David C. Nichols – LA Times Two weeks remain to catch “The Best of Enemies” in its West Coast premiere at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. The production is mandatory viewing for anyone who values the stage’s ability to provoke thought about serious social issues. Read more… Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw C..P. Ellis was … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times In “ICU,” playwright Fielding Edlow diagnoses dark humor in the most dysfunctional family this side of Eugene O’Neill’s Tyrone clan. Here, they’re upper-middle-class New York Jews, snarling and kvetching through the striking environmental staging by Circle X Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre. Read more… Now running through October … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net In “Appropriate,” the initial conventionality in introducing the characters and basic storyline elicits raucous and sardonic laughs, as the depth of resentments among the siblings and their family members gradually come to light. Yet, there’s far more than garden-variety family baggage afoot here, Read more… Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw …it is piquantly paradoxical that such a determined ironist as Jean Anouilh (Becket, Waltz of the Toreadors, The Lark), the most commercially and critically successful French playwright internationally immediately following the Second World War, now can be seen to exemplify some of the pitfalls of logical colloquy. Read more… Now running … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw First Date, with songs by Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner and book by Austin Winsberg, completed a modest 200-performance Broadway run in 2013, perhaps largely buoyed by the presence of a television star. Read more… Now running through October 11.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Playwright David McMillan’s Watching O.J. cogently encapsulates the passions and perspectives surrounding the murder trial of ex-professional football star and actor O.J. Simpson – an event which captivated America and much of the Western world this month, 20 years ago. Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times Tomorrow you can be white … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Featuring an appealing score by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin) and a charming though rather thin book by Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof, Zorba), based on a 1931 French film, this 1976 musical remains more a cult favorite than a classic. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Among the most gratifying of musicals being presented in … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Brimming with imagination, humor and macabre themes, The Ghoulmaster’s Haunted Playhouse is a high-concept and highly inventive cabaret production expressly created for the Halloween season. Read more… Now running through October 31.
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s drama artfully combines a threatening atmosphere with a charged debate on art and politics. And, if the conversation on the nature of art occasionally edges into the cerebral, the grounded performances and pleasantly nuanced arguments are enough to keep the work vivid and compelling. Read more…
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA First of all, this is indeed your father’s The Sound of Music, in its national tour now launching here. The stage version birthed the film, which retained much of the theatrical book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Read more… … Read more