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Archive for Thornton Wilder

Put a ‘Tiger’ in your tank, LA Times

Photo by Jenny Graham

Photo by Jenny Graham

Don Shirley – Angeles Stage

Why didn’t the LA Times review the hilarious “Tiger Style!” or “Our Town” at South Coast Repertory? Plus thoughts on “Man of God,” “Metamorphoses,” and more. 

“Tiger Style!” deserves the exclamation point in its title. Mike Lew’s satire is the funniest new play I’ve seen since theaters started re-opening last year, after vaccinations began.

At first, “Tiger” is a no-holds-barred satire of two Chinese-American young-adult siblings with acute anxiety, stirred up by other Americans who seem to bar no holds in their treatment of these exemplars of the so-called “model minority.” Then it also finds a lot of laughs as these third-generational siblings belatedly blame their problems on their parents, who used “tiger style” child-rearing techniques.

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OUR TOWN at South Coast Repertory

Photo by Matt Gush/SCR

Photo by Matt Gush/SCR

Dana Martin – Stage Raw

It may seem like nothing much happens in Thornton Wilder’s most important work, Our Town. It is a play, after all, about ordinary people living ordinary lives. But the 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner is quietly deep and profoundly moving. Edward Albee once described Wilder’s play as “the greatest American play ever written.” Read more…

Now through June 4

 

The Matchmaker at Actors Co-op

Actors Co-op

Actors Co-op

 

THE MATCHMAKER by Thornton Wilder.

 

Neal Weaver – LA Weekly

Thornton Wilder, who wrote this zany philosophical farce, is a paradoxical figure. He was both deeply conservative — intent on conserving the theatrical conventions and traditions of the past — and an innovator who burst the bounds of realistic theater with plays like The Long Christmas Dinner, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. But perhaps his most memorable creation is the title character of this piece, Dolly Gallagher Levi….
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The Beaux’ Stratagem, A Noise Within

ANW 12-13 Beaux078

photo by Craig Schwartz.

 

 

The Beaux’ Strategem  Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of George Farquhar’s 18th century farce.

 

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig both contributed to this adaptation of George Farquhar’s early-18th-century comedy, which touches on the tribulations of the unhappily married and the moral shortcomings of the privileged classes. The story features two penniless rapscallions, Jack (Blake Ellis) and Tom (Freddy Douglas), who set out to seduce rich ladies in order to gain control of their fortunes. Read more...