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
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA If you revel in fine actors’ pushing the envelope of what performance can do, or have an interest in investigating important historical experience via theatrical means, this ungainly-named but unforgettable work is *the* production of the summer, just as Son of Semele’srecently closed Our Class was *the* production of the spring. In both, a … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA In this three-person show—originally the work of writer-actors Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield—three actors enact highlights of, summarize, or at least mention the title of all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays. First up are highlights, or lowlights, of Romeo and Juliet. Next, Titus Andronicus is boiled down to … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Before you hear this production described as “sitcomish,” know it was written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, the writers of the 1980s British television series Yes Minister and then Yes, Prime Minister. And if the humor of those series was good enough to keep the Brits giggling, it’s … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA The first extended run of the tuner A Man of No Importance is a matter of some importance, as it inaugurates—in this era of folding companies and theaters in transit—a new enterprise: the Good People Theater Company, under the direction of the gifted veteran stager-choreographer Janet Miller. Taking on the countervailing winds (money … Read more
Melinda Schupman – ArtsInLA Sarah Ruhl’s slightly daffy but contemplative play takes a shot at our cell phone culture while examining human connections and the nature of love. Jean (Alina Phelan) is sitting in a cafe, ostensibly working on something, when a cell phone at the next table rings over and over, interrupting her concentration. … Read more
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE – Music by Ben Toth, lyrics by Sam Forman. Hoyt Hilsman – Huffington Post After a long journey from the screen to the musical stage – which included numerous comings-and-goings of composer/lyricist teams – the Sleepless in Seattle musical has arrived at the Pasadena Playhouse. It is a huge challenge to adapt … Read more
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS – music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, book by David Thompson Les Spindle – Edge Los Angeles The 2010 musical “The Scottsboro Boys” now in its L.A. premiere, is among the most innovative and thrilling shows to have graced Broadway in recent years, justifiably earning 12 Tony nominations. Yet it lost … Read more
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT by Stephan Elliott Bob Verini – ArtsinLA Anyone who thinks national tours are always done on the cheap need only take a quick gander at the Pantages’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical version of the 1994 cult cineclassic whose title begins The Adventures of….Read more…
HOT CAT by Richard Alger Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA Throughout its first half, this production is a fun and intellectual reworking of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Where Williams “told” us, writer Richard Alger and director-choreographer Tina Kronis “show” us.Read more… Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Choreographer-director Tina Kronis and her husband, playwright … Read more