All Entries Tagged With: "david c. nichols"
THE FANTASTICK (SOUTH COAST REP): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Purists may howl — I noted scattered walkouts at intermission — but that’s their loss, because ultimately this ingenious revival is enchanting. David C. Nichols – LA Times SWEET Tricks and illusions give ‘Fantasticks’ magical new life. Paul Hodgins – OC Register SWEET It’s easy to see why The Fantasticks is the longest running [...]
CHESS (EAST WEST PLAYERS): 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET There’s much more to say about this vivid production, but its best left to experience yourself. There are things here and there that were different from previous productions of the show (“Someone Else’s Story” and “Pity the Child” are both moved to the first act, albeit fairly effectively) and the love story needed a [...]
PARADE (3-D THEATRICALS): 100% – SWEET
SWEET The company 3-D Theatricals attains a rarefied level of artistry with this arresting, beautifully appointed take on Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Tony-winning 1998 account of the notorious Leo Frank trial in 1913 Atlanta. David C. Nichols – LA Times SWEET At any rate, T. J. Dawson’s staging of Parade overcomes the boxy [...]
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 [...]
Critique of the Week
I dunno, could be me, usually is, but this particular review sounds like a critic giving a show a pass. I could be wrong, it’s happened before, but I’m not even sure I know what “pleasant populist entertainment” is so… Anyhow. I provide, you decide. ASSISTED LIVING David C. Nichols – LA Times Two sets [...]
NEVERWHERE: 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Under the resourceful leadership of director Scott Leggett, utilizing every inventive trick the creative nutjobs who populate Scared Fools have to conjure, “Neverwhere” goes everywhere the imagination can take it. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET Director Scott Leggett stages the play creatively, using projections and video to create whatever locations he needs, and [...]
ASSISTED LIVING: 87% – SWEET
SWEET Holzman/Dooley fans (as well as fans of quality theatre in Los Angeles) are in for a treat as their absorbing, witty and intricately woven, Assisted Living, is making its world premiere at The Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles running weekends through May 12. Xaque Gruber – Huffington Post SWEET This amiable item from [...]
MASTER CLASS (INTERNATIONAL CITY THEATRE): 95% – SWEET
SWEET Though Berminghan’s interpretation of Callas is loaded with gravitas, credibility, and charisma, right down to her Arianna Huffington-like accent, McNally’s script may prove too pedantic for some and too profane for others. Actually based on Callas’ time as a teacher at the Julillard School, Master Class is, nonetheless, a learning experience for all. Ben [...]
ONE NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN: 95% – SWEET
SWEET In a cosmic collusion of persona and perception, this electrifying concert musical resurrects the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll with the sort of seismically sensational results normally encountered at stadiums and pop festivals. David C. Nichols – LA Times BITTERSWEET What with Carten carrying half the show, “One Night” is hardly a re-creation of [...]
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 [...]
OKLAHOMA! (CARPENTER CENTER): 95% – SWEET
SWEET But as someone raised on the Kansas/Oklahoma border with the show ingrained in his brainpan, this reviewer can safely state that when the full-throated ensemble sends the title number soaring over the orchestra pit, audiences may find it hard to avoid joining in. Yeeow! David C. Nichols – LA Times SWEET Drop what you’re [...]
WHAT MAY FALL: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Under DuPrey’s careful guidance, and with Letherer and Neiman leading the way, the actors smoothly untangle Gil-Sheridan’s web of human flaws and fears. “What May Fall” is every bit an ensemble piece, but as the bus driver who is nearly smothered by her husband’s sense of panic, Letherer—who also designed the costumes—is the production’s [...]
A HEAP OF LIVIN’: 95% – SWEET
SWEET Even beyond Shoenman’s smart and perceptive ruminations about how the heartiest of lives often devolve into dependency and fulltime nursing care, what this production has is a stellar cast of veterans, who are able to overcome some clumsy missteps. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET This marvelous threesome, tightly controlled by director Mark L. [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Runner Up
As beautifully disseminated as it was performed. WALKING THE TIGHTROPE David C. Nichols – LA Times Delicately poised between children’s fable and adult reverie at once, only to become another transcendent thing altogether, “Walking the Tightrope” at 24th Street Theatre delivers the evocative, cathartic goods. In its pitch-perfect West Coast premiere, British playwright Mike Kenny’s [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A SNOW WHITE CHRISTMAS (PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Still, if “A Snow White Christmas” is closer to countless theme-park shows than traditional panto, it will certainly enchant its targeted demographic while giving their parents a respite from the umpteenth “Nutcracker” and “Christmas Carol” on tap. David C. Nichols – LA Times SWEET The Lythgoes’ Americanization of the panto’s concepts yields a sui [...]
