All Entries in the "Ponderings" Category
Critique of the Week
After reading this review I know nothing about the production and everything about the writer. GOOD PEOPLE Thomas Waldman – NoHoArtsDistrict Halfway through David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People,” currently having its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, Margie (Jane Kaczmarek), an unemployed single mother in her late 30s, describes in a voice filled with anguish [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Up
I found this review to be “a rousing” endorsement of the production and very “stimulating”. Heh. And funny. Mostly funny. NAKED BEFORE GOD M.R. Hunter – EyeSpyLA Wanna know if your date is uptight about things like porn, dildos, homosexuality and religion? Instead of trying to broach these subjects delicately over a candlelit dinner, treat [...]
California is so delusional they’re taxing theatre to make a profit
We received these news today from our contributor Cindy Marie Jenkins and it’s has blown our mind! What are these people thinking?!?!?! Just received this urgent action to stop a sales tax on theatre sales (only theatre, apparently)? I can’t help but paraphrase my husband’s reaction: “In what universe will this raise money?” Anyone else [...]
RIP: Levon Helm: 1940-2012 [UPDATED]
Rock and Roll has lost one of its greatest voices and greatest drummers. Levon Helm, lead singer and drummer for the legendary group The Band finally succumbed to the throat cancer he’d been battling for the last decade. But like the troubador that he was, he never stopped performing or recording. He is one of [...]
The Dramaturg: The Most Theatrical Place on Earth
I love Disneyland. The rest of the Disney empire-the movies and merchandise and TV shows and cruise lines, the whole entire lifestyle thing-I could probably do without but I remain semi-obsessed by Disneyland. And frankly, I don’t know why the rest of the theater world isn’t. It’s a theme park. It’s an entire park dedicated [...]
RIP: Dick Clark: 1929-2012
Wow. Don’t know what else to say about this one. A true American Icon is no more. Just…wow. I guess we knew it was coming. And who do we have rising in his wake…? Ryan Seacrest. Good Lord. How the standards have fallen.
What’s your “Buy-In”?
Was guided to this blog UpNext by the lovely and talented Maureen Chesus. It’s an amazing blog post called On Buy-In written by TEENAGER Alona Bach that taps right into so many topics that have been discussed here at the Lemon, mostly by Dylan Southard, including, marketing in the new media, what an audience really [...]
Critique of the Week
Intelligent, contextual, probing, but most of all contrarian. A classic from Tony F. SPRING AWAKENING Tony Frankel – Stage and Cinema AWAKENING TO THE FACT THAT IT’S A POORLY-WRITTEN MUSICAL I feel sorry for the cast and crew of Over the Moon Productions (OTM). The hard-working Broadway-caliber talent in Spring Awakening on the Egyptian Arena [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Up
A giddy review, like flowers blooming in April. BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL Samuel Bernstein – Stage and Cinema A VERY F***ING SPECIAL SHOW One of the big dramatic moments in Billy Elliot, making its Los Angeles premiere for a month-long run at the Pantages, comes late in the second act, when Billy’s first teacher is [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Runner Up
There’s a personal quality to this review that caught my attention. THE MAGIC BULLET THEORY Clare Elfman – Buzzine Theories about the Kennedy assassination have been explored in film and stage many times, but not like this mad romp and wild chaotic ride at Sacred Fools — L.A.’s delightfully irreverent theatre company. The Magic Bullet [...]
![A Big Thanks from Independent Shakespeare Company and the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council [Updated]](http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/files/2012/04/ISC-AVNC-square-100x100.png)
A Big Thanks from Independent Shakespeare Company and the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council [Updated]
For a few days, the Independent Shakespeare Company was in danger of losing a recent funding award from the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council. The call went out asking for help. LemonHeads responded valiantly, forwarding the Bitter Lemons article to hundreds of supporters and driving traffic to an online petition that resulted in ~250 signatures and [...]
Why I Love Shows and Stuff
Lest I leave the impression I don’t actually like theater, here are a few things I’ve seen in twenty years’ concerted audience membership that make me glad I go to plays. #3: GOOD WORK IN BAD PRODUCTIONS. Among the most difficult things an actor can do is to maintain excellence in the face of a [...]
Would better public transportation help unite the Los Angeles Theatre Community?
It’s a fantasy public transportation map of Greater Los Angeles. There’s a bunch of imaginary maps at the Transit Coalition site. You can see the maps a little more clearly If this were a reality, say a combination of subway and light rail that actually reached each of these corners of Greater Los Angeles, would [...]
Who in the Los Angeles Theatre Community would you most want to see debate?
Was having a pow-wow with a couple of my theatre peeps the other day and we got around to the topic of theatre debates. If I had to name the event I believe Theatrically Incorrect might fit the bill. Now I’m talking actual theatre debates here, people, not blah-blah circle jerkin’ stroke me off off [...]
The Dramaturg: Wait, theater sucks?! When did that happen?
Here’s a question: How many Bitter Lemons readers out there are not theater professionals or theater artists of some kind? Not actors or writers or directors or producers or designers or technicians? How many readers have no affiliation whatsoever with the performing arts other than being audience members? Here’s another question: of all of you [...]
Shakespeare is in Need!
