All Entries Tagged With: "evan henerson"
JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE (MARK TAPER): 93% – SWEET
SWEET This powerfully acted production of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum under the direction of Phylicia Rashad, is a gift for audiences hungering for theatrical nourishment after being fed a steady diet of snacks. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Thesps Keith David, Glynn Turman and John [...]
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 BEAUX’ STRATAGEM (A NOISE WITHIN): 84% – SWEET
SWEET For educational value alone, it’s wonderful to see the play produced professionally, but under Julia Rodriguez-Elliot’s direction, A Noise Within’s production makes it clear why the play was so popular back in its day. “The Beaux’ Stratagem” is immensely funny, and it’s quite entertaining to watch such a well-crafted play. Katie Buenneke – Neon [...]
AMERICAN BUFFALO (GEFFEN): 80% – SWEET
SWEET David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” is set in a junk shop, but there are jewels to be found in the play and they are thrillingly laid out for us in the Geffen Playhouse’s dynamically acted production directed by Randall Arney. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Nevertheless, Mamet’s world, despite its grounding in acute social [...]
LUNCH LADY COURAGE: 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET The cast of local teenagers, community members, and professional actors revives old material to tackle modern social issues and creates something that is relevant, memorable, and moving. Katherine Davis – Backstage BITTERSWEET The experience of watching Lunch Lady Courage is estranging and ultimately feels like an extraordinarily well-produced amateur talent show rather than Theater [...]
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 [...]
ON THE SPECTRUM: 82% – SWEET
SWEET Watching the beautiful work of Virginia Newcomb and Dan Shaked Iris and Mac, two challenged young people trying to negotiate something resembling first love, is witnessing a flag being planted for hope, sensitivity, and artistic progress. The production that director Jacqueline Schultz surrounds them with ain’t shabby either. Evan Henerson – Backstage SWEET On [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
CASSIOPEIA: 71% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET If you’re in a mood to give yourself over to rich imagery richly (sometimes too richly) conveyed, you’ll encounter something rare and beautiful. Bob Verini – Variety SWEET Part dream drama, part choreo-poem, the 75-minute three-character work, directed by Emilie Beck, charms both the brain and the senses. Evan Henerson – Backstage SWEET Still, [...]
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 [...]
FREUD’S LAST SESSION (BROAD STAGE): 76% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET For “Freud’s Last Session” to be a deeper play it would have to take a freer hand with the characters, exploring the textures of their inner lives rather than simply surveying their intellectual positions. St. Germain playfully illuminates some of the contradictions in their characters, but the piece sticks mostly to the surface, satisfying [...]
CYMBELINE (BROAD STAGE): 94% – SWEET
SWEET “Cymbeline” has no business being on anyone’s top 10 Shakespeare list, but it has its glories — most of them outlandish, though a few that are breathtakingly refined. Fiasco’s revival gives us a fair glimpse of both. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTERSWEET What the company lacks in skill, they make up for in [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
CONEY ISLAND CHRISTMAS: 79% – SWEET
SWEET As with many gifts, the wrapping isn’t much to speak of, in this case a weak framing narrative taken from a Grace Paley short story. But what’s inside – not one but two kid pageants superbly staged by Bart DeLorenzo, and a pan-denominational message – is a jewel to be cherished. Bob Verini – [...]
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 [...]
ONE NOVEMBER YANKEE: 83% – SWEET
SWEET Taking its name from the tail number of a crashed airplane, “One November Yankee” at the NoHo Arts Center is about a disaster rather than being a disaster, which is always the better side of the equation for a new play to be on. Philip Brandes – LA Times BITTERSWEET Overall, though, One November [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
KRAPP’S LAST TAPE (KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE): 96% – SWEET
SWEET The emphasis on humor in Michael Colgan’s visiting Gate Theater Dublin production, executed by the brilliantly talented John Hurt, makes it easier to swallow Beckett’s bitter pill. Bob Verini – Variety SWEET A truly great actor, Hurt’s performance is riveting. His voice, both the pre-taped version and when he speaks live, is rich with [...]
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 BOOK OF MORMON (PANTAGES): 100% – SWEET
SWEET This national tour production gets the job done, matching the stampeding verve, if not the granulated sharpness, of the original Broadway production. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET The joyous West Coast premiere of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone’s Tony-winning gusher doesn’t just meet expectations; it tramples them. Neither Broadway musicals nor [...]
EURIPIDES’ HELEN: 73% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Rivera’s production swerves—not always smoothly—between consequences-of-war pathos and high comedy, usually defaulting to the latter. Evan Henerson – Backstage SWEET But Rivera’s staging, floating on music composed by musical director David O, has its scattershot charms. The production, enriched with Adam Flemming’s video design and Mylette Nora’s flamboyant costumes, is a jaunty visual stew. [...]
THE GRONHOLM METHOD: 97% – SWEET
SWEET Director BT McNicholl does a laudable job of keeping the action kinetic while leading his actors to remain calm, cool, and cagey. All four performers are outstandingly understated, though their roles could be played to the hilt of theatrical grandiosity. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET Director BT McNicholl often takes the audience to [...]
INHERIT THE WIND (OLD GLOBE): 83% – SWEET
SWEET Neither the trial nor the 1955 theatricalization was as straightforward as it appeared, but for today’s audiences, solid revivals like Adrian Noble’s Old Globe Festival staging (through September 25) still draw currency from the ongoing science-religion stalemate. Cristofer Gross – TheaterTimes SWEET At the Old Globe this fact doesn’t stop Adrian Noble’s spirited cast [...]
LOS OTROS: 46% – BITTER
BITTERSWEET “Los Otros” is curious about the manifold layers of personal identity, but in a desultory way that deprives the work of sufficient dramatic pressure. The Southern California lens adds local interest, but that and first-class underscoring aren’t enough to transform these essayistic compositions into riveting theater. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTERSWEET While some [...]
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 [...]
