Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This Mel Brooks musical, adapted from the film by Brooks and Gene Wilder, somehow manages to be both a send-up and homage to Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, and James Whale’s 1931 movie Frankensteinand its 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times Underpinning much of … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA While the material may be a bit questionable, the talent involved in this production is undeniable. This musical tells the story of average men who learn to love their physical selves and the special women who never stopped loving them. Its book, by Terrence McNally, hews to the 1997 … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Michael Wilson’s revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful,” which has just opened at the Ahmanson Theatre, premiered on Broadway in 2013 to a bounty of praise and nominations, especially for Cicely Tyson, who won the Tony Award for her portrayal of Mrs. Carrie Watts. Originally written as a … Read more
Bob Verini – Arts In LA Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy is a mess but all the same a bona fide crowd pleaser. Its characters are drawn with remarkable inconsistency, and they’re put through enough subplots (touched on, though never explored fully) for a play twice its two-hour length. What pulls it through is the passion of … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA The three actors of Orphans hurl themselves to the floor, barrel across the stage, and bound around with their ankles tied together. Theirs are athletic, fully energized portrayals that turn Kentwood Players’s Westchester Playhouse into a virtual athletic field. But their subtle and truthful internalized reactions to their characters’ circumstances, as … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Controversial psychology and show-biz moxie commingle in “The Behavior of Broadus,” with triumphant results. As delightfully self-assured as it is comically self-referential, made up of equal parts whimsy, wacky, profane and profound, this cracked experiment in satirical musical development is a wickedly entertaining watershed for Sacred Fools Theater Company, … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw Upon leaving the opening night performance of Deaf West and The Forest of Arden’s co-production Spring Awakening – Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s 2006 rock musical about sexual awakening/repression in 19th century European teens, based on the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind — I posted a blissful Tweet announcing that people should see … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Playwright-director-costume designer Octavio Carlin bills himself as “dress designer to the stars,” and his claims to be a fashion designer have a certain credibility. The gowns he has designed for the ladies of his ensemble are handsomely outre (and a program insert informs us that they can all be purchased at … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw The plight of homeless women veterans is a story that needs to be told, not once but many times. In Low Hanging Fruit, playwright Robin Bradford makes that story her aim, but her script has been rushed to the stage too soon. Read more… Now running through October 26.
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net A new theater group, the Fringe Theatre Company in North Hollywood, offers the premiere of an ensemble play set in contemporary L.A. Writer-director Joanne Mosconi’s “You Love That I’m Not Your Wife” is a multi-character battle-of-the-sexes comedy in which various couples and potential couples face myriad challenges in … Read more