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (A NOISE WITHIN): 95% – SWEET
SWEET Although this impressive version of Dickens’ 1843 Yuletide classic breaks no new ground, it unfolds with fluid invention and considerable literate charm. David C. Nichols – Backstage SWEET With no intermission and using barely 90 minutes, the staging by Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott feels lean and swift, in comparison to the other variations of [...]
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDOORS (TROUBADORS): 100% – SWEET
SWEET No offense to the original cartoon’s sound track, but it’s the Doors songs that provide the theatrical oomph that allows this mild-mannered TV show to explode all over a stage, especially when performed by Eric Heinly’s hot live band. Don Shirley – LA Stage Times SWEET Well, my guests were certainly stuffed after this [...]
NORA (PACIFIC RESIDENT THEATRE): 89% – SWEET
SWEET First produced in the early ‘80s, the play receives a near-optimum staging from director Dana Jackson at Pacific Resident Theatre. In uniformly cogent performances, a superlative cast cuts to the emotional heart of Ibsen’s masterwork. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET Although the decision (by Bergman, not Jackson) to add a dramatic, pace-interrupting [...]
GATZ (REDCAT): 91% – SWEET
SWEET Theatre like this arrives once in a blue moon, and you don’t want to miss a word-for-word of it. Tony Frankel – Stage and Cinema SWEET In its simultaneous devotion to Fitzgerald’s text and ingenious expansion upon it, “Gatz” looks forward to an entirely new American theatrical form. It is quite simply not to [...]
DIRTY FILTHY LOVE STORY: 92% – SWEET
SWEET Director Elina de Santos expertly maintains the perverse energies with flagrant disregard for convention. Lighting designer Leigh Allen and sound designer Christopher Moscatiello keep the transitions crisp, and the actors hurl themselves into the chaos. David C. Nichols – Backstage BITTERSWEET Mainly, though, the play is about its premise and nothing more. With transitional [...]
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 [...]
86′D: 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Would that all indie films translated to the stage as well as “86’d” at Theatre 68. Jon Polito and Darryl Armbruster’s dark comedy about collective moral equivalency in a late-night diner weathers some blips in tone and casting to hold us in uncomfortably laughing thrall. David C. Nichols – LA Times BITTERSWEET But in [...]
THE MORINI STRAD: 85% – SWEET
BITTER That’s why, as a longtime Colony fan who loved each and every one of this magnificent seven, it pains me to report that their latest two-hander, The Morini Strad, failed to capture or hold my attention despite the best efforts of all concerned. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA SWEET Stephanie Vlahos’s theatrical direction, weaving seamlessly [...]
42ND STREET (MUSICAL THEATRE WEST): 92% – SWEET
SWEET Audiences craving unbridled pizazz should race to “42nd Street” at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach. Musical Theatre West opens its 60th season with the indestructible backstager, and scores a toe-tapping triumph. David C. Nichols – LA Times BITTER The show’s nostalgia and old-fashioned nature serve as a double-edged sword. It can be cutting [...]
FAITH: PART I OF A MEXICAN TRILOGY: 100% – SWEET
SWEET The cast could not be better. Not only do America, de la Rocha, and Delgado resemble actual sisters, they are selflessly attuned to each other, the parents of Rodriguez and Lopez, Fernandez’s surrogate mom, and both suitors, with the decision to double cast Delgado as young Esperanza and Ponce as a priest quietly inspired. [...]
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 [...]
NOVEMBER (MARK TAPER): 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET “November,” though adept and amusing, is hardly hilarious and essentially harmless. The last is what’s most wrong with it. David C. Nichols – Backstage BITTER Given the hard, cramped Mark Taper Forum seats, I for one was very glad the show ran faster than its promised 80 extremely glib minutes. Jason Rohrer – Stage [...]
THE RED ROOM: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Director James J. Mellon elicits fine performances all around, but since the characters consistently evade confrontation, the drama seldom ignites. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly SWEET Although the production was set in the classic Hollywood Golden Age, Knopf was able to manipulate the play so that today’s audience could relate to the story. But [...]
