Bob Verini – Arts in LA
One of the most ambitious art musicals of recent years, Floyd Collins by Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Tina Landau (book and additional lyrics) is receiving an outstanding mounting from helmer Richard Israel and the management of the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. The producers, who regularly bring you the likes of Peter Pan and Cats, have blocked off their huge auditorium to place Rich Rose’s multilevel black-box set onto a three-quarter thrust with intimate seating. Read more…
Margaret Gray – LA Times
I had never seen anything quite like it, and it grew on me slowly. But I can’t stop thinking about, and humming snippets from, La Mirada Theatre’s revival of “Floyd Collins,” the odd, haunting musical about the Kentucky cave explorer who got himself trapped underground in 1925. Read more...
Sharon Perlmutter – Talkin’ Broadway
Floyd Collins is not an easy show to direct. The show’s protagonist spends the majority of the play trapped underground in a cave and Adam Guettel’s score—which is discordant at times—can be a difficult sell. The last time I saw a production of the show in Los Angeles, I came out humming the direction of Richard Israel, who approached the task with skill, creativity and confidence, putting together a surprisingly effective production of the musical in a small space. Read more…
Don Shirley – LA Observed
One of the best midsize venues for professional theater in LA County has a somewhat unusual location – its 199 seats are on located on the stage of La Mirada Theatre, adjacent to the actors.
Normally, La Mirada tries to fill its proscenium-style theater’s 1,251 seats in the conventional way — with the audience facing the stage — but to get to the current “Floyd Collins,” the audience bypasses the regular auditorium. The ushers direct the spectators to chairs placed temporarily on the stage itself — in a raked, three-sided thrust around the action.
Now running through April 13.