Neal Weaver – LA Weekly This production, directed by Zombie Joe, consists of four adaptations of short works by Edgar Allan Poe: the short story “The Oval Portrait,” two short poems — “Song” and “Alone” — and the longer narrative poem “The Raven,” with its haunting refrain of “Nevermore!” All four pieces are narrated rather … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Intolerance comes in many colors. In Tim Toyama & Aaron Woolfolk’s somewhat contrived period melodrama, an African-American family moves into a home presumably left vacant when its Japanese owners are interned during World War II. But Henry (Jeff Manabat), a young Japanese man who’s rebelled against internment, is hiding out … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA One will glean from her solo show that Judy Gold desperately wants her own sitcom, in part to promote her personal history of ultimately earning acceptance from her family, and thus she created this 95-minute saga (co-written with Kate Moira Ryan), packaged with its own theme song. In that … Read more
Shirle Gottlieb – The Gazette Newspapers “Vigils,” an award-winning comedy by Noah Haidle, acclaimed Julliard graduate & playwright, is an extremely difficult play to perform. It tackles the serious subject of death and grieving in comedic form,which makes it more readily accessible to contemporary audiences without denying the gravity of the human condition.Read more…
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Sequels are tough. Expectations are generally high and you can never attain the novelty factor of the first outing. Writer-director Jaime Robledo’s Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini, the second installment in his Watson series, is less dazzling (far fewer action set-pieces) and more talky than the first … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly This jaunty jukebox musical, with book by Hagan Thomas-Jones, direction by Brian Lohmann, arrangements by David O, musical direction by John Ballinger and choreography by Michele Spears, is set in England in 1965, when London was said to swing like a pendulum.Read more…
Pauline Adamek – LA Stage Times Didn’t get enough of Watson at Sacred Fools Theater in late 2010, or when it returned in the summer of 2011? Don’t worry — the saga continues. Writer/director Jaime Robledo’s sequel Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini, reportedly darker and more personal, opened last Friday night.Read more…
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Book by Frank Smith, Ryan Harrison, Lauren Ludwig and Dylan Ris; Music and lyrics by Dylan Ris, Mikey Wells, Ryan Harrison, Frank Smith and Rich Ramberg. The Lost Moon Radio kids are back at the Fringe with yet another one of their hilarious musical spoofs. This time it’s the alleged playback of an old BBC children’s television show from the seventies … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly There’s a certain fragility mixed with permanence in Maria Irene Fornes’ melancholy tragedy Mud, and the characters seem to exist beyond the performance that unfolds before us. In seventeen short (sometimes brutally short) scenes, Fornes depicts a squabbling couple, Lloyd (Riley Smith) and Mae (Annie Hamilton), who seem stuck in some kind of rural poverty. … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Joe Green’s derivative, amateur and R-rated musical assembles all the beloved maids from TV sitcoms, past and present, and parades them through his nostalgic tribute. The slim premise has divorcee and mother of two teens Ashley (Lani Shipman) vying for an audition on a reality TV show.Read more…