All Entries Tagged With: "broadwayworld"
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 [...]
MY MOTHER’S KEEPER: 100% – SWEET
SWEET The writer, Jane Press, brings this remarkable cast of women to life in a real, funny, touching way. Tommy Lightfoot Garrett – Highlight Hollywood SWEET It is a moving, though sometimes very disturbing – yet ultimately healing – piece of work. Shari Barrett – BroadwayWorld SWEET The dialogue is engaging, amusing and at times [...]
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW (MORGAN-WIXSON): 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Problems plaguing the above cast members include overplaying, underplaying, mugging for laughs rather than allowing the laughs to come from the script, inserting unfunny physical shtick not in Orton’s script, and/or insufficient command of lines. Not everyone is ideally cast. All could have done much better with a firmer, surer, clearer directorial hand. Steven [...]
REAL MEN SING SHOW TUNES…AND PLAY WITH PUPPETS: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Like Avenue Q before it, Real Men Sing Show Tunes…and play with puppets proves that you can get away with just about everything (and keep even your oldest and most conservative matinee subscriber rolling in the aisles) if you do it with puppets. Looks like co-creators Louis and Santa Maria have a franchise on [...]
ONE WHITE CROW: 100% – SWEET
SWEET That being said, this is a great script and it’s a decent enough production that I am comfortable recommending it. Rose Desena – The Los Angeles Post SWEET Now onstage at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, One White Crow, labeled a work in progress, is intelligent, stimulating theatre with superb direction form Deborah [...]
FLASHDANCE, THE MUSICAL (SEGERSTROM CENTER): 42% – SWEET
BITTER Most of the original score, though, is period-unspecific, ultra-low-grade, ingénue-with-a-dream stuff. Poor Alex has to sing what seem like thousands of lines about “knowing that this is my moment” and how leaping and falling is better than never leaping at all — generic, yearning ballads that Ariel, Beauty, and the heroine of “Tangled” all [...]
I’M NOT RAPPAPORT (WEST COAST JEWISH THEATRE): 90% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET The play, like its central characters, was showing its age. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET In a tribute both to Herb Gardner’s brilliant play which, through his comically sharp dialogue, explores a myriad of social issues, especially the challenge of aging and dodging adult children who think they have your best interests [...]
BRECHT ON BRECHT (ATWATER PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET On the small, basically barren stage, featuring five mismatched chairs and one door frame attendees must walk through to enter, the sense of being in for a real treat is palpable—and this welcome new mounting of the 1961 Off-Broadway classic does not disappoint. Travis Michael Holder – ArtsInLA SWEET Directed with a keen vision [...]
IT GOES LIKE THIS: 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Written and directed by veteran actor Jack Betts, It Goes Like This is a personal story, clumsily told. Leaden-footed, as if cast in concrete, the melodramatic saga manages to be both utterly predictable yet also contain enough dramatic revelations to rival a telenovela. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly SWEET Bold in their own ways [...]
FALLING FOR MAKE BELIEVE: 92% – SWEET
SWEET Director Jim Fall and Musical Director Keith Harrison bring unexpected magic to the already magical—a neat trick. Samuel Bernstein – Stage and Cinema SWEET Falling for Make Believe rejects “falling for” the usual “make believe” that has permeated such previous dramatizations of the life of lyricist Hart as the 1948 Hollywood movie Words and [...]
THE MIRACLE WORKER (ACTOR’S CO-OP): 93% – SWEET
SWEET These actors bring visceral intensity to the battle of wits and will that erupts when Sullivan attempts to civilize the wild child, culminating in the ferocious battle over the breakfast table. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly SWEET That aside, it’s an earnest production and worth attending for the performances of the two leads. Kurt [...]
ORANGE FLOWER WATER (CREATIVE COLLECTIVE): 72% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER There are some powerful moments in Craig Wright’s “Orange Flower Water,” which deals with the shattering effect of adultery on families and innocent spouses. Unfortunately, the Creative Collective’s production suffers from a few weak performances and negligent direction. Iris Mann – Backstage SWEET A hauntingly in-depth look at the dissolution of two marriages … [...]
YEARS TO THE DAY: 82% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Rants and strategically timed revelations are not, however, ideal substitutes for strong writing. Barton’s play is a laborious 80 minutes, 15 minutes into which angry, mortality-obsessed Dan (Yavnieli) and his sensitive, secrets-stuffed buddy Jeff (LeBeau) are inducing audience weariness. This largely obnoxious and maudlin duo may be in an empty café because, after overhearing [...]
THE BARGAIN AND THE BUTTERFLY: 80% – SWEET
SWEET Ghost Road artistic director Katharine Noon’s portrait of the latter-day Promethean creator as a psychologically tortured young woman benefits from a uniformly very good cast and stellar sound, light and stage design by the team of Cricket S. Myers, Clark, and Maureen Weiss. Lyle Zimskind – LAist SWEET It is an amalgamation of elements, [...]
REMEMBRANCE (THEATRE 40): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Under the astute direction of Tim Byron Owen, an extremely talented cast brings these complicated characters to life. Carol Kaufman Segal – Stagehappenings SWEET “Remembrance” is a very special love story that you, too, will long remember. Shari Barrett – BroadwayWorld SWEET In spite of its 3 hour length, Remembrance is enjoyable dramatic fare, [...]
