Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The relative from hell: Surely every family has one. It’s the person who talks nonstop, who has zero tolerance for other people’s points of view, who perceives her own needs as trumping every other problem on the horizon. Read more… Now running through July 24
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Church & State, Jason Odell Williams’ timely and aptly titled political drama, tells the story of a fictional Republican Senator from North Carolina, Charles Whitmore (Rob Nagle, at his splendid best) who suddenly begins to question much that he’s always believed in — namely, God and the Second … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times The line between political reporting and parody is blurrier than ever these days, especially since Donald Trump launched his presidential run. It’s not always obvious whether a headline comes from the Los Angeles Times or the Onion. Read more… Now running through August 13
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw It’s easy to love site specific theater —particularly one in which the setting essentially adds a character to the show itself. I’m thinking of recent shows like Flagship Theater’s SecondSkin, which was a ghost story staged on the beach outside the Annenberg Beach House, with ghostly figures emerging from the cascading … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Stories like this have been told before, many in exactly this way, where a nay-saying parent and a self-doubting inner voice cannot stem the creative force of an artist who soars above them to shape an art form. Read more… Les Spindle – Edge on the Net The genres of … Read more
Shirle Gottlieb – Stage Happenings “Marat/Sade” (subtitled “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade” was written by Peter Weiss, set in 1808 after the French Revolution was over, and directed by Andrew Vonderschmitt. A Long Beach Playhouse … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Eccentricities of a Nightingale was Tennessee Williams’ 1951 rewrite of his earlier Summer and Smoke. It was supposedly his preferred version of the story, and one can see why. The main character of Alma is more clearly delineated, and the drama springs more from her choices than from fate. The current production … Read more
Dany Margolies – Press-Telegram Healing and forgiveness are the stuff of solid old-time storytelling. But playwright Sarah Ruhl guides her characters down fresh, quirky paths to those results in “The Clean House.” Read more… Now running through July 17
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Because of the confluence of events surrounding the American presidential election — including Donald Trump’s provocative and unconstitutional attempts to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., the mass shootings in Orlando, and the heated debate about how to deal with Muslim terrorists, Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning Disgraced seems even more relevant than … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The marital problems of an upper-middle-class couple (with particular focus on the vague discontent of an adulterous wife) are the stuff of soap opera. Read more… Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Broadway director John Rando brings the witty comedy Big Sky to the Geffen with a talented cast and a script that plays on conventions of … Read more