Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw We’ve all known folks with outsized perspectives on their own talent or worth. Justin Tanner’s funny hour-long play turns on an encounter between Ginny (Laurie Metcalf), a screechy community theater performer with diva aspirations, and Nate (French Stewart), a reserved but financially pressed vocal coach who reluctantly agrees to give … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Jessica Goldberg told The Jewish Journal that her new play Better is quasi-autobiographical, written in the wake of her father’s death from brain cancer in conjunction with her own crumbling marriage to actor Hamish Linklater. Read more… Now running through Nov. 16.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Each of these brief one acts takes place around a bed. Otherwise, they vary in quality and style. In Brian Tanen ‘s The Optimist, directed by Amanda Saunders, a young British bobby (Parker Phillips) and a veteran female Chief Inspector (Tara Karsian) meet at a crime scene. Read more… Now running through … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Land Line, a world premiere play by Stephen Dierkes, is about a dying man and his efforts to marshal his courage and his sanity through a relationship with his life-long friend. Read more… Now running through July 21.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Backyard wrestling – the emulation of the aggressive antics of professional wrestlers by ordinary folk – serves as the point of departure for Mickey Birnbaum’s funny, frenzied, probing play, Backyard. It begins with two teenagers, Chuck (Ian Bamberg) and Ray (Adan Rocha), meeting in Chuck’s backyard to work out a series … Read more
Bob Verini – Arts in LA The Echo Theater Company has gone to some lengths to sidestep, in its pre-opening publicity, the subject matter of Tommy Smith’s remarkable new play titled Firemen. The world premiere drama is described as “a different kind of love story” that “explores an unthinkable love relationship,” though what proves unthinkable is … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Young and naive, Girlie (Sandy Yu) has moved from her Philippines village to the city to train at a regional call center for a major American airline. Obsessed with the TV soap Dallas, Girlie fantasizes about moving there to live a dream life. But her single-minded pursuit and ultimate triumph … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Philip Dawkins’ comedy revolves around Evan (boyishly cute blond Brian Dare), who arrives in town as a naive, newly out greenhorn but soon joins a mildly incestuous circle of gay friends, including four guys and one girl, Tam (Kelly Schumann), a history teacher and sassy, self-defined fag hag. Collin (Matt … Read more
Les Spindle – LA Stage Times The show must go on for the currently homeless 31-year-old Celebration Theatre, and it will. Celebration’s season is opening belatedly, as the veteran GLBT-focused group is offering the West Coast premiere of Philip Dawkins’ ensemble drama The Homosexuals at Atwater Village Theatre.