Photo by Isabel Wagner
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw
Ask anyone whether they’ve heard of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and you’ll probably get a quick “yes,” along with an annoyed “what a stupid question” stare. But it’s a safe bet that the names Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith wouldn’t be recognized. They were the men who started the organization in the unenlightened 1930’s, Read more…
Now running through June 5
Photo by Katherine Leon
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
This slick little musical is a spoof of the James Bond movies, with emphasis on their snazzy-jazzy opening credits. The book is by Tin Can Brothers, a team made up of director Corey Lubowich and ensemble members Joey Richter and Brian Rosenthal, with a score by Clark Baxstresser and Pierce Siebers. Read more…
Now running through April 13
James Garcia Photography
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A.
In the debut of his solo vehicle, multi-talented James Mellon gives a crash course on his remarkable life, blending fascinating anecdotes and irresistible musical sequences. Read more…
Now running through March 5.
Source: Jessica Tunstad
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net
As if on cue, following the recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Marriage Equality, and Wayne Moore’s exuberant musical spoof “Adam & Eve and Steve: The Musical” floats into the L.A. theater arena at precisely the right moment. Read more…
Now running through August 30.
Photo by Esteban Pulido
Harold Pinter’s Betrayal may revolve around an adulterous triangle, but the tone and language of the play are as restrained, as understated and as famously precise as anything else in his poetically taut compendium of work. Read more…
Now running through May 17.
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net
This fall, a string of new musicals that spoof horror films was kicked off with “Scary Musical, The Musical” and “Scream!” Those productions are now joined by ”Serial Killer Barbie,”featuring a book and lyrics by Colette Freedman, with music and additional lyrics by Nickella Moschetti. Despite its amusing title, “Barbie” is less concerned with sending up the horror genre than offering a boisterous off-the-wall satire of adolescent angst and crass social values. Read more…
Now running through December 21.
Photo by Michael Lamont
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net
Picture the myriad sequels and copycat films that were spawned by “Scary Movie,” which itself seemed inspired by “Airplane!” the granddaddy of all off-the-wall genre sendups. Add in a goofy rock score that is equal parts “Rocky Horror Show” and “Rock of Ages,” with a touch of Monty Python on speed. The hilariously grisly result of that audacious brew is an intimate new stage tuner called “Scary Musical, The Musical,” which has bowed at the NoHo Arts Center. Read more…
Now running through November 9.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Hollywood has a long history of hypocrisy when it comes to gay celebrities, so a musical that sheds light on their closeting is a production one wants to praise – if only one could. Read more…
Now playing through August 31.
Photo by Ed Krieger
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar’s The Guardsman has been viewed in this country mostly as a theatrical confection, an entertaining comedy about a jealous actor who undertakes an elaborate charade to establish his wife’s fidelity, or lack thereof. Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne brought it to the stage in 1924, then reprised their performances in a 1931 film. Molnar’s original script was actually much weightier than the Lunt/Fontanne version… Read more…
Margaret Gray – LA Times
The NoHo Arts Center is the latest company to revive Ferenc Molnár’s “The Guardsman,” a perennially popular, gentle skirmish in the battle between the sexes. (Lunt and Fontanne starred in its 1924 Broadway premiere and in the 1931 film; Harold Pinter used it as inspiration for his more overtly sadomasochistic play “The Lover.”) Read more…
Now running through June 22.
Photo by Andrew Pagana
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net
Gracefully segueing from what initially seems like a breezy romantic comedy to a thoughtful and heart-wrenching portrait of grief, family dynamics, and life’s unpredictable twists and turns, Bekah Brunstetter’s 2011 Off-Off-Broadway play “Be a Good Little Widow” shines in its L.A. debut. Read more…
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw
It’s hard to tell if Bekah Brunstetter’s play is a tired string of clichés or if any dramatization of dealing with the loss of a spouse, as in Be a Good Little Widow, inevitably hits the same familiar notes. Read more…
Now running through May 25.
Photo by Michael Lamont
Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA
What do Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy have in common? In Scott Carter’s intellectually upscale comedy, all three are smug anthropomorphic spirits, trapped in a single chamber purgatory and forced to communicate despite their disdain for any view contradicting their own. Read more…
Dany Margolies - Arts In LA
History’s great minds might agree on some things. But that wouldn’t make a very interesting play, and they probably wouldn’t agree on much. In this world premiere script, playwright Scott Carter postulates a meeting among—as his title indicates—our Constitution’s main framer, 19th-century England’s most-celebrated male novelist, and Russia’s perhaps greatest novelist ever. Heady stuff, right? Read more…
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly
So three guys walk into a room, and one of them says …
This is the premise of Scott Carter’s The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, presented by a trio of production companies at NoHo Arts Center. Read more…
Now running through February 23.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Easily the most poignant moments in this dramatized telling of the Anne Frank story come in its epilogue, when Holocaust survivor Otto Frank (Jack Kandel) returns to his family’s hidden dwelling to discover his youngest daughter’s diary and inform us of the demise of his family and friends at the hands of the Nazis.
Read more…
Now running through August 18.