Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Power is an illusion in Will Power’s startling play Fetch Clay, Make Man, now running at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. All the characters believe they have control of their destinies, but each is desperate to break free from someone’s influence — even Muhammad Ali, marvelously played by Ray … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic challenged the USA’s post-World War II optimism, serving as a pungent indictment of the country’s drive for economic success and the toll it took on working class people in their scramble for The American Dream. Almost seventy-five years since its Broadway debut, Miller’s seminal work is … Read more
Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Don’t get me wrong. The production values are absolutely stellar. Lighting and sound are magnificent. The stage appropriately dressed. So well in fact, that the two-tiered set of upper walkway and then lower floor barracks that turned into various offices, not only amplified the story, but in a way, the hierarchy … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania A Transparent Musical is special — more for what it is about than what it actually is. The ambition and sentiment are admirably high, but the execution needs serious work. Director Tina Landau gathers an excellent cast who perform strongly, but the text gives them too little with which to produce … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw An old-timey small town in Kansas. A young person chafing at its limitations and longing to see the world. A handsome stranger of uncertain moral character who appears as a catalyst for change. These plot elements appear front and center in William Inge’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play, Picnic, and they’re appropriated with … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw There have already been films and other works of art concerning the “Me Too” movement, but No Place Like Gandersheim is the first play I can think of that talks about its aftermath. That isn’t even the main subject of the piece, which concerns the plight of a woman writer … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Before a jury held Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million, Trump claimed in a deposition that male “stars” have grabbed and groped women for “millions of years” — “unfortunately or fortunately.” Leaving that unfortunate “fortunately” aside, the musicals that currently … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Plus ‘Private Lives’ and ‘Ava’ Snehal Desai is approaching a high wire. No tightrope in LA theater is higher than the balance beam that challenges the artistic director of Center Theatre Group — the job that Desai will assume in August, after leaving his similar position at the much smaller, … Read more
‘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
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage. Plus Geffen’s ‘Breath,’ Kristina Wong, and more. A flood of openings gushed through Greater LA theaters in February — although two of the new productions were delayed by an outbreak of COVID. During the first weekend of the month, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa planned to activate the “repertory” … Read more