Neal Weaver – Arts In LA Prolific playwright Lucille Fletcher is best known for the suspense drama Sorry, Wrong Number—which began life as prizewinning 1948 radio play, starring Agnes Morehead, and in 1950 was made into a film noir that garnered an Oscar nomination for its star, Barbara Stanwyck. Fletcher’s Night Watch is also a suspense drama, in which … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times “I’m smarter than most people. That’s why I’m unemployed and living in a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood.”So says the protagonist of “The Twilight of Schlomo” at the Elephant Space, and there’s more than just sardonic humor in that assessment. Timothy McNeil’s maturation into one of our most original playwrights … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Apparently writer-actor Jim Martyka decided that what the world needs now is an adaptation of the ever-popular Frank Capra Christmas movie It’s A Wonderful Life as a staged radio play. But he sought to improve this visually boring format by adding a framing device: a corny and stereotypical backstage backstory … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Bette Midler and Hollywood super-agent Sue Mengers have many things in common: both were self-invented, and both are marked by a large dollop of sass and brass, a mean wit and a knack for uninhibited, earthy language. So Midler was the obvious choice to play Mengers in John Logan’s solo … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly This farce by Paul Storiale kicks off with the Logans, Joanne (Elyse Ashton) and Dean (Rob Schaumann), planning to sell their house, ship Grandpa Logan off to a nursing home and move to Florida. They’ve invited their three misfit children home for one last family Christmas. Just when the kids … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Irish playwright Fionnuala Kenny’s Elvis’s Toenail is set in Dublin in 1961, when the Catholic Church still maintained its stranglehold on Irish society — but the first signs of resistance and rebellion were beginning to appear. Rita (played with touching simplicity and conviction by Lenne Klingaman) is pregnant but unmarried. … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly When playwright Tom Dudzick was growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1950s, one local landmark was a 20-foot shrine for the Blessed Virgin, beside a small barbershop. According to local legend, the shrine was erected by the barber after the Blessed Mother appeared in his shop one Christmas Eve. … 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
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
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