Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly There are glints of the Oresteia in Marcus Gardley’s poetic, sweeping drama, the road weeps, the well runs dry, which takes place in a 19th-century Oklahoma town settled by fleeing African-American freedmen and their Native American cohabitants. The story’s tragic chain of events erupts around the searing rivalry between the … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. The world premiere of a new musical, When You Wish: The Story of Walt Disney—celebrating the life and career of the legendary animator/mogul Disney (1901-1966)—seems well-timed to the upcoming release of a holiday season film, Saving Mr. Banks. The eagerly awaited movie starring Tom Hanks as Disney is set during the making … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles comes to us with a considerable reputation as a Pulitzer Prize finalist, but whatever virtues this intergenerational seriocomedy may possess, they certainly don’t come through in South Coast Repertory’s version.Read more… Now running through November 17.
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA “She didn’t say much but she said it loud.” That’s Eva Peron (1919–1952) as assessed by nemesis Che Guevara during the prologue of Evita. But as it happens, the accusation of saying very little, very loudly has dogged the Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice through-sung tuner ever since it emerged as a … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Mikhail Bulgakov meets Sergei Eisenstein at Andy Warhol’s Factory in “Moskva.” This ornate take on Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” is a nobly ambitious, surreally unhinged deep-dish bowl of dramaturgical borscht.Read more… Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA City Garage is known for staging edgy and provocative avant garde theater and … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA For all the purported sexual sophistication attributed to the French, Marc Camoletti’s cheeky farce about a married couple’s “liaisons dangereuses” at a French country house is less daring and more conventional than one might expect. Still, its romantic machinations make for amusing moments.Read more… Now running through November 3.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Among people of a certain age I’ve spoken with recently, let’s say 45 and older, there’s this sense — not so much a perception or even an intuition, rather a more vague tingle — that something is going numb.This is not a physical sensation but a spiritual one. It … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Philip Dawkins’ comedy revolves around Evan (boyishly cute blond Brian Dare), who arrives in town as a naive, newly out greenhorn but soon joins a mildly incestuous circle of gay friends, including four guys and one girl, Tam (Kelly Schumann), a history teacher and sassy, self-defined fag hag. Collin (Matt … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Tami and Bill Martin love their son Josh. Call it a difficult love. Josh is 18 and severely autistic. When Josh gets upset, which he does unpredictably, he can turn violent, pulling his mother’s hair and choking her. Soon after, he lies on the living room floor in a … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly The legendary 1935 production of this Clifford Odets play has been credited with establishing the Group Theatre’s reputation, electrifying the Broadway of its time, and changing the very nature of American acting for generations. It has become a high-water mark against which any subsequent production is measured. This rendition, directed … Read more