All Entries Tagged With: "christopher cappiello"
THE CRUCIBLE (ANTAEUS): 97% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET As for the differing styles of delivery, it’s a brave theatrical device, but it was used for one of the few plays I know that doesn’t need deconstructionist staging. It’s like chipping away at some of the marble on Michelangelo’s David to display it in a smaller museum. Yes, there were moments that I [...]
PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS: 97% – SWEET
SWEET Most of the seven actors play multiple roles. They are all gifted with physical agility, grace, and easily switch between different realities and characters. As important is their ability to communicate wonder and joy believably — particularly as adults playing children — and the cast at the Blank Theatre is more than up to [...]
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 [...]
DREAMGIRLS (DOMA): 100% – SWEET
SWEET You’ll definitely enjoy the glitter and the spectacle. Serita Stevens – LASplash SWEET Armed with some impressive singers, this latest production of Dreamgirls does not disappoint. Darlene Donloe – Donloe’s Lowdown SWEET The latest offering “Dreamgirls” Directed by Marco Gomez is yet another glowing example of what musical theatre should be. As the cast [...]
WOLVES: 69% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Director Michael Matthews and his game cast intently embrace the darkness, but Yockey’s newest work doesn’t seem ready to be honored with such a ferociously ardent effort to make it whole. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage BITTER He directs the actors, to the varying degrees that they can take direction, toward real motivations and [...]
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 [...]
THE GIFT: 55% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER An appealing and capable cast keeps the flicker of hope alive that Joanna Murray-Smith’s play “The Gift” will be worth our time despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. But by the end of this 90-minute comedy even the actors seem done in by the effort of sustaining the illusion that there’s something important [...]
PETER PAN (PANTAGES): 96% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Without negating the freshness of Rigby’s performance, “Peter Pan” in 2013 is ripe for a genuine reinterpretation rather than just the amiable rehash at the Pantages. Lewis Segal – LA Times SWEET Barrie has been unjustly overshadowed as a writer by this domineering success: while his plays often evince the sentimentality of arrested development, [...]
Frontiers’ Best of Los Angeles Theater 2012
Another top ten list to peruse. This from critic Christopher Cappiello over at Frontiers. Chris seemed to enjoy some of the larger venue offerings more than some of our other listers, but he did concur with me on this particular show: The Celebration Theatre’s world premiere of Justin Love showed that a musical about a [...]
ANYTHING GOES (AHMANSON THEATRE): 90% – SWEET
SWEET After seeing opening night of “Anything Goes” at that Ahmanson, I’m still humming the tunes this morning. In these dark economic times this top notch Roundabout Theatre Company production is a great pick me up. Jana Monji – LA Examiner SWEET Could tap-dancing possibly be as fun as Rachel York makes it look? She [...]
AVENUE Q (DOMA THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET With its unique blend of humor and heart, complete with puppet sex, inappropriate language, Internet porn, partial puppet nudity, and a final message that reminds us that “Everything in life is only for now,” I guarantee you’ll leave with a smile on your face. Ellen Dostal – Musicals in LA SWEET DOMA Theatre Company [...]
THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA (A NOISE WITHIN): 85% – SWEET
SWEET Fortunately, in the play’s lively current staging at A Noise Within, director Dámaso Rodríguez and a ready cast ride Shaw’s hobbyhorse themes at a full gallop, blowing past the piece’s occasional stodginess with sheer comical verve F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times BITTERSWEET Shaw’s passionate distrust and satirical takedown of the medical profession is [...]
SEMINAR: 70% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Theresa Rebeck’s “Seminar” is a sturdy example of a genre that once ruled Broadway but is now more or less defunct: the intellectual light comedy. With its literary lion (Jeff Goldblum) roaring and sniffing out red meat among his writing group’s eager acolytes, “Seminar” is fueled more by plot mechanics than by the thrum [...]
BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK: 73% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” would rather be antic than preachy. This is a reasonable if not an entirely necessary trade-off. But Lathan fills out the human dimension of a character Nottage clearly loves too much to weep over. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTERSWEET The evening at the Geffen is overall something [...]
JUSTIN LOVE: 88% – SWEET
SWEET “Justin Love” could thrive from a move to larger quarters, where production numbers could be as grand as Lori Scarlett and David Manning’s catchy score and Scarlett’s delightfully irreverent lyrics, without losing the sweetness and simplicity of what ultimately emerges as a great Hollywood-style love story. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET Though a [...]
XANADU (DOMA): 92% – SWEET
SWEET DOMA Theatre Company has hit it out of the park, er, out of the skating rink, with its production of “Xanadu,” a fun-filled, high-energy, camp evening of strong voices, good dancers and feel-good 1980s songs. Gil Kaan – Culture Spot LA BITTERSWEET The script is full of clever lines and funny quips and boisterous [...]
