Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw It’s been nearly eighty years since Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning paean to small town America was first performed, yet it still retains a mysterious charm. Perhaps it’s the play’s evocation of a less complicated time and place, or maybe it’s Wilder’s simple exploration of what is common and … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In Nosferatu, adapter/director Bill Reilly’s musical stage adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 horror film classic, the bodies pile up swiftly, felled at the hands (or should I say teeth) of the title character, the remorselessly bloodthirsty Count Orlok (Michelle Holmes). Read more… Now running through October 31
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The Young Vic production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge was roundly praised in both London and New York. The current version at the Ahmanson, however, has at least a couple of major problems. Read more… Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove revives Arthur Miller’s … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw At the Opening Night performance of director Phylicia Rashad’s powerful staging of playwright August Wilson’s modern classic Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, I found myself seated next to a gentleman who claimed to be one of the agents for one of the performers in the show. He promptly loosened his tie and shrugged … Read more
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
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Anyone who’s been a teacher or who’s been otherwise charged with supervising troubled adolescents will understand straight off the problems facing Mama Darlin (Lana Houston), the beguiling nub of Philip Dawkins’ compelling Charm. Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw A charm school for transvestites? It sounds like an odd premise for … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Among the horrors that manifest in America’s addiction to guns are deaths involving children — either as victims or, more seldom, as perpetrators. Read more… Now running through September 18
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw The spirits of Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy cast a long shadow over director Jenny Sullivan’s mostly straightforward production of this one time off-Broadway hit. (Gaffney and Najimi were the original writer/performers of this two-person comic show, which won an Obie in 1989 and was later produced on HBO in … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA In a tiny church, a battle wages. That battle has been nearly settled by American law, it seems to be settling in large urban areas. But in the hearts and minds of the congregation at Kandota Lutheran Church in Little Sauk, Minn., it’s still a stubbornly fought war. Read … Read more
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw The Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA follows on the huge success of Watching O.J. with another play that surveys the social, economic and ethnic chasms that invariably unite and divide us. Read more… Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main One of the wryest moments in Karen Rizzo’s insightful, 75-minute one-act comes when Lee (Mark … Read more