Terry Morgan – Talkin’ Broadway When The Witch of Edmonton (written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford) premiered in 1621, its tale of a woman selling her soul to the devil to gain revenge on her neighbors was played as a tragic drama. Jen Silverman’s new version of the story, simply titled Witch, … Read more
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Since the publication of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein in 1818, it has been interpreted and adapted in many ways. In 2011, a stage adaptation by Nick Dear debuted at the National Theatre in London, and this weekend its California premiere opened at A Noise Within in Pasadena.Read more… Jonas Schwartz … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Long before it disappeared, the Old West cast a spell on a certain kind of person — men (although a few were women) who savored the possibility of wide-open country and a better, freer life unshackled from the demands and hypocrisies of social convention.Read more… Now running through August 31
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Perhaps most notable among the many prizes received by playwright E.M. Lewis is the Steinberg Award from the American Theatre Critics Association, garnered for Song of Extinction, produced in 2008 by the L.A. troupe Moving Arts. (That production also won both an LA Weekly award for Best Production and the LADCC award for … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Joe Orton was only 34 when he was bludgeoned to death by Kennegth Halliwell, his jealous lover and one-time writing partner. Halliwell envied Orton’s newfound celebrity as an up-and-coming playwright, launched after the BBC aired The Ruffian on the Stair as a radio play in 1964.Read more… Now running through July 28
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Geraldine Inoa’s incisive character-rich drama, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb at the Matrix Theatre, examines the impact of institutional racism on a group of young people in the aftermath of their friend’s murder by police. The off-beat title is a reference to the origin of African-American soul food, prepared by slaves … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw I’ve always admired Celebration Theatre for its expert staging of technically demanding plays in tiny venues. The company’s musical productions — last year’s Cabaret, the Boy from Oz (2016)and Women of Brewster Place, the Musical (2010) — have been especially impressive. Now comes The Producers, Mel Brooks’s wacky stereotype-laden show about an unethical Broadway producer … Read more
Terry Morgan – Talkin’ Broadway The old maxim states that truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes truth isn’t quite that bold and merely approaches the outlandishness of prose. Such is the case of Richard Lancelyn Green, the subject of a New Yorker article, a Sherlock Holmes expert who was found dead in his apartment … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw It’s not often we have a story that spotlights a friendship between an elderly woman and a much younger one. It’s a welcome notion, and the primary draw for playwright Grace McLeod’s Herland, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere, directed by Tiffany Moon at Greenway Court Theatre.Read more… Now running … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Ladies is a fascinating look at a piece of nearly forgotten history. As the playwright says at one point, these women were feminists 100 years before the term came into being. The female foursome does some lovely work under Jessica Kubzansky’s spot on direction. The action moves briskly along … Read more