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BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

Photo by Chris Phipps
March 22, 2023Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Following in the satirical footsteps of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, this Open Fist Company production takes the past year’s cream of the crop of its Thursday night comedy sketch show, This Week This Week, and skewers our calamitous society with mostly hilarious results. Creator and director Ron
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TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

Photo courtesy of Foolish Production Co.
March 22, 2023Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater)
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CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

Photo by Paul Rubenstein
March 22, 2023Rob Stevens – Haines His Way City Garage, the resident theatre company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center, built their thirty-plus year reputation for doing heavy lifting with productions of Greek tragedies and the works of Brecht and Beckett among other dramatists. With their latest offering, Cardenio, they prove they can let down their
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THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2″) carefully delineates each character with precise
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ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

Photo by Jason Niedle
March 22, 2023Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw In Dublin, a struggling Irish musician bumps into a young Czech woman and his life changes forever. This is the premise of the 2007 musical film Once, and likewise the stage musical of the same name, both featuring songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (including the infamous “Falling Slowly”),
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TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography.
March 22, 2023Dana Martin – Stage Raw Center Theatre Group meets the moment with Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, conceived, written and revised by Anna Deavere Smith. The original production premiered on Broadway in April, 1994. Smith wrote it as a solo piece, which she developed from hundreds of interviews following the 1992 L.A. uprising. This updated version
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THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

Lauren Patten. Photo by Jeff Lorch.
March 18, 2023Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites World Premiere: The Lonely Few @ Geffen Playhouse – 8 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More… Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse, does away with conventional narrative. It immerses its audience in rock clubs
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Archive for Secret Rose Theatre

THE MARRIAGE ZONE at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Friday, July 21st, 2017
Photo by Ed Krieger

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

 

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THE DISCORD ALTAR at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Saturday, April 18th, 2015
Photo by Amanda McRaven

Photo by Amanda McRaven

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw

Improvisation in the theatre is hardly a new thing, and more and more it seems to become a useful part of the movie-making process. Improvised comedy has become downright ubiquitous, and was practiced with glorious expertise by Mike Nichols and Elaine May way back in the 1950s. But improvised opera? Read more…

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

Opera is a challenging art form — and opera improvised more challenging still.

In The Discord Altar, a musical ensemble rises to that challenge, creating harmonious on-the-spot vocals to accompany a set libretto by Meghan Brown and instrumental music (also improvised) by pianist Ann Baltz and percussionist Ray Salas.  Read more…

Now running through May 3.

 

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THE GAME AGAINST BOBBY FISCHER at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015

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 Jenny Lower – LA Weekly

The Game Against Bobby Fischer, a new play written by Dennis Richard and directed by Gregory Fuller at the Secret Rose Theatre, purports to enter the troubled mind of renowned American World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer (Robert Weiner) as he approaches his final days in his adopted home of Reykjavik, Iceland. Read more…

Now running through March 29.

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TIME STANDS STILL at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Friday, January 23rd, 2015
Photo by Dan Warner

Photo by Dan Warner

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw

Photo-journalist Sarah (Prescilliana Esparolini) and foreign correspondent James (Aidan Bristow) are a cracker-jack team, who have travelled the world, covering its wars and hot-spots, and they are also lovers, who have been together for eight years. But a tour of duty in Afghanistan has shattered their world. Read more…

Now running through February 8.

 

 

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CLASSIC COUPLES COUNSELING at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
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Photo by Dina Morrone

 

Terry Morgan – Stage Raw

Sometimes a great concept is enough to power a play, such as the backwards structure of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal or the three plays intersecting simultaneously in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests. It doesn’t hurt that those works mentioned also benefited from strong writing, acting and direction. Classic Couples Counseling, a world premiere at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, has a great concept, but unfortunately lacks strong writing, acting and direction.  Read more…

Les Spindle –  Frontiers L.A.

The Bard meets Dr. Ruth in Lloyd J. Schwartz’s zany comedy, directed by Ted Lange. “Doctor, heal thyself” would be sage advice for Patricia (Constance Mellors), a neurotic modern-day shrink who, through some apparent time-warp, provides counseling for famous romantic couples of Shakespeare’s classics.  Read more…

Now running through April 27.

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IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY at the Secret Rose Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Thursday, August 29th, 2013

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

In Sarah Ruhl’s smart and pointed satire, it’s not just middle-class Victorian women who are sexually clueless: it’s their men as well. The time is the 1880s, and man of science Dr. Givings (Michael Oosterom) is using a primitive electronic vibrator to treat “hysterical” female patients, who depart reinvigorated and refreshed while his own unhappy wife, Catherine (Joanna Strapp), eavesdrops enviously in the adjoining room
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Photo by T L Kolman

Photo by T L Kolman

Now running through September 28.

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