Finding Barb by Barbara Heller. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Barbara Heller has taken her personal quest for her spiritual path and turned it into an earnest and sweet musical. The show’s pretty songs – beautifully sung – are composed by Avi Avliav who performs live on electric piano, conveying a sensitivity and flair. (Two songs are credited to co-composer Katie … Read more
KONG: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla by Adam Hahn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Adam Hahn’s spoofy homage to King Kong, the 1933 creature feature about a colossal gorilla that is captured and runs amok in New York City, is an ambitious undertaking. Just how do you depict a giant ape on stage without stop-motion animation trickery and cinema … Read more
Godspell Jr. by John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA There’s nothing quite like the pure spirit and shining, happy faces of talented young teens and kids. Provided with a suitable vehicle, namely Godspell, Jr., the vibrant energy of this mostly female, mostly eight-grader cast of eight kids provides a great night of musical entertainment. Fittingly, the … Read more
The Doctor’s Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly George Bernard Shaw’s turn-of-the-century play is a platform for his diatribe against doctors. Shaw’s passionate distrust and satirical takedown of the medical profession is wrapped up in a slightly dull, five-act drama that’s enlivened by mildly comedic undercurrents and interesting discussions on contemporary morality. Read more…
Seminar by Theresa Rebeck. Hoyt Hilsman – The Huffington Post Plays about writers and writing present major challenges for both audiences and playwrights. Because writing is such an internal process, full of grinding frustration and occasional exhilaration, it is a tough subject to portray on stage. Playwright and film/TV writer Theresa Rebeck makes a valiant but flawed assault on … Read more
Fraternity by Jeff Stetson. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Jeff Stetson’s all-male political drama Fraternity, written 25 years ago, has a prescient power to it. Set in Birmingham, Ala., the storyline presents a prosperous group of black men, members of a private gentleman’s club, and the tragic history that shaped each of their lives. A shocking bombing of the … Read more
Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Samuel Beckett’s melancholy one man, one act play is being performed superbly by John Hurt in his first appearance on a Los Angeles stage, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, in a production imported from the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Much like Clint Eastwood waited until he was sufficiently old and grizzled enough to play the … Read more
November by David Mamet. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA David Mamet’s grubby and farcical political play November, now playing at the Mark Taper Forum Downtown, is a riot of foul language and racial epithets, all tumbling from the mouth of the President of the United States, as daffily portrayed by Ed Begley Jr. Read more… David C. Nichols – Backstage It’s a week before Election … Read more
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari presented by Astra Dance Company. Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA Astra Dance Company has interpreted the twisted, sinister plot and expressionistic style of the 1920s silent horror film classic to produce a gorgeous if disquieting acrobatic ballet. A breathtakingly talented troupe of 17 neoclassical dancers, contortionists and circus artists emote and perform the melodramatic … Read more
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage. Terry Morgan – LAist.com Lynn Nottage’s play, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, is more intriguing as a concept than a reality. It looks at the marginalization of African-American actors in the twentieth century, an undeniably interesting subject, but then stumbles in multiple ways. The fault, unfortunately, is … Read more