John Bunzel may be a veteran film and television writer, but he has never wandered far from his roots in the theater, where he has been plying his trade for more than 30 years. Anyone who ha…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:05AMThe scales are balanced between the straightforward and the offbeat in the 99-Seat Beat, our weekly recommendations for Southern California’s small stages. Arthur Miller’s “The Price�…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:36PMJulia Sweeney is no stranger to the solo show. "God Said, ‘Ha!’” from 1996 recounted her brother’s struggle with terminal cancer as well as her own diagnosis, just weeks before his d…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:52PMMartin McDonagh, the celebrated playwright who also found big-screen success with “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” began his career penning bleak Irish dr…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:29PM“The End of Sex,” a new play by Gay Walch at the Big Victory Theatre, commences with the kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge sexual innuendo that could have been lifted from an episode of “…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:48AMThe locale of “Southernmost,” presented by Playwrights’ Arena in Atwater Village, is as compelling as any character in Mary Lyon Kamitaki’s entertaining but limited new play. Naalehu…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:35PMJourneys into the past is the common theme on the 99-Seat Beat, our weekly look at Southern California’s small-theater scene. Reminiscences — comical and poignant — drive “The Lost V…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMMany are likely to misconstrue Stephanie Alison Walker’s new play “Friends With Guns” as a forceful defense of gun ownership. They couldn’t be more wrong. Second Amendment issues are…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:05PM“Hype Man,” the third in Idris Goodwin’s series of hip-hop “break beat” plays, is an audacious choice for the Fountain Theatre. Let’s face it, most stage audiences do not appear …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:35PMWhen it comes to communication, humans can have dangerously selective hearing, as demonstrated this week in the 99-Seat Beat, our look at L.A.’s small-theater scene. Sarah DeLappe’s Puli…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMFairy-tale nuts will get a huge kick out of “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” a Pigpen Theatre Co. production now in a limited run at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AMAn intellectual’s intellectual, playwright David Hare specializes in a kind of theatrical exegesis, exploring the philosophical motivations behind immensely complicated characters. No exce…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:50PM“Born to Win,” a riotous farce set in the dog-eat-dog world of child beauty pageants, and “The Joy Wheel” a broadly humorous take on a marriage in crisis, lead offerings from L.A.’…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMA radically revisionist “Antigone” made in the Black Lives Matter era seems the ideal vehicle to launch us into Black History Month and lead our weekly look at L.A.’s theater scene. Ot…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMThe consequences of imperfect communication — say, a conversation among strangers at a roadside bar or the strained discussions between a husband and wife at a crossroads in their marriage…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMIt’s increasingly hard to write a review about the Troubadour Theater Company without sounding like a gushing fangirl. The group’s Christmas offering, “The Year Without a Santana Claus…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMAt this time of year, tradition reigns supreme. The focus this week in our small-theater roundup is on long-running seasonal shows — two broadly comic, one reverent — that have loyal fan…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMIt’s about time somebody revisited Bruce Jay Friedman’s “Steambath.” First produced off-Broadway in 1970 and recycled as a television film in ’73, the play was hailed as a piquant …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AMAh, the perils and pleasures of live theater. Director Kate Jopson’s al fresco production of Octavio Solis’ “Hole in the Sky” was to premiere at the Courtship Ranch, a working ranch …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PMBelieved to be one of Canada’s most-produced playwrights, Norm Foster has written dozens of plays over more than three decades. “Screwball Comedy,” now in its U.S. premiere at Theatre …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMWe may be heading into a bit of a summer slowdown, but shows are still opening in L.A.’s small theaters. Our picks this week: Coeurage Theatre’s “Slaughter City,” Whitefire’s “Th…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMMichelle Kholos Brooks’ play “Hostage” at the Skylight Theatre revisits the Iranian hostage crisis almost 40 years after the fact. Based on real-life characters, Brooks’ new drama is…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:25PMCasa 0101 in Boyle Heights is waging a fundraising battle to keep its doors open. Judging by its splendid “Beauty and the Beast” running through June, it would be a tragedy for the neigh…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:40PMThis week's picks from L.A.'s small-theater scene: After Hours Theatre Company's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Skylight Theatre's Iran-set ""Hostage," IAMA's "Cult of Love" and Theatr…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMThis week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: A food truck at Dodger Stadium is at the center of the immigration-themed 'ICE' at 24th Street Theatre. Also: "For the Love Of (Or, the Roller Derby …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMThis week on the small-theater scene: Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" in Burbank, the new play "Damaged Furniture" in Sherman Oaks, the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival in Veni…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMDedicated to producing new works, Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles has nurtured a mixed blessing in “Pigs and Chickens,” Marek Glinski’s premiere at the company’s Atwater Village …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMThe current production at A Noise Within is a chance to experience a near-optimum staging of an American classic.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:40PMThis week's small-theater round-up includes Celebration Theatre's "Six Characters in Search of a Play," City Garage's "The School for Wives," Little Victory's "Unemployed Elephants" and A …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AMFrom all outward indications, “Nice Fish,” an Interact Theatre Company production at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, should be a keeper. The elegantly simple situation — two guy…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:40PMA Noise Within has taken some liberties with the text, and if you can get past that, you'll find a breathless theatrical experience full of thrills and chills.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM
