Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw This world premiere comedy from Los Angeles playwright Jennie Webb has its moments of glorious insanity and humor, but not enough of them to make it a full-on success. Read more… Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Jennie Webb’s hilarious new play Currency, is a sly commentary on modern relationships — both … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage and Cinema What makes this boisterous jukebox musical about the life of late music and stage legend Peter Allen (whose songs make up the show’s core) so winning, is the combination of larger-than-life excess and the piquant whiff of melancholy – all of which are frankly irresistible to a wide swath … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Tradition is a cornerstone of civilization. It tells us what our forebears have found essential to life, lets us know what’s expected of us and gives us a framework for raising our children. But if our children never tried something new, we’d still be living in caves. … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze One actor dropped his moustache, another dropped his lines. It doesn’t matter whether these were opening-night fumbles or thoroughly rehearsed comedy bits. In Around the World in 80 Days at Long Beach Playhouse, they only add to the fun. Read more… Now running through May 7.
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw A ghost story around the campfire on the beach: It seems like such a natural fit, you almost wonder why you haven’t seen this sort of thing before. But director Kate Jopson’s compelling site specific production of Kristin Idaszak’s moody drama, set a few yards from the thundering surf at twilight … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Love, muses Richard Cabral during the opening moments of his autobiographical solo show, means different things to different people, and can even be something different for any one person at different stages in his or her life. Cabral’s perception of love as a young boy, he tells his audience, differed … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Schrödinger’s cat has been in the local theatrical zeitgeist of late. It was used to symbolize the interlocked statuses of life and death in Dirt (which just closed at the Raven Playhouse) and is even more central in Aaron Hendry’s The Superhero and His Charming Wife, a production by the Not Man Apart theater … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Gary (playwright Terry Ray) and Brad (Kevin Scott Allen) are sort of a gay odd couple. Gary is a 28-year-old gay virgin, nerdy and prim, who thinks his homosexuality is a deep dark secret, though everyone at his school refers to him as gay Gary. Read more… Les Spindle – Frontiers … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze “Anybody can take their clothes off. But to do it on a stage, with thousands and thousands of people looking at you? That takes something.” Read more… Now running through May 8.
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw An astonishingly edgy, timely and sensitive drama by Aliza Goldsmith, A Singular They is making its world premiere at the Blank Theatre — and what a singular play it is. Read more… Now running through May 1.