All Entries Tagged With: "dany margolies"
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 62% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The 1993 romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” has been turned into a stage musical that can best be described as pointless in Pasadena. Robert Hofler – Variety SWEET Artistic director of the Playhouse, Sheldon Epps, directs his cast adroitly around John Iacovelli’s multilevel set populated with projections and moving wagons. It’s a Broadway musical, [...]
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (AHMANSON): 90% – SWEET
BITTER With “Scottsboro,” it doesn’t help that Stroman has pushed her actors, as she did on Broadway, to perform minstrel as if they were in a high-school production, as if egregiously over-the-top bad acting would indicate the genre’s inherent awfulness. It’s curious how a director could make us laugh at the soulless gay characters in [...]
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 [...]
THE ROYALE: 73% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET “The Royale” doesn’t penetrate all that deeply into the story of a boxer who made history for himself, his sport and his country. But its lively manner of telling reanimates this breakthrough saga for a new generation. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Daniel Aukin stages a mesmerizing spectacle with a perfect five-member ensemble. [...]
COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS: 86% – SWEET
SWEET Klier’s script builds to a riveting first-act climax with masterful pacing and economy. The second half would benefit from further development, particularly in the placement of some character revelations and digressive conversations that defy credibility given the high-stakes situation that’s been so skillfully established. Still, the fine performances keep this new piece as gripping [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
MAD FOREST (OPEN FIST): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Add to this Mazor’s traffic-control direction, the dusky lighting design by Wyatt Bartel/PRG-LA, and Tim Labor’s ominous sound design and original compositions that sound straight out of Carpathian villages, and the whole makes for an impressively evocative and provocative evening of theater. Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA SWEET Mad Forest, with its heavily expository nature, [...]
THE NETHER: 97% – SWEET
SWEET Like the hard-core radical voyeurs in Jennifer Haley’s terrific sci-fi play “The Nether,” you won’t want to leave the Hideaway, that site on a futuristic Internet that caters to men in search of Victorian children. Nor will you want to leave the Kirk Douglas Theater, which gave Haley’s play its world premiere. Robert Hofler [...]
END OF THE RAINBOW: 79% – SWEET
SWEET No real-life tragic heroine has ever gone into that good night quite as ungently as Garland does in “End of the Rainbow,” which manages to send you out wondering whether you’ve just seen a cautionary bummer or a high-on-life theatrical thrill-aganza. Better that we don’t have to decide and can just agree to mark [...]
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 [...]
SEXSTING: 92% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET “Sexsting” walks some awkward lines. Baizley’s intention may not have been to defend pedophiles, but she certainly does make you feel sorry for JohnnyD. Though her drama is at times powerful, it’s more likely you’ll leave “Sexsting” feeling dirty rather than entertained. Katherine Davis – Backstage SWEET Both Itzin and Cullum give believable, sympathetic [...]
MACHU PICCHU, TEXAS: 100% – SWEET
SWEET That McNeil’s staging achieves such uniform and tightly-orchestrated performances from the entirety of his 11-member cast is all the more impressive — there are no weak links in this finely-tuned ensemble effort. Philip Brandes – LA Times SWEET It’s an angry, dysfunctional family again, folks, but this time the intensity is mitigated by a [...]
BACKBEAT: 65% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The design team turns the Ahmanson stage into a virtual black-and-white movie. It’s nice to look at, but Leveaux never finds a way to piece together the two stories, especially in act two. The Beatles glide upstage and down on a platform, Sutcliffe and Kirchherr move across stage on a series of sofas and [...]
DRIVING MISS DAISY (SIERRA MADRE PLAYHOUSE): 83% – SWEET
SWEET Anyone interested in that period of history should enjoy the play not to mention the relationship between feisty Miss Daisy and her sparring partner Hoke. Serita Stevens – LASplash SWEET Still, “Driving Miss Daisy” remains, at heart, a play about distinct and interesting individuals. Impressive actors can make this piece what they will, and [...]
WALKING THE TIGHTROPE: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Director Debbie Devine and her cohorts have fashioned from scratch something incredibly special, suggesting the feeling of a sweet summer dream staged by Federico Fellini. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET Devine’s staging is quite entrancing, and White even overcomes the perils of being a grown woman cast as a young girl. Don Shirley [...]
GIVING UP IS HARD TO DO: 71% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET While “Giving Up Is Hard to Do” does not belong on a must-see list, it could well find an audience among the theater-party crowd. Iris Mann – Backstage BITTERSWEET What doesn’t work here is the setup—the introduction and conclusion, the excuse for Annie to tell her story. The main substance, the point of the [...]
GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH: 93% – SWEET
SWEET These are mighty questions that “Ganesh,” a small but rippling production, leaves you pondering. It’s a piece in which a hug, proffered by the wispy Laherty to a fellow performer after a brutal scene, turns into an eloquent statement about what it means to be a human being. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET [...]
TRACK 3: 86% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET While the 80-minute evening follows more or less the entire arc of Chekhov’s original it feels oddly incomplete. For long-time fan’s of the company, missing is the normally aggressive and wonderful design. The lighting lacks specificity and the sound score doesn’t feel as intricately layered. Still, it’s thrilling to watch a company do what’s [...]
THE SNAKE CAN: 80% – SWEET
SWEET Yet Graf’s core instincts are sound, the quips and faceoffs suggesting actual human discourse, and Kaczmarek and Harrison form the tonal poles of a wonderful ensemble. See it with someone you love in spite of yourself. David C. Nichols – LA Times BITTERSWEET Director Steven Robman does the heavy lifting of keeping his talented [...]
THE GRAND IRRATIONALITY: 60% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Kennedy’s characters may talk about big ideas and make many sales pitches, but it’s unlikely that audiences will be sold on “The Grand Irrationality.” Katherine Davis – Backstage SWEET Is this play funny? Yes. Will Kennedy’s outlet for revenge stand the test of time and become a classic for the ages? Probably not. Is [...]
‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE (FREUD PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Cheek By Jowl’s revival leaves you with the same disquieting frisson of a Tarantino film or McDonagh play, raising questions about the artistic purpose of shock and horror that have no easy answers and may send you home more disturbed than entertained. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET The true pity would be to [...]
OTHER DESERT CITIES (MARK TAPER): 76% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET What should be a perfect storm, alas, isn’t. Working with watchable and often affecting material, Egan and his cast of five feel like they’re trying to wrestle two or three disparate plays into a shapable entity. Despite a career-stretching performance by JoBeth Williams and strong work by the consistently reliable Robert Foxworth, “Other Desert [...]
RED BARN: 100% – SWEET
SWEET As already mentioned, this is a workshop production of a piece that’s still in development. As such, it has much to recommend it. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET However, likely responsible for much of the storytelling’s success are the acting abilities and engaging presences of the actors, again particularly those two leads. [...]
THEATRE IN THE DARK: DARK (EVENING ONE): 96% – SWEET
SWEET In a seamless staging, the dozen performers move through the blackness with almost uncanny agility and poise. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET It’s creative and imaginative and full of surprises. Rose Desena – Los Angeles Post SWEET Some ideas don’t even sound good on paper. This one, however, turns out to be [...]
THE MUESLI BELT: 80% – SWEET
SWEET Director Sean Branney gets commendable work from his cast, generating enough emotion in a short period of time that the audience cares about them and their dilemma quickly. Terry Morgan – LAist SWEET Yet despite the play’s shortcomings, Branney and his tightknit ensemble keenly evoke a period of bygone possibility — just before the [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Up
Some critics are able to move seamlessly from the world of edited print publications to the less-edited blogger-critic sites. Bob Verini of Variety and now ArtsInLA fame is one such critic. Unfortunately and with much due respect, I can’t say the same for Dany Margolies, longtime with Backstage and now one of the creative forces [...]
VINCENT (VS THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET As performed by French-born actor Jean-Michel Richaud, this insightful and often moving 1981 solo show penned by Leonard Nimoy transcends the usual clichés surrounding the high-maintenance artist with the tortured relationship to his aural appendage. Philip Brandes – LA Times SWEET Still, it takes an actor and director to fully create Theo and his [...]
DEATH OF A SALESGIRL: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Death of a Salesman goes into a cinematic blender, which transforms the original’s thematic preoccupations into a noir grudge match between the past and present. Mindy Farabee – LA Weekly SWEET This play was written by Patricia Scanlon, and brilliantly directed by Matt McCray. Award-winning animator Dan Lund, video designer Adam Fleming and sound [...]
BUILD: 62% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Sadoski, who can always be counted on for textured individuality, humanizes Kip, making him a prisoner of his own fixated brilliance. If only the character had more to do than metabolize his guilt while removing the networking bugs in his video game design. By the time Kip’s bathrobe is discarded for a set of [...]
