Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw In Robin Uriel Russin’s new dramedy, family members from three generations quarrel during a Passover Seder – this Seder being especially significant for the protagonist Christina (Stacey Moseley) because it’s her first since she converted from the Catholic faith to Judaism. Read more… Now running through October 11.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Eisa Davis’s drama about an 18-year-old motherless clairvoyant exhibits an element of magic that manifests most richly in this production’s opening moments. Read more… Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter 1955 was the summer of tortured teen James Dean in East of Eden and the real-life tortured and murdered youth Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. Back then, … Read more
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA A theatrical reminiscence by Joanna McClelland Glass about a time when she served as secretary to Judge Francis Biddle gets a standout production at International City Theatre. Its casting choices—Tony Abatemarco playing Biddle, Paige Lindsey White as his assistant Sarah “with an h”—make the very literate and demanding script a thoughtful … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Downtown Rep company has selected an historic building in which to stage Anton Chekhov’s 1895 bourgeois family drama, his first major play. The central courtyard of Pico House serves admirably for the company’s semi-modern production set in Hollywood, as well as providing a sheltered and cozy outdoor theater experience for … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Actor-playwright Keith Stevenson is one lucky fellow, having a top-flight ensemble to write comedies for; and having a director, Guillermo Cienfuegos, with such a sympathetic comprehension of the strands threaded through his humor; and, to top it all, being able to act in a pivotal role in his own plays. … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Elect-a-Fest is a two-evening festival of new one-act plays, presented by the Eclectic Theatre Company. Program A includes 7 assorted short works. The plays range from the mildly interesting to the actively annoying, and the direction seldom does much to remedy the literary shortcomings. But the actors can’t be blamed … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw There have always been political takes of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Some have described it as a condemnation of the idle aristocracy, a precursor to the Russian Revolution. Others saw it as a kind farewell to a vanishing class that is being supplanted by rapacious businessmen who only find beauty … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw In Hope Juber and Jeff Doucette’s tepid comedy, a motley crew of wanna-be actors, writers and comedians gather weekly at Sam’s Improv Workshop to develop their performance skills. The class is populated by the usual stereotypes and we soon get to know a bit of each of their backstories. Read more… … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw When the TV sitcom took over much of the space formerly occupied by traditional farce, there were fewer and fewer practitioners of this notoriously difficult genre. Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy scored notable successes. Read more…
Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter The last of Neil Simon’s trilogy of quasi-autobiographical accounts of his coming-of-age years in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, Broadway Bound stands among his plays as perhaps the most free from easy nostalgia, and therefore the most honest. In this sturdy 1986 drama, the requisite comedy arrives more or less … Read more