ENRON at the Lex Theatre

Bob Verini – Stage Raw Most people’s command of international finance and investment, I think it’s fair to say, probably cuts not much deeper than the “Money makes the world go around” lyrics from Cabaret. Yet in telling the sorry true-life saga of the titular Houston energy giant and its catastrophic demise, Lucy Prebble’s Enron coolly takes for granted … Read more

63 TRILLION at the Odyssey Theatre

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

GUS’S FASHION & SHOES at Vs. Theatre Company

Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Ron Klier’s new play at Vs. Theatre Company, Gus’s Fashion & Shoes, is the second in a St. Louis–based trilogy about police/minority relations, Cops & Friends of Cops being the first in 2013. The third is yet to come. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times The characters in Ron Klier’s new play … Read more

ENTROPY at Theatre of NOTE

Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Ground Control to Major Tom: David Bowie, Richard Nixon, the Cold War, the women’s liberation movement, early Steven Spielberg movies and a staff-impaired NASA space program from 1973 all combine into a Mel Brooks aesthetic in Bill Robens’ world-premiere farce Entropy, which just opened at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE. Read … Read more

CORKTOWN 57 at the Odyssey Theatre

Steven Leigh Morris  – LA Weekly Corktown 57 unfolds entirely in the Irish-quarter grocery-shop basement of Frank Keating (John Ruby), who’s having difficulties with his wife (Natalie Britton, in a nicely textured performance). Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times Family dynamics and political ire mix it up in “Corktown ‘57” at the Odyssey Theatre. Playwright John … Read more

Neil LaBute, on his play The Break of Noon

Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw The meister of messy and cruel romantic relationships, in works such as In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, Fat Pig and Reasons to Be Pretty, playwright, screenwriter and film director Neil LaBute shines a spotlight on atrocious behavior.  That is, of course a judgment, and LaBute insists he tries … Read more

BANG BANG at Highways

Steven Leigh Morris  – LA Weekly In Michael Kearns’ Bang Bang, there’s a psycho-sexual serial killer named Dr. JackL and MisterHide&Seek (David Pevsner in a bravely unrepentant performance) whose fetish is to stand nude with his head masked in leather, to make Internet contact with his hitherto unknown male victims before meeting them (ostensibly for a … Read more

CORKTOWN 57 at the Odyssey Theatre

Paul Birchall  – Stage Raw “The whole world’s in a state of chassis!” said Jack Boyle, the iconic Irish lotus-eating blackguard of Juno and the Paycock, Sean O’Casey’s great drama about the tragic flaws of an Irish family. Read more… Steven Leigh Morris  – LA Weekly Corktown 57 unfolds entirely in the Irish-quarter grocery-shop basement of Frank Keating (John … Read more

UNCLE VANYA – Chalk Repertory Theatre at the Neutra Institute Museum

Bob Verini  –   Stage Raw On a stage — and as often as not, in everyday life, but certainly on a stage — when a character announces, “I’m dying of boredom,” there’s always something else, something deeper going on. With those four spoken words, a character can communicate almost anything: “I’m hot to do something … Read more