LADCC Critics

Just for Us @ MARK TAPER FORUM

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Alex Edelman possesses one of the most distinct and unique voices to emerge on the scene since the late Robin Williams. Last November in the special engagement in the shuttered Mark Taper Forum, Edelman’s hilarious and perfectly timed Obie-winning Just for Us became the recipient of my annual TicketHolder Solo … Read more

Tiny Beautiful Things @ CHANCE THEATER

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Anita W. Harris – LA Theatrix The writing throughout is also beautifully literary, especially moving toward the end when a character (portrayed by an emotive Lamer) writes in list form about losing his son to a drunk driver. Sugar answers in an equally compelling way, addressing each item on the list with passionate sagacity. Patrick … Read more

Prelude To A Kiss, The Musical @ SOUTH COAST REPERTORY

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Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Craig Lucas’s play Prelude to a Kiss is a fairy tale about the nature of true love and the insignificance of physical beauty. Now, Lucas, along with co-lyricist Sean Hartley and composer and co-lyricist Daniel Messé, has created a musicalized version that is making its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, … Read more

A Froggy Becomes @ OPEN FIST THEATRE COMPANY

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Lordie, I needed this. Unlike so many new plays these days, the world premiere of Becky Wahlstrom’s delightfully silly A Froggy Becomes from Open Fist doesn’t bombard us with weighty reminders of the massive trials and insurmountable inequities plaguing our fuckedup world, yet it still manages to covertly have something … Read more

Faithless @ VICTORY CENTER THEATRE

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA “Faith and force,” as the otherwise deluded Ayn Rand once wrote, “are the destroyers of mankind.” The efforts of director Maria Gobetti to set a fire under Jon Klein’s compelling yet craftily neutral treatise on the true nature of faith as something more than a flawed and rigidly demanding effort … Read more

One Of The Good Ones @ PASADENA PLAYHOUSE

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Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania One of the Good Ones, now making it world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, employs the tropes of many mid-20th-century stage comedies to explore the generation gap, cultural identity, and nationalism in the Latiné community. Conventional yet charming, this play by Gloria Calderón Kellett reveals the universality of familial strife. Read … Read more

Fatherland @ FOUNTAIN THEATER

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Under Stephen Sachs’ passionate leadership and sharply fluid direction, LA treasure Ron Bottitta and newcomer Patrick Keleher are mesmerizing as the father and son whose relationship tragically devolves and their lives are forever changed by the boy’s commitment to help spare the very fabric of our democracy. Read more…