THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED (SECRET ROSE/ZEPHYR): 49% – BITTER
LemonMeter | Aug 20, 2012 | Comments 2 |
Trip Langley, Owen Martin and Bernadette Birkett in “The Little Dog Laughed” at the Zephyr Theatre. Credit: Richard Michael Johnson.
BITTERSWEET
The uneven revival at Secret Rose Theatre doesn’t quite do them justice — think of a crisp vodka tonic arriving watered down.
Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times
BITTER
Douglas Carter Beane’s 2007 Tony-nominated play The Little Dog Laughed is a comedy. Apparently director Jon Cortez did not get that memo. Under his misguided, clueless and inept watch at the Zephyr Theatre, what should be a brisk romp turns into a laborious 2 1/2 hour soap opera that unfolds at a glacial pace with holes so large between lines that you could not only drive a truck though them, an entire caravan could pass with time to spare.
Tom Chaits – Stage and Cinema
SWEET
Though one of its four performances still needs considerably sharpening, director Jon Cortez and cast are largely successful in entertaining, titillating, and maybe even coaxing a tear or two from audiences in search of comedy with a bite.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA
SWEET
Now at the Secret Rose Theatre in NoHo, Blazeco Productions offers a highly earnest endeavor.
Don Grigware – BroadwayWorld
BITTER
As an object lesson in how not to stage a comedy this production would be extremely useful, but it’s not recommended that even the most dutiful student subject himself to what was, by a country mile, the most excruciating evening in a theater in 2012.
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA
BITTER
This is a terribly “chatty” play, and much of the dialogue is astonishingly trite for a comedy. The biggest problem isn’t with the writing, however, but with director Jon Cortez’s murderously slow pacing, which makes this production a screaming bore.
Lovell Estell III – LA Weekly
THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
Presented by Blazeco Productions
Zephyr Theatre (previously at the Secret Rose Theatre)
7456 Melrose Ave., Hollywood
Through September 16, 2012; Friday & Saturday 8pm, Sunday 6pm
Tickets: $30; (323) 653-4667
Filed Under: Featured • LemonMeter • Low Rated
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Why have they not replaced Bernadette Birkett? Though I said it more kindly than Tom Chaits, I have to agree with his assessment, made even more damning by her having had several months of playing the role since my review.
Maybe she’s a producer.