Les Spindle – Edge on the Net “A Good Family,” playwright Marja-Lewis Ryan’s third new work to debut at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood, following “Dysnomia” (2011) and “One in the Chamber” (2014), once again takes a look at an apparently idyllic American family rocked by sudden events that depict timely contemporary social issues. Read more… Deborah … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA With his impish smile and boyish, childlike glee, artist Michel Laprise comes across as a fun and genial person with a vast imagination. But the creator (writer and director) of KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities™ — the newest Cirque du Soleil extravaganza to come to Southern California — is evidently an extremely hard … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw As a theater critic, I find myself writing perhaps disproportionally about plays with race, gender and sexuality issues — those subjects being responsible for a disproportionate amount of the most meaningful work being created — for which I am arguably ill-equipped to discuss, falling back on the presumptive faith that … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly If you’re in need of a diversion in these terrible, wearisome times — and surely we all are — might I suggest Theatre of Note’s uproarious staging of Bill Robens’ western parody Rio Hondo, under the imaginative direction of Jaime Robledo. Read more… Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Even a fan of … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw From lights up, playwright Meghan Brown’s drops her audience right into the swirling midst of her drama. A woman enters a chintzy living room, startling the other occupant asleep on the couch. The two women immediately launch into the kind of messy rapid-fire argument familiar to siblings or long-time friends. … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Edmond Rostand meets Hermann Hesse at the Village Vanguard in “Miravel” at Sacred Fools. Author-performer Jake Broder’s mash-up of Rostand’s deathless “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Hesse’s novel “Gertrude” has some post-larval quirks, yet a compelling undertow propels its jazz-centric romantic triangle. Read more… Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Playwright/composer Jake … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Strong performances and imaginative direction are not enough to offset the weak and rather ponderously metaphysical meditation that is playwright Robin Rice’s clunky opus. It’s a play overlong at 70 minutes, and it feels like a re-cycled Twilight Zone but without Rod Serling’s twisty bite. Read more… Now running through December 12.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Jennifer Maisel’s new play, premiering with this production, examines the way we deal with grief, loss, and death. Clark (Ryan Yu) and Emily (Elizabeth Pan) were a happily married couple, devoted to their 10-year-old son Jake (whom we never see). But when Jake is suddenly killed in a hideous bicycle … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw The committed theatergoer, confronted with the prospect of a play set in Ireland, may well inquire, “First of all, is it one of the light ones or one of the dark ones?” Read more… Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Outside Mullingar feels like a memory play of the distant past that is set … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Frank Gehry’s set for “Ay, Carmela!” at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre may not make any lists of the architect’s most impressive designs. Read more… Now running through December 13.