NUTTIN’ BUT HUTTON: 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Winningly directed by Larry Raben and featuring a versatile set by Jeff McLaughlin that morphs from Heymeister’s office to a swanky two-story art deco stage, “Nuttin’ but Hutton” has a lot of somethin’. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET This is one helluva show that never lets up on entertainment value. Don Grigware – [...]
BELZ! A JEWISH VAUDEVILLE MUSICAL (WHITEFIRE THEATRE): 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Encompassing strong denotations of the political issues that Jews encountered during WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII, Belz is laced with “laugh-out-loud” moments and thought-provoking content. Janice Marie Estrada – LifeInLA SWEET The story is humane and interesting, but what adds to the production is the music, the memorable Yiddish songs from way back [...]
TOMORROW: 91% – SWEET
SWEET Though this outstanding show will speak particularly to theater people, audiences of every stripe are sure to be enthralled. Iris Mann – Backstage SWEET That the emphasis of the play was not clear (at least to this critic) doesn’t diminish the effective impact of his love of the theatre and why it counts. Dale [...]
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PANTAGES/SEGERSTROM CENTER): 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Unfortunately, there’s nothing about “Catch Me If You Can” that inspires a repeat visit. While the cast is working hard, the material they’re working with is too flawed to make the show an enjoyable experience. Katie Buenneke – Neon Tommy BITTERSWEET These tireless touring actors nearly con us into thinking we’re seeing a show [...]
DIVORCE PARTY: THE MUSICAL: 60% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The result is formulaic truisms struggling to pass for something true. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly BITTER Mark Schwartz, producer of the runaway hit “Menopause: The Musical,” struggles to repeat that winning formula in this unfortunate outing, which features a book by Schwartz, Amy Botwinick and Jay Falzone. Falzone, who directs and choreographs, [...]
TRIBES: 89% – SWEET
SWEET With actors this emotionally connected, words are secondary. More to the point of Raine’s play, hearing is shown to depend more on an open heart than fully functioning ears. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET The conversation Tribes inspires about communication and community in the deaf world more than justifies this production. It’s unfortunate [...]
COMPANY (CROWN CITY THEATRE): 94% – SWEET
SWEET Sondheim fans and newcomers alike should take advantage of a rare chance to spend a few hours without kids in this deliciously bittersweet “Company.” Margaret Gray – LA Times SWEET Since I can’t recall a local production since Reprise staged it almost ten years ago, the rarity of Company revivals should be reason enough [...]
PARADISE: A DIVINE BLUEGRASS MUSICAL COMEDY: 96% – SWEET
SWEET This is a musical about everything we ever knew or imagined concerning exploitation versus core values. Hollywood is evil (naturally). And the entire show is a charm-fest under Dan Bonnell’s unified direction. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET The book and music, written by Bill Robertson, Tom Sage, and Cliff Wagner, is a [...]
WHEN YOU’RE IN LOVE, THE WHOLE WORLD IS JEWISH (GREENWAY COURT): 53% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The effect is like sitting for 90mins while watching someone flog a pony as it brays for relief. 90mins? It felt more like 3 hours as the vignettes are dished out in an all-you-can-eat buffet line of one-liners, wise cracks and creaky setups for a punchline that is as crusty as week old challah [...]
JEKYLL & HYDE (PANTAGES THEATRE): 68% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER But like Dr. Jekyll scrambling to undo the chemical formula that has turned him into a part-time lunatic, Calhoun lacks the fundamental ingredients to pull off the transformation. Which is to say he’s stuck with Leslie Bricusse’s book and lyrics and Frank Wildhorn’s music, and not even the most resourceful chef can make a [...]
TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK (ACTORS CO-OP): 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Actors Co-op gives us a well-mounted production, as usual, but the decision to have three actors portray the playwright prohibits emotional investment in the character. Perhaps when the play was originally produced in 1969, the battle for racial equality and the still-fresh wounds caused by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the year [...]
TOM RUBIN – SUCCESS GURU: 87% – SWEET
SWEET Need a wake up call about how to be happy in life by accepting that failure is an option? See the show and laugh at yourself. I guarantee you will leave the theater looking at life in a more logical, if warped, way thanks to Tom Rubin – Success Guru. Shari Barrett – BroadwayWorld [...]
AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND (NOHO ARTS CENTER): 100% – SWEET
SWEET The Co-op production certainly had its rewards, but the results that Reed achieves prove much more satisfying. His sparkling rendition celebrates the breadth and beauty of the Kander-Ebb songs and the formidable talents of his cast without trying to force the wide-ranging songs into an unnecessary framework. Les Spindle – EdgeLosAngeles SWEET Though now [...]
CHINGLISH (SOUTH COAST REP): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Directed by Leigh Silverman, who staged the work on Broadway, “Chinglish” gleams with witty intelligence about the dizzying divide that separates the world’s two economic superpowers. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Hwang brilliantly blends character, dialogue, and the idea that even when bilingual interpreters are present, translations are fraught with errors and misconceptions, [...]
THE DEEP THROAT SEX SCANDAL: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET There have been so many derivative works based on the same history, from the more thorough and reliable 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat to the splendidly inventive and perceptive 2009 locally premiered rock musical, Lovelace, that this pleasant and sympathetic yet relatively pedestrian rendering lacks much justification save for those thoroughly uninitiated. Myron Meisel [...]
