Month: June 2017

LOVE IS A DIRTY WORD at the VS Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly There are many fine elements in Giovanni Adams’ autobiographical solo show, and it’s hard to decide which to mention first: the cadenced flow of his beautifully detailed 80-minute spoken word poem, the open and disarming manner of his delivery, or the production’s flawless pacing under Becca Wolff’s accomplished direction. Read … Read more

THANKSGIVING at the Lounge Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Holiday gatherings frequently serve as framework for plays about dysfunctional families, and Thanksgiving, written by Tiffany Cascio and directed by Kitty Lindsay, is one of them. Although not nearly as clever as it tries to be, it features several choice roles for women, a few good laugh lines and, in the case … Read more

THE CONDUCT OF LIFE at the Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts in Los Angeles

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze In days gone by, people made names for themselves by doing something useful for society. María Irene Fornés wrote plays that broke old rules, broke barriers and taught something, whether to other playwrights or to audiences. Read more… Now running through June 25

THE PRIDE at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

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Jonas Schwartz –  TheaterMania Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride juxtaposes homosexuality in both the repressed world of 1958 London and the more liberated 2008. Whether people are trapped by society’s morality or by their own self-sabotaging instincts, love proves to be a true test of wills. Though the script can be didactic and overlong, the new production … Read more

CONSTELLATIONS at the Geffen Playhouse

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Jonas Schwartz –  TheaterMania Constellations, the character piece by Nick Payne that is now playing in a new production at the Geffen Playhouse, requires a talented cast to succeed. The expansive themes of love in an ever-expanding cosmos, the jarring sequencing of the moments, and their repetition could turn audiences off quickly.  Read more… Erin … Read more

NICKY – Coeurage Theatre Company at Greenway Court Theatre

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Paul Birchall  – Stage Raw Playwright Boni B. Alvarez cunningly adapts Anton Chekhov’s 19th century drama “Ivanov,” shifting the setting from the Russian provinces to California’s own land of internal exile  (that is, if you’re a gay man of a certain age), Palm Springs. Read more… Now running through July 1

S/HE & ME at the Renberg Theatre at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza

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Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw A few minutes into her autobiographical show, acclaimed transgender artist Alexandra Billings plops down on a stool center stage, and in an easy conversational tone tells her audience fifteen things about herself. Among these are that she has AIDS, is a recovering heroin addict, was a prostitute for six … Read more

ARCHIPELAGO at Son of Semele

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In Archipelago, Caridad Svinch spins a love story about a man and a woman from two different cultures, and sets it against a backdrop of war and apocalyptic upheaval. Director Barbara Kallir oversees an attractive and imaginative staging, but the vagueness of the play’s dramatic events and the absence of detail in … Read more