read more…
Melinda Schupmann – ArtsInLA.com
Early in Hollywood’s heyday, directors discovered that caricatured black actors played well in films, especially comedies, and the actors, desperate for work, acquiesced. Male stereotypes were born: wide-eyed, lazy, superstitious, subservient characters who kowtowed to their superiors (read that white). Among the actors were Willie Best, Mantan Moreland, and Stepin Fetchit, the most highly paid stock actors in the genre. Read more…
Photo by Michael Lamont.
The Pianist Of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek.
Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly
History is most powerful when we see the “all” through the small — the panorama of the textbook through the peephole of the personal. Acclaimed pianist Mona Golabek give us just that in sharing the story of her mother, Lisa Jura, a budding piano virtuoso in late 1930s Vienna. Read more…
David C. Nichols – LA Times
In The Pianist of Willesden Lane, keyboard virtuoso Mona Golabek essentially channels her mother, pianist Lisa Jura, and strikes musical and emotional notes that transcend technical display or biographical sentiment. Read more…
Production photo by Michael Lamont.
The Exorcist by John Pielmeier.
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
The Geffen Playhouse have commissioned John Pielmeier to adapt author William Peter Blatty’s legendary horror story to the stage for a world-premiere presentation, and it’s difficult to comprehend why. Why take a sensational novel that was cleverly parlayed into a hit movie to great effect and then – almost forty years later – adapt that story for the theatrical stage? Why? Read more…
Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA
Give John Doyle’s direction its due: It lends an effective visual and aural atmosphere to a problematic script. Regrettably, the direction does not quite create the fearsome battleground presumably intended by the writers. John Pielmeier’s scrip, in its premiere here, is of course based on William Peter Blatty’s iconic novel. Missing from the direction is thorough-enough dramaturgy and any passion—maternal or religious. Read more…
Sharon Perlmutter – Talkin’ Broadway
When you enter the theatre for the world premiere adaptation of The Exorcist, you’ll notice that the set looks church-like, with a massive wooden cross suspended over the stage. There is nothing subtle about it. Read more…
Bob Verini – Variety
The Geffen’s updated stage adaptation clearly hopes helmer John Doyle’s theatricality will compensate for cinematic pea-soup vomit and a moppet’s spinning head, but his black magic never quite rises to the spine-chilling. Read more…