Saturday, May 18, 2019
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 08:05AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 15, 2019
The 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" at Int…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:36PM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Julia 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 death, of…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:52PM[SHARE]Monday, May 6, 2019
Martin 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 dramas as …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:29PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 5, 2019
"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 "2 Brok…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:48AM[SHARE]Friday, April 12, 2019
The 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 on the …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:35PM[SHARE]Journeys 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 Virginity…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 30, 2019
Many 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 periphe…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:05PM[SHARE]Friday, March 22, 2019
"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 to be of the…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:35PM[SHARE]Friday, March 15, 2019
When 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 Pulitzer…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Fairy-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 Bev…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]Friday, March 8, 2019
An intellectual's intellectual, playwright David Hare specializes in a kind of theatrical exegesis, exploring the philosophical motivations behind immensely complicated characters. No except…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:50PM[SHARE]Friday, February 15, 2019
"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.'s small-th…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, February 1, 2019
A 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. Other pi…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, January 18, 2019
The 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 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, December 21, 2018
It'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," is …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, December 7, 2018
At 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 bas…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 15, 2018
It'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 black come…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 11:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Ah, 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 in Lake …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:00PM[SHARE]Friday, August 10, 2018
Believed 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 40 in …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, June 22, 2018
We 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 "The Blade of J…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Michelle 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 filtere…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 12:25PM[SHARE]Thursday, May 31, 2018
Casa 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 neighborh…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 03:40PM[SHARE]Friday, May 25, 2018
This 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  Thea…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, April 27, 2018
This 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 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, March 30, 2018
This 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 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, March 23, 2018
Dedicated 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 space. W…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 20, 2018
The current production at A Noise Within is a chance to experience a near-optimum staging of an American classic.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 08:40PM[SHARE]Friday, March 2, 2018
This 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 …
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 09:00AM[SHARE]Friday, February 23, 2018
From 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 guys ice-…
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 04:40PM[SHARE]Friday, February 16, 2018
A 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[SHARE] 
