Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn is a report from the feminist front. Folded within a thin narrative is a lot of intriguing conversation, which in the course of two acts brings out numerous perspectives on what women do (and should) need and what they do (and should) want. The talk is … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA A hero and the musical about him have been on a journey. From the book by William Steig to the Dreamworks animated film and then back to the book again, this musical has undergone multiple changes from Broadway and the national traveling production to its current successful regional incarnation … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA If there’s a more sheerly interesting playwright in the United States these days than Bruce Norris, I don’t know who it is. In a continuing series of audacious, ambitious comedies, he has remained resolutely non-P.C. in questioning some of our culture’s most cherished assumptions on race (his Pulitzer winner Clybourne Park), … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA From the moment the curtain goes up and our diva is belting out a song (in a nightclub setting) while flanked by two smooth back up singers, you know you are in good hands and are heading for a fun time. Sister Act stars Ta’Rea Campbell, whose voice is a powerhouse—and … Read more
Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA In her smart and funny show, solo performer Palmer Davis portrays alter ego Wendy Walker, a talented dancer who struggles to juggle a passion for her art with motherhood and the bread-and-butter jobs she needs to pay her bills. Read more… Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly In this solo show conceived and … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly This production, directed by Zombie Joe, consists of four adaptations of short works by Edgar Allan Poe: the short story “The Oval Portrait,” two short poems — “Song” and “Alone” — and the longer narrative poem “The Raven,” with its haunting refrain of “Nevermore!” All four pieces are narrated rather … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA One will glean from her solo show that Judy Gold desperately wants her own sitcom, in part to promote her personal history of ultimately earning acceptance from her family, and thus she created this 95-minute saga (co-written with Kate Moira Ryan), packaged with its own theme song. In that … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Sequels are tough. Expectations are generally high and you can never attain the novelty factor of the first outing. Writer-director Jaime Robledo’s Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini, the second installment in his Watson series, is less dazzling (far fewer action set-pieces) and more talky than the first … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Book by Frank Smith, Ryan Harrison, Lauren Ludwig and Dylan Ris; Music and lyrics by Dylan Ris, Mikey Wells, Ryan Harrison, Frank Smith and Rich Ramberg. The Lost Moon Radio kids are back at the Fringe with yet another one of their hilarious musical spoofs. This time it’s the alleged playback of an old BBC children’s television show from the seventies … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA It’s not every day you get to be heavyweight champion of the world—for a professional sportsman it’s a once in a lifetime event, at least the first time is… In 1964, at the tender age of 22, boxing legend Cassius Clay (soon thereafter known as Muhammad Ali) ascended to the pinnacle … Read more