Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly An all-female production of Hamlet — why?! The gender-bending (and multicultural) casting permits this motley cast of women to tackle the tragedy’s meaty classic roles but adds nothing to the production. Rather, it distracts and detracts. Lisa Wolpe and Natsuko Ohama co-direct and star (as Hamlet and Polonius, respectively) in … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA If there’s a more sheerly interesting playwright in the United States these days than Bruce Norris, I don’t know who it is. In a continuing series of audacious, ambitious comedies, he has remained resolutely non-P.C. in questioning some of our culture’s most cherished assumptions on race (his Pulitzer winner Clybourne Park), … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA The first extended run of the tuner A Man of No Importance is a matter of some importance, as it inaugurates—in this era of folding companies and theaters in transit—a new enterprise: the Good People Theater Company, under the direction of the gifted veteran stager-choreographer Janet Miller. Taking on the countervailing winds (money … Read more
Slipping by David Talbott. Sharon Perlmutter – Talkinbroadway.com There is much to admire about the writing, and directing, of the Rattlestick production of Daniel Talbott’s Slipping. On a scene-by-scene basis, Talbott has a true gift for realistic dialogue; and, when directing his own work, he knows exactly where the pauses ought to go, to make for true-to-life … Read more
French Stewart, TV star (“3rd Rock From the Sun”) and local theatre mainstay (“Stoneface”: “Voice Lessons”) will host the 44th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC)Awards on Monday, March 18, 2013 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St. Downtown. Tickets for the show and opening reception, which will start at 6:30 pm, can be reserved by e-mailing crixawards2013@gmail.com. All … Read more
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight by Peter Colley. Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com I’ll Be Back Before Midnight is the sort of play that screams “regional theatre staple.” A four-character comic thriller, it doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a sometimes funny, sometimes jump-inducing diversion. In its Los Angeles premiere production at the Colony Theatre, it … Read more
Cassiopeia by David Wiener. Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com David Wiener’s Cassiopeia is beautiful, intelligent, and delightful to listen to. To be sure, it isn’t much of a play. The script itself calls the piece a “duet,” which does seem a bit closer to the truth. It’s two poetic monologues, inextricably intertwined and occasionally interspersed with an actual scene. Read more…
The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman. Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com I have to admit out front that I’m not a huge fan of “unlikely friendship” plays, in which two complete opposites start out hating each other, but ultimately end up with a mutual respect. Willy Holtzman’s The Morini Strad is a better than average example of the genre, largely because … Read more
One November Yankee by Joshua Ravetch. Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com Joshua Ravetch’s One November Yankee is a play for two performers and an airplane. In the NoHo Arts Center world premiere production, that’s Harry Hamlin, Loretta Swit, and a two-seater yellow Piper Cub. The actors play three different brother/sister pairs as we follow the story of the plane through three critical scenes: … Read more
Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall. Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com I’ve been waiting for a Los Angeles production of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange ever since it won a bunch of awards in London back in 2000-2001. It’s a dark little piece about race, the human condition, degrees of insanity, and the way our own perceptions and biases influence our reality. Sort of an Oleanna by … Read more