Les Spindle – LA Stage Times Next month, LA will again play host to Radar LA. Following its debut in June 2011, the international theater festival returns September 24 for a second edition. This collaborative project is presented by REDCAT and its parent institution, CalArts, in association with Center Theatre Group and a consortium of … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Like the titular Italian dessert, this compilation of three one-act comedies features three different flavors. In the solo piece “Booby Prize,” writer-performer Lizzie Czerner brings a Tracey Ullman-like flamboyance to the tale of a woman cursed and blessed with a very buxom figure, which brings her both ridicule and lascivious … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly This polished and entertaining adaptation of Mark Twain’s coming-of-age classic is a rare case of family entertainment done well. Skillfully directed by Aaron Lyons from a streamlined narrative by Laura Eason, the story tracks the transformation of title character Tom (Mike Rosenbaum) from mischievous kid to thoughtful youth, a metamorphosis … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Drawing on the traditions of ancient Greek comedy (masks, songs, a giant phallus) Chuck Faerber’s mildly amusing farce is a zany rendition of the siege of Troy by a crack team of dimwits. Ten years into the Trojan war, the Greeks are still anxious to retrieve their abducted Helen from … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. During the 1970s, dinner theaters were popular throughout the nation, offering least-common-denominator entertainment served alongside overcooked roast beef and weak cocktails. It wasn’t as much about going to the theater as a quest for chuckles that didn’t tax the brain. Yuppie patrons dined on semi-digestible grub while getting buzzed.Read more… … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly I doubt that anyone has ever thought that Steven Cragg was Mark Twain, but it provides him with a useful gimmick to galvanize his one-man show. He appears costumed and bewigged in a deliberately seedy simulacrum of the outfit worn by Hal Holbrook in his Mark Twain solo show.Read more… … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Developed through workshops under Tim Robbins’ direction, this inspired production of Shakespeare’s fantasia snaps and crackles with the comedic shenanigans of a dynamic ensemble. Visual spectacle, so often integral when this piece is produced, here takes a back seat; instead, the performers merrily cavort across a setless stage, relying on … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly A nicely acted, crisply directed and neatly written piece of 1950s sci-fi comedy, featuring nearly naked, green-painted, go-go-dancing space aliens — what’s not to love?! Playwright Matthew Sklar stars as Captain Dan Dixon in his creature-feature retro romp through space.Read more…Now running through September 14.
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Sometimes theater is about humankind’s greatest achievers. Sometimes it’s about supremely tragic figures. And sometimes, as with this show, it’s about the rest of us.Read more…
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Merlin’s adventures, “untold?” Gosh, hasn’t the saga of the windbag wizard been told a bazillion times, in books (picture and grownup), films, TV movies, and even a couple of Broadway musicals? And the thing is, he’s really such a lousy character when you come right down to it. All-knowing, all-powerful figures … Read more