Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Agatha Christie has sold more books than anyone except for the Bible and William Shakespeare. Her play The Mousetrap has been running continuously in London since opening in 1952. In 1953 she adapted one of her early short stories, Traitor Hands, into the play Witness for the Prosecution…. Read more… … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The fairy tale is an effective form of storytelling for many reasons, but the primary one is that everybody is already familiar with it from childhood. A lot can be done with this format — as in Lapine and Sondheim’s Into the Woods, where the self-reflective analysis of the characters follows the … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Something is strangely fascinating about “Adler & Gibb,” the latest from the strangely fascinating theatermaker Tim Crouch. Read more…
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen The human brain is a powerful and fascinating thing. In Plasticity, a world premiere play written by Alex Lyras and Robert McCaskill, a man in a coma struggles to become conscious again, all while his family and friends are forced to make difficult decisions regarding his life and future. Read … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw There’s a lot of singing about love in Tim Acito’s musical fantasy, Zanna, Don’t! which is set in a high school in the Midwest (Heartsville High), where homosexuality is the norm and being hetero prompts wrinkled noses and grossed-out looks. Read more… Now running through February 5
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw The late playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett did not make things easy for his audiences. He was first of all an arch-minimalist, reducing his works to the barest possible form. He often eschewed plot, multiple characters, dialogue or hope, concentrating on people who somehow find a way to go on, … Read more
Don Shirley – LA Observed January 21 was a great day for immersive theater in Los Angeles. I’m referring to one event you probably know about, the Women’s March. But I’m also writing about “fellowship” – which you probably don’t know about. The former attracted the masses; the latter has a maximum capacity of 42 for … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Nice Iranian Girl, Layla Rumi (a.k.a. Layla Kaleigh)’s one-woman show at the Whitefire Theatre, feels half-baked. The 50-minute monologue, which plays weekly in Sherman Oaks as part of Whitefire’s Solofest, follows Rumi from her early years growing up in Tehran to 2009, when her daughter was born in Los Angeles. Read … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw I am taking an online class from my old college about comparative fairy tales – not the cutesy Disney stuff, but the darker, more horrifying tales of little children falling into wells and drowning, or witches being shoved into ovens and roasted alive. So perhaps it was no surprise that, … Read more
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen In the opening scene of The Found Dog Ribbon Dance, a world premiere play by Dominic Finocchiaro currently being presented by the Echo Theater Company, a man wearing a Lucha mask uses a webcam to record himself dancing, with ribbons, of course, to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by … Read more