Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw. Playwright-director Steven Silverman’s dark yet amiable comedy offers up a multi-ethnic family whose members, despite living or being raised in racially turbulent Chicago, have no apparent animus over each other’s skin colors. No, these folks are dealing with more explosive issues common to many a kith and kin, regardless of … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw. Mix a B-movie sci-fi plot with the life story of the “King of Pop,” add some inventive puppetry and a talented and uninhibited ensemble, and the result is a profane, hilarious, and razor-sharp skewering of the pop culture industry, systemic racism and religious hypocrisy. With director Julien Nitzberg’s clever book … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw. Paula Vogel’s play, How I Learned to Drive, knocked it out of the park for critical acclaim when it opened in 1997. Directed by Mark Brokaw at Manhattan’s Vineyard Theatre, the premiere featured Mary-Louise Parker as a woman recounting the pain of her teen and pre-teen years under the sway of … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw. There couldn’t be a more worthy topic for a play in these fractious times: Where and how do we find truth? The question would be more potent if one could believe this play’s central premise. The Lifespan of a Fact contains some scintillating, if inert, arguments: inert, because none of … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw. I must start this review by confessing that this production of Much Ado About Nothing is a victim of my own expectations. Much Ado is my favorite Shakespearean text, and I’ve always respected the craft A Noise Within puts into their productions of the classics. I expected to love this show — but sadly, … Read more
Dana Martin – Stage Raw. Jonathan Larson’s semi-autobiographical rock musical tick, tick…Boom! opens the 2023 season at Long Beach International City Theatre. The production is earnest but struggles to find synthesis… Ernesto Figueroa’s Jon is charming and gently guides the musical’s throughline, sometimes struggling to find the character’s emotional range. Samantha M. Lawrence is a versatile performer, … Read more
Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. There are defining moments in our lives where we either shrink away in fear or make a stand at all costs. In 2020, at the beginning of a global health crisis, under the order of a shelter-in-place lockdown, Kristina Wong faced such a moment. And in that moment, Kristina Wong became … Read more
Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw. John Perrin Flynn, the producing artistic director of Rogue Machine Theatre, states clearly in the program for their latest production: “We don’t do musicals.” And yet, the show itself — the world-premiere run of Come Get Maggie, a feature-length retro science-fiction/forbidden romance created by Diane Frolov and Susan Justin — is exactly … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw. The Trump administration was noted for an almost Shakespearian level of hubris, and the world is still waiting with bated breath for the comeuppance we’ve always been told follows such behavior. Life always models itself after literature, right? For those of us who can’t wait for reality to accord with … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA. Plays in which family secrets are tragically revealed are nothing new – Oedipus and his mom were shocking audiences back as far as 429 BCE. In the U.S., the 500 lb. gorilla of this genre would be Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and the most influential of recent plays of … Read more