Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly August Wilson’s King Hedley II takes place in the 1980s when Reaganomics, and the notion that wealth trickles down from the rich to the poor, was the hypothetical order of the day. The reality, of course, is that no such trickling took place; the poor, black and white, grew poorer than ever, … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw It’s not helpful to dwell on the generation gap between the young and the old, particularly in the world of LGBTQ folks. The young possess the great currency of youth — beauty, brashness, opportunity. By contrast, if capitalist culture markets to Queers at all, the older folks are shunted to … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw We don’t usually think of the Japanese as being on the side of the angels during the Holocaust. This play reveals how, when the Nazis began rounding up the Jews in Lithuania, the Japanese ambassador signed exit visas for 6,000 of them and sent them to Kobe, Japan to form … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fellowship in various ways: as companionship, as a community of interest or experience, as a company of equals or friends, among others. These definitions serve as prologue to Julie Marie Myatt’s immersive stage play, fellowship: a play for volunteers……… Read more… Now running through February 12
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw If one has the audacity to take on the leviathan of American literature, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, one had best be able to do justice to the source material and also have something new to bring to it. Thankfully, the Lookingglass Theatre Company’s production (which mysteriously removes the hyphen from the title) … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way I have always been fond of Irish playwrights from Oscar Wilde’s wicked wit to George Bernard Shaw’s political take on the battle of the sexes. It’s the whimsical Irish with their gentle and/or raucous tales of opposites attracting and striking romantic sparks that resonate most with me. Read more… Melinda … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Torrance Theatre Company’s latest offering is another charmer from Canadian playwright Norm Foster. “The Great Kooshog Lake Hollis McCauley Fishing Derby” shows the city dweller in all of us that small-town folk have all the wisdom we could hope for but perhaps none of petty stresses we cling to. Read … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Agatha Christie has sold more books than anyone except for the Bible and William Shakespeare. Her play The Mousetrap has been running continuously in London since opening in 1952. In 1953 she adapted one of her early short stories, Traitor Hands, into the play Witness for the Prosecution…. Read more… … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The fairy tale is an effective form of storytelling for many reasons, but the primary one is that everybody is already familiar with it from childhood. A lot can be done with this format — as in Lapine and Sondheim’s Into the Woods, where the self-reflective analysis of the characters follows the … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Something is strangely fascinating about “Adler & Gibb,” the latest from the strangely fascinating theatermaker Tim Crouch. Read more…