All Entries Tagged With: "Atwater Village Theatre"
THE ANATOMY OF GAZELLAS: 87% – SWEET
SWEET Aided by a superb design team, director Jon Lawrence Rivera neatly addresses the play’s vagaries, balancing the playful and the mysterious in a thoroughly nifty production that contains a wealth of ingenious effects, most notably Keith Skretch’s knockout video design. And if we sometimes suspect that Schoenberg and Rivera are merely messing with our [...]
OUR CLASS: 86% – SWEET
SWEET A performance so powerful that the audience and cast were shaken to their core. Some including myself could not help but cry afterwards. Spencer Cotter – The_Detective SWEET The cast here had to do more than realize these, but bring them to life. They did so with such heart and skill I did what [...]
S.O.E.: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Director Darin Anthony’s dynamic direction shifts seamlessly from the light-hearted to the cataclysmic, and his well-matched performers chart that progression with completely credible craft. However, once the play shifts from character study to unfolding mystery, Brandli should have conformed to the rules of the mystery genre. As it is now, her play devolves into [...]
THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE: 80% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET What puts this craziness over are the actors, who achieve a high-water level of mayhem, righteously plowing ahead when the laughs don’t come. That indicates the show’s liability: Yockey has some bright ideas and a knack for deliberate repetition and well-placed F-bombs, but the relatively shallow content and underused theatrical self-reference warrant another round [...]
DOESN’T ANYONE KNOW WHAT A PANCREAS IS?: 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET The play certainly has potential with some further finessing, but for now, it is a enjoyable, but flawed new work. Katie Buenneke – Neon Tommy BITTERSWEET Real continuously misses rich opportunities to create outrageous conflict, settling instead for more jokes. For now, her short filmic scenes, played out between unnecessary furniture shuffling in interminable [...]
BAD APPLES: 77% – SWEET
SWEET Anybody concerned that Circle X’s new musical about America’s most notorious prisoner-torture atrocity was going to be some sort of Abu Ghraib: The Musical! can rest easy; Bad Apples is a thoughtful, penetrating and theatrically thrilling meditation on the all-too-human dimensions of what Hannah Arendt famously called the banality of evil. LA Weekly BITTER [...]
YEAR OF THE RABBIT: 82% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET The gravity of the text and the production illustrate the sober care the author and her director, James Eckhouse, have taken in telling this harrowing story. But given the complicated issues it raises and the intricate character arcs it describes, the play would work better if it were twice as long and (to assist [...]
KOMITAS: 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Komitas is an interesting, engaging and emotional play that has all of the major elements of one man’s struggle within himself: his passions and choices vs. his destiny. Arpine Eloyan – OnStageLosAngeles SWEET It’s an interesting and absorbing play, but as I indicated earlier, it helps if you’re Armenian. Cynthia Citron – LA [...]
Newsflash: Theatre is Alive and Well in LA
First off, do yourself a favor and go to the Geffen Playhouse, get some rush tickets if you need to and go see Good People. There is no better example of how to tell a story on stage running in Los Angeles right now. Much of what I see in town is Spectacle looking for [...]
ETERNAL THOU: 91% – SWEET
SWEET Matt McCray distinguishes himself with Eternal Thou as one of the most inventive and, pardon the pun, plugged-in theater makers in LA. He’ll leave you thinking about that iPhone in your pocket a little differently. Anthony Byrnes – Opening the Curtain SWEET McCray’s staging blurs the distinctions between the actors-as-tech-components and actors-as-people, so that [...]
HOUSE OF GOLD: 77% – SWEET
SWEET The beauty of McFadden’s and her professional crew’s efforts for this production and the other shows I’ve seen at the Atwater Village Theatre is that they spend the energy and truly invest talent and cash to commit fully to the edgy and innovative productions they opt to mount. This is disturbing material and though [...]
STRANGER THINGS: 66% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Johnson endows Helga with a curious charm, and the show’s somber, claustrophobic tone is leavened by dry wit (Mother: “This is what God is doing to us.” Helga: “God doesn’t care about us. We’re not his type.”). And just when the story seems predictable, it twists into something genuinely chilling. Charlotte Stoudt – LA [...]
BETWEEN US CHICKENS: 67% – SWEET
SWEET In 90 minutes, Alvarez tackles the changing face of today’s 20-somethings. Unlike many youthful and superficial comedies, hers presents a somewhat darker face on surviving in a place like Los Angeles, suggesting that the inherent character of success may lead to an opportunistic and destructive ending. Debate certainly doesn’t end with the final curtain. [...]
It takes an Atwater Village Theatre…
If you haven’t been to the Atwater Village Theatre yet – go. The two resident companies, Circle X and EST-LA are currently running a regular Tom Jacobson fest, The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) and House of the Rising Son respectively. Both plays by Jacobson. Saw House of the Rising Son and it was excellent. It truly [...]
HOUSE OF THE RISING SON: 94% – SWEET
SWEET Tom Jacobson takes a giant step forward with his engrossing, provocative “House of the Rising Son” — note the spelling. It’s nothing less than a comprehensive homosexual ecology that kicks off in a graveyard and ends in a bed: life engagingly turned upside down. Bob Verini – Variety SWEET Still, The House of the [...]
THE CHINESE MASSACRE (ANNOTATED): 75% – SWEET
SWEET The ensemble cast is expertly led by the visionary directing of Jeff Liu. Their collective talent carries the audience as the play vacillates between right brain emotionality and the rapid-fire delivery of historical dates and annotations designed to remove the viewer from the trauma of the events as they unfold. The cast delivers extraordinary [...]
The Potable Quotable
The Atwater Village partnership of EST—LA and Circle X Theatre, discussed at greater detail here, may well turn out to be a model of how theater companies can cooperate. Far too many L.A. companies are oblivious to the existence of other companies. Members of the LA theatrical community should not meet one another only at [...]
CRACK WHORE GALORE: 100% – SWEET
SWEET It’s not a life-changing event, but the energy electrifies, the music is surprisingly good and the performances are top-tier. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET This raw and rollicking hour of performance-based satire is funnier than even the first act of Mlle. God and a fitting riposte to Kazan’s Lulu, whose sexual appeal [...]
Atwater Village Theatre: THE Next Los Angeles Theatre Hot Spot
That’s right. You heard it here first. Well, actually, you probably didn’t. Or you shouldn’t have. Heard it here first. Cuz it’s already hopping. What I’m trying to say is that there have already been numerous stories on this great new complex -AVT to those already in the know – home to Circle X Theatre [...]
MLLE. GOD: 77% – SWEET
BITTER There is certainly an argument for looking at the plays again and putting a contemporary spin on them. That is exactly what playwright Nicholas Kazan has attempted. And he has failed miserably. Noble intentions are to be praised, but there is simply no excuse for inadequacy. The writing is discursive and fatally dry. He [...]
Atwater Village a New Arts Destination
Atwater Village “between the river and the tracks” It’s shaped like a banana and borders the 5 freeway. Neighboring areas include Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, Glendale, Griffith Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. Atwater Village is where you meet new friends at the Farmer’s Market and conduct ongoing conversations with your baristas. Many have experienced [...]
