Paul Birchall – Stage Raw For your evening of Difficult (but still Engaging) Theater, you might have done worse than attending the New Works Festival at REDCAT. Staged over the past three weeks, the festival has featured numerous performance pieces from promising local artists, fleshed out within the luxurious environs of one of the city’s … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze A producer, a director and a screenwriter are locked in a room for five days trying to churn out a script for one of filmdom’s biggest epics. What could go wrong is the stuff of playwright Ron Hutchinson’s “Moonlight and Magnolias,” onstage at Surf City Theatre’s 2nd Story Theater … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. This offbeat autobiographical piece by writer-director-performer Dr. Merle Conscious Soden, subtitled Homeless to Hollywood, makes up for lapses in technical polish with sly humor, heart and sincerity. Read more… Now running through September 19.
David C. Nichols – LA Times A skirmish of wit attends “Much Ado About Nothing” in Griffith Park, and it proves a notable argument. Independent Shakespeare Company concludes its summer season with an agreeably quirky, riotously funny take on the Bard’s evergreen romantic comedy. Read more… Now running through August 30.
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA Media exposure to the tumult in evangelical mega-churches brought about by the clash of money, power, and ego makes David Rambo’s 1999 cautionary tale a familiar story to modern audiences. The examination of faith, conscience, and ambition is great fodder for drama. Read more… Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Writer-director … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Since it premiered in 1992, Frank McGuinness’ “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” hasn’t lost its plausibility. It takes place in a windowless cell in Lebanon, where three men of differing nationalities are held hostage. Read more… Now running through Sept. 2.
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.