LADCC Critics 
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA A theatrical reminiscence by Joanna McClelland Glass about a time when she served as secretary to Judge Francis Biddle gets a standout production at International City Theatre. Its casting choices—Tony Abatemarco playing Biddle, Paige Lindsey White as his assistant Sarah “with an h”—make the very literate and demanding script a thoughtful … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Downtown Rep company has selected an historic building in which to stage Anton Chekhov’s 1895 bourgeois family drama, his first major play. The central courtyard of Pico House serves admirably for the company’s semi-modern production set in Hollywood, as well as providing a sheltered and cozy outdoor theater experience for … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times The tragically brief life and career of Charlie “Bird” Parker consumes “Bird Lives!” at the Attic. Willard Manus’ examination of the saxophone virtuoso receives an ambitious, idiosyncratic Chromolume Theatre reading. Read more… Now running through September 21.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Actor-playwright Keith Stevenson is one lucky fellow, having a top-flight ensemble to write comedies for; and having a director, Guillermo Cienfuegos, with such a sympathetic comprehension of the strands threaded through his humor; and, to top it all, being able to act in a pivotal role in his own plays. … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Meet and Greet — co-written by longtime TV veterans Stan Zimmerman (Roseanne) and Christian McLaughlin (Married with Children) and directed by Zimmerman — is set in a casting office in the San Fernando Valley. The play revolves around the competition among four middle-aged actresses for a plum role on a new … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Elect-a-Fest is a two-evening festival of new one-act plays, presented by the Eclectic Theatre Company. Program A includes 7 assorted short works. The plays range from the mildly interesting to the actively annoying, and the direction seldom does much to remedy the literary shortcomings. But the actors can’t be blamed … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Coincidences are the universe’s way of being lazy” is one recurring motif in “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” at Theatre of NOTE, though it’s hardly the only metaphor. Erik Patterson’s promising dramedy pulls multiple similes toward coping with the aftereffects of a ruptured brain aneurysm. Read more… Now running through … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times J.B. Murray, the outsider artist and subject of the musical hagiography “Visionary Man” at the Hudson Mainstage, was an illiterate Georgia farmer who at age 70, after receiving a message from the Holy Spirit, began painting pictures of unbelievers in hell, was taken up by the art world and died … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Oh, what a beautiful show. From curtain rise to curtain call, this production looks and sounds like a national tour. First produced on Broadway in 1943—with music by Richard Rodgers, and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II—Oklahoma! ushered in the Golden Age of American musicals. Its lush melodies and … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw There have always been political takes of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Some have described it as a condemnation of the idle aristocracy, a precursor to the Russian Revolution. Others saw it as a kind farewell to a vanishing class that is being supplanted by rapacious businessmen who only find beauty … Read more