LADCC Critics

Harvey @ LONG BEACH PLAYHOUSE

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Anita W. Harris – Long Beach Post Long Beach Playhouse executive director Madison Mooney recently said that “Harvey” is just the sort of play we need right now. And she’s right. If you are among those trading your smartphone for a flip phone, resisting ChatGPT and wondering where common decency went, “Harvey” is all that … Read more

Diavolo: Escape @ L’ESPACE DIAVOLO

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA While Jacques Heim’s internationally renowned company is famous for its gravity-defying feats, since it’s being performed in this eclectic private former warehouse studio, this production brings the audience literally within five feet of the action. With only 90 seats in the house, the massive yet somehow intimate black box setting … Read more

English @ THE WALLIS

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Although people say the long-running 2023 Pulitzer-winning play, just opening for a too brief run at the Wallis, is being presented at a bad time, it’s something with which I could not disagree more strongly. This stunning masterwork lifts us from the discouragement and ugliness of the moment as it … Read more

The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville @ WHITEFIRE THEATRE

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Although I have to admit Julie Shavers’ rather predictable tale of a Fourth of July family reunion in the rural Tennessee backyard of the miserable Moon family womenfolk covers absolutely no new ground, she breaths glorious life into the familiar convoluted goings-on with her unique knack for creating lovable—though suitably … Read more

Gilgamesh: The Opera @ CERRITOS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

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Anita W. Harris – LA Theatrix The 4,000-year-old epic tale of Gilgamesh was brought to life last weekend in the form of a lush opera five years in the making. With culturally inflected orchestral music, a rich libretto in English and Akkadian, and an astounding cast of vocalists and dancers, “Gilgamesh: The Opera” mesmerized and … Read more

Somebody to Love @ RUBICON THEATRE

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Philip Brandes –  Stage Raw Where the typical jukebox formula pre-selects a catalog and reverse engineers enough plot to thread the songs together, Sternin and Fraser started with four fully imagined characters and a dramatic structure tracing the adult arcs of a generation that came of age partying to the music of the ‘70s and … Read more

Amerika or, The Man who Disappeared @ OPEN FIST THEATRE COMPANY & CIRCLE X THEATRE

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Dietrich Smith’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s first novel finds all the sly complexities and colors that, as in the source material, are camouflaged by the narrative: the eternal battle between the haves and the have-nots, the shabby treatment of individuals deemed lesser than others, and the search for a reason … Read more