LADCC Critics 
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Why is this Night different from all other Nights? To start with, it’s smart, it’s imaginative, it’s beautiful, it makes sense of the peculiar world Shakespeare created. It takes the titular dream to heart, as characters shape-shift and locales subtly morph. Still, the text is clear. Under the direction … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Easily the most poignant moments in this dramatized telling of the Anne Frank story come in its epilogue, when Holocaust survivor Otto Frank (Jack Kandel) returns to his family’s hidden dwelling to discover his youngest daughter’s diary and inform us of the demise of his family and friends at the … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Writer-director Odalys Nanin’s fictionalized bio-play zeroes in on Mercedes De Acosta, who in the 1930s was celebrated as a poet, playwright and novelist, though nowadays she’s remembered mostly for her lesbian affairs with famous actresses including Eva LeGallienne, Alla Nazimova and Tallulah Bankhead.In Nanin’s play, De Acosta (played by the … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Creating a raucous, rocked-out party atmosphere by blasting preshow music (think “Welcome to the Jungle” at ear-splitting volume), the hilarious spoof show Point Break Live! offers super-soaked excitement in a grungy Hollywood nightclub setting. What do we mean by “soaked”? Let’s just say you’d be wise to take them up … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net The latest cabaret offering produced by Bruce Kimmel’s Kritzerland Records at Sterling’s Upstairs at the Federal in North Hollywood, is “The Music Men: Meredith Willson and Gene de Paul,” a pleasing array of vintage show tunes from two gifted songwriters.Read more…
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA The fiendishly difficult (to stage, and hence usually to watch) Nine proves beyond the range of DOMA Theatre Company. It’s a shame, given the company’s mightily effective Dreamgirls earlier this year, but Arthur Kopit’s gloppy gloss on Fellini’s film 8½ has proved the undoing of many a producing organization. Read more… Now running through August 18.
Terry Morgan – LAist If, as the old adage has it, “you can’t go home again,” then that truth deserves another, which is that wherever you’re from is always with you. Regardless of the relative importance of nature or nurture, the past is an umbilical cord that is never completely cut. This idea is dealt … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Los Feliz’s Skylight Theatre has become the home for L.A. scribe Shem Bitterman, who’s had his plays staged in this city for decades. His latest, a real estate mystery named Open House, premiered last week. Before getting to Open House, it’s worth perusing Bitterman’s past writings, which reveal patterns … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Lalo (Miguel Santana), Paco (Henry Madrid) and Nacho (Roberto Garza) have been friends for 50 years. Former field workers, they escaped a life of hard labor by forming a trio and earning a living as singers of Mexican love songs. Now elderly and unemployed, they reflect back on the humiliations … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Now in its 10th year, Hurricane Season is a competition of short new plays. Block Two (reviewed here) continues over this weekend, with Block Three running Aug. 9-18. The audience favorites of the festival will receive awards in an Aug. 23 ceremony, and a jury will give monetary prizes to … Read more