Dany Margolies – The Daily News Breaking out of old patterns, ridding ourselves of toxic habits, or just growing up sometimes requires extreme courage. In the highly metaphoric play “Shiv,” the character who navigates the path of maturity and change is given the qualities of the Hindu deity Shiva. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw … Read more
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Why the devil do we do the things we do? And what kind of answers are genuinely responsive and illuminating to that question of “Why?” Easier to examine the confounding deeds of other people and endeavor to find clues in the motivations we attribute to (or project upon) them for … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw One of the beauties of Natsu Onoda Power’s play is that it’s just as enjoyable for neophytes to “manga” (Japanese comics) as it would be for cognoscenti. The main reason to see this new show at Sacred Fools, however, is the spectacular production. Jaime Robledo’s direction is brilliantly creative, pushing … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA An inspired supporting cast and a superb set salvage the heavily flawed script here. Neil Koenigsberg’s play is nobly modeled on the Bergman film Wild Strawberries, centering on an older man trying to come to grips with his regrets. But the writing is repetitious, it is on-the-nose, and it is … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net In its shimmering revival of William Inge’s steamy 1953 classic, “Picnic,” the classics-focused Antaeus Theatre Company serves up a theatrical feast. Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times The intimacy of small-town life and its stifling limitations permeate “Picnic,” which the thoughtfully representative staging at Antaeus Theater Company underscores without … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. Howard Skora’s zany dark comedy, directed by Jim Fall, stars veteran actress Patty McCormack (who is well-remembered as an 11-year-old Oscar nominee, playing a murderous moppet in the classic 1956 thriller The Bad Seed). Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Howard Skora’s black farce is constructed like a TV sitcom, but … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Struggles over inheritance are always painful — unless, of course, they take place in a French farce, in which case they are endlessly prankish and ribald. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw David Ives’s“translaptation” of Jean-Francois Regnard’s 1708 farce The Heir Apparent (Le Legataire Universel), at International City Theatre, also involves a … Read more
Jenny Lower – Stage Raw If Smudge is a horror story, it’s more the sort that lurks in the recesses of future parents’ brains than a Rosemary’s Baby — although Colby (Whitney Wellner), mother of the titular offspring, probably could have used some coping strategies from Mia Farrow. Read more…
David C. Nichols – LA Times Talk amongst yourselves,” says a wild-eyed Lester Bangs as he hammers away at his typewriter, gesturing us into his unkempt apartment, Black Sabbath blaring from the turntable. “And nobody touch my records.”Read more… Dany Margolies – Arts In LA The lesson to be learned here is not how to … Read more
Jenny Lower – LA Weekly Among the many contentious ideas explored during Bad Jews, Joshua Harmon’s delicious pressure cooker of a show now playing at the Geffen, is how a religious or cultural identity can become the sole bedrock upon which some people base their identity. Read more… Myron Meisel – Stage Raw I can remember the … Read more