All Entries Tagged With: "laist"
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL: 88% – SWEET
SWEET In fact, the dogged professionalism of the production may both underlie its shortcoming of vision and be its saving grace. The actors, all seasoned veterans, know how to hold the stage and impart the necessary emotional information with broad clarity and touching skill, though depth is pointedly avoided. For a show that is amply [...]
ATTACK OF THE ROTTING CORPSES (ZOMBIE JOE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Attack Of The Rotting Corpses is a fun ride. It’s a comedy horror mash-up that will shock you, only to have you beg for more. Spencer Cotter – The_Detective SWEET The whole show’s a riot, both very funny and, in a couple of key moments, truly scary as well. (Gross, too, of course, so [...]
HEART SONG: 81% – SWEET
SWEET Boasting top-notch direction from Shirley Jo Finney and a resplendent cast, Heart Song is a life-affirming poem that must be experienced at the Fountain Theatre through July 14. Don Grigware – BroadwayWorld SWEET The play, itself, was so both funny and sad at the same time. Sachs deserves kudos for being able to effectively [...]
DYING CITY: 89% – SWEET
SWEET Directed by Michael Peretzian and starring Laurie Okin and Burt Grinstead, the production serves Shinn’s drama admirably. The acting is as meticulously observed as it is emotionally tense. And though confined to a cramped room, the staging fluidly handles the shifts of time and situation. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET The ambiguities that [...]
THE CRUCIBLE (ANTAEUS): 97% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET As for the differing styles of delivery, it’s a brave theatrical device, but it was used for one of the few plays I know that doesn’t need deconstructionist staging. It’s like chipping away at some of the marble on Michelangelo’s David to display it in a smaller museum. Yes, there were moments that I [...]
MISS JULIE (GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE): 67% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET A few minutes into this “Miss Julie,” you might think that the Geffen Playhouse started out with a traditionally cast “The Heiress” and then switched plays after losing a few key supporting players. Julie’s fall at the hands of this John isn’t so devastating. But the injustice of her money and his lack of [...]
The Saturday Saying(s)
“The ancient Greeks, with their complicated notion of catharsis, thought theater could speak to these questions. Great plays, like Medea or MacBeth, have taken us into unspeakable acts and if not made sense of them – at least honestly plumbed their depths. The folks at Boston Court couldn’t have imagined how their choice of plays [...]
THE PARISIAN WOMAN (SOUTH COAST REP): 85% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET The result, at least in this entertaining if ultimately puzzling world premiere — which unites the star power of rising director Pam MacKinnon (“Clybourne Park”); actors Dana Delany, Steven Culp and Steven Weber; scenic designer Marion Williams; and sound designer Cricket S. Myers — still feels stuck between two genres, its transformation incomplete. Margaret [...]
AMERICAN MISFIT: 63% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET Via songs by Mr. Dietz and Phillip Owen, painstaking and inventive direction by Michael Michetti, and the enthusiastic participation of a four-man rockabilly band and a cast of eight (some overlap there), this show shouts encouragement to those who would participate in a collective political and spiritual evolution. If the show were a person, [...]
SLIPPING: 100% – SWEET
SWEET The deconstructed text is challenging – hopping back and forth in place and time utilizing a plethora of short scenes packed into eighty-five minutes – but the experience is compelling and occasionally shocking (there is also male nudity in this production). Ultimately, the play’s strength lies in its honest depiction of abuse and loneliness. [...]
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 [...]
THE BARGAIN AND THE BUTTERFLY: 80% – SWEET
SWEET Ghost Road artistic director Katharine Noon’s portrait of the latter-day Promethean creator as a psychologically tortured young woman benefits from a uniformly very good cast and stellar sound, light and stage design by the team of Cricket S. Myers, Clark, and Maureen Weiss. Lyle Zimskind – LAist SWEET It is an amalgamation of elements, [...]
MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION (ANTAEUS): 95% – SWEET
SWEET Shaw’s 1893 ground-breaker makes an exciting return to Los Angeles as The Antaeus Company premieres another if its couldn’t-be-better revivals starring the incomparable Anne Gee Byrd in the title role. Who could ask for anything more? Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA SWEET A strong, able cast led by Robin Larsen’s firm direction makes George Bernard [...]
