Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. I’ve seen it onstage several times, watched the film, enjoyed a cast recording (Cerveris/LuPone), and loved the Angela Lansbury/George Hearn version blessedly preserved on video. This breadth of comparisons, however, can make me picky about the show. Can the performers do justice to the songs … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA Gone are the days of yore when sex farces frolicked across the theatrical landscape like so many smarmy bunnies, slamming doors and likely featuring partial nudity, if one lived in a part of the country that didn’t frown upon such things. ’Twas truly a golden age, when… Oh, wait – most … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Philip Kan Gotanda’s groundbreaking play, now in an electrically charged revival at East West Players chosen to honor the company’s prestigious 60th anniversary, was first performed at Berkeley Rep in 1988 before being brought to LATC and journeying on to a much-acclaimed run off-Broadway. The fact that all these years … Read more
Edward Hong – The Nerds Of Color With the promise of Center Theatre Group‘s Hamlet (both adapted and directed by Robert O’Hara) being bold and daring for the new generation, it is odd to say that despite a very able & entertaining cast and some novel ideas, this production could do without the first half … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA This tasty little play is one of the often underappreciated Tom Jacobson’s best efforts, chockfull of his love of history and the evolution of our species through what has remained behind for us to study. It is a commentary on the true nature of what constitutes art. Read more… Terry … Read more
Amanda Callas – BroadwayWorld Corktown ’39 is a new play that feels like a classic, the kind of intelligent, thought-provoking drama that you can imagine a playwright like Aaron Sorkin or Henrik Ibsen might have written. Read more… Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move Not since reading or seeing on stage, works by Eugene … Read more
Anita W. Harris – LA Theatrix Whether or not you are a fan of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 gothic novel Jane Eyre, you will be smitten by Elizabeth Williamson’s stage adaptation as produced by A Noise Within (ANW) — a stellar rendition in every aspect. Read more… Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA As a Literature major in … Read more
Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move Their current production of TWELFTH NIGHT is Antaeus Theatre Company at its best. And unlike many stagings of a script written by Shakespeare or otherwise, instead of installing cast members who have not “aged out” of the roles, director Armin Shimerman has made “aging in” the spectacular focal … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA I kept thinking during the performance what it must have been like for Guillermo Cienfuegos to read Will Arbery’s densely absurd yet hauntingly topical script for the first time. It would be hard to imagine the idea of directing such an idiosyncratic piece of theatrical indulgence could have been anything … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA This is one of the supernaturally-inclined Steve Yockey’s creepiest plays and certainly one of the most unsettling in another near-perfect partnership with director Ann Hearn Toblowsky, who so obviously “gets” him bigtime, and the unstoppably brave folks at the Road Theatre who never flinch attempting something risky. Read me… Tracey … Read more