RENT by Jonathan Larson. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Because of its repetitive musicality, rock opera Rent lives or dies on the vocal strength of its cast. This production has mostly excellent, robust and irrepressible singing that is only occasionally obliterated by the mediocre live band. The plot of Jonathan Larson’s legendary Broadway smash clings to its … Read more
Written by Brian Friel. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA A study of language and identity, Irish playwright Brian Friel’s Translations charts the beginning of a grim passage of Irish history where the imperialism of the brutish British government threatened to wipe out their culture.Read more… Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Brian Friel’s 1980 play is set in 1833. … Read more
THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Arthur Miller’s play, first produced on Broadway in 1953, was Miller’s impassioned response to McCarthyism and the witch-hunts launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee. But the fact that it has become an oft-produced American classic and the basis for two films (including a French version with … Read more
CHESS – Book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly Like the 1980s, this revival of the Cold War-themed musical that produced the hit song “One Night in Bangkok” is kitschy, colorful and full of spectacle. Yet its return also reveals the contrived, confusing … Read more
DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly When Peter (Burt Grinstead) unexpectedly shows up at Kelly’s (Laurie Okin) Lower Manhattan apartment, the mood is prickly and awkward. It’s understandable; Peter is the identical twin of her husband Craig, a hard as nails soldier who recently died in a military accident in the Gulf. But … 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
IT GOES LIKE THIS by JACK BETTS. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Written and directed by veteran actor Jack Betts, It Goes Like This is a personal story, clumsily told. Leaden-footed, as if cast in concrete, the melodramatic saga manages to be both utterly predictable yet also contain enough dramatic revelations to rival a telenovela. Kevin McCorkle rigidly portrays a highly decorated … Read more
Marilyn – My Secret by Odalys Nanin and Willard Manus. Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly Though iconic Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe’sstory has been examined and re-examined from almost every possible angle over the years, Marilyn — My Secret, Odalys Nanin and Willard Manus’ take, treads ground yet unworn as it explores the star’s bisexuality and lesbian affairs.Read more…
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly There’s always a danger of toppling into sentimentality when retelling a story as uplifting and inspirational as the saga of blind, deaf and dumb Helen Keller and her tough, determined teacher, Annie Sullivan. Playwright William Gibson avoids that pitfall by emphasizing the humor in the situation, … 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