ArtsInLA

COYOTE ON A FENCE at Arena Stage

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Dany Margolies  –  Arts In LA Coyotes don’t play fetch and greet us at the door and guard us in our homes. Coyotes are the predator version of our snuggly pups. They are the canines with the need to kill, excused—but not usually forgiven—because they’re programmed that way. Do we know of people like that?Read … Read more

RED at International City Theatre

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Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA It might be deduced, knowing painter Mark Rothko’s iconoclastic nature, that he might not applaud the news that a recent Christie’s auction of paintings included one by him that sold for $86.9 million. Considered one of the great postwar modern artists, in the latter years of his life he … Read more

A SHORT STAY AT CARRANOR at Theatre West

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Dany Margolies  –  Arts In LA At last, a play with two lead roles for actors able to pass for 70-year-olds. More particularly, those actors here look romantically attractive enough to sweep the audience into the love story of Irene and Chet, whose relationship has been thwarted since Irene was 16.Read more… Now running through … Read more

RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN at the Geffen Playhouse

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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

I AM NOT MARK TWAIN at Theater/Theatre

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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

MERLIN: THE UNTOLD ADVENTURES at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum

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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

SMOKE AND MIRRORS at Lankershim Arts Center

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Dany Margolies – Arts In LA “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?” asks Albie at the top of this show. “And what were you afraid of?” These questions cleverly plunge the audience into a childlike mindset, priming each viewer to enjoy the wonders of magic—prestidigitational and … Read more

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at Ivy Substation

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Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Why is this Night different from all other Nights? To start with, it’s smart, it’s imaginative, it’s beautiful, it makes sense of the peculiar world Shakespeare created. It takes the titular dream to heart, as characters shape-shift and locales subtly morph. Still, the text is clear. Under the direction … Read more