LADCC Critics 
Terry Morgan – LAist Scary plays are a rarity in the American theatrical landscape, but thankfully Los Angeles has several theatre companies that offer something macabre for horror aficionados. Zombie Joe’s Underground in North Hollywood delivers year-long delightful strangeness, Wicked Lit stages literary adaptations in nighttime graveyards and the Grand Guignolers create their own mix … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Daniel Keyes’ now classic sci-fi story about a mentally challenged man whose IQ skyrockets after a surgical procedure tackles not only how we treat disabled individuals but how ephemeral are those intangible values — love, life, respect — that we cherish. Read more… Sharon Perlmutter – Talkin’ Broadway There are … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Legendary comedy writer Neil Simon’s 1972 play The Sunshine Boys has an excellent premise: two old vaudevillian stars who worked together for over 40 years, but who haven’t spoken in over a decade, are reunited for a TV spot. (In fact, it was a good enough premise for Fellini to copy for Ginger e … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Breaking up is hard to do, particularly if you’re embedded in a 20-year marriage. That’s the not terribly surprising message of Paul Coates’ play, illustrated by three couples: one straight (Kelly Coffield Park and playwright Coates), one gay (David Youse and William Franklin Barker) and one lesbian (Ferrell Marshall and … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times The tenacious human need for connection forms the heart of “Kin” at Theatre 40. Bathsheba Doran’s elliptical 2011 comedy-drama about how familial and personal relationships inform each other in this fragmented world receives a proficient albeit over-attenuated West Coast premiere. Read more… Now running through October 27.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Marthe Rachel Gold’s lumbering melodrama is a concoction of dramatic setups that never develops into an interesting or credible narrative. Widowed Anne (Laurie O’Brien), a former ballerina, lives with her grown mentally and physically disabled son, Will (Alex Smith), in a house that’s been owned by her family for generations. … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Four one-acts, performed by the Chalk Repertory and set in the exhibition halls of the Natural History Museum, deal, directly or indirectly, with the museum’s history. Tom Jacobson’s A Vast Hoard, directed by Janet Hayatshahi, set in 1913 and played in the Rotunda, deals with the efforts of two officials … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA It’s not the first play of Shakespeare’s canon to spring to mind, but Henry VIII was reportedly among the last he wrote (co-credited to John Fletcher). At least all of us know of this king, the one with the outsized appetites—including six wives. At the end of Shakespeare’s version, … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA The Norris Center for the Performing Arts wanted to be a producer of a great big Broadway smash. It found one: a splashy, slightly raunchy tuner. Yes, the ambitious folks at Norris got themselves The Producers. And because they got it, they thoroughly, totally, flaunt it.Read more… Now running … Read more
Hoyt Hilsman – Huffington Post This performance piece by Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio, which had its world premiere at the Radar Festival in Los Angeles this week, is a perplexing work. On the one hand, it has a powerful and truthful core – it was developed by a group of Maori women as a response … Read more