Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Anyone who’s been a teacher or who’s been otherwise charged with supervising troubled adolescents will understand straight off the problems facing Mama Darlin (Lana Houston), the beguiling nub of Philip Dawkins’ compelling Charm. Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw A charm school for transvestites? It sounds like an odd premise for … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw What is to be done with the prodigals and the fuckups, those we love in spite of logic, those who will likely never change but instead haunt us for the rest of our lives? Everybody knows someone like this, and it’s heartbreaking not knowing what to do. Wendy Graf’s Please Don’t … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times From the title of Jerry Lieblich’s play “D Deb Debbie Deborah,” I was ready for an exploration of the fluidity of identity, perhaps at different stages of a woman’s life. But in this West Coast premiere at Theatre of Note in Hollywood, the blurring of selfhood cuts a lot deeper than … Read more
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw There was a time when gas was eleven cents a gallon, a new car might run you a thousand dollars, average wages were under two thousand dollars a year, and thousands of unsuspecting American citizens deemed unfit and undesirable were forcibly sterilized by the government, with the full aid … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq is a bruising play, an often painful-to-watch drama that serves as a reminder of the toll war takes on body, mind and spirit. Read more… Now running through August 14
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly In the fantastical right left with heels, Polish playwright Sebastian Majewski reflects on grim historical events as observed by a pair of shoes once owned by the wife of Joseph Goebbels. Black high-heel pumps with “attitude” they reek of tart sexuality and a sense of privilege. Read more… Now running through … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The relative from hell: Surely every family has one. It’s the person who talks nonstop, who has zero tolerance for other people’s points of view, who perceives her own needs as trumping every other problem on the horizon. Read more… Now running through July 24
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The marital problems of an upper-middle-class couple (with particular focus on the vague discontent of an adulterous wife) are the stuff of soap opera. Read more… Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Broadway director John Rando brings the witty comedy Big Sky to the Geffen with a talented cast and a script that plays on conventions of … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly If you’re someone who usually dismisses 19th-century theater classics as stuffy and stiff, you might want to reconsider and go see Hedda Gabler at Antaeus Theatre Company, where Jaimi Paige delivers a mesmerizing performance as the beautiful and manipulative title character. Read more… Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Who is … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw There’s been no shortage of political satires on local stages, but all too many of them have been broad, obvious and stridently partisan. Jason Wells’ black farce, here receiving its world premiere production, is several cuts above the rest. It’s literate, sophisticated, hip, hilariously funny and relatively free of political … Read more