Month: November 2012

Red Barn, Independent Shakespeare Company in the ISC Studio

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Red Barn by David Melville andMelissa Chalsma. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com Captivating storytelling hallmarks this world premiere musical in Los Angeles that centers on an 1827 crime in the English countryside. David Melville andMelissa Chalsma, better-known to summer-Shakespeare audiences as the makers of Independent Shakespeare Company’s outdoor seasons, wrote the book for Red Barn, in part because the story, told to Melville by his mother … Read more

Nora, Pacific Resident Theatre

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Nora by Ingmar Bergman. David C. Nichols – Backstage It’s seldom that a revision of a classic carries the riveting punch of Nora, now getting its overdue Los Angeles debut at Pacific Resident Theatre. This stark black-box take on Ingmar Bergman’s searing 1981 reduction of Henrik Ibsen’s immortal A Doll’s House grabs its viewers from the outset and never lets go. Read more…

The Muesli Belt, Theatre Banshee at The Banshee

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The Muesli Belt by Jimmy Murphy. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com This U.S. premiere of an Irish import is a gentle little script that probably would speak to Dubliners of the late 1990s. But playwright Jimmy Murphy offers not much to Angelenos of the new millennium, who would be thrilled with increasingly large offers to purchase any property we might … Read more

Their Eyes Saw Rain, Company of Angels

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Their Eyes Saw Rain by West Liang. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Playwright West Liang also stars in his astonishingly intense ensemble drama, set in a fictitious small country town. The specter of tragedy hangs over the townspeople of Castle, emblematized by an ever-present decay caused by months of relentless rain. Or is that really the cause? Stern and … Read more

Finding Barb, Working Stage Theater

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Finding Barb by Barbara Heller. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Barbara Heller has taken her personal quest for her spiritual path and turned it into an earnest and sweet musical. The show’s pretty songs – beautifully sung – are composed by Avi Avliav who performs live on electric piano, conveying a sensitivity and flair. (Two songs are credited to co-composer Katie … Read more

Theatre in the Dark, Odyssey Theatre

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Theatre in the Dark by various playwrights. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com Some ideas don’t even sound good on paper. This one, however, turns out to be a thoroughly entertaining and relatively informative one. Ron Sossi’sbrainchild lets audiences sit in absolute pitch darkness, experiencing theater without benefit of our sight. These 90-minute performances (of alternating evenings titled Dark, reviewed here, … Read more

How to Write a New Book for the Bible, South Coast Repertory

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How to Write a New Book for the Bible by Bill Cain. Melinda Schupmann – ArtsInLA.com Narrator Bill (Tyler Pierce) enters with a notebook in hand and announces: “First rule of writing? Write what you know. If writers stuck to it, there would be no books.” On that note, over time, we learn that Bill is a … Read more

Death of a Salesgirl, Bootleg Theater

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Death of a Salesgirl by Patricia Scanlon. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com First to strike the attentive audience member upon entering the theater here is John Zalewski’s sound design. It seems to consist of effervescent electronic dots and anchoring bass-note dashes. A haunting, initially disquieting, ultimately soothing presence, his sound will continue to envelop the production. Meanwhile, next of note … Read more

42nd Street, Musical Theatre West

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42nd Street by Mark Bramble, Michael Stewart, Harry Warren and Al Dubin. David C. Nicols – L.A. Times Audiences craving unbridled pizazz should race to 42nd Streetat the Carpenter Center in Long Beach. Musical Theatre West opens its 60th season with the indestructible backstager, and scores a toe-tapping triumph.  Read more… Shirle Gottlieb – Gazette Newspapers If you’re a musical theater buff, you’re undoubtedly acquainted … Read more

KONG: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla, SkyPilot Theatre

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KONG: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla by Adam Hahn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Adam Hahn’s spoofy homage to King Kong, the 1933 creature feature about a colossal gorilla that is captured and runs amok in New York City, is an ambitious undertaking. Just how do you depict a giant ape on stage without stop-motion animation trickery and cinema … Read more