Author Archive for Lucy Pollak
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Theatricum Botanicum brings back its signature production, an audience favorite with a set design unrivaled by any other theater – because it’s the real thing. The most magical outdoor setting in Los Angeles is once again transformed into an enchanted forest inhabited by lovers both fairy and human. Shakespeare conjures a world of wonder, magic [...]
The Royal Family
George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s comedy about a family dynasty of actors, a thinly disguised parody of the Barrymores, will be performed by Topanga’s own theatrical clan, the Geers. Trodding the boards isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in this very funny valentine to the theater, artists and family. Meet the Cavendishes, the [...]
Taming of the Shrew
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum kicks off its 40th Anniversary season with Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare’s rowdy romp stands as one of his sharpest and funniest scripts. No suitor can win lovely Bianca until her older sister, “Katherine the Cursed,” is married off. Can Petruchio subdue Kate’s temper and win her bountiful dowry, or will [...]
Rhythmic Relations 2013
TAIKOPROJECT rocks the Ford with spectacular drumming and striking choreography. Rhythmic Relations 2013 marks the first collaboration between TAIKOPROJECT and Middle Eastern percussionist Amir Sofi. Sofi’s powerful instrument known as the darbuka (goblet drum) complements TAIKOPROJECT’s crowd-pleasing traditional taiko drums, koto (Japanese harp) and custom-made marimbas. The first half of the concert will feature drumming [...]
Just Imagine
Backed by a live band, Tim Piper channels John Lennon in the smash hit, multimedia rock ‘n roll tribute that celebrates Lennon’s life and music. Just Imagine intertwines the legendary singer’s songs with the stories behind them to create a unique and electrifying multimedia concert experience. The LA Weekly wrote, “GO! The fun of seeing [...]
Kindertransport
Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), reprising the role she created for the U.S premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club and for which she won an Ovation Award in the L.A. premiere, and Susan Sullivan (Dharma and Greg, Castle) head the cast when Jeanie Hackett directs Kindertransport by Diane Samuels for L.A. Theatre Works. All [...]
Forever Flamenco! at the Ford
The Fountain Theatre and Forever Flamenco! present an all-star line-up of local, national and international artists to celebrate founder Deborah Lawlor’s 20-year dedication to producing, nurturing and broadening the flamenco community in Los Angeles. Since 1990, the dancers, musicians and singers of Forever Flamenco! have been delighting Fountain Theatre audiences with the intensity, precision and [...]
BOB
The Los Angeles premiere of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s madcap comedy exploring the American mythology of happiness and success. Born on Valentine’s Day in the bathroom of a White Castle in Kentucky, Bob is left to fend for himself by his birth mother, Helen. Determined to make his mark in the world, armed with nothing but [...]
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 — The West Coast premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s brave, chilling and very funny new work about a group of actors who lose control of their play and discover some [...]
Dead Man’s Cell Phone
An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man – with a lot of loose ends. So begins Dead Man’s Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative and off-center romantic comedy by MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and one of America’s [...]
Ionescopade
Taken from the plays, playlets and poetry of “Theatre of the Absurd” playwright Eugène Ionesco (Rhinoceros, The Bald Soprano, Exit the King), Ionescopade is a zany musical vaudeville featuring mime, farce and parody – all hilariously balanced on the edge of madness. Composer/lyricist Mildred Kayden was Ionesco’s guest in his Paris apartment while creating the [...]
Glengarry Glen Ross
L.A. Theatre Works records David Mamet’s scathingly funny Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about small-time real estate brokers who vie for the hot leads at a Chicago firm selling shoddy properties. Joe Mantegna reprises his Tony Award-winning role as Richard Roma from the original (1984) Broadway production; Gordon Clapp returns with his Tony-nominated portrayal from the 2005 [...]
Illuminated Manuscript
Hyperkinetic hip-hop dance meets classical epic poetry when Antics opens the summer season at the Ford with a hip-hop dance theater interpretation of the ancient Mesopotamian poem “The Epic Of Gilgamesh.” What if dance were like handwriting, with bodies tracing words in space and movement revealing profound truths? Through the art of street dance and [...]
Heart Song
Three friends embark on a joyous journey of sisterhood, discovering their inner ‘duende’ through a flamenco class for middle-aged women. In this hilarious and moving new comedy/drama, Rochelle, a Jewish woman struggling with a crisis of faith, is convinced to join a flamenco class for out of shape women. Her life is changed forever when [...]
The Crucible
The Antaeus Company, L.A.’s multiple award-winning classical theater company, presents an untraditional staging of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Set in 1692 and written in reaction to the McCarthyism that gripped America in the 1950s, Arthur Miller’s parable of mass hysteria offers a frightening depiction of what can happen when fear clouds fact and reason is [...]
“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” extends through June 5 at Theatre Asylum
The Los Angeles premiere of Mike Daisey’s highly controversial The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, adapted and performed by Alex Lyras, will extend through June 5 at Theatre Asylum in Hollywood. The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs examines the controversy of globalization through the rise and fall and resurrection of Apple, illuminating how Apple’s former CEO and his obsessions shape our [...]
