Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Strong performances and imaginative direction are not enough to offset the weak and rather ponderously metaphysical meditation that is playwright Robin Rice’s clunky opus. It’s a play overlong at 70 minutes, and it feels like a re-cycled Twilight Zone but without Rod Serling’s twisty bite. Read more… Now running through December 12.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Jennifer Maisel’s new play, premiering with this production, examines the way we deal with grief, loss, and death. Clark (Ryan Yu) and Emily (Elizabeth Pan) were a happily married couple, devoted to their 10-year-old son Jake (whom we never see). But when Jake is suddenly killed in a hideous bicycle … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw The committed theatergoer, confronted with the prospect of a play set in Ireland, may well inquire, “First of all, is it one of the light ones or one of the dark ones?” Read more… Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania Outside Mullingar feels like a memory play of the distant past that is set … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Eleanor (Joanna Miles) the agoraphobic senior citizen in Tom Baum’s family drama, is a paranoid lady. Not only is she afraid to leave her house: she’s also terrified that home invaders might come to do her ill. Read more… Now running through December 13.
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Steve B. Green’s black comedy Timeshare is set in the cutthroat world of high-pressure sales, and while some thematic similarities to Glengarry Glen Ross can be seen, don’t expect any David Mamet-style pyrotechnics. Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times I am a professional salesman. I am a professional salesman.” So runs, with drolly … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Sometimes you can just sit down in a theater and, as soon as the lights dim, you know you’re seeing a show whose origins are Eastern European. Read more… Now running through December 13.
Neal Weaver – Arts In LA Carlo Collodi’s 19th Century children’s book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, has been largely over-shadowed for modern audiences by Disney’s movie adaptation, which turned it into a sentimental moral tale. But Collodi’s original was made of sterner stuff: darker, crueler and more disturbing. The hapIess Puppet gets his feet burnt off, and … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Robert O’Hara’s Lambda Award-winning comedy is the first production by Celebration Theatre in its new home. It’s largely a fictionalized, semi-autobiographical tale satirizing the trials and tribulations of growing up Black. Read more… Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly In some ways Robert O’Hara’s Bootycandy is like a confounding road trip: you get … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Few Americans have a detailed understanding of the history behind Shakespeare’s history plays. We may grasp the themes of his work – the struggle for power and/or the Bard’s reflections on what makes or breaks a king – but many of us are less familiar with the actual historical events, … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw David McDowell Blue’s play is loosely based on an 1872 Novella about lesbian vampires by Irish writer Sheridan LaFanu. Blue has transposed the story to Europe at the end of World War II and sharpened the lesbian slant. In his retelling….Read more…