Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Farce. It’s that theatrical plot in which a character — apparently always male — tells a lie and gets wound up in it. Then, somehow, over the course of two hours, he manages to unwind himself and earn the forgiveness of his fellow characters. Read more… Now running through February … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw What follows the “happily ever after” conclusion of most fairy tales? That’s what composer-songwriter Stephen Sondheim and book-writer James Lapine examine in their sophisticated 1986 Broadway musical based on Grimm’s fairy tails and composed expressly for adults. (Lapine directed the musical’s eventual debut on Broadway, after it premiered at San … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Traditional fairy tales begin with characters who have far to travel, while the promise of adventure perfumes the story. And at the conclusions of these tales, the righteous get their rewards, while the wrongdoers are punished or worse. Read more… Now running through December 20.
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Widely considered the best of writer Neil Simon’s well-made plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs—about a Jewish family in 1930s Brooklyn—has landed in the South Bay through Dec. 19 at Torrance Theater Company. But can this Southern California cast give it that New York zing and Jewish bittersweetness? Read more… Now running … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly A production of Shakespeare’s King Lear imported from the Globe Theatre in London stirs all sorts of expectations. Surely no one can do Shakespeare better than the Brits. And besides, the play is one of the most highly regarded works of literature in the English language. Read more… Dany Margolies – … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA While the material may be a bit questionable, the talent involved in this production is undeniable. This musical tells the story of average men who learn to love their physical selves and the special women who never stopped loving them. Its book, by Terrence McNally, hews to the 1997 … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA The three actors of Orphans hurl themselves to the floor, barrel across the stage, and bound around with their ankles tied together. Theirs are athletic, fully energized portrayals that turn Kentwood Players’s Westchester Playhouse into a virtual athletic field. But their subtle and truthful internalized reactions to their characters’ circumstances, as … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Farce is a difficult form of theater. Torrance Theatre Company is taking it on, in the form of Ray Cooney’s Run for Your Wife. The set here is sturdy, the actors competent. But, under the direction of Gary Robbins, much of the piece is played as if it were … Read more
Bob Verini – Arts In LA On the heels of Spike Jonze’s award-winning film Her comes another whimsical, futuristic, seriocomic speculation about artificial intelligence’s commercial and emotional potential. This one is Jordan Harrison’s world premiere play at the Taper, titled Marjorie Prime, and concededly it lacks the heft of Jonze’s celebrated Oscar winner, not to mention its unforgettable … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times The delicate art of origami provides both metaphor and motor for “Animals Out of Paper” at the David Henry Hwang Theater, and it enfolds the viewer with deceptive simplicity and considerable craft. Read more… Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA The paths of three loner characters intersect in Rajiv Joseph’s Animals Out of … Read more