Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In 1971, singer Frank Sinatra was seriously considering retirement. He had survived Elvis and the rock and roll 1950s. He had survived the Beatles and the British Invasion of the 1960s. But the Hard Rock of the early 1970s have him stymied. He has gathered a group of his … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Each year there are dozens of solo performance shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Most are the type where the writer/actor bemoans the trials and tribulations of their life thus far. I prefer a solo show that looks at a historical figure, either at a crisis point in … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The flyer for Josiah Blunt’s one-person play at the Hollywood Fringe Festival describes the title Flayed as a verb: to have your skin peeled from your corpse or carcass. In the play, young Joshua Marsh, a recent graduate from a pastor’s college in conservative Virginia, is about to give … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Nearly 25 years after the event, the story of Matthew Shepard still resonates like peroxide on an open cut, like fingernails on a blackboard, like a razor slashing a wrist, exposing veins and nerve endings. Read more…
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Ava: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern, looks at the life of golden-age movie star Ava Gardner. But oddly, it focuses more on a periphery character, a sycophantic hack writer. This might come as a disappointment to those who want to spend time with Gardner rather than this … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way. Pilot gets off to a fun start with a small group of friends gathered at Sally’s (Jacqueline Wright) Santa Monica mountaintop mansion to celebrate her 50th birthday. As the lights go up on Jeff G. Rack’s well-appointed and elaborate (for The Broadwater) scenic design, the friends are playing a … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way. Joel Russell’s Heavenly Country, receiving its World Premiere currently at Two Roads Theatre in Studio City, is billed as “a jukebox musical in the country, gospel, spiritual & related genres”. If that sounds like too much for a two-act, six-character show to encompass, it is also heralded as “a … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania. So many shows have issues post-intermission after sparkling in Act 1 that the term “Second Act Trouble” is a cliché. The musical Did You See What Walter Paisley Did Today?, which is having its world premiere at La Mirada Theatre, has the opposite problem. Act 1 lacks flavor and stakes, while … Read more
Rob 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 hair and … Read more
Harker 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 … Read more