Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw. The lure of lurid allure: Benny Hill meets Samuel Beckett in the late Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin’s farcical and deceptively probing play with music (by Alex Kagan). (Levin’s play is translated from the Hebrew by Naaman Tamuz and is being presented by the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in its U.S. … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw. There couldn’t be a more worthy topic for a play in these fractious times: Where and how do we find truth? The question would be more potent if one could believe this play’s central premise. The Lifespan of a Fact contains some scintillating, if inert, arguments: inert, because none of … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw. There’s so much to recommend in Christine Breihan’s staging of John Guerra’s play, even though the work feels in need of one more pass to address some dramaturgical clutter. Let’s start with the almost gothic beauty of a rural, drought-plagued California valley that has the mythology of the Wild … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw. Brdar’s play isn’t a play in any traditional sense. It’s a poem. A one-woman confessional in 13 verses, starting with “Age 0” and culminating in “Age 78.” It’s almost a one-woman show performed by Cynthia Ettinger, except for the supporting characters (Carmella Jenkins, Howard Leder and Debba Rofheart) who … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw A dozen skilled performers romp through some 30 holiday-themed and mostly traditional ditties in this seasonal cabaret, thoughtfully staged by Victoria Lavan Liberty. I have to admit to a certain squeamishness at hearing Richard Berent’s “A Kids Forever” and “Wihla Hutson and Alfred Burt’s “Some Children See Him.” The … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Confession: In all my years of reviewing theater, this is the first production I’ve ever seen of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII originally titled All is True, co-written (somebody thinks, who knows?) with Shakespeare’s peer, John Fletcher. It’s the last history play penned or co-penned by the Bard, and it’s a bit of a mess, … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Born in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, Korean-Canadian scribe Ins Choi’s widely produced family comedy (spurring a spinoff sitcom on Canadian TV and Netflix) is a paeon to family. It clearly fills a hunger to reinforce embattled institutions (family businesses and family bonds), against children’s quest for independence, and … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Composer-lyricists Rodgers and Hammerstein were Jewish immigrants to New York and understood very well both the American pressures of assimilation and the spurning of outsiders that culminates in the sacrifice of those who don’t belong. (The stream of victims is endless and ever-changing.) Their musical Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in 1943; … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw This 2008 musical (with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, book by Dan Eilish and Robert Horn) is aimed at 13-year-olds and performed almost entirely by teens. (Netflix has just released a movie adaptation). The tropes within its theme of pre-adolescent angst — including its stock boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw, Notes From Arden At the northern edge of LA County, in Santa Clarita, The Sandman (played by adult actor Jackson Caruso) is the title character in Dane Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, “Ole Lukøje,” (“The Sandman”), presented by Eclipse Theatre and the Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival. Phil Lantis’s play for … Read more