David C. Nichols – LA Times Life changes in an instant. The ordinary instant.” And so it did for Joan Didion in 2003, when her husband John Gregory Dunne succumbed to cardiac arrest in their New York apartment. Read more… Now running through Oct. 30.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Lisa David is so likable, and her autobiographical show so ingenuous and inspiring, that you can readily forgive its extended length and lack of polish. Read more… Now running through Nov. 5.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Vince Melocchi’s provocative, long one-act hinges on the death in Afghanistan of a young recruit named Danny, who’s from a small Pennsylvania town. His fiancée Amy (Connor Kelly-Eiding), who works in a local donut shop, is trying to cope with her grief over his loss, but she’s also angry on … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times One of the few laugh lines in Dael Orlandersmith’s harrowing new solo show, “Forever,” in its world premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, comes in an exchange she describes with an attendant at the morgue after her mother’s death. She asks him if he’s afraid. His laconic reply: “The dead … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Kevin Saunders Hayes’s ambitious multimedia experimentations with silent films returns to Los Angeles with a funhouse version of the Lon Chaney classic Phantom of the Opera. Projecting the film on the big screen, the production comments on the movie by intensify the experience with original songs, dance, and wild costumes. … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Joyful & exuberant — Isango Ensemble’s afrobeat version of Mozart’s fairytale opera The Magic Flute is a unique and beautiful experience. You will probably have never experienced anything like it before, and perhaps never will again — it’s that special. Read more… Now running through Oct. 12.
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw This sixth annual presentation by Unbound Productions is a cool, autumnal treat. Participants gather at the Mountain View Mausoleum & Cemetery in Altadena to witness three adaptations of famous scary stories from literature or folklore, staged on the grounds. Read more… Bob Verini – Arts In LA Immersive, site-specific theater could … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This farce, written and directed by Sean Abley, belongs to that subset of gay theater which specializes in sending up (or cannibalizing) the plots and themes of more conventional works for its own deliberately trashy purposes. It’s set in the Susan B. Anthony School for Girls, and though all the … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Jessica Goldberg told The Jewish Journal that her new play Better is quasi-autobiographical, written in the wake of her father’s death from brain cancer in conjunction with her own crumbling marriage to actor Hamish Linklater. Read more… Now running through Nov. 16.
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Antony J. Bowman’s afterlife drama begins with his amiable central character, architect Michael (Josh T. Ryan), vividly describing his sudden death in a violent car wreck in upstate New York. Michael then proceeds to narrate the story from a state of limbo, observing his grief-stricken wife and best-friend colleagues during … Read more