BALL YARDS at the Zephyr Theatre

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Playwright Chuck Faerber looks with a satiric, goofy and sometimes jaundiced eye at what he calls “the real American religion: sports.” In this series of comic sketches, he casts a wide net, examining the players, the coaches, the TV commentators and producers, the Ku Klux Klan —and Condoleezza Rice. Read … Read more

CIGARETTES & CHOCOLATE at Pacific Residents Theatre

Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze In their West Coast premieres, two one-act radio plays by Anthony Minghella grace the smaller stage at Pacific Resident Theatre. Though the two are produced as radio plays, the actors speaking from music stands, Michael Peretzian directs with enough subtext and reactions to start the audience’s imagination moving and … Read more

SHOUT SISTER SHOUT! at the Pasadena Playhouse

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Born in 1915, Sister Rosetta Tharpe has been called the godmother of rock & roll for her profound influence on a legion of famous vocalists, including Elvis Presley, Tina Turner and Johnny Cash (who noted in his induction speech into the Hall of Fame that she was his favorite singer). Read … Read more

TROUBLE IN MIND at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum

Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw At times, it seems unbelievable that playwright Alice Childress wrote Trouble in Mind in 1955. The show, which features the tried and true dramatic structure of a play-within-a-play, examines racial politics with a razor-sharp wit. Read more… Now running through September 30

AS YOU LIKE IT at Antaeus Theatre Company

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  One of the reasons for the continued popularity of Shakespeare’s work over the centuries is how unusually open it is to reinterpretation — directors or actors can use it as a lens with which to focus anew on some aspect of the world.Read more… Erin Conley – On Stage & … Read more

SEQUENCE at Theatre 40

Paul Birchall  – Stage Raw In playwright Arun Lakra’s quick-witted, if perhaps overly cerebral piece, it isn’t a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover that makes someone lucky — it’s genetic predisposition.  Or perhaps it’s an evolutionary adaptation that allows people to peer into the future, quantum physics-style, and somehow bring about their future happiness.Read … Read more

SO LONG BOULDER CITY at Celebration Theatre at the Lex

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw This show is advertised as a one-woman show, but in this case the woman is a guy: Jimmy Fowlie (Go-Go Boy Interrupted), who modestly lists himself in the program as “Co-writer/Star.” The piece purports to be the one-woman show performed by Mia Dolan, the heroine of the movie Lala Land. (I … Read more