Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Katie Rubin’s energetic solo piece presents a typical tale of the struggling actor who, yearning for success, ventures on a journey of spiritual discovery and then cobbles together a string of experiences and calls it a show. The result is a meandering yarn featuring miscellaneous miracles and offering little insight … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Charles Dickens meets Lewis Carroll, literally, in “A Perfect Likeness” at Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena. This beautifully appointed two-hander about the authors of “Great Expectations” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” isn’t exactly deep-dish, but it should appeal to those seeking a pleasantly literate 90 minutes in the … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA From 1954 to the present, Reginald Rose’s Emmy-nominated teleplay on CBS’s Studio One has been rewritten as a theatrical piece, was made into an Academy Award–winning film with some of the finest actors in the business, and has been reworked by theater companies over the years, even as 12 … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Ketti Frings’ 1958 adaptation of Thomas Wolfe’s autobiographical novel tells the story of young writer-to-be Eugene Gant (Grant Tambellini) and his embattled efforts to break free of his grasping, controlling mother, Eliza (Alison Blanchard), and his savagely dysfunctional family, and acquire an education. Frings’ script won a Pulitzer Prize in … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Lone-Anon is, at core, an Orwellian social satire, set five years in the future, when the NSA and/or FBI has set up a watch list for people with antisocial tendencies. For instance, if you’re invited to a party on Facebook and you don’t respond, you may well land on the list and find yourself … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Coincidentally, two unrelated plays about group therapy opened last week in small theaters less than a mile from one another. Neil McGowan’s comedy Lone-Anon, about maladroit loners subjected to court-ordered therapy, is running late nights at Rogue Machine on Pico near La Brea, while Leslie Hardy‘s A Good Grief airs the dirty … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly James Goldman’s smart 1968 drama re-imagines a nightmarish home-for-the-holidays reunion for the dysfunctional family of 12th century monarch Henry II and his estranged wife, Eleanor (historically, a brilliant duo whose early political conquests rocked their generation) . Thirty years into the marriage, relations have soured, with Eleanor (Diane Hurley) under … Read more
Mayank Keshaviak – LA Weekly It’s probably not surprising that a show about a vampire that opened on Halloween night features great costumes and is quite the visual spectacle. A fantasia spanning three acts and three vastly different time periods in the life of 300-year-old former slave Porphyrion (creator and performer Paul Outlaw), the piece … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Aaron Francis’ bold scenic design has the audience seated in school desks for Gidion’s Knot, getting you into the right frame of mind for Johnna Adams’ intense one-act showdown between a fifth-grade teacher and a parent. Corryn (Vonessa Martin) shows up for a teacher-parent conference, having been summoned a few days … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA With two weekends to go until Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vacates Actors Co-op in Hollywood, those who enjoy horror stories brought to the stage don’t have many chances to take it in. But they should make the effort. An ensemble of six sports fine accents and great versatility in bringing … Read more