Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Oh my — all that talk of “honor” that runs through Shakespeare’s political tragedy. Brutus (Rachel Gonzalez) murders Caesar (Vance Valencia ) because the leader stands poised to become emperor, which Brutus has concluded is bad for Rome. (“If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly David Ives’ Tony-nominated 2010 sexual comedy, Venus in Fur, is to eroticism what Yasmina Reza’s Art is to painting. Both are beguiling, erudite parlor games that keep fluttering around the issues they purport to investigate. Read more… Now running through Oct. 26.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly The West Coast premiere of Brian C. Petti’s Banshee at Theatre of NOTE looks like an old play — it’s an Irish fable, but set in New York, in 1981. Sad sack Junior (Bill Voorhees), now 40, unemployed and recovering from a nervous breakdown, lives with his Irish mother, Kit (Lynn … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Jessica Goldberg told The Jewish Journal that her new play Better is quasi-autobiographical, written in the wake of her father’s death from brain cancer in conjunction with her own crumbling marriage to actor Hamish Linklater. Read more… Now running through Nov. 16.
Bob Verini – Arts In LA Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy is a mess but all the same a bona fide crowd pleaser. Its characters are drawn with remarkable inconsistency, and they’re put through enough subplots (touched on, though never explored fully) for a play twice its two-hour length. What pulls it through is the passion of … Read more
David C. Nichols – LA Times Controversial psychology and show-biz moxie commingle in “The Behavior of Broadus,” with triumphant results. As delightfully self-assured as it is comically self-referential, made up of equal parts whimsy, wacky, profane and profound, this cracked experiment in satirical musical development is a wickedly entertaining watershed for Sacred Fools Theater Company, … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Playwrights under 40 write mainly about love and politics, or so the adage goes; playwrights over 40 write mainly about death. By the time Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days premiered in 1961, the great Irish bard was 55, which should make its subject fairly easy to guess. Originally a poet and novelist, … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Also known as “Cockfight Play,” a perhaps less threatening title preferred in some media outlets, Mike Bartlett’s Olivier Award winning British play, “Cock,” makes its L.A. debut in a taut and terrific staging. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times “We’re just going around in circles,” a character accurately observes in … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly David Mamet’s play Race, about a rich, white guy seeking a law firm to defend him from accusations of raping a black woman, ought to feel ripped from the headlines — even though it premiered on Broadway nearly five years ago. Read more… Melinda Schupmann – Showmag A David Mamet play … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Actor-playwright Keith Stevenson is one lucky fellow, having a top-flight ensemble to write comedies for; and having a director, Guillermo Cienfuegos, with such a sympathetic comprehension of the strands threaded through his humor; and, to top it all, being able to act in a pivotal role in his own plays. … Read more