Thursday, February 7, 2013
The talented cast is far too good for the contrived, superficial moments in Joanna Murray-Smith's new work at the Geffen Playhouse.An appealing and capable cast keeps the flicker of hope ali…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:29PMMonday, February 4, 2013
David Henry Hwang's cross-cultural comedy of ideas, now playing at South Coast Repertory, shows how words, manners and mores can get lost in translation.Words aren't the only thing that gets…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:45PMFriday, February 1, 2013
The group is shown as a hard-driving cover band working to hit it big in the promising but ultimately disappointing musical at the Ahmanson.To all those graying rockers turned middle-class p…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:47AMTuesday, January 29, 2013
Amy Herzog's '4000 Miles,' directed by Mark Rucker, is a coming-of-age drama that finds laughter in cockeyed yet utterly believable detail.SAN FRANCISCO — Amy Herzog, a breath of fresh…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:30PMFriday, January 25, 2013
'Ganesh Versus the Third Reich,' now at Freud Playhouse, tells a captivating tale of the Indian deity descending to reclaim the swastika from the Nazis.Many of the elements that make up "Gan…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:23PMSunday, January 20, 2013
Director Nicholas Martin's sure hand, handsome production and stellar cast make the revival of George Bernard Shaw's classic play a triumph from start to finish.SAN DIEGO — For some th…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:05PMFriday, January 18, 2013
This theological meet-up between an ailing Sigmund Freud and author C.S. Lewis at the Broad Stage sticks mostly to the surface.Sigmund Freud considered religion a mass delusion, a sort of gr…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00AMMonday, January 14, 2013
The Stephen Adly Guirgis play at the South Coast Repertory showcases raw authenticity as it weaves the story of an ex-addict stumbling along the path of recovery."The Mother… With the…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:15PMFriday, January 11, 2013
Cheek by Jowl's touring production of John Ford's " 'Tis Pity" stirs up the theatricality to a dizzying degree, but remains compulsively, if scandalously, watchable.Before Quentin Tarantino,…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMSunday, December 16, 2012
At the Broad Stage, a production gives a fair glimpse of a Shakespeare frolic's glories, both outlandish and refined.Shakespeare throws caution to the wind in "Cymbeline," a late romance so …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00PMSaturday, December 15, 2012
The year was enriched by lively pairings of plays and interpreters. Beckett and Chekhov come off especially well, with recent writers Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris doing nicely too.…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00PMMonday, December 10, 2012
Cutting remarks meet tender familiarity in the Mark Taper Forum's production of Jon Robin Baitz's crackling play.If like me you come from a mixed family, meaning there are conservative Repub…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:45PMThe Oscar winner's mere presence throws off the play's balance, not that the adoring audience would have noticed. But the actor's scattershot approach is distracting as well.NEW YORK —…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AMMonday, December 3, 2012
For a satisfying alternative to the standard theatrical holiday fare look no further than 'A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!' and 'Coney Island Christmas.'Christmas obviously isn't for …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:15PMSaturday, December 1, 2012
The playwrights' portrayal — as an actor — of the character George's nature in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is a stunning achievement.NEW YORK — Tracy Letts has his ha…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00AMFriday, November 30, 2012
An hours-long retelling of Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby,' 'Gatz' is ably served by the innovative cast and crew of Elevator Repair Service."Gatz," Elevator Repair Service's celebration of …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:57PMThursday, November 29, 2012
The Broadway play starring Norbert Leo Butz as a New York banker who absconds with millions from his job and returns to Cincinnati to help his middle-class family goes to extremes with chara…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00PMTuesday, November 20, 2012
The Flaming Lips-inspired score is the highlight of the literary-challenged 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' at La Jolla Playhouse.LA JOLLA — Futuristic theatrical effects are deploye…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:35AMFriday, November 16, 2012
The fresh-faced approach to 'Hamlet' by the Shakespeare's Globe may not bring on the tears, but a good time is had by all at the Broad Stage.Tired of the pomp and circumstance of costume dra…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:20PMThursday, November 15, 2012
At 85, the singer fully grasps life's meaning and channels it through songs we know but have never before heard like this.Legend has it that Juan Ponce de León set off for the New World in …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:22PMMonday, November 12, 2012
Lynn Nottage's 'Intimate Apparel,' at Pasadena Playhouse with Vanessa Williams ('Soul Food'), is a portrait of a black seamstress working in obscurity in 1905.Artists come in many varieties.…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:00PMThursday, October 25, 2012
Michael Golamco's glossily directed play revolves around a gloomy video game designer living with his dead wife's computerized ghost. Will his mood ever lift?Gather round, 21st century drama…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 06:40PMTuesday, October 23, 2012
Finally, L.A. gets a look at a play by the much-talked-about Tarell Alvin McCraney: his expressionistic tale of a young woman with choices to make.Beyond the fact that it is sensational, the…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:10PMMonday, October 22, 2012
'You Can't Take It With You,' by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, gets a labored staging by Antaeus Company.The bohemian Sycamore family of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's Pulitzer Prize-w…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:20PMAs President Obama and Mitt Romney debate Monday, theatrical presentation will be scrutinized. But personalities should lead to ideas.The final presidential debate between President Obama an…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:30AMThursday, October 18, 2012
Theresa Rebeck's 'Seminar,' starring Jeff Goldblum at the Ahmanson Theatre, is entertaining in its details and dynamics, but the story and sitcom humor falter.Masochism is the chief prerequi…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:02PMWednesday, October 17, 2012
The Actors' Gang's staging captures the silliness of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy. The problem remains the dizzying plot.Let's congratulate the Actors' Gang for at least bringing some …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 01:00AMFriday, October 12, 2012
John Hurt eloquently stars in Samuel Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape' at Kirk Douglas Theatre in a production directed by Michael Colgan.With his shock of silver-gray hair, his face etched by t…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:00AMThursday, October 4, 2012
Visually, this telling of Sarah Ruhl's rethought Orpheus tale is a stunner. The whimsy, though, is overplayed."Eurydice," Sarah Ruhl's playful retelling of the Orpheus myth from a female per…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:44PMThursday, September 27, 2012
Lynn Nottage takes a fictional look at a real actress, providing a view into the sisterhood of African American women as they face a world skewed against them.Theresa Harris was an African A…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:35PMWednesday, September 26, 2012
The latest revival of David Mamet's 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' at the La Jolla Playhouse, is a tense and well-paced production thanks to the strong cast.As long as America is America, land of op…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 07:15PM 
