The Saturday Saying

“They ask me how I can go to theater four or five times a week. I just look at them and ask how they can watch television four or five nights a week. Everyone has their own church at which they worship. Mine happens to be theater.” Lee Melville – LA Stage Times

AT THE FLASH: 100% – SWEET

SWEET This is a show that makes its point with humor but also searing and truthful vision. Catch this if you can. Highly recommended. Robert Machray – Stagehappenings SWEET Most of Leeper’s characters have trodden a well-worn road. If that road veered in unexpected directions, At the Flash would be great. Because of Leeper’s individuated [...]

Bitter Lemons’ Critics Panel Set for Hollywood Fringe

We’re getting back to basics this year, LemonHeads, a topic right in our wheelhouse: The Purpose of Theater Criticism in the Twenty First Century. And boy do we have a lineup for you: Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly, Tony Frankel, Stage and Cinema, Margaret Gray, Los Angeles Times, Anthony Byrnes, KCRW, Terry Morgan, LAist and Ramona [...]

MAHMOUD: 83% – SWEET

SWEET The freshest and funniest material — aided by Davis’ smart and brisk staging — belongs to the 11-year-old Tara and her fixation on somehow mitigating the physical differences between her own dark complexion and that of her class’s most popular blond, blue-eyed girl. Bill Raden – LA Weekly BITTERSWEET Despite duo Fringe kudos, there [...]

FOOL FOR LOVE (T.U. STUDIOS): 100% – SWEET

SWEET Chad Doreck and Lauren Plaxco deeply and thoroughly inhabit the unhinged yearning and raw sexuality between Eddie and May with the kind of intensity and deep connection to each other that will grab you from the beginning and leave you begging for more of their story when the play ends. Shari Barrett – BroadwayWorld [...]

COOPERSTOWN: 87% – SWEET

BITTERSWEET Director Darryl Johnson seems to hope we’ll sail over these logical gaps on the power of catharsis alone, but we could use a little more help from Golden. Robinson may be destined to be a metaphor forever, but another draft or two could help these promising characters escape a similar fate. Margaret Gray – [...]

  • Other Recent Articles

  • OPENING NIGHT (THEATRE 40): 93% – SWEET

    OPENING NIGHT (THEATRE 40): 93% – SWEET

    SWEET The entire fiasco offers an evening of laughter throughout, and all of the actors prove their comedic talent. Former Canadian actor Bruce Gray directs. Carol Kaufman Segal – Reviewplays SWEET The show beamed with brilliance… from the direction, acting, and writing. Even the set decorators were deserving of applause, proving yet again, what Theatre [...]

  • THE CRUCIBLE (ANTAEUS): 95% – SWEET

    THE CRUCIBLE (ANTAEUS): 95% – SWEET

    BITTERSWEET As for the differing styles of delivery, it’s a brave theatrical device, but it was used for one of the few plays I know that doesn’t need deconstructionist staging. It’s like chipping away at some of the marble on Michelangelo’s David to display it in a smaller museum. Yes, there were moments that I [...]

  • Carlie & Doni Hit the Road – The College Tour

    Carlie & Doni Hit the Road – The College Tour

    Hailed as  “L.A.’s BEST comedians” by LA Magazine Carlie & Doni  detour from their college tour to bring their latest not to be missed musical/comedy act to Santa Monica Playhouse.  The irreverent duo whose show, “Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner present Carlie and Doni help Save the Playhouse” played to a sell-out crowd in March [...]

  • Extended! The World Premiere of Lisa Phillips Visca’s Raise Me Up

    Extended! The World Premiere of Lisa Phillips Visca’s Raise Me Up

    “An unforgettable love story with humor and heart.” – Martin Short “A warm-hearted romance … possesses an engagingly old-fashioned mood that feels as timeless as romance itself.” –LA Weekly Do you believe in love at first sight? soul mates? eternal love? By the time the final curtain falls, you’ll believe. A true story about a “moonstruck” couple’s forbidden love, [...]

  • The ensemble of "Chess" at East West Players. Credit: Michael Lamont.

    CHESS (EAST WEST PLAYERS): 60% – BITTERSWEET

    SWEET There’s much more to say about this vivid production, but its best left to experience yourself. There are things here and there that were different from previous productions of the show (“Someone Else’s Story” and “Pity the Child” are both moved to the first act, albeit fairly effectively) and the love story needed a [...]

  • LA STAGE DAY Arrives This Saturday, May 18th, 9am-5:30pm

    LA STAGE DAY Arrives This Saturday, May 18th, 9am-5:30pm

    I cannot attend as I have fatherly duties, but it looks like an interesting gathering. Here’s all the poop: Join us for LA STAGE Day — a day-long community event for the greater Los Angeles performing arts community: performers, designers, administrators, leaders, students, supporters, vendors, and patrons. Generously hosted by California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) [...]

