Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Dramatic lighting sets the mood at Rockwell Table & Stage, for the latest “For The Record” musical production (previously staged)—this time a tribute to the four feature films of creative Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann. The cabaret-style show smoothly segues from snippets from Romeo + Juliet to Moulin Rouge! to The Great Gatsby, with a little Strictly Ballroom occasionally thrown in … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA It might be deduced, knowing painter Mark Rothko’s iconoclastic nature, that he might not applaud the news that a recent Christie’s auction of paintings included one by him that sold for $86.9 million. Considered one of the great postwar modern artists, in the latter years of his life he … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly In Sarah Ruhl’s smart and pointed satire, it’s not just middle-class Victorian women who are sexually clueless: it’s their men as well. The time is the 1880s, and man of science Dr. Givings (Michael Oosterom) is using a primitive electronic vibrator to treat “hysterical” female patients, who depart reinvigorated and … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA At last, a play with two lead roles for actors able to pass for 70-year-olds. More particularly, those actors here look romantically attractive enough to sweep the audience into the love story of Irene and Chet, whose relationship has been thwarted since Irene was 16.Read more… Now running through … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn is a report from the feminist front. Folded within a thin narrative is a lot of intriguing conversation, which in the course of two acts brings out numerous perspectives on what women do (and should) need and what they do (and should) want. The talk is … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Like the titular Italian dessert, this compilation of three one-act comedies features three different flavors. In the solo piece “Booby Prize,” writer-performer Lizzie Czerner brings a Tracey Ullman-like flamboyance to the tale of a woman cursed and blessed with a very buxom figure, which brings her both ridicule and lascivious … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly This polished and entertaining adaptation of Mark Twain’s coming-of-age classic is a rare case of family entertainment done well. Skillfully directed by Aaron Lyons from a streamlined narrative by Laura Eason, the story tracks the transformation of title character Tom (Mike Rosenbaum) from mischievous kid to thoughtful youth, a metamorphosis … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Drawing on the traditions of ancient Greek comedy (masks, songs, a giant phallus) Chuck Faerber’s mildly amusing farce is a zany rendition of the siege of Troy by a crack team of dimwits. Ten years into the Trojan war, the Greeks are still anxious to retrieve their abducted Helen from … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. During the 1970s, dinner theaters were popular throughout the nation, offering least-common-denominator entertainment served alongside overcooked roast beef and weak cocktails. It wasn’t as much about going to the theater as a quest for chuckles that didn’t tax the brain. Yuppie patrons dined on semi-digestible grub while getting buzzed.Read more… … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly I doubt that anyone has ever thought that Steven Cragg was Mark Twain, but it provides him with a useful gimmick to galvanize his one-man show. He appears costumed and bewigged in a deliberately seedy simulacrum of the outfit worn by Hal Holbrook in his Mark Twain solo show.Read more… … Read more