THE SIEGEL at South Coast Repertory

Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA Fresh from the 2016 award winning Cloud 9 at Antaeus Theatre Company, savvy director Casey Stangl takes on a world premiere comedy by Michael Mitnick, designed to examine love and its complications. It has plenty of humor and a bit of food for thought along the way. Read more… Now running through April … Read more

MOBY DICK at South Coast Repertory

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw If one has the audacity to take on the leviathan of American literature, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, one had best be able to do justice to the source material and also have something new to bring to it. Thankfully, the Lookingglass Theatre Company’s production (which mysteriously removes the hyphen from the title) … Read more

THE ROOMMATE at South Coast Repertory

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw A worldly 50-something lesbian from the Bronx moves in with a naïve 50-something woman in Iowa and changes her roommate’s life. That’s the gist of Jen Silverman’s stilted one-act, whose main appeal is its focus on the lives of older women, usually given short shrift in American film and theater. … Read more

ALL THE WAY at South Coast Repertory

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw Theatre based on the recreation of history can be frustrating. On the one hand, one never knows how much the facts have been altered to make it properly dramatic and entertaining, while on the other, there are often so many characters that one never really gets to know any of … Read more

RED at South Coast Repertory

Margaret Gray – LA Times “I am not your rabbi, I am not your father, I am not your shrink, I am not your friend, I am not your teacher,” the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko warns his new assistant in the first scene of John Logan’s Tony Award-winning bio-drama “Red,” now at South Coast … Read more

THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO at South Coast Repertory

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw The charm of Sandra Tsing Loh — or of any successful comedian and satirist for that matter — lies in the ability to transform commonplace yet intensely private experiences into performance material that is entertaining, enlightening and, for some viewers perhaps, cathartic. Read more… Now running through January 24.

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – South Coast Repertory at Segerstrom Stage

Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA  Influenced by the popular commedia dell’arte of the 16th century, Carlo Goldoni’s 18th century archetypal The Servant of Two Masters makes a perfect model for Richard Bean’s British update of a wily servant’s service to two bosses in 1963 Brighton. Populated by some of the stock characters of the form, it is two … Read more

HOW TO BE A ROCK CRITIC at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

David C. Nichols – LA Times Talk amongst yourselves,” says a wild-eyed Lester Bangs as he hammers away at his typewriter, gesturing us into his unkempt apartment, Black Sabbath blaring from the turntable. “And nobody touch my records.”Read more… Dany Margolies  –  Arts In LA The lesson to be learned here is not how to … Read more

MR. WOLF at South Coast Repertory

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw The things that are good about Rajiv Joseph’s new play Mr. Wolf outweigh the things that are misguided, enough that one hopes the author will use this world premiere to tighten the play’s focus and deepen its impact. The current production at South Coast Repertory benefits from an excellent cast and a … Read more