Shirle Gottlieb – Gazette Newspapers When Paul Garman (Musical Theatre West’s executive director/producer) saw “Big Fish” on Broadway last fall, it was so outstanding he called it “magical.” Indeed, he knew he had to bring it home to Long Beach. And so, being the inimitable musical theater executive that he is, this astonishing, award-winning, “magical” … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times If you weren’t already worried about the future, “Uploaded,” L.R. Gordon’s new play premiering at Rogue Machine, will give you specific reasons to fear the rise of the millennial generation. Read more… Now running through November 22.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly A production of Shakespeare’s King Lear imported from the Globe Theatre in London stirs all sorts of expectations. Surely no one can do Shakespeare better than the Brits. And besides, the play is one of the most highly regarded works of literature in the English language. Read more… Dany Margolies – … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play, written and directed by Javier Antonio Gonzalez, and presented as part of the Encuentro 2014 Festival, is set on a more or less bare stage, with two colorful grids painted on the floor. On the back wall and in the wings hang a multitude of costumes, and several … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Directed by Daniel Jáquez, Mariana Carreño King’s uneven one-act tells of a young woman who marries for love, only to grapple with loneliness and disappointment a few years later when her husband turns cold and withdrawn. It’s a common experience, surely as old as marriage itself, but it’s depicted with enough … Read more
David C. Nichols – Stage Raw It’s hard to imagine a more theatrically idiosyncratic or versatile double bill than Henry Purcell’s 17th century English baroque landmark and Béla Bartók’s nightmarish 20th century Hungarian tone poem. Read more… Now running through November 15.
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw A spoiler and an alert: I’m going to gush, and you should rush, as only two performances remain of one of the year’s most remarkable and exciting productions, Agua a Cucharadas, a Spanish translation of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes, making its Los Angeles debut after … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw These are exciting times for Catholics worldwide. Ever since their current religious leader, his Holiness Pope Francis was appointed last year, he has been making headlines for his lenient doctrines and humanitarian proclamations, ushering in a new era for this notoriously hard-line religion. Read more… Now running through November 17.
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Set entirely in the confines of the office of the British Consul in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during the first day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Zealot, by the well-established and prolific Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Mauritius, Bad Dates, Spike Heels), cannot avoid being a presumptuous play, satirizing and exposing obtuse Western perceptions that … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Performer Chuma Gault is at the top of his form in The Gun Show, a play by EM Lewis that deals with Americans and their guns. An unpredictable work that stealthily gathers steam, it begins with a discourse on the national gun debate and gradually evolves into a personal account of … Read more