Last month the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council (a wonderful group of people!) awarded the Independent Shakespeare Company (another wonderful group of people!) $5000 toward their operating expenses with the expectation that the ISC would conduct outreach on behalf of the AVNC, host a neighborhood council night at one of the performances, conduct free workshops for families during the summer, [...]
![Longtime Los Angeles Theatre Critic Les Spindle Leaves Backstage [UPDATED]](http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/files/2012/04/backstage_logo_1_1-100x98.gif){kind=logo}
Longtime Los Angeles Theatre Critic Les Spindle Leaves Backstage [UPDATED]
Don’t know if he resigned or was fired yet, still waiting on confirmation, but I have it from very reliable sources that longtime Los Angeles theatre critic Les Spindle and Backstage have parted ways. This after the recent firing of their other top critic, Dany Margolies. Looks like they are cleanin’ some serious house over there [...]
Critique of the Week
M.R. captures the Urban Death experience even more nicely in this review, especially the cathartic element of this unique show. There is simply nothing else like it running in Los Angeles. Or anywhere, for that matter. Just go see it. If you can get a seat of course. They were hanging from the rafters when [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Up
I saw this show – AGAIN – in its latest incarnation and it just keeps getting better. Kurt captures it nicely here. URBAN DEATH Kurt Gardner – Blog Critics The Zombie Joe Theatre Group’s perennial Urban Death has returned to North Hollywood in a new edition to shock and entertain discriminating audiences. Taking his inspiration [...]
Why Theater Sucks
Consider a couple of premises: #1: What we want isn’t always good for us. #2: What we want isn’t even what we want, sometimes. #2 sounds presumptuous; more about that later. But #1 seems obvious; everybody knows that a diet of cookies and milkshakes can lead to diabetes. Replace “cookies and milkshakes” with “formulaic entertainment,” [...]
Technical Difficulties
Been a bit of a cyber-hell here at the Lemon the last few days with some technical difficulties, hence, the tardiness of many a show deserving of a LemonMeter rating and the lack of some of our regular features. It appears we are back on track and we will do our best to get caught [...]
The Dramaturg: Live from the LA Weekly Theater Awards!
It’s a big night for the under 99-seat theater crowd. The LA Weekly Theater Awards! If the Ovations are like the Oscars, the Weeklies are like the Independent Spirit Awards. They’re the cooler, kinda quirky awards show. So I’m out of my dramaturgical shell to report in with a running diary. 5:24pm: I peruse the [...]
Bitter Lemons Acquired by LA Times
Normally I write a really important column today. But I don’t think I can beat the one that Jason Rohrer wrote today so I think I’ll just call it a day. Hooray.
Critique of the Week
The intellectual curiosity that radiates from this review is something to aspire to. THE MANY MISTRESSES OF MARTIN LUTHER KING Ernest Kearney – Working Author The first thing you should know about Andrew Dolan’s “The Many Mistresses of Martin Luther King” at the Atwater Village Theatre is that the title accounts for the entire presence [...]
Jason Rohrer Named Artistic Director of the Edgemar Center for the Arts
I’m as surprised as anyone, but that’s life in the theater. Never what you expect. It started when my phone rang this morning at 12:01. Michelle Danner introduced herself and put me on speakerphone so Alexandra Guarnieri, her sister I guess, could talk to me, too. I can’t say I was glad to hear from [...]
Who is “this one company” that seems to be Terrorizing Critic Frances Baum Nicholson?
Saw this rather sad but incredibly honest and insightful post from longtime critic Frances Baum Nicholson at her Stage Struck Review site. Frances has written theatre reviews for thirty plus years in the Pasadena area for a number of publications including the Pasadena Star-News and the Altadena Chronicle. She laments the “flames” and the “trolls” of [...]
Critic Jason Rohrer Banned from the Edgemar Center for the Arts
At least that’s what Jason told me. He got the news from his Editor-in-Chief over at Stage and Cinema, Tony Frankel, who apparently spoke to the Edgemarian Higher Ups over the phone. According to Tony, Jason is simply no longer “welcome” at the Edgemar. Apparently because of this review and this review. Yup, that’s the way [...]
RIP: Bill Dore: 1933-2012
The people who have been the most influential in my life have always been, firstly, the members of my family. But there are two other people who must be mentioned in my “influential” column as they are directly responsible for my love of theatre and my development as an artist. They are in many respects [...]
The Dramaturg: Intrinsic Impact
Yesterday, I attended the inaugural installment of LA STAGE Talks, a series of public presentations and conversations brought to us by the good people at LA STAGE Alliance. The subject was a nationwide, two-year research study called “Measuring the Intrinsic Impact of Live Theatre,” and its resulting book, Counting New Beans: Intrinsic Impact and the [...]
I’m gonna be at the LA Weekly Awards, Monday, April 2nd, are you?
Here’s the info courtesy of ArtsBeatLA: That fun-filled celebration of theater, 33rd Annual LA Weekly Theatre Awards, (affectionately known as the ‘LaWees’), is being held this year on Monday April 2, 2012 at The Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St, LA. The ‘LaWees’ will honor the best work on our city’s small stages from 2011. The show starts at 7:30pm (doors open [...]