  • Credit: Randall Gray

    TRUE WEST (STAGES OF GRAY): 33% – BITTER

    BITTER However, I felt this project was just too ambitious for this new theater company. I want a large stage for Shepard’s plays; there exhausting and I feel you need the space between the actors and the audience. Gray tried to use too different casts one with a traditional approach and one group more edgy. [...]

  • in "Richard III" at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre. Credit: Zombie Joe.

    RICHARD III (ZOMBIE JOE’S): 75% – BITTERSWEET

    SWEET Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre, is a small black box theater but they can put on Shakespeare with the best of them. Spencer Cotter – The_Detective BITTERSWEET The basics are there, but if you aren’t familiar with the story and the relationships, it isn’t always easy to distinguish one character from another. This can be [...]

  • Dennis Delsing, Jon Amirkham and Gregg Christie in "The Size of Pike" at Moving Arts. Credit: Ross Kramer.

    THE SIZE OF PIKE (MOVING ARTS): 100% – SWEET

    SWEET Boys will be boys and men will be men, though the distinction between the two is more likely one of personal income rather than emotional maturity. Or so it is with the three middle-aged children (Dennis Delsing, Jon Amirkhan and Gregg Christie) who explore their frayed adult bonds in this engaging revival of playwright [...]

  • The 11 Rules for Having a Good Time at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival

    The 11 Rules for Having a Good Time at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival

    Some have referred to me as “Fringe Obsessed”. I believe that’s a new mental disorder recently added to the DSM III – or whatever they are calling it now – and to be honest I fully embrace the description. “But why?” You may ask, “Why be Fringe Obsessed, when so much of the work is [...]

  • "The Woman" at Theatre West. Credit: Thomas Mikusz.

    THE WOMEN (THEATRE WEST): 88% – SWEET

    SWEET The women created by Clare Boothe Luce may have been born a century or more ago, but her comedy classic remains as sharply-clawed and freshly-mascaraed as if it had been written just last week. Those requiring proof positive of the above need only check out the entertaining revival confectioned by The Women Of Theatre [...]

  • Dimitri Christy, Lori Berg, and Ellis Greer in "The Matchmaker" at the Actor's Co-op. Credit: Lindsay Schnebly.

    THE MATCHMAKER (ACTORS CO-OP): 100% – SWEET

    SWEET With a whopping cast of 14 nutty actors darting on and off the stage, there are many belly laughs, and countless twists n’ turns to follow. Pat Taylor – Tolucan Times SWEET In a season that has included a brilliantly reconceived The World Goes Round and superbly acted revivals of Agatha Christie’s And Then [...]

  • Writer for National Review Destroys Annoying Audience Member’s Cell Phone During Live Performance

    Writer for National Review Destroys Annoying Audience Member’s Cell Phone During Live Performance

    Saw this great story on the LAist wire. Kevin Williamson, writer for the National Review and other publications, just couldn’t take it any longer and finally grabbed some chick’s cell phone and tossed it into oblivion. I know the feeling, Kevin. As do most of you reading this. It’s is still astonishing to me that [...]

  • "The North Plan" at Elephant Stages. Credit:

    THE NORTH PLAN: 67% – BITTERSWEET

    SWEET The North Plan written by Jason Wells and directed by David Fofi presented by Elephant Theatre Company in its Los Angeles Premiere is a fast-paced, overlapping dialogue, prodigious show with wonderful performances by an astonishing cast who will have you on the edge of your seat! And the ending will have you begging for [...]

  • Top Hollywood voiceover artist Bill Ratner’s new solo show Bobbywood at the Fringe –

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOBBYWOOD: THE LONGEST DEATH SCENE a theatrical performance in the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival written and performed by renowned Hollywood voiceover artist Bill Ratner. • Selected BEST OF HOLLYWOOD FRINGE 2012 for Voices in my Head • Eight-time winner: The Moth Story Slams • HUFFINGTON POST: “More than just the premier voiceover talent in Hollywood today, Ratner writes with [...]

  • Zenith’s “The Devil and Billy Markham” at the Hollywood Fringe

    Zenith’s “The Devil and Billy Markham” at the Hollywood Fringe

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY, 2013 Contact: Aaron Lyons 310-902-3142 Email: aarontlyons@gmail.com ZENITH ENSEMBLE PRESENTS SHEL SILVERSTEIN’S THE DEVIL AND BILLY MARKHAM AS PART OF THE HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL – JUNE 2013 WHAT: THE DEVIL AND BILLY MARKHAM WHO: ZENITH ENSEMBLE WHERE: 3 Clubs Bar, 1123 Vine St Hollywood, CA 90038. WHEN: Sun June 9, 6:45p [...]

  • Ebony Cabaret at the Fringe

    Ebony Cabaret at the Fringe

    Desiree Parkman/DP Productions in Association with Three Clubs present Ebony Cabaret joins lineup of Hollywood Fringe Festival! “Ebony Cabaret Adds Flair to L.A. Theatre” Kelly Hawkins / News4usonline  “Perhaps the one thing that stands out most is the high- quality level of talent.” Jay Jackson/lajazz.com The minute you walk in the joint, you will be [...]

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