All Entries Tagged With: "frances baum nicholson"
GOD’S MAN IN TEXAS (SIERRA MADRE PLAYHOUSE): 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Though I can’t help wishing that Rambo had pruned down the Act One sermonizing that this particular reviewer found so alienating, God’s Man In Texas turns out to be quite a play, and one well worth driving over to picturesque Sierra Madre to experience. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA BITTER Director Nancy Youngblut’s staging employs [...]
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 [...]
THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The result as a play is not bad – interesting characters that surprise us – but the company’s production of this work makes a hash of what are quaint and difficult ideas almost a hundred years on. Co-directors Allison Darby Gorjian and Betsy Roth have failed in a major way with errant casting and [...]
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 [...]
EURYDICE (A NOISE WITHIN): 94% – SWEET
SWEET It’s a satisfyingly revisionist take. Yet, somewhat unexpectedly, Orpheus and Eurydice’s youthful passion is dwarfed by Ruhl’s more resonant theme of fatherly love. Inspired by Ruhl’s own father’s early death from cancer, the play is a sweet valedictory to undying parental affection, a bond that, in this case, heroically transcends death. F. Kathleen Foley [...]
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 [...]
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (A NOISE WITHIN): 86% – SWEET
SWEET A Noise Within’s stellar production of Frank Galati’s 1990 Tony Award–winning stage adaptation honors the novel’s messages, bringing the work to the stage in a way that is sincere, memorable, and deeply relevant. Katherine Davis – Backstage SWEET A Noise Within’s production is agonizing but beautifully realized; it is an excellent example of how [...]
JANE AUSTEN UNSCRIPTED (CARRIE HAMILTON THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Every play is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece which encourages repeat visits to the theater to see what they will invent next. It is hard to imagine a better cast that that of opening night, but this reviewer has seen three Jane Austen UnScripted shows and each has been equally entertaining and delightful. Candyce Columbus – [...]
VON BACH: 94% – SWEET
SWEET Go because you genuinely want a good time: because you want to laugh, honestly and completely, and enjoy this new definition of what is termed a “date show.” Nothing says, “I love you,” like a smart comedy about the rising dead. Melissa Gordon – Playwriting in the City SWEET For anyone who has enjoyed [...]
The Bizarro World of Randall Gray
I was going to let this one go. I really was. I swear. If you missed it, as this week’s Critique of the Week (COW) I posted an absolute lashing from longtime Pasadena Star News and Stage Struck Review critic Frances Baum Nicholson on the show Doctor, Doctor!, a brand new offering from the brand new company [...]
The Saturday Saying
“Hubris is an amazing thing. The first tell-tale sign of it in “Doctor! Doctor!”, the new show at the brand new Stages of Gray in Pasadena is the most obvious. The man who wrote this piece (it is difficult to call it a play), and directed this piece, and produced this piece is also the [...]
DOCTOR, DOCTOR: 57% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Attend this show if you like to sing along numbers like “Your Eyes,” which Dr. Easton (DJ Driskill) does nicely with his pop/rock-ish voice, and if you would like the chance to serve as an extra for the spooky, yet entertaining, behavior of Dr. Cook (Jon Christie). Dena Burroughs – LA Examiner BITTER Frankly, [...]
FALLEN ANGELS (PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Shrug off that fur, have a cocktail and dish the dirt with “Fallen Angels,” Art Manke’s irresistible production of a rarely seen Noel Coward comedy, now at the Pasadena Playhouse. Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times SWEET The direction by Art Manke keeps the comic motor chugging smoothly, and he gives the women all the [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
BOEING-BOEING (LA MIRADA THEATRE): 76% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Despite director Jeff Maynard’s spirited direction and the production’s high degree of craftsmanship, accepting the goings-on requires considerable suspension of disbelief. Eric Marchese – Backstage BITTERSWEET On the other hand, these same developments also make the play considerably less hilarious than expected — I’ve laughed a lot harder at a number of other farces. [...]
When Theater Criticism Becomes Personal
Pasadena Star News and Stage Struck theater critic, Frances Baum Nicholson, has been AWOL for the last month or so due to the death of her mother. Recently she re-emerged and published this essay reflecting on how that passing has affected her as a theater critic. It’s touching and illuminating and in many ways speaks [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
SLICE: 93% – SWEET
SWEET “Slice” is lightweight, but it is fun. Frankly, watching Takahashi’s character’s irrational fear blossom is pretty much worth the price of admission. Treat this one like a small, silly treat: not enough to subsist on, but awfully entertaining in the moment. Frances Baum Nicholson – The Stage Struck Review SWEET If, on the other [...]
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 [...]
CREATION: 84% – SWEET
SWEET Still, “Creation” details the birth pangs of new art, new love, new selves. In its best moments, the play pushes beyond its cerebral premise toward something urgent and fully human. Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times SWEET One of the most fascinating new plays I’ve seen this past year, Kathryn Walat’s Creation is even better [...]
BEND IN THE ROAD: 84% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET In this tepid new musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables by co-writers Benita Scheckel and Michael Upward, the songs are fine, if forgettable; the dialogue is forgivable in its stiltedness because it is, after all, a musical; and the narrative a little long and tiresome throughout before being sped up near the end. [...]
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 [...]
CYMBELINE (A NOISE WITHIN): 90% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET If you are a lover of Shakespeare and you have been dying to see “Cymbeline” onstage, see this production. The acting is engaging, the company is clearly working with a comfortable budget, and the production makes a decent effort with a troublesome script. But if you’ve never heard of “Cymbeline” and you don’t always [...]
UNDER MY SKIN: 57% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The cast is certainly lively — Yvette Cason’s snappy, streetwise Angel and Megan Sikora as Melody’s party-hearty sidekick practically do cartwheels for laughs. But nothing can prevent this dead-on-arrival show from being shipped straight to the comedy morgue. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTER As helmed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, the hijinks consistently push [...]
HOW OBAMA GOT HIS GROOVE BACK: 78% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET In short, “How Obama Got His Groove Back” is just good enough so that it should have been better. Frances Baum Nicholson – The Stage Struck Review SWEET How Obama Got His Groove Back is a romp of fitfully amusing political sketches. And when the jokes misfire, or knock you on the head for [...]
RED (MARK TAPER): 94% – SWEET
SWEET Alfred Molina’s volcanic incarnation of painter Mark Rothko is reason enough to rush to the Taper for John Logan’s “Red,” to say nothing of the involving text and visual audacity of helmer Michael Grandage’s impeccably imported Donmar Warehouse production. Bob Verini – Variety SWEET In their finest moments, Logan’s script and Molina’s performance combine [...]
MEMPHIS (PANTAGES): 86% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET There’s grist for something real here, but DiPietro and Bryan repeatedly retreat to the lowest common denominator in script-writing and songwriting. Randy Lewis – LA Times SWEET With no dollar visibly unspent, this fable of rock ‘n’ roll’s birth serves up plenty of melody and heart along with enough energy to light up its [...]
