CHESS – Book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly Like the 1980s, this revival of the Cold War-themed musical that produced the hit song “One Night in Bangkok”…
DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly When Peter (Burt Grinstead) unexpectedly shows up at Kelly’s (Laurie Okin) Lower Manhattan apartment, the mood is prickly and awkward. It’s understandable; Peter is the identical twin of her husband Craig, a…
THE BALD SOPRANO and THE CHAIRS by Eugene Ionesco. Shirle Gottlieb – The Gazette Newspapers Written in 1948 shortly after World War II, “The Bald Soprano” was Eugene Ionesco’s first play. As the transplanted Romanian struggled to write in French (the…
JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE by August Wilson. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly For this critic August Wilson has always been eloquent on the page, a bit wordy on the stage. This second in his 10-play chronicle of the African-American experience takes…
FALLING FOR MAKE BELIEVE by Mark Saltzman David Nichols – LA Times Though the late Lorenz Hart stands near-peerless among Broadway lyricists, his tortured private life remains largely untitled. That is, until “Falling for Make Believe” at the Colony Theatre, wherein a…
COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS by Ron Klier. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA Paul stands by the light of a jukebox. The audience is intrigued, wondering who he is and why he’s there.Read more…
PARADE – Libretto by Alfred Uhry, Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Les Spindle – Edge on the Net As daily news flashes are dominated by reports of crippling political divisiveness, accusations of governmental manipulation and heinous acts of violence…
THE ROYALE by Marco Ramirez. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA A ferocious cast giving their all in a powerful play—Marco Ramirez’ The Royale is a tremendously satisfying evening of theater, now playing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Set in the world of boxing…
MISS JULIE by August Strindberg. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Turn-of-the-century Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s naturalistic drama Miss Julie was remarkable in its day for its scandalous subject matter and frank dialogue exchanges. With its scathing commentary on the entrenched class system, passion…
A FLEA IN HER EAR by George Feydeau. Shirle Gottlieb for Gazette Newspapers When someone says the word “farce,” the first name that comes to mind is Feydeau. Indeed, “farce” and Feydeau are synonymous.Read more…