Bob Verini – ArtsInLA ModRock is a train wreck, the waste of a perfectly good idea for a jukebox to rifle, namely the array of 1950s and ’60s British hits that transformed the pop music scene worldwide and eventually made its way to our shores as the “British invasion.” As British invasions go, ModRock is … 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
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
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…
THE FANTASTICKS – Book and lyrics by Tom Jones, music by Harvey Schmidt. David C. Nichols — L.A. Times The delicate theatricality of “The Fantasticks” has weathered countless editions worldwide since its off-Broadway premiere in 1960. But Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s “Les Romanesques” has perhaps never before enjoyed the elevated insight of … Read more
DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly When Peter (Burt Grinstead) unexpectedly shows up at Kelly’s (Laurie Okin) Lower Manhattan apartment, the mood is prickly and awkward. It’s understandable; Peter is the identical twin of her husband Craig, a hard as nails soldier who recently died in a military accident in the Gulf. But … Read more
AMERICAN MISFIT by Dan Dietz. Bob Verini – ArtsInLA.com It’s easy to describe the formal aspects of Dan Dietz’s “American Misfit,” a world premiere at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Its meaning proves a much bigger headscratcher. Read more…
French Stewart, TV star (“3rd Rock From the Sun”) and local theatre mainstay (“Stoneface”: “Voice Lessons”) will host the 44th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC)Awards on Monday, March 18, 2013 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St. Downtown. Tickets for the show and opening reception, which will start at 6:30 pm, can be reserved by e-mailing crixawards2013@gmail.com. All … Read more
In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Bob Verini – ArtsInLA.com It’s about time Tarell Alvin McCraney’s work was able to be seen in Los Angeles. The Brother/Sister Plays, his trilogy about indigenous backwoods Louisiana folk operating under strange and magical Yoruba and Caribbean influences, has been garnering raves on both sides of the Atlantic (he has … Read more
Fraternity by Jeff Stetson. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Jeff Stetson’s all-male political drama Fraternity, written 25 years ago, has a prescient power to it. Set in Birmingham, Ala., the storyline presents a prosperous group of black men, members of a private gentleman’s club, and the tragic history that shaped each of their lives. A shocking bombing of the … Read more