Neal Weaver – Stage Raw When the TV sitcom took over much of the space formerly occupied by traditional farce, there were fewer and fewer practitioners of this notoriously difficult genre. Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy scored notable successes. Read more…
Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter The last of Neil Simon’s trilogy of quasi-autobiographical accounts of his coming-of-age years in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, Broadway Bound stands among his plays as perhaps the most free from easy nostalgia, and therefore the most honest. In this sturdy 1986 drama, the requisite comedy arrives more or less … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Hollywood has a long history of hypocrisy when it comes to gay celebrities, so a musical that sheds light on their closeting is a production one wants to praise – if only one could. The story in The Max Factor Factor, now at Noho Arts Center, unfolds in the 1930s. … Read more
Bob Verini – Arts In LA The pleasures of solid musical comedy craftsmanship are amply on display in 3D Theatricals’s fine production of Damn Yankees. Alan Souza’s staging has its excesses and blind spots, but they result from good intentions rather than bad taste. Everything that matters, this show gets right. Read more… Now playing through August … Read more
Dany Margolies – Daily Breeze Let’s be clear from the outset: The one-woman show “I Married a Neanderthal and Other Modern Problems” does not bash men. It gently ribs them, but, hey, who can’t take a little ribbing? And Honey Buczkowski, the life coach who hosts this show, er, coaching session, did not marry a … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA With gusto, this musical taps into the rock ’n’ roll’ 50s and examines the backstory of this seminal artist. Like the legends of James Dean and others who died tragically and very young, Buddy Holly’s has achieved almost mythic proportions. Read more… Now playing through August 10.
David C. Nichols – LA Times “Your – whaddyacallit – your world view? It ain’t mine. And the day it is, that’s the day I shoot myself in the head. I didn’t get clean to live like that.” That statement suggests the gravitas that drives the scabrous hilarity of “The Mother… With the Hat” at … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw A playwright and a well-regarded translator and adapter of Moliere’s work, Freyda Thomas found inspiration for her The Gamester in Le Joueur, a late 17th century play by Jean-Francois Regnard. Read more… Now playing through August 24.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Is it sexual abuse when one of the participants experienced it as a love affair? Or does that merely make it more abusive? This is just one of the disturbing and provocative questions that emerge from Neil LaBute’s gripping three-character play. It is, as the playwright has observed, his most … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The current production of Tennessee Williams’s classic A Streetcar Named Desire by The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre is a pleasant surprise, a robust take on the material that features a strong ensemble, an outstanding Blanche, and smart direction that brings the material to vibrant life. Read more… Now playing through … Read more