Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw There are times when one’s not quite sure what a theater piece is about, but its presentation is so engaging that it doesn’t matter. Case in point: writer-performer Ann Noble’s solo work, in which the title character (Little Parts) is a pregnant clown conducting an internet search for a Baby-Daddy … Read more
Dana Martin– Stage Raw The Actor’s Gang has balls. Originally co- authored by Italian playwrights Dario Fo and Franca Rame in 1974 with current translation by Cam Deaver, Can’t Pay? Don’t Pay!addresses the effect inflation has on a fed-up, abused and browbeaten working class at the mercy of greedy, powerful, anonymous corporations while being slowly crushed under the … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In Bernardo Cubría’s The Play You Want, directed by Michael John Garcés, Bernardo (Peter Pasco), the central character, is a Mexican-American playwright who writes experimental plays about clowns, whom he views as universal symbols of humanity. Little would please Bernardo more than to be acclaimed as the new Latino Samuel Beckett. … Read more
Terry Morgan – Artsbeat LA When I told people I was going to see a new production of Sarah’s Ruhl’s play, In the Next Room, I received a series of blank stares, but when I included its subtitle, or the vibrator play, I saw instant comprehension. Sex gets people’s attention. Read more… Tracey Paleo – Gia on the … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania Lindsay Joelle’s dramedy Trayf transports audiences to the structured world of the Hasidim, whose strict laws and customs may be outside the understanding of even some Jewish audience members. Director Maggie Burrows, with deft stage direction and sets, visually conveys the danger, heartbreak, and wonderment found in exploring the secular world outside. Read more… … Read more
Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move When they said nothing could stop the Rage Fairy from finding love even if her man du jour is a literal murderer, they weren’t kidding. The absurdist comedy written by playwright Antonia Czinger is a tornado of chaos that deals with love, codependence, and plain bad judgment through … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Broadway World Three men stand on a stage for over three hours, trekking through 150 years of history in The Lehman Trilogy and it’s the most invigorating evening imaginable. Read more… Now running through April 6
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The East West Players production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s brilliant, jagged pill of a musical Assassins is thought-provoking and harrowing. Read more… Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The Stephen Sondheim one-act musical Assassins has gotten mixed reviews and heated pro and con reactions since it debuted in 1990. What else would you expect … Read more
Dana Martin– Stage Raw Pearl Cleage’s romantic comedy, What I Learned in Paris, proves that politics and office romance are not compatible… The play feels simultaneously fresh and dated; weighed down by too many predictable plot points. Regardless, What I Learned in Paris does speak to the current moment; change has come. Cleage weaves messages of … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw All’s Well That Ends Well is one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” texts that can’t easily be categorized as either comedy or tragedy. All’s Well has all of the trademarks of a Shakespearean comedy: a marriage plot, mistaken identity, a clown or two, and a happily married couple in the finale. But the ending … Read more