“Trainspotting” Acclaimed stage adaption of Irvine Welsh’s cult novel extends through June 2
“GO!” — LA Weekly “Excellent… pure intensity” — Eye Spy LA seat of your pants Productions extends its acclaimed production of Trainspotting, a guest production at the Elephant Theatre, through June 2. A disturbing, gruesome and darkly funny stage adaptation by Harry Gibson of the cult novel by Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting is not for the faint of heart. Featuring profanity, nudity, cigarette smoking, simulated sex and drug [...]
DOMA Theatre Company extends its hit production of “Dreamgirls” through May 5
DOMA Theatre Company extends its hit production through May 5. With over two-dozen cast members and a six-piece on-stage band, this story about a black girl group from Chicago that makes it big in a business controlled by white men sizzles with R&B soul, capturing the spirit and hope of Motown. As superstardom challenges the trio’s musical and cultural [...]
The Liar
Charming, handsome and a pathological liar, Dorante has come to Paris seeking pleasure. He falls head over heels for the beautiful Clarice, but mistakes her name for that of her best friend, Lucrece. After lying his way into a world of trouble, can Dorante lie his way back out again? Richard Wilbur’s sparkling translation of [...]
“Walking the Tightrope” extends through May 18 at 24th STreet Theatre
24th STreet Theatre is extending the West Coast premiere of Walking the Tightrope through May 18. A hit with both adult audiences and kids, Walking the Tightrope utilizes poetic language, live music and multi-media to explore themes of love and loss in a highly theatrical, stylized production that has received over two dozen rave reviews [...]
Yesterday’s
The owner of a failing jazz club seeks to save what her grandfather built, inspiring those around her to chase their dreams. Twelve visually impaired actors and musicians take the stage in an original comedy created and performed by Theatre by the Blind, the country’s only theater troupe composed entirely of blind actors. Candy, the [...]
Citizen Twain
Val Kilmer, famous for his portrayals of iconic characters such as Jim Morrison (The Doors), Doc Holliday (Tombstone) and Batman (Batman Forever), inhabits the spirit of another legendary American figure: Mark Twain. Exploring the famed author’s wry humor — from politics to death, love, money, watermelons, God, racism and cats — Kilmer channels the wit [...]
Master Class
Internationally renowned soprano Maria Callas had a legendary voice and an equally legendary life as one of the world’s most celebrated—and gossiped-about—opera stars. In 1971, Callas taught a series of master classes at Juilliard Outspoken in her artistic beliefs and uncompromising in the musical understanding she sought to communicate to 25 fortunate students, Callas worked through [...]
On the Spectrum
The West Coast premiere of a funny, touching and unconventional love story between two young people with autism Mac has Asperger’s. Iris is autistic. In Ken LaZebnik’s award-winning play, an online e-chat blossoms into a heartfelt courtship. Winner of the 2012 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award citation and the 2011 Edgerton Foundation New [...]
Red
Winner of the Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and six Tony Awards, Red is an intimate glimpse into the world of outspoken and opinionated artist Mark Rothko. Alfred Molina, reprising the role he created in London and was Tony-nominated for on Broadway, is joined by his co-star from the CTG production, Jonathan Groff in [...]
Trainspotting
Disturbing. Gruesome. Funny. seat of your pants Productions mounts a revival of the critically acclaimed production of Trainspotting that first rocked Los Angeles in 2002. Entertaining and shocking in equal measure, Harry Gibson’s stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s cult novel about Scottish heroin addicts charts the harrowing, but at times hilarious, disintegration of four friends [...]
Dreamgirls
DOMA Theatre Company opens its second “all musicals” season with a Tony, Drama Desk and Grammy Award-winning hit that sizzles with R&B soul. First a smash Broadway musical, then an award-winning motion picture, Dreamgirls captures the spirit and hope of Motown. Inspired by show biz stories of 1960s R&B acts like The Supremes, The Shirelles, [...]
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Antaeus, L.A.’s classical theater ensemble, presents a fully double-cast production of George Bernard Shaw’s penetrating and entertaining look at mothers, daughters and the idea of a “woman’s place.” Mrs. Warren has worked hard to provide a good life for her daughter. But when Vivie finds out the truth about her mother’s profession, sparks fly. Armed [...]
Rogue Artists Ensemble’s SONGS OF BILITIS
How did a flamboyant heterosexual avant-garde Parisian novelist successfully impersonate a lesbian Greek poet in the most elaborate erotic literary hoax the world has ever known? Rogue Artists Ensemble premieres Songs of Bilitis, offering four performance at South Coast Repertory, part of its Studio SCR, February 15-17, followed by a four week run at L.A.’s [...]
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs
A great story, made even better! Alex Lyras stars in the Los Angeles premiere of Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs in an update revised by the author that is “ethically made” and packs an even more powerful punch. Daisey’s riveting monologue examines the controversy of globalization through the rise and [...]
