International City Theatre

To hell (and back?) in TOOTSIE and HADESTOWN: Plus, A Heated Discussion, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Doll’s House Part 2, Masao and the Bronze Nightingale, Jane Austen Unscripted

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Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Just over a month ago, millions of us witnessed a dramatic descent into chaos onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. At the Oscar ceremony, the usual back-patting was upstaged by the unscripted cheek-slapping of Chris Rock by Will Smith. Now fresh drama has returned to the Dolby. Last Tuesday, … Read more

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at International City Theatre

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Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In 1879, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen shook up the theatrical world with his “feminist” play A Doll’s House. In 2017, up and coming young American playwright Lucas Hnath wrote a sequel, A Doll’s House, Part 2, that picked up the action 15 years later. Read more… Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw … Read more

THE 39 STEPS at International City Theatre

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Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA When it comes to suspense, Alfred Hitchcock is the acknowledged master. In 1935 he directed The 39 Steps, an adaptation of John Buchan’s popular British spy novel. The hero of the book is Richard Hannay, an ordinary man on the run from the authorities because he is a suspect in … Read more

DADDY LONG LEGS at International City Theatre

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Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld It can be a wonderful adventure to watch two people falling in love, particularly when they themselves don’t realize it’s happening. When the adventure takes place on stage – as in John Caird and Paul Gordon’s musical two-hander DADDY LONG LEGS – the audience has an advantage because they get to … Read more

UNCANNY VALLEY at International City Theatre

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Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA Playwright Thomas Gibbons says the title of this play refers to the feeling that people have when they’re confronted with a very realistic robot: a feeling of fascination. He adds, “But the more realistic the robot becomes, at some point that fascination turns to a kind of revulsion. They’re creeped … Read more

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at International City Theatre

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Three great characters of classic dramatic literature don’t exactly appear in Christopher Durang’s tender comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” But they inspire the personalities and circumstances of the play, and show us what’s in a name, in this production from Long Beach’s International City Theatre. Read more… … Read more

CLOSER THAN EVER at International City Theatre

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze The musical revue “Closer Than Ever” makes a lovely evening for folks who don’t want to be asked to dig into the meaning of songs, who prefer messages told simply. The music, too, though it has more than a few tinges of dissonance, doesn’t tax the listener. Read more… … Read more

FENCES at International City Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly August Wilson’s plays are as much about the historical experience of African-Americans as they are about any one of his characters. This is certainly true of Fences, which begins in 1957, a year marked by federal troops on the ground in Arkansas and the forced desegregation of Little Rock Central High … Read more

THE HEIR APPARENT at International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center

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Margaret Gray – LA Times Struggles over inheritance are always painful — unless, of course, they take place in a French farce, in which case they are endlessly prankish and ribald. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw David Ives’s“translaptation” of Jean-Francois Regnard’s 1708 farce The Heir Apparent (Le Legataire Universel), at International City Theatre, also involves a … Read more

END OF THE RAINBOW at International City Theatre

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Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Some years before Judy Garland’s death, she appeared at a star-studded benefit for the Actors Studio in New York, alongside Carole Channing, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters and Josephine Premice — and Judy’s children, including Liza Minelli. Judy wore a black satin evening suit, which emphasized her matchstick legs, the result … Read more