THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT (VICTORY THEATRE): 66% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER Apart from a show-stealing cameo by John Gentry as Pontius Pilate, director Patrick Riviere’s muddied staging is unable to inject dramatic insight or urgency into Guirgis’ tendentious excuse for...
View ArticleMOMMUNE: 75% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Even with fun ideas and poignant moments, this piece lacks a follow through that requires either, well, poignancy or fun… or both. As of this moment, in spite of some solid performances and...
View ArticleONE NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN: 94% – 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...
View ArticleMRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION (ANTAEUS): 90% – 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...
View ArticleEURYDICE (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...
View ArticleTHE 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,...
View ArticleAMERICAN BUFFALO (GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE): 81% – SWEET
SWEET David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” is set in a junk shop, but there are jewels to be found in the play and they are thrillingly laid out for us in the Geffen Playhouse’s dynamically acted...
View ArticleTHE BEAUX’ STRATAGEM (A NOISE WITHIN): 95% – 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...
View ArticleSLIPPING: 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...
View ArticleTHE PARISIAN WOMAN (SOUTH COAST REP): 83% – 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...
View ArticleI LOVE A PIANO (3-D THEATRICALS): 100% – SWEET
SWEET It’s a thread of a story, to be sure, but enough to make this evening more than just a walk down memory lane. Each section – from Tin Pan Alley to The Great Depression to the Stage Door Canteen...
View ArticleROME AT THE END OF THE LINE: 95% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET Although the dialogue is witty (the play is performed in Spanish, with English supertitles, which often pop onscreen a little too early, stomping on some of the punch lines), director...
View ArticleDANGEROUS CORNER (CROWN CITY THEATRE): 66% – BITTERSWEET
BITTERSWEET Unfortunately, the clever and gripping text, the talented ensemble of actors, and an elegantly dressed space are wasted because of Lamb’s disjointed, comic-gothic vision of Priestley’s...
View ArticleDEATH OF A SALESGIRL: 100% – SWEET
SWEET Death of a Salesman goes into a cinematic blender, which transforms the original’s thematic preoccupations into a noir grudge match between the past and present. Mindy Farabee – LA Weekly SWEET...
View ArticleROOM 105: THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF JANIS JOPLIN: 83% – SWEET
BITTER Instead of making something extraordinary and gripping that honors the legacy of those in the “27 Club,” projects such as Room 105: The Highs and Lows of Janis Joplin, now playing at the Macha...
View ArticleCritique of the Week – Runner Up
Yup. The man with three names says it all. If you missed it. You missed it. DEATH OF A SALESGIRL Jesse David Corti – Stage and Cinema BETTER THAN THIN MINTS FROM A GIRL SCOUT The World Premiere of...
View ArticleTEA, WITH MUSIC: 60% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER But too much of director Jon Lawrence Rivera’s production feels episodic. The flashback scenes play as narration, not drama. Characters come and go so quickly it’s hard to connect with any of...
View ArticleANYTHING 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...
View ArticleA 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...
View ArticleCritique of the Week
I cheated a little this week – mostly cuz I find myself unplugging as Christmas approaches and also because the reviews are barely trickling in this week - but more importantly because this review...
View ArticleNOTES FROM UNDERGROUND (ZOMBIE JOE’S UNDERGROUND): 88% – SWEET
SWEET exaggerated faces and take chances that would make a Meisner teacher question his calling. Does this creative abandon and lack of established boundaries work for the dark and brutally...
View ArticleTRACK 3: 86% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET While the 80-minute evening follows more or less the entire arc of Chekhov’s original it feels oddly incomplete. For long-time fan’s of the company, missing is the normally aggressive and...
View ArticleBACKBEAT: 65% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER The design team turns the Ahmanson stage into a virtual black-and-white movie. It’s nice to look at, but Leveaux never finds a way to piece together the two stories, especially in act two. The...
View ArticleTHE 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...
View ArticleCHESS (EAST WEST PLAYERS): 60% – BITTERSWEET
SWEET There’s much more to say about this vivid production, but its best left to experience yourself. There are things here and there that were different from previous productions of the show (“Someone...
View ArticleCritique of the Week – Runner Up
This one caught my eye because I read it almost immediately after reading David C. Nichols’ LA Times’ review of the same play. The stark contrast between this one by Jesse and David’s praiseworthy...
View ArticleTHE LAST DAYS OF MARY STUART: 87% – SWEET
BITTERSWEET However, the contract of an opera promises a drama. Instead, I received a fifty-minute concert tone poem. Last Days faces a bold decision: Will it be a concept album performed and recorded...
View ArticleA SHORT STAY AT CARRANOR: 56% – BITTERSWEET
BITTER In a love story, the overly used device of having a character dying of a fatal disease has been done to death (no pun intended), and in order for any story to overcome such a barrier, it should...
View ArticlePERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE (A NOISE WITHIN): 100% – SWEET
SWEET The performers are all first rate. But it is Rodriguez-Elliott’s buoyant imagination that lifts this “Pericles” into the stratosphere. Indeed, some of her innovations — martial arts priestesses...
View ArticleTHE GUARDSMAN (A NOISE WITHIN): 85% – SWEET
SWEET Toss in a seamless supporting ensemble and first-rate production values, and you couldn’t ask for a finer example of how captivating and downright fun live theater can be. Philip Brandes – LA...
View Article
