Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Reaching back to its early years, the 34-year-old Victory Theatre Center is offering a new production of Kos Kostmayer’s On the Money, previously presented there in 1982. The play takes a stab at exploring certain themes still relevant in modern times, primarily the desperate challenges of many American citizens to make … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Given the chance to embody John Merrick—aka ‘The Elephant Man’—on stage is probably something most actors would jump at with the same alacrity they would for the opportunity to tackle Hamlet or Richard III. It’s certainly a supremely challenging role, both physically and emotionally. For a highly limited run—only this weekend … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA An exuberant celebration of language is the most apt description for actor Christopher Plummer’s self-created one-man show. A Word or Two is playing through February 9, 2014 at the Ahmanson Theatre, downtown LA. Early on in the show, Plummer selects a book from a heap and begins to read from a lectern. But this … Read more
Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA What do Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy have in common? In Scott Carter’s intellectually upscale comedy, all three are smug anthropomorphic spirits, trapped in a single chamber purgatory and forced to communicate despite their disdain for any view contradicting their own. Read more… Dany Margolies – Arts In LA History’s … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times In “Day Trader” at Bootleg Theater, a wannabe screenwriter in midlife crisis concocts an elaborate scheme to circumvent his rich wife’s pre-nup without sacrificing his cushy lifestyle or rebounding libido. Further plot description would entail spoilers, because Eric Rudnick’s intriguing albeit quirky dark comic spin on the eternal clash … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Stagecraft and education combine here, as two performers from Scotland’s Visible Fictions theater company reenact the myth of the orphaned ancient Greek prince and the brave sailors who went with him to the ends of the Earth, looking to bring their nation peace, justice, freedom, and, Jason hopes, fun. … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Dawn King’s play is set in Britain, in the near future. As with all good literature, it’s meant to represent the here and now. So when an inspector arrives at a struggling farm, interrogating the farmers too inappropriately and searching the home too thoroughly, a certain Notorious Safety Administration … Read more
Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA Most Americans of a certain age still bear the imprint of that day in Dallas when President Kennedy died. Like myself and others, writer/director Christian Levantino has had trouble wrapping his head around the official version – the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was Jack Kennedy’s sole assassin. A nagging skepticism … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA In the good old days, Sleeping Beauty was a ballet choreographed, in its first incarnation, by Marius Petipa. In it, we meet Princess Aurora, first in a prologue when she is a baby—represented by a doll, or more likely a bundle of cloth—swaddled beyond recognition and housed in a … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Striking a perfect balance between scares and laughs, Play Dead delivers plenty of delicious thrills, macabre chills and giggles. The one-act show features Todd Robbins as our ghoulish host and runs through December 22 at the Geffen Playhouse.Read more… Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Back in the heyday of the great movie … Read more