LADCC Critics 
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Stories like this have been told before, many in exactly this way, where a nay-saying parent and a self-doubting inner voice cannot stem the creative force of an artist who soars above them to shape an art form. Read more… Les Spindle – Edge on the Net The genres of … Read more
Shirle Gottlieb – Stage Happenings “Marat/Sade” (subtitled “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade” was written by Peter Weiss, set in 1808 after the French Revolution was over, and directed by Andrew Vonderschmitt. A Long Beach Playhouse … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Eccentricities of a Nightingale was Tennessee Williams’ 1951 rewrite of his earlier Summer and Smoke. It was supposedly his preferred version of the story, and one can see why. The main character of Alma is more clearly delineated, and the drama springs more from her choices than from fate. The current production … Read more
Dany Margolies – Press-Telegram Healing and forgiveness are the stuff of solid old-time storytelling. But playwright Sarah Ruhl guides her characters down fresh, quirky paths to those results in “The Clean House.” Read more… Now running through July 17
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Because of the confluence of events surrounding the American presidential election — including Donald Trump’s provocative and unconstitutional attempts to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., the mass shootings in Orlando, and the heated debate about how to deal with Muslim terrorists, Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning Disgraced seems even more relevant than … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The marital problems of an upper-middle-class couple (with particular focus on the vague discontent of an adulterous wife) are the stuff of soap opera. Read more… Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Broadway director John Rando brings the witty comedy Big Sky to the Geffen with a talented cast and a script that plays on conventions of … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Most of American society tends to regard terrorism as a contemporary phenomenon, part of our unshakeable conviction in the uniqueness of our own experience. In fact, terrorism has been a constant in world politics since at least the French Revolution, inevitably perceived in terms ranging from ignoble to glorious. So … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Radioactive laughter courses through Good People Theater Company’s “The Toxic Avenger,” wreaking sublimely silly havoc at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Read more… Now running through June 26
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Australian Theatre Company, formed by local Aussie talent to showcase their national theater literature, returns to the Matrix after their successful 2014 debut, Holding the Man, with a double presentation (not in repertory) of two major opuses playing alternately through a four week run: Read more… Now running through July 2
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Three great characters of classic dramatic literature don’t exactly appear in Christopher Durang’s tender comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” But they inspire the personalities and circumstances of the play, and show us what’s in a name, in this production from Long Beach’s International City Theatre. Read more… … Read more