David C. Nichols – LA Times At the outset of “Lear,” now receiving an austerely lunatic West Coast premiere at City Garage, a projected PBS-style host drolly relates the narrative of William Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy, up to Lear’s banishment and Gloucester’s blinding. Read more… Now running through March 13.
Bob Verini – Stage Raw In the vast scheme of Tennessee Williams’ long career, the 1978 Vieux Carré stands as one of his lesser plays, derivative and ill-shaped. Among the works of his final two decades, however, it’s one which can still credibly command a stage if given a vigorous and mature production. Read more… David C. … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Playwright Gabriel Rivas Gomez’s eccentric, uneven drama is loosely based on themes from Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Filtered through a prism of modern corporate capitalism, it’s a tale of American kindness — or more accurately, about the lack of it as far as poor immigrants and our underclass are concerned. Read more… … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Christmas Carol” is upon us, and its winning A Noise Within production is a keeper. Amid worthy area stagings of Charles Dickens’ immortal classic about miserly Ebenezer Scrooge’s Christmas Eve journey to redemption, this deftly performed, meta-theatrical edition stands out for fidelity to text, witty stagecraft and heartfelt embrace … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Edmond Rostand meets Hermann Hesse at the Village Vanguard in “Miravel” at Sacred Fools. Author-performer Jake Broder’s mash-up of Rostand’s deathless “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Hesse’s novel “Gertrude” has some post-larval quirks, yet a compelling undertow propels its jazz-centric romantic triangle. Read more… Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Playwright/composer Jake … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Steve B. Green’s black comedy Timeshare is set in the cutthroat world of high-pressure sales, and while some thematic similarities to Glengarry Glen Ross can be seen, don’t expect any David Mamet-style pyrotechnics. Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times I am a professional salesman. I am a professional salesman.” So runs, with drolly … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Dermot Davis’ dark comedy is set in the elevator of an urban hi-rise and performed on a proscenium 7-feet wide by 7-feet deep. That makes it unusually problematic to stage, though the challenge is ably met by director Tim Byron Owen and his game two-person ensemble. Read more… David C. … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily News There’s a right way to deal with bullies. And then there’s Carrie’s way. The 17-year-old high school senior, whose upbringing by her hyper-religious mother has guaranteed that she will be ridiculed by her classmates, has a supernatural power and bullying brings it out in force. Read more… David C. … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Two weeks remain to catch “The Best of Enemies” in its West Coast premiere at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. The production is mandatory viewing for anyone who values the stage’s ability to provoke thought about serious social issues. Read more… Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw C..P. Ellis was … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times In “ICU,” playwright Fielding Edlow diagnoses dark humor in the most dysfunctional family this side of Eugene O’Neill’s Tyrone clan. Here, they’re upper-middle-class New York Jews, snarling and kvetching through the striking environmental staging by Circle X Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre. Read more… Now running through October … Read more