Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw. In Dublin, a struggling Irish musician bumps into a young Czech woman and his life changes forever. This is the premise of the 2007 musical film Once, and likewise the stage musical of the same name, both…
Dana Martin – Stage Raw. Not every new work is stage worthy. Laguna Playhouse’s new comedy Staged by Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner finds charm in fits and spurts but the world-premiere production is clunky and underwhelming…The play behaves and moves like…
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Born in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, Korean-Canadian scribe Ins Choi’s widely produced family comedy (spurring a spinoff sitcom on Canadian TV and Netflix) is a paeon to family. It clearly fills a hunger…
Dana Martin – Stage Raw It is said that Xanadu is “a gift so grand that none of us truly knows what it is.” In that case, Xanadu (book by Douglas Carter Beane, music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar)…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way I have always been fond of Irish playwrights from Oscar Wilde’s wicked wit to George Bernard Shaw’s political take on the battle of the sexes. It’s the whimsical Irish with their gentle and/or raucous…