Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania There’s a gargantuan myth surrounding the opening of Hadestown at the Ahmanson Theatre. Not the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, which this musical does borrow, but the legend of the juggernaut Broadway production that opened in April 2019. Arriving with 14 Tony nominations and eight awards in tow, the production almost dares … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Tea, the final installment in Velina Hasu Houston’s trilogy of plays about Japanese war brides, takes place, geographically speaking, in Junction City, a small town in the northeast stretch of Kansas. That’s close to where Houston, the daughter of a Japanese woman and an American GI of African American and … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In 1879, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen shook up the theatrical world with his “feminist” play A Doll’s House. In 2017, up and coming young American playwright Lucas Hnath wrote a sequel, A Doll’s House, Part 2, that picked up the action 15 years later. Read more… Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania Lindsay Joelle’s dramedy Trayf transports audiences to the structured world of the Hasidim, whose strict laws and customs may be outside the understanding of even some Jewish audience members. Director Maggie Burrows, with deft stage direction and sets, visually conveys the danger, heartbreak, and wonderment found in exploring the secular world outside. Read more… … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The East West Players production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s brilliant, jagged pill of a musical Assassins is thought-provoking and harrowing. Read more… Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The Stephen Sondheim one-act musical Assassins has gotten mixed reviews and heated pro and con reactions since it debuted in 1990. What else would you expect … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In 1980, while appearing in the company of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway, performer, and later playwright, Craig Lucas used his friendship with the composer to get him to open up his trunk of cut songs from his earlier musicals.Read more… Now running through February 27
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way For 50 years beginning in 1950, cartoonist Charles M. Schulz drew a daily comic strip entitled Peanuts which featured the mis-adventures of a young boy named Charlie Brown and his friends. Read more… Now running through September 12
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In Jack Rushen’s new play, Taming the Lion, currently playing at Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40, the playwright looks at a short time frame in 1933 when Haines’s relationship and his scandal-ridden extracurricular escapades could no longer be tolerated by studio boss Louis B. Mayer. Even though the script has … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way A middle-aged couple wake up one morning naked in bed. The woman gently removes his hand from her breast, dons a handy silk robe and is off to the kitchen to make coffee. The man soon follows.Read more… Now running through March 15
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The 6th Act is currently presenting the World Premiere of co-artistic director Matthew Leavitt’s The $5 Shakespeare Company at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood. The comedy is a self-professed “heartfelt love letter to all things 99-seat theatre”.Read more… Now running through March 8