Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review Any time someone translates a novel to the stage, there is risk involved. The depth of interior monologue, the detail of setting and character, the convolutions of plot and emotion, even the poetry of language used to provide all of this, are all limited by the confines of … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw The Upstairs Lounge was a lively and popular New Orleans gay bar till 1973, when an arsonist doused the stairs leading to the club with lighter fluid, set it aflame, and then rang the doorbell. In the ensuing blaze, 32 people were killed — mocked and ridiculed even in death, … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze The Norris Theatre’s latest theatrical offering is entrancing and ebullient, two words best defined as fun. And although its characters are too-smart adolescents and odd adults, it feels inviting and universal.Read more… Now running through October 1
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Arthur Miller’s classic “All My Sons” opened on Broadway in January 1947, but it still feels relatable, thought-provoking and moving in its revival at Torrance Theatre Company.Read more… Now running through October 15
Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City tosses around the word “funny” often. Besides landing in the title itself, the characters constantly tell others they are funny, declare that they themselves are funny, and attempt funny jokes… … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Jeremy J. Kamps’ play “Runaway Home,” now premiering at the Fountain Theatre, is set in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward three years after Hurricane Katrina. The waters may have long receded, but the residents still wander like ghosts through the wreckage of their lives.Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Big Night is one of those sitcom-like stage comedies that tries super hard to tackle big themes but trips on the very glibness it purports to satirize. Read more… Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Big Night is a play with aspirations bigger than it can deliver on. The new work by playwright Paul … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Theatre is an inherently magical experience. When done correctly, a stage, a set and some actors become a world. The audience offers up its suspension of disbelief, and art is created. The question is: Is a magic show inherently theatrical? In the talented hands of close-up card magic virtuoso Siegfried … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw La Razon Blindada, Argentinian playwright Aristides Vargas’s soulful, songful play (performed in Spanish with English captions) now in revival at the 24th Street Theatre, concludes with a dedication “to those who find their dreams unjustly encircled by walls.” Read more… Now running through October 15
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Playwright Simon Stephens (Heisenberg, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) deconstructs Bizet’s opera Carmen in an attempt to illuminate contemporary issues of loneliness, isolation and all-around anomie. He includes a couple of Bizet’s arias, the “Habanera” and the “Seguidilla,” as well as a snippet of the Toreador Song, but otherwise … Read more