All Entries Tagged With: "karen weinstein"
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
CHERRY DOCS: 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Overall this is a play worth seeing and since it is at one my favorite venues it is definitely worth a trip to Topanga Canyon. Mickala Jauregui – ALittleNightMusic SWEET The inviting natural setting of the Will Greer Theatricum Botanicum could only enhance any play that performs here and that is more so 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 [...]
THE EXORCIST (GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE): 46% – BITTER
BITTER The physical production is just so much more persuasive than the dramatic encounters contained within it. The casting of Brooke Shields, lovely as always to look at, doesn’t enhance the work’s credibility, although I think she would be terrific in an alternative camp version directed by John Waters. Playing actress Chris MacNeil, the bewildered [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 — [...]
THE CONVERT: 89% – SWEET
SWEET The devastating clash between Western culture and religion and African tradition and spirituality is at the heart of this masterful new work. Director Emily Mann has mounted a production that’s as compelling as it is gorgeous. Jennie Webb – Backstage SWEET Brought to life by Emily Mann’s subtle direction, a splendid set by Daniel [...]
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 [...]
EL NOGALAR: 78% – SWEET
SWEET As soon as Gottesman speaks, though, you understand why she was cast; her Maite is charismatic, joyful, insane, a force of nature. Saracho’s boldest update is making the dynamic between Maite and Lopez overtly sexual. After their sadistic, heartbreaking love scene, hauntingly lit by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz, I will never be able to look [...]
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 [...]
OUR TOWN (BROAD STAGE): 92% – SWEET
SWEET But perhaps the biggest shocker of this “Our Town” is its refusal to bask in amber glows, wallow in folksy sentiments or indulge in shopworn sermonizing. Admittedly, the production’s power would be greater in a more intimate space. Still, this is a stunning theatrical achievement. Cromer throws dazzlingly harsh light on the truth that’s [...]
RED HOT PATRIOT: THE KICK-ASS WIT OF MOLLY IVINS: 65% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Kathleen Turner, who portrays Ivins in “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins,” which opened Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse, can’t quite duplicate the light East Texas drawl. (Turner’s signature husky tone sounds as though she’s been treating a sore throat by gargling with bourbon.) But the veteran actress has that same [...]
FILTHY TALK FOR TROUBLED TIMES (CITY GARAGE): 63% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Subtitled “Scenes of Intolerance,” this re-working of Neil LaBute’s 1989 treatise on his normal themes of heterosexual men’s fear-based dominance of perceived lesser beings, namely women and gay men, has been given an extraordinarily intelligent re-thought. Long mistaken as a anti-female misogynist, LaBute’s understandable rage over the way men (and by extension male-dominated religion) [...]
FELA! (AHMANSON RE-MOUNT): 90% – SWEET
SWEET But “Fela!” offers something that only the theater can provide — an immersion in Fela’s music, an encounter with his charismatically frenetic concert presence and a confrontation with his political style. The trade-off, trust me, is worth it. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET It’s part biography, part spiritual revival, and part defiant political [...]
Is it Possible to Divorce Ideology from Aesthetics when Writing a Review or a Play?
No. I don’t think it is. Nevertheless, I think it is vitally important to try. Or at least understand the difference. Why? Well mostly because I think the ability to do so is what separates a “professional” critic from everyone else. And it is also what separates great plays from good ones. Let me define [...]
THE NIGHT WATCHER (KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE): 93% – SWEET
SWEET “The Night Watcher” can be seen as one woman’s defense of remaining childless. But it’s really about the many ways in which maternal love can be shown in a world badly in need of more guiding hands. Given a tastefully simple production by veteran director Daniel Sullivan on a stage with a simple chair [...]
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL: 68% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Never have I been so aware of calories burned onstage before. But who goes to a musical to vicariously sweat? “Bring It On” has interminable pep but leaves more discerning theatergoers with little to cheer about. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTERSWEET Attractive cast, songs and production values will fuel the post-Ahmanson tour, though [...]
RADIANCE: THE PASSION OF MARIE CURIE: 77% – SWEET
BITTER The Geffen Playhouse production has assembled a top-notch cast and secured a fine director, but the show’s mundane recitation of facts and misplaced focus on Curie’s love life fails to become a fitting tribute or quality drama. Terry Morgan – LAist BITTERSWEET The work is exquisitely mounted by veteran director Daniel Sullivan and features [...]
Critique of the Week
VIGIL Karen Weinstein – Culture Vulture What a waste of Olympia Dukakis. Mute about 95 percent of the time she is on stage — which is just about the entire two hours — Dukakis (Grace) is stuck reacting nonverbally to Kemp (Marco Barricelli), a miserable and misery-inducing middle-age man. He has ghoulishly responded to a [...]
VIGIL (MARK TAPER FORUM): 71% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Eventually, though, the long-threatened sentimentality breaks through all obstacles (including a wild, gutsy Act 2 shocker that nearly turns the whole evening into a sick joke). The ending meanders a little, as though the writer is stalling. That it does wind up being moving owes a great deal to the performances — as well [...]
NEXT FALL (GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE): 80% – SWEET
SWEET Director Sheryl Kaller elicits multilayered performances. Marked with sensitivity and grace, this West Coast premiere rendition is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking. Les Spindle – Backstage SWEET But all credit to the company for managing to go on with the show after the death of Geffen founder and producing director Gil Cates. This offering, worthwhile [...]
POOR BEHAVIOR (MARK TAPER): 73% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Poor Behavior’s talented quartet of actors engage in a wonderful game of verbal volleyball, taking place in the wonderful world of he said, she said, bouncing from one character to the next, without any signs of any performer dropping the ball. Johanna Day, Sharon Lawrence, Reg Rogers and Christopher Evan Welch work as a [...]
THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY: 84% – SWEET
SWEET It’s unlikely we’ll see any offering this season that remotely resembles playwright Kristoffer Diaz’s balls-out theatrical happening. His vision is flamboyantly brought to life in collaboration with Edward Torres’ electrifying direction, an inspired design team, and an energetic and committed cast. Les Spindle – Backstage SWEET This production, directed by Edward Torres, whose lengthy [...]
THIS (KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE): 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Director Daniel Aukin, who helmed the play’s 2009 premiere at New York’s Playwrights Horizon, leads a brilliant ensemble, including three members of the original cast. The alternately funny and melancholy work plays out like a wistful 21st-century distillation of Chekhovian hope and longing. Les Spindle – Backstage SWEET It’s uncategorizable moments like these that [...]
HEAVIER THAN…: 55% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET A few things are working in favor of this theatrical long-shot. First, there’s the masculine beauty and brooding sensitivity of shirtless Nick Ballard, who plays the half-man, half-bull creature with a James Dean scowl, camera-ready six-pack and dapper pair of horns. Then there’s Abigail Deser’s stylish staging, which revels in the play’s springy non-naturalism [...]
JUST 45 MINUTES FROM BROADWAY (Extended Run): 60% – Sweet
SWEET Start with quite possibly the most gorgeous set ever designed for a 99-seat theater production, add to that an intelligent, witty script which reads like a 21st Century version of Kaufman and Ferber’s The Royal Family, cast it with some of L.A.’s finest stage and screen talent—and the result is Henry Jaglom’s Just 45 [...]
