Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Country Music Hall of Famer Patsy Cline was celebrated not only for her melodic voice and versatile repertoire but for her warmth, humility and readiness to promote the careers of others, especially women. Read more… Now running through September 27.
Jenny Lower – LA Weekly In All American Girl, a world premiere from InterACT Theatre Company, radical Islam doesn’t take hold of its main character’s life all at once. For Katie, or Karima, as she comes to be known, Islam follows a conservative Christian upbringing, volunteer work in Boston’s slum-poor Dorchester neighborhood, and a stint at … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw I listen to a lot of country music (Charlie Louvin on the turntable at the moment), though for the most part I cannot abide what plays under that pretense on the radio. Most of that seems irretrievably suburban, though one imagines that’s what become of most of the actual countryside … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Thank goodness we’re not living in the 1960s, when racism was at a peak, women were shamed for being overweight, and men with poofy lacquered hair and big mouths grabbed huge TV ratings. Read more… Now running through August 16.
Bob Verini – Stage Raw A modest variation on Noises Off with a hat tip to the musical Mystery of Edwin Drood, Khai Dattoli’s Off Book seemed to inspire considerable mirth in the small but indomitable crowd at the Secret Rose Theater on a recent Friday evening. I wish I could have shared more of that mirth, but I want … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw There’s an old superstition that an empty theater should never be left dark – hence the term ghost light, referring to the solitary light that illuminates the house after everyone’s gone home. Read more… Now running through August 27.
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Citizen: An American Lyric by poet Claudia Rankine, was published to great acclaim last year, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry. In this theatrical realization, it represents an uniquely valuable tool not merely for a keener awareness of the ubiquity of everyday … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Brandon Baruch’s dramedy No Homo, ostensibly about the gay scene in L.A., was a multi-award winner at last year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. The play went on appear at to New York’s International Fringe fest and underwent some reworking, including an altered ending. It now returns to L.A. for a short season … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Rob Mersola‘s dicey new comedy Luka’s Room benefits from the efforts of a splendid ensemble cast under the crisp direction of Joshua Bitton. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw His father’s finances suddenly gone south (or perhaps merely hidden during the pendancy of his most recent divorce), 19 year old Luka … Read more
Dany Margolies – Long Beach Press-Telegram Emiily is in an ethics class with her fellow classmates when her teacher Mr. Baggot poses a thought experiment conducted by Ethics Man, a superhero moral philosopher. Ethics Man posits a train, hurtling toward a washed-out bridge. But if he switches the tracks, he will certainly kill one boy … Read more