Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic challenged the USA’s post-World War II optimism, serving as a pungent indictment of the country’s drive for economic success and the toll it took on working class people in their scramble for The American Dream. Almost seventy-five years since its Broadway debut, Miller’s seminal work is … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Just over a month ago, millions of us witnessed a dramatic descent into chaos onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. At the Oscar ceremony, the usual back-patting was upstaged by the unscripted cheek-slapping of Chris Rock by Will Smith. Now fresh drama has returned to the Dolby. Last Tuesday, … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This is Casa 0101’s 4th collection of short plays exploring the LGBTQ+ scene from the Latinx point of view. The participating writers include Abel Alvarado, Corky Dominguez, Claudia Duran, Josefina Lopez, Jaime Mayorquin, Raymond Arturo Perez, Matthew Benjamin Ramos, Gilbert Salazar, Richard Billegas, Jr. and Patricia Zamorano.Read more… Now running through … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw If you want tangible proof of the benefits of diversity casting, go see this homespun, upbeat production of that perennial tuner by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Beauty and the Beast, now up at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights.Read more… Now running through January 21
Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main In An Enemy of the Pueblo, playwright Josefina López appropriates the basic construct of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, tosses in a few large dollops of magical realism, and transforms the lead character from a 19th-century Norwegian doctor into a 21st-century Mexican curandera. The result is a stirring adaptation that features a … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play, by writer-director Paul S. Flores, sets out to examine the life of Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S., but it’s also part of an attempt to stop gang violence. It examines, among other things, the role of placas in gang life. (“Placas” is barrio slang for body tattoos that … Read more
Jenny Lower – LA Weekly Though sexual assault is never not timely, it’s been getting an extra-special dose of attention due to Bill Cosby and his 50-and-counting accusers, as well as the scrutiny directed at colleges before and after the discredited Rolling Stone account of campus assault and news generated by a White House rape-prevention initiative. Read more… … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly …..Money also dictates the behavior of the multitudinous characters in An L.A. Journey, the difference being that most of them don’t have much of it to invest or to lose. Read more… Now running through June 7.
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Oh my — all that talk of “honor” that runs through Shakespeare’s political tragedy. Brutus (Rachel Gonzalez) murders Caesar (Vance Valencia ) because the leader stands poised to become emperor, which Brutus has concluded is bad for Rome. (“If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times “A Cat Named Mercy,” a new play by Josefina López (“Real Women Have Curves”) premiering at Casa 0101 Theater, is full of reformist passion but feels underbaked. Perhaps it was rushed into production to capitalize on the Obamacare controversy. A cautionary tale about U.S. health insurance, “Cat” has the fervor and subtlety … Read more