Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA This disappointing “Monster” is a badly constructed and often confusing clunker that couldn’t possibly be more predictable, with a continuous series of monologues played directly to the audience that droned on with tired exposition that did nothing to make me care a whit about either character—both of whom should be … Read more
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Ham,’ meet ‘Hedley.’ Plus plays looking forward, plays looking back. Also includes comments on Dinner with Friends, Kairos, High Maintenance, Could I Have This Dance?, Funny Girl, Into the Breeches, Power & Light, Stalin’s Master Class. Read more…
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA So what makes this old funny girl funnier than ever before? Simply put, Katerina McCrimmon is absolutely the best Fanny Brice I’ve ever seen—and I’m old enough to have seen the original star-making turn by Babs herself before the film version cleaned her up a tad. Evoking Edith Piaf with … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Alex Edelman possesses one of the most distinct and unique voices to emerge on the scene since the late Robin Williams. Last November in the special engagement in the shuttered Mark Taper Forum, Edelman’s hilarious and perfectly timed Obie-winning Just for Us became the recipient of my annual TicketHolder Solo … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Lordie, I needed this. Unlike so many new plays these days, the world premiere of Becky Wahlstrom’s delightfully silly A Froggy Becomes from Open Fist doesn’t bombard us with weighty reminders of the massive trials and insurmountable inequities plaguing our fuckedup world, yet it still manages to covertly have something … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA “Faith and force,” as the otherwise deluded Ayn Rand once wrote, “are the destroyers of mankind.” The efforts of director Maria Gobetti to set a fire under Jon Klein’s compelling yet craftily neutral treatise on the true nature of faith as something more than a flawed and rigidly demanding effort … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Under Stephen Sachs’ passionate leadership and sharply fluid direction, LA treasure Ron Bottitta and newcomer Patrick Keleher are mesmerizing as the father and son whose relationship tragically devolves and their lives are forever changed by the boy’s commitment to help spare the very fabric of our democracy. Read more…
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the already impressive Los Angeles Opera is the company’s ambitious and groundbreaking Recovered Voices Initiative, which champions the seldom-acknowledged work of lesser-known composers whose achievements were suppressed over the years due to racial ideology or systematic oppression. LAO is to be commended … Read more
Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw With violence on the rise, corruption in the spotlight, and extremist ideologies more polarized than ever, the need for radical change is as palpable as the need for conversation about it. For playwright Nick Salamone and director Jon Lawrence Rivera — the duo behind Playwrights’ Arena’s productions Helen & Billy … Read more
Anita W. Harris – LA Theatrix A fusion of remarkable choreography, dance, music and story, Matthew Bourne’s “Romeo + Juliet” offers a charged take on an age-old tale, one that speaks to being human in a cold, oppressive world where love nonetheless finds a way—however fleetingly. Read more… Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA The … Read more