CONFESSIONS OF A MULATTO LOVE CHILD at Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Writer-performer Bellina Logan was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of a British-born Caucasian woman and an African-American man. Her play is titled Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child, but its central character isn’t Bellina so much as it is her mom, Averil — a spirited and decidedly non-commonsensical person whose … Read more

VOTE, PRAY, LOVE at Celebration Theater at the Lex

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Ryan O’Connor is a personable entertainer, and Vote, Pray, Love, directed by Marissa Jaret Winokur at the Celebration Theatre, is a personable play. A bit of a hodgepodge, it’s one of those shows whose rough edges are immaterial when measured against the generosity and charm of its writer and lead performer.Read … Read more

SAINT JOAN at the Broad Stage

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Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw When New York-based theater troupe Bedlam first performed their four-person version of George Bernard Shaw’s 1923 play Saint Joan, they staged it in an off-Broadway theater, somewhat similar in size and scope to L.A.’s 99-seat houses. It’s a frenetic, full-of-energy work that would play well in a smaller space — but despite … Read more

MULATTO MATH – SUMMING UP THE RACE EQUATION IN AMERICA at the Whitefire Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Writer/performer Monique DeBose grew up in California in the ‘80s, the daughter of an African-American father from North Carolina and an Irish-American mother from New York State. Being the progeny of a biracial couple created an identity crisis that she resolved only after becoming an adult. Mulatto Math – Summing Up the Race … Read more

THE NIGHT FORLORN (OR, WAITIN’ ON GODSFORD) at Theatre West

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Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Steve Nevil’s “tumbleweed comedy” strives to be both a version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot set in the American West in 1870, and homage to the film westerns of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah — and to a large extent it succeeds on both counts.Read more… Now running through April 22

THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE at the Road on Lankershim

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Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw It’s Christmas Eve in 2011. The Keen family is haunted by the memories, and the ghost, of daughter Dana (Kara Hume), who was killed while working as a Navy corpsman in Afghanistan. Each member of the family reacts differently to the loss.Read more… Now running through May 13

AKUMA-SHIN at the Broadwater Main Stage

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Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  Alternate reality stories have long been popular, and there are a couple of main reasons for their appeal. First, it’s just fun to extrapolate how history might have proceeded if things had been different. Second, these stories provide an opportunity for authors to use a fictional reality to comment upon … Read more

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL at the Independent Shakespeare Company

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Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld In The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a young hotel manager optimistically states, in the face of every disaster: “In India we have a saying, ‘Everything will be alright in the end. So if it’s not alright, it is not yet the end.’ ” It’s the same idea Shakespeare’s heroine touts in … Read more

LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR at the Garry Marshall Theatre

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Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw Before Neil Simon became Neil Simon, he got his first break as a writer working for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca’s 1950’ TV series “Your Show of Shows.” On board were some big talents, with scribes like Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Joseph Stein churning out the laugh material on a … Read more