Neal Weaver – Stage Raw David McDowell Blue’s play is loosely based on an 1872 Novella about lesbian vampires by Irish writer Sheridan LaFanu. Blue has transposed the story to Europe at the end of World War II and sharpened the lesbian slant. In his retelling….Read more…
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Rick Segall’s epic solo-drama focuses on the last hours of Jesus’ disciple, Simon Peter, later canonized as St. Peter. Condemned to death for refusing to reject Jesus and accept the Roman emperor as a living god, he spends his last night sharing a cell with Marcus Attilius Regulus, a former … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This topical comedy show, written and performed by Joseph Lanzet and Lindy Voeltner, and directed by Andy Eninger, takes a rueful look at the pitfalls of the dating game, and it seems like a date-night show if there ever was one. Read more… Now running through September 3.
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Todd Almond’s libretto for the musical Girlfriend is as honest as a John Hughes gay musical would have been—if John Hughes had written a gay musical. Using Matthew Sweet’s 1990s Alternative Rock album of the same name as it’s framework, this story captures the anticipation and titillation that sets … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw On a most straightforward level, playwright Lyle Kessler’s new dramedy is about the fractious relationship between two sons and their irascible, judgmental, curmudgeonly dad. However, Kessler’s work is concerned not merely with a family’s brawls, confrontations, and rage — as it appears on the surface. Read more… Neal Weaver – Arts … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Howard Skora’s zany dark comedy, directed by Jim Fall, stars veteran actress Patty McCormack (who is well-remembered as an 11-year-old Oscar nominee, playing a murderous moppet in the classic 1956 thriller The Bad Seed). Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Howard Skora’s black farce is constructed like a TV sitcom, but … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play, which provided Tennessee Williams with the first great success in his spectacular but ultimately blighted career, is astonishingly rich, simple, and forthright. That it requires only four actors and a single set has deluded many actors and directors to think it is an easy play to do. But … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Playwright Jessica Dickey sets her comedy in the odd and largely unfamiliar world of Civil War Re-enactors, who have spent their day staging a recreation of Pickett’s Charge, which shifted the tides of war during the Battle of Gettysburg. Read more…
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Young and personable Bill (Bernie Zilinskas) works in the sales department of Seagram’s Whiskey. He has just purchased a suburban condo, and he’s waiting for the delivery of his furniture, and for his actress wife (Stephanie Erb) to join him. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times For introverts of a … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Words not meant to misdirect are wasted,” says one of the combatants in “The Anarchist,” and at certain levels that might describe the whole thing. Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw There’s something slightly inhuman about David Mamet’s play: It tells the tale of a former anarchist, Cathy (Felicity … Read more