Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Announces 2022 Award Recipients

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is proud to announce the award recipients for 2022. On the Other Hand, We’re Happy (Rogue Machine), The Inheritance (Geffen Playhouse), The Lehman Trilogy (CTG/Ahmanson Theatre), and Uncle Vanya (Pasadena Playhouse) received the prestigious Production award, with additional honorees named in 17 other categories. In total, 18 different productions … Read more

20th-century tumult in ‘Ragtime’ and ‘Twilight’. A healing ‘Tempest’ and two new musicals.

‘Walter Paisley,’ ‘Lonely Few,’ ‘La Egoista,’ ‘Lifespan of a Fact’ Don Shirley – Angeles Stage. Both “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” and “Ragtime” are panoramic theatrical creations. Experienced in close sequence, which you can do right now in Greater LA, they bookend powerful stories from opposite ends of the previous century. But they employ diametrically different … Read more

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Dana 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 has expanded … Read more

KRISTINA WONG, SWEATSHOP OVERLORD at Kirk Douglas Playhouse, a co-production with East West Players

Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. There are defining moments in our lives where we either shrink away in fear or make a stand at all costs. In 2020, at the beginning of a global health crisis, under the order of a shelter-in-place lockdown, Kristina Wong faced such a moment. And in that moment, Kristina Wong became … Read more

Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Announces Nominations for Theatrical Excellence in 2022

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is proud to announce its 2022 nominees for theatrical excellence. This year, in lieu of the Circle’s annual live event ceremony, the award recipients will once again be announced online at a future date. The LADCC has also named the following special award honorees. The TED SCHMITT Award for … Read more

CLYDE’S at Mark Taper Forum

Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA According to a survey conducted by American Theater magazine, Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s is currently the most produced play in the U.S. It’s not surprising that Nottage’s work is being done; she’s received the Pulitzer Prize twice during her illustrious career. But it’s a little disappointing that this show seems to be her … Read more

Confrontations with classics: THE INHERITANCE and PENELOPIAD

Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Also: ’2:22,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Rent,’ ‘Eisenhower’ When a narrative work of art attains “classic” stature, it often settles comfortably into collegiate required-reading lists — but loses its share of the current limelight. So if E.M. Forster or Homer were alive today and sampling theater on the west side … Read more

2:22 – A GHOST STORY at the Ahmanson Theatre

Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Taking a break from their usual musical fare, Center Theatre Group-Ahmanson is offering2:22-A Ghost Story by Danny Robins through December 4. The opening night was November 4, missing Halloween by a few days. Little costumed trick or treaters may have provided more scares than what transpired on stage. The reviewers … Read more

THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE at the Mark Taper Forum

Katie Buenneke – Theatre Digest Your opinion of this solo performance will likely be determined by your opinion of Cecily Strong. Personally, prior to seeing this show, I found her skilled, but not thrilling, and spending 96 minutes with her here reinforces that assessment. Read more… Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld When THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF … Read more

Pig power plays at ‘Animal Farm.’ ‘Everybody’ is talkin’. Alanis and Hammerstein, but no Natives.

Don Shirley – Angeles Stage ‘Animal Farm’. ‘Sanctuary City’. ‘Everybody.’ ‘Oedipus.’ ‘Jagged Little Pill.’ ‘Oklahoma!’ How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the ‘Farm’, after they’ve seen…Pasadena? Yes, I’m paraphrasing the lyrics of an ancient pop song to make the point that Pasadena and nearby neighborhoods constitute the hottest cluster of locally-produced theater right now. … Read more