Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Since it premiered on Broadway in March 2014, a number of theater writers have commented on how the range and power of lead diva Idina Menzel transforms Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s so-so musical into a show well worth seeing. Read more… Bob Verini – Stage Raw The Pantages is playing … Read more
Jenny Lower – Stage Raw Josh Carson’s lovingly crafted theatrical tribute to the action franchise starring Bruce Willis opens in darkness, until an offstage cappella chorus sounds the familiar crescendo and theme music that herald a 20th Century Fox movie. Read more… Now running through December 19.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Michael Cooney’s Cash on Delivery typifies the sort of humor you find in a quintessential English farce. It’s very funny when it’s well done and a big boring yawn when it’s not. I’m pleased to report that the production at the El Portal, directed by Cooney’s father Ray (who was knighted for … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw In a month where various iterations of A Christmas Carol proliferate like mistletoe, an antidote is required for those of us who prefer our holiday spirits bottled. Bob’s Holiday Office Party, written by Joe Keyes and Rob Elk, has been fulfilling this duty for two decades. Unfortunately, this twentieth anniversary production is … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Truman Capote’s autobiographical novella, A Christmas Memory, deals with his loving friendship with his elderly eccentric cousin Sook, and takes place during a period in the writer’s childhood when, due to his mother’s marital vicissitudes, he was farmed out to various relatives in the South. Read more… Now running through December 27.
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net “A Good Family,” playwright Marja-Lewis Ryan’s third new work to debut at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood, following “Dysnomia” (2011) and “One in the Chamber” (2014), once again takes a look at an apparently idyllic American family rocked by sudden events that depict timely contemporary social issues. Read more… Deborah … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw As a theater critic, I find myself writing perhaps disproportionally about plays with race, gender and sexuality issues — those subjects being responsible for a disproportionate amount of the most meaningful work being created — for which I am arguably ill-equipped to discuss, falling back on the presumptive faith that … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly If you’re in need of a diversion in these terrible, wearisome times — and surely we all are — might I suggest Theatre of Note’s uproarious staging of Bill Robens’ western parody Rio Hondo, under the imaginative direction of Jaime Robledo. Read more… Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Even a fan of … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw From lights up, playwright Meghan Brown’s drops her audience right into the swirling midst of her drama. A woman enters a chintzy living room, startling the other occupant asleep on the couch. The two women immediately launch into the kind of messy rapid-fire argument familiar to siblings or long-time friends. … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Edmond Rostand meets Hermann Hesse at the Village Vanguard in “Miravel” at Sacred Fools. Author-performer Jake Broder’s mash-up of Rostand’s deathless “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Hesse’s novel “Gertrude” has some post-larval quirks, yet a compelling undertow propels its jazz-centric romantic triangle. Read more… Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Playwright/composer Jake … Read more