All Entries Tagged With: "kurt gardner"
CRUMBLE (LAY ME DOWN JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE) (THEATRE 68): 92% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET ‘Twas a shame such a marvelous canvas wasn’t utilized by stronger performances. G.S. Morales – LA Theater Critic SWEET Strip the play of all its craziness and universal struggles emerges that everyone deals with: death and discovering what it means to love. At the end of the day, Crumble is a coming-of-age story about [...]
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 [...]
MARILYN – MY SECRET: 81% – SWEET
SWEET Like all great film actors, Marilyn radiated a magic all her own. This dramedy with songs fleetingly captures Marilyn – then she’s gone – but Kelly Mullis deserves applause for her delightful, loving impersonation. Morna Murphy Martell – Theatre Spoken Here SWEET This is a scintillating, bawdy, and well performed production. A voyeuristic crowd [...]
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 [...]
TRAINSPOTTING (ELEPHANT THEATRE): 89% – SWEET
SWEET “Trainspotting” is definitely not for the squeamish or faint of heart. It is often as gag-inducing as it is thought-provoking, but with strong direction and performances the production finds the right balance between grim and funny. Katherine Davis – Backstage BITTER The play lives up to expectations – a waste of time. Serita Stevens [...]
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS (THEATER ASYLUM): 83% – SWEET
BITTER Overall this is not really a night of theater. It is a night of soap-boxing, and a poor one at that. Mickala Jauregui – A Little Night Musing SWEET In short, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” is a wonderfully-orchestrated piece of theater that successfully walks the fine line between entertainment and [...]
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 [...]
AVENUE Q (DOMA THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET With its unique blend of humor and heart, complete with puppet sex, inappropriate language, Internet porn, partial puppet nudity, and a final message that reminds us that “Everything in life is only for now,” I guarantee you’ll leave with a smile on your face. Ellen Dostal – Musicals in LA SWEET DOMA Theatre Company [...]
SILENCE! THE MUSICAL: 91% – SWEET
SWEET Musically, the show wants only to get a rise out of the audience. Silliness is the name of the game, and there’s a slapdash quality to the proceedings that, were it not so openly embraced, might seem amateurish. Instead, the buffoonery (although a tad prolonged) seems almost artful. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET [...]
THE FANTASTICKS (THEATRE WEST): 66% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Sorry to say that this production of the now classic The Fantasticks is a notch below what we’ve come to expect from Charlie Mount and the Chestnuts series at Theatre West. Don Grigware – Grigware Blogspot SWEET It’s hard to go wrong with a musical that audiences have already loved for more than 50 [...]
TAKE ME OUT (RATMO): 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Great production mixed with America’s favorite past time makes this a wonderful show and a definite must see. Mary E. Montoro – LifeInLA BITTERSWEET Either because the material itself is now somewhat dated or the cast is too green to pull it off, Take Me Out ultimately lacks the impact that its playwright surely [...]
JENNIFER ANISTON STOLE MY LIFE (BEST OF FRINGE): 83% – SWEET
SWEET The situation’s faux good cheer was distressingly well-observed under Deborah Geffner’s staging. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET The play was well-written by Jon Courie, expertly directed and well cast. It was happy, sad, reflective and thought-provoking. All in all, it was the kind of stupendous art that I have grown to expect [...]
DOOMSDAY CABARET (BLANK THEATRE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET It’s a brisk and amusing show. Kurt Gardner – Blog Critics SWEET There were some spoken moments at the beginning that almost petered out the fun, and a few of the gags are a bit ‘put on’ but by the time “The End Approaches” the audience is right there with them in zany spirited [...]
NO WAY AROUND BUT THROUGH: 58% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Something feels wrong when you’d rather follow the B story of Jacob and Holly’s best friends, sex addicts who at least get to the point (and amiably played by Bre Blair and Val Lauren, who also directs). Caan is interested in the limits of language, yet sometimes his muddled, logorrheic lovers suck too much [...]
SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD: 46% – BITTER
SWEET Each song is a stand alone experience that transports the audience to a realm of hope and guiding light. Serita Stevens – LASplash BITTERSWEET DOMA Theatre Company presents a mixed bag of vocal talents backed by a bang-up band in Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World,” an hour-and-45-minute theatrical [...]
BITCHSLAP!: 79% – SWEET
BITTER Director Odalys Nanin has staged it with some cleverness but cannot overcome the problem of drag artistes overplaying their characters, which includes the sole female, Therese McLaughlin, as Hedda Hopper, one of the two major gossip columnists of the era. Michael Taylor Gray does a better job of finding the quiet reality of his [...]
JITNEY (SOUTH COAST REP/PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 78% – SWEET
SWEET Director Ron OJ Parson’s near-optimum current staging at South Coast Repertory unearths the rich humor, mingled with nearly unbearable poignance, that is also typical of Wilson’s work. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET At South Coast Repertory, director Ron OJ Parson’s “Jitney” is more somber and less flamboyant than McClinton’s was, but it [...]
OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET (THEATRE 68): 91% – SWEET
SWEET When Our Lady comes to its conclusion, you realize that you’ve just witnessed an exorcism of sorts. Some of the characters come away transformed; others continue trudging down the same path they’ve followed for years. Kurt Gardner – Blog Critics SWEET All of this makes for a rich and engaging ensemble piece, despite the [...]
THE HEIRESS (PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 97% – SWEET
SWEET The theater might want to frisk future ticketholders for produce, or add an anger-management session to the bill: It’s that hard to handle the emotions provoked by this gorgeously directed and acted revival. Margaret Gray – LA Times SWEET “The Heiress” can easily devolve into a potboiler costume drama in the wrong hands, but [...]
FINDING THE BURNETT HEART (THEATRE 48): 93% – SWEET
SWEET Jeremy Aldridge’s direction elicits fine work from his impeccable cast and illuminates the play without calling attention to itself. Andrew Menzies’ set is handsome, modest, and convincingly lived-in. Neal Weaver – Backstage BITTERSWEET Paul Elliott’s play has its moments, but it feels rather dated even though it’s set in the present time. That said, [...]
Critique of the Week – Runner Up
I saw this show – AGAIN – in its latest incarnation and it just keeps getting better. Kurt captures it nicely here. URBAN DEATH Kurt Gardner – Blog Critics The Zombie Joe Theatre Group’s perennial Urban Death has returned to North Hollywood in a new edition to shock and entertain discriminating audiences. Taking his inspiration [...]
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (THEATRE BANSHEE): 91% – SWEET
SWEET Yet director Sean Branney, who won a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Award for his direction of last season’s “The Crucible,” largely redresses that pitfall by emphasizing the comical in a surprisingly rollicking staging. And if all that high energy occasionally verges on the manic, the production nonetheless scores high points as a richly cogent [...]
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (ACTOR’S CO-OP): 90% – SWEET
SWEET O’Neill’s autobiographical classic is not an easy work to stage or to watch. With four main characters, four acts and a duration of three-and-a-half hours, it’s an endurance test from both sides of the stage. However, when it’s done well, it can be absorbing and rewarding, especially for those with a taste for drama [...]
THE WHO’S TOMMY (DOMA THEATRE): 70% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The production at the Met has no such saving grace. Samuel Bernstein – Stage and Cinema SWEET Thanks to its terrific cast and band, The Who’s Tommy starts DOMA’s 2012 season with a bang. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA SWEET This captivating rock opera musical is largely due to the handsome, talented, charismatic young actor, [...]
AFTER THE FALL (LILLIAN THEATRE): 80% – SWEET
SWEET Director Rozsa Horvath has mounted a commendably handsome production, commingling music, lighting, sound and video (designers Vinnie Reyes, Michael Gend, Matt Richter and William Barker/Bruce Allen respectively) to create an appropriately baleful ambiance. Unattributed – LA Weekly BITTERSWEET Miller offers a serious challenge to director RoZsa Horvath and her generally able cast by being [...]
THE SPIDEY PROJECT: 89% – SWEET
SWEET What emerges for the audience is the enjoyment of watching a young and eager group of well-meaning performers having a darn good time. There’s something quite infectious about that. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET In a nutshell, The Spidey Project is an immensely fun, funny, and lean 75 minutes of good time. Ellen [...]
GEEKS! THE MUSICAL: 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET To successfully bring this theme into the world of live musical theater, it must be done with true artistic genius. Misuraca, along with director Bennett Cohon, producer Anne Mesa, music by Ruth Judkowitz, and the support of the Write Act Repertory, accomplish this mission impeccably. Bonnie Priever – Tolucan Times BITTER In the end, [...]
CANDIDA (CHRYSALIS STAGE): 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Unfortunately, director Andrea Gwynnel Morgan pushes production toward broad comedy, blunting Shaw’s sharper insights. Lewis and Leland have the requisite Shavian chops, but any nuance they might bring feels quashed by the show’s forced tone. Uribes’ truth-telling, socially phobic nerd appears drawn from the catalog of Johnny Depp’s more mannered performances. Everyone seems to [...]
YOURS, ISABEL: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Still, with its nostalgic Greatest Generation setting, “Yours, Isabel” offers an affectionate look at an age when overcoming absence required more than mere email. Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times SWEET Playwright Christy Hall reinvents the epistolary play (one based on an exchange of letters) with her zesty, captivating World War II romance Yours, Isabel, [...]
OSWALD: 67% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET For those of us who witnessed the unfolding of the remarkable real-life drama in television newscasts, this production elicits a feeling of déjà vu. For others, it offers an instructive glimpse at a landmark moment in a bygone era, when innocence began to fade away, preceding Vietnam, Watergate, and other calamities. Les Spindle – [...]
