Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Intolerance comes in many colors. In Tim Toyama & Aaron Woolfolk’s somewhat contrived period melodrama, an African-American family moves into a home presumably left vacant when its Japanese owners are interned during World War II. But Henry (Jeff Manabat), a young Japanese man who’s rebelled against internment, is hiding out … Read more
David C. Nichols – L.A. Times “This is either the longest suicide note in history, or the juiciest, dirtiest, most delicious confession you’ll ever hear,” begins “Hungry Woman” at Casa 0101. Food, family and post-feminist freedom are the chief thematic ingredients in playwright Josefina López’s witty, compelling fantasia, and though still refining, it’s perhaps her … Read more
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA It’s not every day you get to be heavyweight champion of the world—for a professional sportsman it’s a once in a lifetime event, at least the first time is… In 1964, at the tender age of 22, boxing legend Cassius Clay (soon thereafter known as Muhammad Ali) ascended to the pinnacle … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Writer-performer Jozanne Marie’s intense solo show encompasses the wrongs done to three generations of women — her grandmother, her mother and herself — but its primary motif is her struggle for a relationship with her sexually abusive father, whose approval she sought despite his pernicious assaults. Read more…
JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE by August Wilson. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly For this critic August Wilson has always been eloquent on the page, a bit wordy on the stage. This second in his 10-play chronicle of the African-American experience takes place in 1911, a bare 46 years after the Civil War ended. Wilson’s vibrant characters … Read more
THE PARISIAN WOMAN by Beau Willomon. Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA In the title role Dana Delaney transforms Beau Willomon’s middling comedy into a crackling satire that makes trenchant commentary on the abuse of power. Delaney plays Chloe, the wife of an ambitious lawyer (Steven Weber) on the short list to be the President’s pick for attorney general. … Read more
The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter. Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA In Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale, Charlie (Matthew Arkin) an obese gay man confronting his own mortality reaches out to the daughter he walked out on years ago. Like Hunter’s play A Bright New Boise (produced to justifiable acclaim last year by Rogue Artists in Los Angeles), this drama is set in Idaho, … Read more
The Beaux’ Strategem Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of George Farquhar’s 18th century farce. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig both contributed to this adaptation of George Farquhar’s early-18th-century comedy, which touches on the tribulations of the unhappily married and the moral shortcomings of the privileged classes. The story features two penniless rapscallions, Jack (Blake Ellis) and Tom (Freddy Douglas), who … Read more
Snapshot by Mitzi Sinnott. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Mitzi Sinnott was not yet born when her African-American father was drafted to fight in Vietnam. Like many soldiers, he returned a shattered man haunted by guilt and unable to emotionally connect with his wife and daughter. First performed in 2004, Sinnott’s solo show juxtaposes family history and her experience as … Read more
Mrs Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly George Bernard Shaw made his case for women’s lib in this 1894 play involving the contentious struggle between an assertive young feminist and her brothel-managing mom. Educated at Cambridge, Vivie (Rebecca Mozo) exemplifies a new breed of woman who loves her work and is lukewarm to … Read more