May 24, 2022Dana 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
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May 24, 2022Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Originally conceived and directed by James Lapine for a brief Broadway stint in 2010, this revue of Stephen Sondheim’s life and work received a new charge of pertinence in the wake of Sondheim’s death in November at the age of 91. The show includes a strong video presence of
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May 23, 2022Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Relationships are complicated. And whether it’s marriage, friendship, or with your cat, they become exponentially more complicated when there are more than two people involved, which is what gay married thirtysomethings Josh (Noah Bridgestock) and Alex (James Hayden Rodriguez) discover through their open relationship when Josh breaks the cardinal sin of
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May 21, 2022Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Shakespeare’s play gets a Wooster Group-ish makeover in John Gould Rubin’s modern dress staging for the Wallis. Tech is omnipresent, almost omniscient. Narrow, vertical panels on both sides of the stage provide screens for Keith Skretch’s projection design, featuring striking images of fires and floods now generally associated with
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May 20, 2022The 2022 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is pleased to announce its current officers and members for the upcoming 2022- 2023 season. Founded in 1969, the Circle currently includes 17 critics covering productions across the Greater Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has held its first election since the COVID lockdown. The
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May 18, 2022Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania There’s a gargantuan myth surrounding the opening of Hadestown at the Ahmanson Theatre. Not the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, which this musical does borrow, but the legend of the juggernaut Broadway production that opened in April 2019. Arriving with 14 Tony nominations and eight awards in tow, the production
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May 13, 2022Terry Morgan – Stage Raw If one reads in the press that a new play is a “minstrel show,” it might give one pause about seeing said show. Historically, minstrel shows were racist entertainment in which White people wearing “blackface” makeup depicted African-Americans in a derogatory way. These shows were mostly popular in the 19th
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