Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Coincidentally, two unrelated plays about group therapy opened last week in small theaters less than a mile from one another. Neil McGowan’s comedy Lone-Anon, about maladroit loners subjected to court-ordered therapy, is running late nights at Rogue Machine on Pico near La Brea, while Leslie Hardy‘s A Good Grief airs the dirty … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Aaron Francis’ bold scenic design has the audience seated in school desks for Gidion’s Knot, getting you into the right frame of mind for Johnna Adams’ intense one-act showdown between a fifth-grade teacher and a parent. Corryn (Vonessa Martin) shows up for a teacher-parent conference, having been summoned a few days … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly There are glints of the Oresteia in Marcus Gardley’s poetic, sweeping drama, the road weeps, the well runs dry, which takes place in a 19th-century Oklahoma town settled by fleeing African-American freedmen and their Native American cohabitants. The story’s tragic chain of events erupts around the searing rivalry between the … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA “She didn’t say much but she said it loud.” That’s Eva Peron (1919–1952) as assessed by nemesis Che Guevara during the prologue of Evita. But as it happens, the accusation of saying very little, very loudly has dogged the Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice through-sung tuner ever since it emerged as a … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Among people of a certain age I’ve spoken with recently, let’s say 45 and older, there’s this sense — not so much a perception or even an intuition, rather a more vague tingle — that something is going numb.This is not a physical sensation but a spiritual one. It … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Philip Dawkins’ comedy revolves around Evan (boyishly cute blond Brian Dare), who arrives in town as a naive, newly out greenhorn but soon joins a mildly incestuous circle of gay friends, including four guys and one girl, Tam (Kelly Schumann), a history teacher and sassy, self-defined fag hag. Collin (Matt … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Tami and Bill Martin love their son Josh. Call it a difficult love. Josh is 18 and severely autistic. When Josh gets upset, which he does unpredictably, he can turn violent, pulling his mother’s hair and choking her. Soon after, he lies on the living room floor in a … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly The legendary 1935 production of this Clifford Odets play has been credited with establishing the Group Theatre’s reputation, electrifying the Broadway of its time, and changing the very nature of American acting for generations. It has become a high-water mark against which any subsequent production is measured. This rendition, directed … Read more
Terry Morgan – LAist It’s a good week for new adaptations of classic plays in L.A. On the east side, Antaeus has their terrific production of Corneille’s The Liar, while on the west side we’re treated to the L.A. premiere of David Greig’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Creditors. With its combination of wit and cruelty … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Daniel Keyes’ now classic sci-fi story about a mentally challenged man whose IQ skyrockets after a surgical procedure tackles not only how we treat disabled individuals but how ephemeral are those intangible values — love, life, respect — that we cherish. Read more… Sharon Perlmutter – Talkin’ Broadway There are … Read more