THE BLUE IRIS: 57% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET “The Blue Iris” may not represent the author of “Boesman and Lena,” “‘Master Harold’ … and the Boys” and “Valley Song” at the peak of his powers, but it provides tantalizing insight into an artist who continues to do his country and world theater proud service. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTERSWEET Clocking in [...]
MACBETH (ANTAEUS): 95% – SWEET
SWEET From that heartbreaking opening funeral—director Kubzansky’s invention which informs the rest of the play—the couple’s intensity and depth of feeling for each other is riveting. Mr. Nagle gives the lord a humanity that is by turns appealing and appalling. Ms Auberjonois’ decent into madness is truly effective. Steve Peterson – Grigware Blogspot SWEET At [...]
WAR HORSE (AHMANSON THEATRE): 88% – SWEET
SWEET If you can only see one play this year, make it “War Horse.” Jean Lowerison – SDGLN SWEET Yes, it’s sentimental. Yes, there are scenes that might have given even as inveterate a melodramatist as Charles Dickens pause. But this 2011 best play Tony winner, which launched its national tour at the Ahmanson Theatre [...]
BITCHSLAP!: 79% – SWEET
BITTER Director Odalys Nanin has staged it with some cleverness but cannot overcome the problem of drag artistes overplaying their characters, which includes the sole female, Therese McLaughlin, as Hedda Hopper, one of the two major gossip columnists of the era. Michael Taylor Gray does a better job of finding the quiet reality of his [...]
FOLLIES (AHMANSON THEATRE): 91% – SWEET
SWEET There’s so much to praise in the blissful Broadway revival of “Follies,” which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre on the heels of its numerous Tony nominations, but let’s pay homage first to the sheer sophistication of the show itself. After experiencing “Follies” again — an adult entertainment if ever there was one — [...]
NAKED BEFORE GOD: 83% – SWEET
SWEET We all like to say “support the theatre.” We should be more specific: Support GOOD theatre. Go see this show. Go because it is balls-deep funny. Go because Circle X wants to entertain YOU, not just themselves. And in the end, it’s all about mutual pleasure, isn’t it? Andrew Moore – MadTheatrics (scroll down) [...]
WAITING FOR GODOT (MARK TAPER): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Any chance the Taper could produce more revivals of this caliber? Beckett is no doubt right about the confounding ache of existence, but this “Waiting for Godot” provides theatrical hope. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Michael Arabian’s stunning revival of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” at the Mark Taper Forum never wears the [...]
THE COLOR PURPLE (CELEBRATION THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Above all, this exuberant “Color Purple” creates an opportunity to count blessings — including 99-seat theaters that take on challenging shows with minimal budgets. Celebration Theatre’s raise-the-roof production shows up the bigger, better-funded venues in town. In L.A., less is so often more. Pantages, Center Theatre Group, La Mirada, are you watching? Charlotte Stoudt [...]
THE SEAGULL (ANTAEUS): 82% – SWEET
SWEET I’ll admit it. When I hear the name Chekhov, the first words that pop into my head are dull, somber, and talky. That’s why it’s such a pleasure to report that the Antaeus Company’s revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull not only held my attention virtually throughout, it actually had me laughing more times [...]
FIGURE 8: 91% – SWEET
SWEET A kind of dramaturgical fun house, “Figure 8” sometimes tries too hard to catch us off guard with startling imagery. But Kiyomura’s exercise in distortion has the power to genuinely haunt, especially in this sterling staging — the optimum medium for this intriguing experiment. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET The eight vignettes [...]
EXPECTING TO FLY: 83% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Hyman’s decent writing doesn’t offset the dense stasis that sets in early on, or a central conceit that wears terribly thin. The convenient Twilight Zone-inspired finale doesn’t offer much satisfaction either, but the performances are outstanding. Lovell Estell III – LA Weekly SWEET Hyman brings us a taut, convincing, carefully calibrated anatomy of a [...]
CLYBOURNE PARK (MARK TAPER): 92% – SWEET
SWEET Can a drama be memorable if all its characters are disagreeable? Bruce Norris proves that it’s possible in “Clybourne Park,” his smart, abrasively funny and fiendishly provocative play that opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Director Pam McKinnon adeptly guides a strong ensemble through Norris’ steady stream [...]
Some LA Critics Offer Their “Must-See’s” for 2012
Bill Raden offers his top ten in ascending order over at LA Weekly: 10. El Nogalar (The Pecan Orchard) (Fountain Theatre, Now) 9. All-Night Barbecue (The Odyssey, Summer) 8. Waiting for Godot (Mark Taper, March) 7. The Internationalists (South Coast Rep Studio, March) 6. Anton’s Uncles (South Coast Rep Studio, June) 5. The Past Is [...]
FRUIT FLY: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Leslie Jordan has invited us to the foyer of his southern home for an evening of down-home humor and deep admiration for his momma in his new bawdy yet touching one-man show, Fruit Fly, now at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles. Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania SWEET Directed by David Galligan (in fact, this [...]
