Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Director Nike Doukas adds a three-piece combo and rocking beat to Shakespeare’s tale of magic, revenge, and love in a production that is part musical, part radio play, and all fun. Rather than a set that depicts the play’s island motif, Doukas and scenic designer Angela Balogh Calin strategically place … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Theater Digest Into the Woods at the Ahmanson [LA]. I have to admit, as the curtain rose on the national tour of the City Center Encores production of Into the Woods, I wondered if I needed to see the show again—I think I’ve seen more productions of Into the Woods than I … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Horror is not a genre that has traditionally worked well in theater. There are certainly some outliers such as The Woman in Black, but overall spooky fare is thin on the ground, theatrically speaking. Thus when I read that the Geffen Playhouse was producing a “horror play” called The Ants … Read more
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