Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review
In the wake of mass shootings, one cannot help but wonder what particular disconnect made someone feel such an act was a good idea.
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Now running through May 4
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review
In the wake of mass shootings, one cannot help but wonder what particular disconnect made someone feel such an act was a good idea.
Read more…
Now running through May 4
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
Writer/performer Monique DeBose grew up in California in the ‘80s, the daughter of an African-American father from North Carolina and an Irish-American mother from New York State. Being the progeny of a biracial couple created an identity crisis that she resolved only after becoming an adult. Mulatto Math – Summing Up the Race Equation in America appears to be the fruit of this expiating process
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Now running through May 6
Ellen Dostal – Broadway World
In Bill Berry’s solo show THE BRICK: A ONE MAN MUSICAL, Berry isn’t addressing the audience in a theater. He’s on a beach having a two-way conversation with his dead mother and we are the accidental eavesdroppers who witness their complicated relationship unfold piecemeal.
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Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham has become an almost mythical figure. She was remarkably prolific, creating 181 dances over the course of her career and dancing into her 70s (though sometimes she lurched a bit during her later years). Read more…
Now running through May 28
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw
Nice Iranian Girl, Layla Rumi (a.k.a. Layla Kaleigh)’s one-woman show at the Whitefire Theatre, feels half-baked. The 50-minute monologue, which plays weekly in Sherman Oaks as part of Whitefire’s Solofest, follows Rumi from her early years growing up in Tehran to 2009, when her daughter was born in Los Angeles. Read more…
Now running through February 11
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
The creators of Santasia, Shaun and Brandon Loeser, have been serving up their particular brand of zany, snarky holiday cheer for 16 years —this year makes 17 — but time hasn’t mellowed them and they haven’t lost their edge. Read more…
Now running through December 25
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw
It’s a little difficult to get a fix on writer-performer John Posey’s solo show Father, Son & Holy Coach, which first premiered in 1993 at The Santa Monica Playhouse. Is it a true story? Is it about a real person? No and yes (I think). Although voicing numerous characters throughout the episodic piece, Posey narrates from the perspective of the central character Johnny Sandford, a small town football hero during the 1980s. The setting is a tight-knit Southern town in Tupelo County, Georgia, where “football was more of a life here – it was a religion.” Read more…
Now running through August 30.
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A.
Howard Skora’s zany dark comedy, directed by Jim Fall, stars veteran actress Patty McCormack (who is well-remembered as an 11-year-old Oscar nominee, playing a murderous moppet in the classic 1956 thriller The Bad Seed). Read more…
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Howard Skora’s black farce is constructed like a TV sitcom, but it’s snarkier, darker, gayer, zanier, more surreal, more outrageous — and certainly funnier — than most television fare. Read more…
Now running through July 18.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
Lisa David is so likable, and her autobiographical show so ingenuous and inspiring, that you can readily forgive its extended length and lack of polish. Read more…
Now running through Nov. 5.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Daniel Keyes’ now classic sci-fi story about a mentally challenged man whose IQ skyrockets after a surgical procedure tackles not only how we treat disabled individuals but how ephemeral are those intangible values — love, life, respect — that we cherish.
Sharon Perlmutter - Talkin’ Broadway
There are two plays going on in Deaf West’s production of Flowers for Algernon. First, there’s the play you expect, the story of intellectually disabled Charlie, who undergoes a surgical procedure which increases his intelligence and, ultimately, following some intensive therapy and education, renders him a genius. The play follows Charlie’s successes and struggles. We see how Charlie realizes that his workmates, who he thought were his friends, had mocked him when he was less intelligent than they were, and feared him when he became more intelligent. Read more…
Now playing through November 3.
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly
Drawing on the traditions of ancient Greek comedy (masks, songs, a giant phallus) Chuck Faerber’s mildly amusing farce is a zany rendition of the siege of Troy by a crack team of dimwits. Ten years into the Trojan war, the Greeks are still anxious to retrieve their abducted Helen from the impenetrable fortress city of Troy. A scheme involving a massive wooden horse is set into motion. Unfortunately, its hapless crew lacks a clue.
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Now running through September 8.
Belz! The Jewish Vaudeville Musical by Pavel Cerny.
Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly
An ersatz cross between Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret, writer and director Pavel Cerny’s 1979 show enjoyed a successful 1984 run at the now defunct Callboard Theatre. But like the Callboard, the show’s best days may be behind it. Read more…