Bob Verini – Stage Raw John Logan’s Red has been one of the most produced plays of the last few years, with over 40 mountings at major theaters coast to coast, usually reviewed in deserved superlatives. Yet in all the column inches devoted to the incisive two-hander, few if any of my critical colleagues have made reference … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw The meister of messy and cruel romantic relationships, in works such as In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, Fat Pig and Reasons to Be Pretty, playwright, screenwriter and film director Neil LaBute shines a spotlight on atrocious behavior. That is, of course a judgment, and LaBute insists he tries … Read more
Don Shirley – LA Observed Alarm bells are going off in the LA theater community about Actors’ Equity’s proposal to require most productions to pay Equity actors the minimum wage – soon. Reading some of the dire predictions, it would be easy to surmise that this step would doom most of LA theater – or … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly “If you want to give it away, get out of the union!” I’ve heard that cry, all the way from the East Coast. I teach for Cal State University and I belong to a union I love – the California Faculty Association. I walked into the theater department office … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Gigi Bermingham is well-known in Los Angeles for her performances, comedic and dramatic. Recently, these have included leading roles in Terrence McNally’s Master Class at International City Theatre and Non-Vital Organs at Skylight Theatre. She also directs, lately for Antaeus Theatre Company (You Can’t Take It With You) and Sierra Madre Playhouse (An … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw For one more weekend, through Sunday Feb. 8, there’s an absolutely smashing revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1970 Company in town. If you detect a note of surprise in that announcement, no offense is meant to the Cabrillo Music Theatre, which presents it, and especially not to Nick DeGruccio, who … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Herbert the Chihuahua discusses Mitch Hara’s Mutant Olive Herbert the Chihuahua was sitting in the front row of the Lounge Theatre on Saturday night, cradled by his female owner. She and an unidentified man to her right were there to see Mitch Hara’s Mutant Olive, a one-man show about Hara’s self-described alter-ego, … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Gifted New Zealand-based actress Lucy Lawless, known for her larger-than-life television roles, steps into yet another this December, courtesy of the Pasadena Playhouse. In the theater’s annual holiday season panto extravaganza, Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight, the gay-favorite actress—who triumphed locally as ball-busting prison matron Mama Morton in the Hollywood Bowl’s Chicago last … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Most people familiar with theater history have heard of Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse. Fewer recognize the name Gabrielle Réjane, a French actress and international megastar whose career spanned 1874 to 1920, during which time she toured Britain, Russia, North and South America, as well as her native France. Ilana Turner’s … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw One of my seminal experiences in 40 years of Los Angeles theatergoing was the single performance in 1977 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre of the first local exposure to the work of Robert Wilson, I was sitting on my patio this guy appeared I thought I was hallucinating, a collaboration with … Read more