Bob’s Holiday Office Party :: LA Drama Critics Circle

BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Following in the satirical footsteps of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, this Open Fist Company production takes the past year’s cream of the crop of its Thursday night comedy sketch show, This Week This Week, and skewers our calamitous society with mostly hilarious results. Creator and director Ron
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TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

Photo courtesy of Foolish Production Co.

March 22, 2023Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater)
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CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

March 22, 2023Rob Stevens – Haines His Way City Garage, the resident theatre company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center, built their thirty-plus year reputation for doing heavy lifting with productions of Greek tragedies and the works of Brecht and Beckett among other dramatists. With their latest offering, Cardenio, they prove they can let down their
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THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2″) carefully delineates each character with precise
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ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

March 22, 2023Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw In Dublin, a struggling Irish musician bumps into a young Czech woman and his life changes forever. This is the premise of the 2007 musical film Once, and likewise the stage musical of the same name, both featuring songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (including the infamous “Falling Slowly”),
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TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography.

March 22, 2023Dana Martin – Stage Raw Center Theatre Group meets the moment with Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, conceived, written and revised by Anna Deavere Smith. The original production premiered on Broadway in April, 1994. Smith wrote it as a solo piece, which she developed from hundreds of interviews following the 1992 L.A. uprising. This updated version
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THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

March 18, 2023Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites World Premiere: The Lonely Few @ Geffen Playhouse – 8 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More… Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse, does away with conventional narrative. It immerses its audience in rock clubs
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Archive for Bob’s Holiday Office Party

BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY at Beverly Hills Playhouse

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)

Thursday, December 15th, 2022

Photo by Marissa Drammissi.

Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw

It’s December in Los Angeles and ‘tis the season for LA’s self-proclaimed longest-running “holiday hit,” Bob’s Holiday Office Party. Written by Joe Keyes and Rob Elk, this outrageous comedy began as an “improvised romp” in 1995, and since then has made an appearance each year everywhere from the late Tamarind Theatre on Franklin Ave., to Atwater Village Theatre, to the Zephyr. This production marks the show’s first appearance at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and the 25th season of shenanigans starring insurance agent Bob Finhead and his eclectic mix of friends and clients. Every year, Bob gathers his fellow small-town white bread Americans for a holiday bash in his office, and every year, chaos seems to ensue. Read more…

Through December 18

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Categories : Reviews

Tags : Beverly Hills Playhouse, Bob's Holiday Office Party, Joe Keyes, Rob Elk, Socks Whitmore, Stage Raw

BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY at the Pico Playhouse Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)

Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

Photo by Roger Nygard

Terry Morgan – Stage Raw

In a month where various iterations of A Christmas Carol proliferate like mistletoe, an antidote is required for those of us who prefer our holiday spirits bottled.

Bob’s Holiday Office Party, written by Joe Keyes and Rob Elk, has been fulfilling this duty for two decades. Unfortunately, this twentieth anniversary production is scattershot in its effectiveness, perhaps relying too much on the affection of longtime fans rather than working to entertain new audiences. Read more…

Now running through December 20.