All Entries Tagged With: "paul birchall"
ONE WHITE CROW: 100% – SWEET
SWEET That being said, this is a great script and it’s a decent enough production that I am comfortable recommending it. Rose Desena – The Los Angeles Post SWEET Now onstage at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, One White Crow, labeled a work in progress, is intelligent, stimulating theatre with superb direction form Deborah [...]
RAISE ME UP (SANTA MONICA PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Raise Me Up is directed by Chris DeCarlo. A cast of extremely fine actors bring so much life into the characters. Dialects are absolutely perfect. Costumes by Ashley Hayes are wonderful as they always are in all productions at the Santa Monica Playhouse. Visca has written a wonderful tribute to her parents, and the [...]
SCULPTRESS OF ANGEL X (ZJU): 80% – SWEET
SWEET Gotta say the entire cast grabbed my attention and held it. This play explores extremes, the heights as well as the depths, leaving us certain the journey is far from over. David MacDowell Blue – Night Tinted Glasses SWEET Sculptress of Angel X bridges the gap between knowing and understanding the emotions artists struggle [...]
HEART OF DARKNESS (ACTORS’ GANG): 100% – SWEET
SWEET This stripped-down Actors’ Gang production zooms in on Finney’s intensely contained performance as Marlow, the seaman who tells the story of his obsessive pursuit of the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader who has come to symbolize, among other things, the insatiable greed of imperial conquest. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET The Actor’s Gang [...]
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 [...]
MINDSPIN: 83% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET “Meta” might be a bit of an overused critical term these days, but it’s an apt description of this intriguing if ultimately flimsy performance art piece about performance art pieces, from New York City’s Ugly Rhino Theater Company. Paul Birchall – LA Weekly SWEET UglyRhino’s MINDSPIN delivers a energetic jolt to what audiences expect [...]
RANK: 82% – SWEET
BITTER “Rank,” by Irish playwright Robert Massey, is an unremarkable, derivative, and predictable piece that is neither fish nor foul. Billed as a “darkly comic thriller,” it is hardly noirish enough to be a thriller, nor is it funny enough to be considered a comedy. Because the script lacks any dramatic or comedic tension, we [...]
DREAMGIRLS (DOMA): 100% – SWEET
SWEET You’ll definitely enjoy the glitter and the spectacle. Serita Stevens – LASplash SWEET Armed with some impressive singers, this latest production of Dreamgirls does not disappoint. Darlene Donloe – Donloe’s Lowdown SWEET The latest offering “Dreamgirls” Directed by Marco Gomez is yet another glowing example of what musical theatre should be. As the cast [...]
WHAT MAY FALL: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Under DuPrey’s careful guidance, and with Letherer and Neiman leading the way, the actors smoothly untangle Gil-Sheridan’s web of human flaws and fears. “What May Fall” is every bit an ensemble piece, but as the bus driver who is nearly smothered by her husband’s sense of panic, Letherer—who also designed the costumes—is the production’s [...]
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 [...]
A HEAP OF LIVIN’: 95% – SWEET
SWEET Even beyond Shoenman’s smart and perceptive ruminations about how the heartiest of lives often devolve into dependency and fulltime nursing care, what this production has is a stellar cast of veterans, who are able to overcome some clumsy missteps. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET This marvelous threesome, tightly controlled by director Mark L. [...]
TOM RUBIN – SUCCESS GURU: 87% – SWEET
SWEET Need a wake up call about how to be happy in life by accepting that failure is an option? See the show and laugh at yourself. I guarantee you will leave the theater looking at life in a more logical, if warped, way thanks to Tom Rubin – Success Guru. Shari Barrett – BroadwayWorld [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
NORA (PACIFIC RESIDENT THEATRE): 89% – SWEET
SWEET First produced in the early ‘80s, the play receives a near-optimum staging from director Dana Jackson at Pacific Resident Theatre. In uniformly cogent performances, a superlative cast cuts to the emotional heart of Ibsen’s masterwork. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET Although the decision (by Bergman, not Jackson) to add a dramatic, pace-interrupting [...]
ANNA LUCASTA (LATC): 100% – SWEET
SWEET Although director Ben Guillory’s staging suffers from occasional pacing lags that remind you that this is a rather long play, the ferocity of the play’s emotions rings true and draws in the audience in a way that more modern, less naturalistic dramas rarely do. Much of the credit for the show’s success must be [...]
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 [...]
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (ACTOR’S CO-OP): 100% – SWEET
SWEET If you are in the mood for a mild-mannered mystery with excellent performances, this production of And Then There Were None will be right up your alley. If, however, you are looking for an edge-of-your-seat nail biter, you would be better advised to book passage to another destination. Tom Chaits – Stage and Cinema [...]
THEATRE IN THE DARK: DARK (EVENING ONE): 96% – SWEET
SWEET In a seamless staging, the dozen performers move through the blackness with almost uncanny agility and poise. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET It’s creative and imaginative and full of surprises. Rose Desena – Los Angeles Post SWEET Some ideas don’t even sound good on paper. This one, however, turns out to be [...]
THE RIVALS (ACTORS GANG): 75% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET True, the goofy flamboyance often seems a tad effortful. But the fireworks of Sheridan’s verbal wit are still mesmerizing. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Wit is of paramount importance in this sort of show, and, to its credit, director David Schweizer’s glimmering production—almost too hip and sassy for the Post Restoration Era—crackles with [...]
POTENTIAL SPACE: 87% – SWEET
SWEET Directed by Bill Voorhees, the show registers as raunchy, reiterative, at times histrionic; it is also honest, funny and, speaking as a woman, easy to relate to. As a performer, Vangsness, who seems to specialize in loopy ladies with a forthright edge, does not disappoint. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly SWEET The result is [...]
A KIND OF LOVE STORY: 100% – SWEET
SWEET For those who love the genre as much as I, and even for you who might normally turn your noses up at another boy-meets-girl (or in this case doesn’t-meet-girl) tale, A Kind Of Love Story makes for a highly enjoyable entry in this Fall 2012 theater season. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA SWEET Nevertheless, the [...]
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Yet one wonders if each of the play’s sections were more tautly defined, and its transitions marked more strongly, the parts that make up the whole wouldn’t blur into each other as they now do. This would be a subtle but powerful sharpening — very much possible in the show’s extended run — that [...]
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 FULL MONTY (THIRD STREET THEATRE): 80% – SWEET
SWEET Thus the production now at the Third Street Theatre, replete with perfect direction and cast, is ever so timely in the wake of this crucial upcoming election, a wake up call for Americans to take action against ignorance and inhumanity. Don Grigware – Grigware Blogspot SWEET Nevertheless, director Richard Israel is not someone to [...]
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 [...]
ELEPHANT ROOM: 55% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET They succeed by the seat of their pants, which is to say through their collective free-form wits, recognizing that the only definition of theater that matters is the one that begins with giving pleasure to an audience. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET No, “Elephant Room” may not be theater—or work as well as [...]
