Edward Hong – The Nerds Of Color Despite this new revival of Flower Drum Song having a second revision from David Henry Hwang, no amount of rewrites cannot shake the core that this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, now playing at East West Players, is still very much outdated as a orientalist and voyeuristic crowd pleaser … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA While Jacques Heim’s internationally renowned company is famous for its gravity-defying feats, since it’s being performed in this eclectic private former warehouse studio, this production brings the audience literally within five feet of the action. With only 90 seats in the house, the massive yet somehow intimate black box setting … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Although people say the long-running 2023 Pulitzer-winning play, just opening for a too brief run at the Wallis, is being presented at a bad time, it’s something with which I could not disagree more strongly. This stunning masterwork lifts us from the discouragement and ugliness of the moment as it … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Although I have to admit Julie Shavers’ rather predictable tale of a Fourth of July family reunion in the rural Tennessee backyard of the miserable Moon family womenfolk covers absolutely no new ground, she breaths glorious life into the familiar convoluted goings-on with her unique knack for creating lovable—though suitably … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Dietrich Smith’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s first novel finds all the sly complexities and colors that, as in the source material, are camouflaged by the narrative: the eternal battle between the haves and the have-nots, the shabby treatment of individuals deemed lesser than others, and the search for a reason … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania The national tour of the 2023 Broadway revival of Monty Python’s Spamalot has galloped into Los Angeles at the Hollywood Pantages, and the musical numbers remain as boisterous, energetic, and gleefully goofy as ever. Unfortunately, the book scenes, largely lifted from the famous dialogue of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, have lost much … Read more
Ed Rampell – Hollywood Progressive Pinter’s slyly subversive 30-ish minute piece does to those veddy British drawing room plays what The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface does to human beings. Although I hasten to add that this is not to say that Party Time is a horror production per se, but rather that it Pinteresquely piquantly … Read more
Ed Rampell – Hollywood Progressive As The Wall Street Journal reports “Jeff Bezos is in early talks to raise $100 billion for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation,” which would likely trigger an avalanche of mass unemployment, and right on … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Arthur Miller often tackles the universal themes of morality vs. what his great classic’s everyman anti-hero Joe Keller calls “practicality,” but this time out the author leaves just a tad room for his audience to discover things for ourselves without incessant preaching about how dastardly our world operates. Read more… … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Filmmaker/musician extraordinaire Zach Shields’ play is a simple, intimately told, yet monumentally unblushing theatrical experience, a fine example of contemporary innovative storytelling at its best. Read more…