David C. Nichols – LA Times Meet voluble Pepe, patriarch of the world’s most dubious clan of Mexican entertainers, who has retained his unwarranted confidence over the decades since his brood began touring the bottom-rung nightclub circuit. Read more… Now running through August 23.
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Perhaps it’s Quixotic, but I find Theatricum Botanicum to be a kind of beacon, a shining light on the hills of Topanga Canyon. The alfresco venue was co-founded by TV actor and Old Leftie Will Geer, whose fame was cemented – if fame is ever cemented – by his role … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Football may be a grandly theatrical sport, but its sweeping, corporeal drama doesn’t easily translate onto the small stage. Read more… Now running through September 6.
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA In an era when most musical groups are helmed by young singers with a broad appeal, barbershop quartets speak to an older demographic and are usually populated by, as the cast reminds us, old white men. In this story, three men who have sung together for nearly 30 years … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This topical comedy show, written and performed by Joseph Lanzet and Lindy Voeltner, and directed by Andy Eninger, takes a rueful look at the pitfalls of the dating game, and it seems like a date-night show if there ever was one. Read more… Now running through September 3.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly We haven’t been treated fairly, and everybody knows it, says actress Maria Gobetti. She’s objecting to the union’s elimination of L.A.’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, which, for the uninitiated, was in effect for a quarter century and permitted union actors to work in theaters of up to 99-seats in L.A. … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Michael Phillip Edwards’s fiery one-person play is less a drama in the traditional sense than a blistering rumination on identity and race, and the toll racism takes on American men of color. Its urgency erupts not from events per se but from the inner dialogue of the pivotal speaker, an … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Bent, playwright Martin Sherman’s revelatory 1979 play about the gay experience in Nazi concentration camps, receives an arresting production at the Mark Taper Forum. Moisés Kaufman’s direction and his stellar cast will leave audiences breathless. Read more… Jenny Lower – LA Weekly It’s difficult and rare to come across stories … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Whether genetically predisposed or trained well at his granddaddy’s knee, Jim Loucks has the knack for telling stories large and small. In this solo show, Loucks layers recollections from his youth and builds a powerful piece about guns, death, and dignity. Read more… Now running through August 9.
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Prolific Chicago-based playwright, Phillip Dawkins, is back. When his riveting ensemble drama “The Homosexuals” was presented at L.A.’ s Celebration Theater in 2013, it certainly whetted one’s appetite to view more of his work. In a staging by L.A.’s Coeurage Theatre Company, Dawkins’ zany seriocomic reverie, “Failure: A Love … Read more