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BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

Photo by Chris Phipps
March 22, 2023Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Following in the satirical footsteps of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, this Open Fist Company production takes the past year’s cream of the crop of its Thursday night comedy sketch show, This Week This Week, and skewers our calamitous society with mostly hilarious results. Creator and director Ron
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TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

Photo courtesy of Foolish Production Co.
March 22, 2023Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater)
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CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

Photo by Paul Rubenstein
March 22, 2023Rob Stevens – Haines His Way City Garage, the resident theatre company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center, built their thirty-plus year reputation for doing heavy lifting with productions of Greek tragedies and the works of Brecht and Beckett among other dramatists. With their latest offering, Cardenio, they prove they can let down their
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THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2″) carefully delineates each character with precise
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ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

Photo by Jason Niedle
March 22, 2023Socks 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 featuring songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (including the infamous “Falling Slowly”),
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TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography.
March 22, 2023Dana Martin – Stage Raw Center Theatre Group meets the moment with Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, conceived, written and revised by Anna Deavere Smith. The original production premiered on Broadway in April, 1994. Smith wrote it as a solo piece, which she developed from hundreds of interviews following the 1992 L.A. uprising. This updated version
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THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

Lauren Patten. Photo by Jeff Lorch.
March 18, 2023Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites World Premiere: The Lonely Few @ Geffen Playhouse – 8 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More… Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse, does away with conventional narrative. It immerses its audience in rock clubs
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Archive for Orange Curtain Review

THE LITTLE FOXES at South Coast Repertory

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Sunday, February 19th, 2023
Photo credit by Jenny Graham/SCR.

Photo credit by Jenny Graham/SCR.

Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review

Little Foxes is an older play from the 1930s written by Lillian Hellman, a famous Broadway playwright. It’s wonderful we still have new productions of these old classics. Are some of the ideas dated — most definitely. But they provide us access to the time and the mindset of people living at that time, and that’s well worth exploring. South Coast Repertory’s production of Little Foxes tells this brutal story of the lengths some people will go to obtain power. This production lacks strong direction, and the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19 sadly affected the quality of performance on stage. Read more…

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APPROPRIATE at South Coast Repertory

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Sunday, February 12th, 2023
Photo by Jenny Graham/SCR

Photo by Jenny Graham/SCR

Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review

So many powerful stories have been and will continue to be told around the subject of family. What family means in different cultures differs to various degrees, but family is also a universal concept that ties humanity together. It’s in our books. It’s on our TVs. In that tradition, South Coast Repertory put on the play Appropriate, about a family forced to deal with their past and each other, and it’s anything but appropriate. Read more…

 

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RIDE THE CYCLONE at Chance Theater

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Monday, February 6th, 2023
Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio.

Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio.

Patrick Chavis – Orange Curtain Review

Ironically, this might be the happiest story about death I have ever seen. The Chance Theater has transformed its stage area to look like some haunted carnival that time has forgotten in the middle of the county. To further the illusion, the show tickets look like tickets you would use at a carnival. The seating pattern in The Chance also facilitated the feeling of going to the carnival. Add a strong cast of singers and a goofy but clever script with a unique twist on the genre, and, well, I think you’ve got a hit. Read more…

 Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw

“Lip sync for your life!” RuPaul tells contestants every week on Drag Race. Ride the Cyclone, now making its California premiere at Chance Theater in Anaheim, makes a similar proclamation, impelling six dead teenagers to sing for a chance to leave the show’s carnival purgatory and survive the accident that killed them.

The story (book, music and lyrics by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond) introduces the audience to The Amazing Karnak (Robert Foran), our narrator and an animatronic fortune teller in the vein of Zoltar from Big.  Karnak explains that a group of five high schoolers rode the Cyclone rollercoaster at a Canadian amusement park, and the coaster failed, causing their deaths. Karnak offers them the chance to return to life if they provide a compelling enough reason for it. Because this is a musical, the teens interpret this as a chance to plead their case via song, offering self-contained supplications to survive. Read more…

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MISERY at Maverick Theatre Company

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2023
Photo by Jessica Peralta

Photo by Jessica Peralta

Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review

Stephen King is one of today’s most prolific and successful horror writers. His influence on pop culture, film, television, and even theatre, is undeniable regardless of whether you enjoy his work. Despite a vast catalog of work, Misery stands out as a high watermark in suspense and drama. Misery is not a play you can take lightly. It’s incredibly challenging material, especially as related to the lead role of Annie Wilkes (Alli Maier). There are echoes of greatness in this production, but it ultimately settles for good with a performance that lacks the intensity this character sorely needs. Read more…

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SUSTAINED RELEASE at The Larking House

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Saturday, December 17th, 2022
Photo by Matthew M. Hayashi and Gennie Kauper.

Photo by Matthew M. Hayashi and Gennie Kauper.

Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review

I watched the World premiere of Sustained Release yesterday, written by local Orange County Playwright Matthew M. Hayashi, in a 3-car garage. Don’t be fooled by this humble location. The Larking house isn’t fixing cars in here. They’ve created art.
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Through December 17

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