Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw In the 1990s, playwright Justin Tanner was the wunderkind of small venue L.A. theatre. Tanner churned out hit after hit, like Pot Mom, Zombie Attack, and Teen Girl, for the now defunct Cast Theatre, where he was resident playwright. The Cast was also where artistic director Diana Gibson reigned supreme, raking in the bucks … Read more
Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw It’s December in Los Angeles and ‘tis the season for LA’s self-proclaimed longest-running “holiday hit,” Bob’s Holiday Office Party. Written by Joe Keyes and Rob Elk, this outrageous comedy began as an “improvised romp” in 1995, and since then has made an appearance each year everywhere from the late Tamarind Theatre on … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In 1960, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter were young playwrights whose work challenged theatrical convention and the expectations of critics and audiences. Both Albee’s brief two-hander, Fam and Yam, and Pinter’s lengthier one-act, The Dumb Waiter, received English language premieres that year — Albee’s at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway and Pinter’s at … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Ranging from the hypnotic to the hilarious, the sublime to the silly, director Russell S. Beattie’s loving burlesque lampoon of the Star Wars movie canon offers up a bevy of ecdysiasts displaying a different way of The Force. Depicting various classic characters, the show highlights the balletic and gymnastic talent of these … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw A dozen skilled performers romp through some 30 holiday-themed and mostly traditional ditties in this seasonal cabaret, thoughtfully staged by Victoria Lavan Liberty. I have to admit to a certain squeamishness at hearing Richard Berent’s “A Kids Forever” and “Wihla Hutson and Alfred Burt’s “Some Children See Him.” The … Read more
Dana Martin – Stage Raw Cori Cable Kidder is channeling the star power of country music icon Patsy Cline at the Sierra Madre Playhouse this holiday season. A Patsy Cline Holiday Concert promises the most wholesome two hours of country music crooning this side of anywhere. Read more… Through December 23
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Confession: In all my years of reviewing theater, this is the first production I’ve ever seen of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII originally titled All is True, co-written (somebody thinks, who knows?) with Shakespeare’s peer, John Fletcher. It’s the last history play penned or co-penned by the Bard, and it’s a bit of a mess, … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Everyone knows that a good ghost story needs to be scary, but to be a great ghost story, it needs to move its audience as well. Where would The Sixth Sense be without the Bruce Willis character slowly realizing his fate or The Haunting of Hill House be without poor, doomed Eleanor? There have … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw First produced with the title Gray’s Anatomy at New York’s Circle Rep Theatre in 1994, Jim Leonard’s family-oriented coming-of-age fable strives for the unvarnished poignancy of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town as it recounts the story of a fatherless teen in 1880s rural Indiana. Leonard’s revised version, published as Anatomy of Gray in 2006 and currently directed … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA According to a survey conducted by American Theater magazine, Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s is currently the most produced play in the U.S. It’s not surprising that Nottage’s work is being done; she’s received the Pulitzer Prize twice during her illustrious career. But it’s a little disappointing that this show seems to be her … Read more