Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review When a play being produced locally has a long history of excellence, that can be both a blessing and a curse for a theater company, especially a comparatively small one. Neal Weaver – Stage Raw We don’t usually think of friendly card games as battles to the death, … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In Swansong, Irish playwright Conor McDermottroe drafts a portrait of a disturbed and angry man unable to quell his sudden fits of rage or find balm for the inner wound that’s been festering since his childhood.Read more… Now running through October 7
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review It is quite remarkable how many times the Victor Hugo novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” has been dramatized, in film, on television, and on the stage. Now running through September 22
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Jukebox bio-musicals are seemingly a dime a dozen these days—Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations is currently playing at the Ahmanson Theatre, and the Pantages Theatre was recently home to On Your Feet, the Gloria and Emilio Estefan musical. But Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which just reopened … Read more
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review There is a fine line between humor which skewers privilege and prejudice by making its claims sound as ridiculous as they are, and writing which pronounces the same beliefs and then does a kind of wink to indicate that, really, it was said to be funny. Jonas Schwartz … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw There’s a reason that Shakespeare’s Cymbeline doesn’t get produced very often. It’s not that it’s bad per se, but that it’s familiar without being extraordinary.Read more… Now running through October 14
Margaret Gray – LA Times It is a truth universally acknowledged that a stage or screen adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, however well-intentioned, must be unfavorably compared to the original.Read more… Now running through September 30
Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld When writer/director Stan Lai has an idea for a new play, people take notice. He is the most celebrated Chinese language playwright and director in the world and his body of work – which to date includes 35 original plays – has redefined how we think about the art form itself. … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Colorism is a topic that may be unfamiliar to many white audiences, but it’s an issue Jocelyn Bioh examines beautifully in her new work School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play, now making its Los Angeles debut at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.Read more… Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat, now playing at the Mark Taper Forum, exposes the collapse of the American working class in the new millennium. When backed up against the wall and left with neither income nor hope, people sink into racism almost by reflex. The ramifications of humanity’s anger hangs over … Read more