David C. Nichols – LA Times A mesmerizing blend of magical realism and poetic social comment courses through “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea,” Nathan Alan Davis’ meta-theatrical parable about an idealistic African American teen in search of his heritage. Read more……
Don Shirley – LA Observed Alarm bells are going off in the LA theater community about Actors’ Equity’s proposal to require most productions to pay Equity actors the minimum wage – soon. Reading some of the dire predictions, it would…
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly “If you want to give it away, get out of the union!” I’ve heard that cry, all the way from the East Coast. I teach for Cal State University and I belong to a…
Bob Verini – Arts In LA Book musicals and musical revues are two different animals, and it’s a rare theater songwriter or team that can crank out both. Many of the very best— Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Stephen…
Paul Birchall – Stage and Cinema In his solo show, playwright Nicholas Guest describes his life and travels around the world. He’s accompanied by Hillary Smith on the cello and by Tony Carafone on the guitar (in the play, not…
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Off the Rails, Randy Reinholz’s engaging adaptation of Measure for Measure, interweaves strands of American history, chiefly the Native American struggle to preserve tribal identity, with the themes and cadences of Shakespearean comedy. The play is…
Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania A revival of Arthur Miller’s 1967 The Price, in which a room full of furniture triggers a catharsis between a frustrated man, his wife, and his estranged brother, is now running at the Mark Taper Forum. Old wounds…
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Like many plays that deal with our mortality, those about dementia can be extraordinarily affecting. They speak to a loss of self nearly as complete and devastating as our physical demise. Read more… David C. Nichols…
Bob Verini – Stage Raw On a stage — and as often as not, in everyday life, but certainly on a stage — when a character announces, “I’m dying of boredom,” there’s always something else, something deeper going on. With…
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Some years before Judy Garland’s death, she appeared at a star-studded benefit for the Actors Studio in New York, alongside Carole Channing, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters and Josephine Premice — and Judy’s children, including Liza…