ALABAMA BAGGAGE: 13% – BITTER
BITTER Taking aim at a topic as loaded as the revolver with which its characters take turns menacing one another, Buddy Farmer’s “Alabama Baggage” centers on the traumatic scars of childhood sexual abuse. The drama’s first full staging at Theatre Asylum falls short of its serious intentions, however, with the need for further development still [...]
MIKE TYSON: THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH (PANTAGES): 78% – SWEET
BITTER There are several moments when Tyson is both funny and charming, but I guess if you take enough punches to the head anyone can be charming. The charm doesn’t make up for one of the sloppiest presentations I’ve ever seen on stage. One can argue that the almost improvisational feel of the show, which [...]
SEXSTING: 92% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET “Sexsting” walks some awkward lines. Baizley’s intention may not have been to defend pedophiles, but she certainly does make you feel sorry for JohnnyD. Though her drama is at times powerful, it’s more likely you’ll leave “Sexsting” feeling dirty rather than entertained. Katherine Davis – Backstage SWEET Both Itzin and Cullum give believable, sympathetic [...]
LADYHOUSE BLUES (ANDAK STAGE COMPANY): 78% – SWEET
SWEET Director Anne McNaughton gets fine work from her cast, and keeps the pacing swift enough that the show flies by. O’Morrison’s play works on multiple levels other than just a strong story for a quintet of actresses, from a study of how women in wartime cope without men to an example of how at [...]
SKETCHES FROM THE NATIONAL LAMPOON (HAYWORTH THEATRE): 63% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Some of that is-nothing-sacred irreverence still haunts the theatrical debut of “Sketches from the National Lampoon” at the Hayworth Theatre, though too often as a ghost of former greatness. Philip Brandes – LA Times SWEET “Sketches From the National Lampoon” is simply a series of revisited goofy blackout skits, no doubt. It has no [...]
CHINGLISH (SOUTH COAST REP): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Directed by Leigh Silverman, who staged the work on Broadway, “Chinglish” gleams with witty intelligence about the dizzying divide that separates the world’s two economic superpowers. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Hwang brilliantly blends character, dialogue, and the idea that even when bilingual interpreters are present, translations are fraught with errors and misconceptions, [...]
THE DEEP THROAT SEX SCANDAL: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET There have been so many derivative works based on the same history, from the more thorough and reliable 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat to the splendidly inventive and perceptive 2009 locally premiered rock musical, Lovelace, that this pleasant and sympathetic yet relatively pedestrian rendering lacks much justification save for those thoroughly uninitiated. Myron Meisel [...]
THE MISADVENTURES OF RICK THE STRANGLER: 83% – SWEET
SWEET I recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind a little blood and a lot of laughs, but especially to young aspiring playwrights and actors. Peterson moves freely in and out of theatrical modes and clichés, commandeering each to serve his purpose. There are two original song and dance numbers, a stage that morphs with [...]
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, [...]
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 GOOD NEGRO (HUDSON MAINSTAGE): 86% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Upward Bound’s production engages with some savvy writing and a few solid performances, but the splintered storytelling and a director’s questionable staging make this nearly three hour affair (including a fifteen minute intermission) decent instead of great. Jesse David Corti – Stage and Cinema BITTERSWEET But this production labors to overcome a cast that [...]
THE GRAND IRRATIONALITY: 60% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Kennedy’s characters may talk about big ideas and make many sales pitches, but it’s unlikely that audiences will be sold on “The Grand Irrationality.” Katherine Davis – Backstage SWEET Is this play funny? Yes. Will Kennedy’s outlet for revenge stand the test of time and become a classic for the ages? Probably not. Is [...]
LAist’s 10 Favorite Theater Productions of 2012
And yet ANOTHER list of Top Ten Favorite Los Angeles Theater Productions of 2012 this time from those wacky folks over at LAist. More specifically, theater critics, Mia Bonadonna, Lyle Zimskind and Terry Morgan. Their faves are as follows (in no particular order); Bad Apples Waiting for Godot Goose and Tom-Tom The Book of Mormon Xanadu [...]
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 [...]
The Saturday Sayings
“I don’t know whose idea it was to set the entire show in a dingy office and have the actors play workers who are sliding in and out of Gatsby roles as they go about their work day, but I think this concept adds nothing to the production. Far better that they’d just done Gatsby [...]
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 – [...]
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 [...]
