Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Playwright Ashley Rose Wellman’s world premiere dramedy depicts a complex mother-daughter relationship with nuanced characters and snappy dialogue. Set in a cramped and cluttered animal shelter, Wellman’s play explores themes of euthanasia, abortion, and single motherhood. These are embodied by human as well as Bunraku-influenced puppet characters, resulting in a … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw In the early 1950s, playwright Arthur Miller and his friend Elia Kazan pitched Miller’s dockworker-based screenplay The Hook, with Kazan as the proposed director, to Columbia Pictures’ boss Harry Cohn. When Cohn – and the FBI – wanted to change the corrupt union villains from Mafia thugs to Communist ones, … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the Mark Taper Forum. Read more…
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage The free-admission but donation-reliant ISC returns to its Old Zoo space within Griffith Park with “Julius Caesar,” after two seasons in a much smaller dell just to the west, deeper within the park (following the COVID-caused cancellation of ISC’s outdoor activity in 2020). The temporary location was used primarily because … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” isn’t usually considered a classic, but it played an important role in LA theater history as the first lesbian-themed play to have a long run — more than two years at the Fountain Theatre after a 1981 opening. This summer the Fountain has revived “Last … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage But this summer’s crop of classics includes a genuine surprise in the usual list of venues. Have you heard of South Pasadena Theatre Workshop? I had not, until a few weeks ago. But last weekend I entered this company’s 60-seat theater, where I was transported to Russia, two turns-of-the-century ago, … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Director Nike Doukas adds a three-piece combo and rocking beat to Shakespeare’s tale of magic, revenge, and love in a production that is part musical, part radio play, and all fun. Rather than a set that depicts the play’s island motif, Doukas and scenic designer Angela Balogh Calin strategically place … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Theater Digest Into the Woods at the Ahmanson [LA]. I have to admit, as the curtain rose on the national tour of the City Center Encores production of Into the Woods, I wondered if I needed to see the show again—I think I’ve seen more productions of Into the Woods than I … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Horror is not a genre that has traditionally worked well in theater. There are certainly some outliers such as The Woman in Black, but overall spooky fare is thin on the ground, theatrically speaking. Thus when I read that the Geffen Playhouse was producing a “horror play” called The Ants … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Power is an illusion in Will Power’s startling play Fetch Clay, Make Man, now running at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. All the characters believe they have control of their destinies, but each is desperate to break free from someone’s influence — even Muhammad Ali, marvelously played by Ray … Read more