Bob Verini – Stage Raw John Logan’s Red has been one of the most produced plays of the last few years, with over 40 mountings at major theaters coast to coast, usually reviewed in deserved superlatives. Yet in all the column inches devoted to the incisive two-hander, few if any of my critical colleagues have made reference … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Despite its subtitle, The Godfather is the inspiration for Theatre Movement Bazaar’s latest creation. Their show is billed as a theatrical collage, an appropriate description for a somewhat scattershot piece that features chunks of perceptive writing by Richard Alger and several highly watchable performances but doesn’t quite come together with the vision … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Playwright Jessica Dickey sets her comedy in the odd and largely unfamiliar world of Civil War Re-enactors, who have spent their day staging a recreation of Pickett’s Charge, which shifted the tides of war during the Battle of Gettysburg. Read more…
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Violet, which premiered on Broadway in 1997, is the kind of musical play that should speak powerfully to anyone who’s ever been scapegoated, or been on the outside looking in. But for a number of reasons it isn’t nearly as emotionally compelling as one might expect. Read more… Now running through … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Young and personable Bill (Bernie Zilinskas) works in the sales department of Seagram’s Whiskey. He has just purchased a suburban condo, and he’s waiting for the delivery of his furniture, and for his actress wife (Stephanie Erb) to join him. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times For introverts of a … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Let’s start by mentioning the praiseworthy elements in this problematic piece, presented by Teatro Luna, an all-Latina company out of Chicago. Read more… Now running through May 17.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Newly awarded Pulitzer Prize winner is noted for his colorful offbeat characters and the florid street vernacular they use to express themselves. In his Our Lady of 121st Street, a group of 30- somethings reunite at a funeral home to pay their respects to a neighborhood legend: a nun named Sister Rosa … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw John Bunzel’s new play is reminiscent of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, but more comedic in intent. The story takes place in the milieu of “wealth management” during a fictional financial catastrophe as the various characters attempt to screw each other over or profit from the chaos. Read more… Steven Leigh Morris – … Read more
Jenny Lower – Stage Raw “This is a horror story,” murmurs a voice from the darkness in A Small Fire, directed by Alana Dietze — the latest outing from the Echo Theater Company. The voice belongs to Emily (Lily Knight), a middle-aged woman who succumbs to an undefined medical condition that gradually chips away at her … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Words not meant to misdirect are wasted,” says one of the combatants in “The Anarchist,” and at certain levels that might describe the whole thing. Read more… Neal Weaver – Stage Raw There’s something slightly inhuman about David Mamet’s play: It tells the tale of a former anarchist, Cathy (Felicity … Read more