Wednesday, May 21, 2014
SWEET By embracing rather than avoiding the conventional contours of Richard Alfieri’s international hit two-hander about an imposing Florida retiree and a salty-tongued dance instruct…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 10:05PMFriday, May 16, 2014
BITTERSWEET The ending, though bold, is disappointing: There’s the sense that D’Aquila wasn’t quite sure what to do with his entertaining characters once he’d gotten them all onstage…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:44PMWednesday, May 14, 2014
SWEET There were a number of Australians in the audience opening night and they were obviously, warmly familiar with Holding the Man as evidenced by their hearty laughter and proud ovations.…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 12:44AMFriday, May 9, 2014
BITTER But Sondheim’s tricky lyrics, many of them filled with significant exposition, do indeed fly by with the speed of a witch’s broom. So it’s a shame that outstanding conductor Jul…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 08:30PMSWEET Fortunately, for those who can manage to control any W.C. Fields-worthy exasperation they might be feeling as Tarzan: The Musical reaches its dramatic, emotional climax, this Los Angel…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:51PMBITTER Written and directed by Oren Safdie, the idea of a young neophyte attacking a successful architect in his studio, in the manner that the play took, seemed too out of the ordinary and …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:43PMBITTER “Sight” has been largely inspired directly by the experiences of those CRE serves, and although the result is heartfelt, the heavy hand of committee design weighs down thi…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:12PMSWEET In her emotionally astute staging, director Robin Larsen sets her dream cast loose upon Albee’s fascinating, frustrating material, which ranges from the boozily meandering to the…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:12AMSWEET A curiously fascinating examination of how we should live as opposed to the way we often do. Now onstage at the Fremont Centre Theatre in Pasadena, SeaGlass Theatre presents Wake throu…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:42AMSWEET Artistic Director Barbara Beckley has made a great choice in bringing The Lion in Winter to our community. This play is a must see, masterly mounted, and very well cast by Patricia Cul…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:42AMSWEET Suffice it to say that Norway’s Teater Manu has created a successful way to share Norwegian theatre by and for the deaf in an artful and interesting way. The actors bring new perspec…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:54AMSWEET This unconventional love story about body image and peer pressure is sometimes harsh and brutal but often quite brilliant. Sandro Monetti – Thespian Thoughts SWEET Fat Pig’s fi…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:23AMWednesday, May 7, 2014
BITTERSWEET Abdullah hasn’t penned a polished play. The mercifully short appearance of a faux comical dreadlocked character named Leafy Green (Peete) is an outlandish, unnecessary distract…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 08:28PMBITTER Instead, Lazar and his cohorts have kicked Chekhov aside and substituted their own sensibilities for his. Subtle realism has been replaced by vaudeville shtick. In other words, the di…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:23AMSaturday, May 3, 2014
BITTERSWEET Rachel Bonds’ new drama about small-town concerns is promising but needs fleshing out. Paul Hodgins – OC Register SWEET Regardless of the flaws, Bonds does prove that she…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:30AMSWEET Diane Paulus’ direction of “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” is mesmerizing. It features a cast of strong actors, abundant laughs amidst serious moments, and some of the …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:43AMFriday, May 2, 2014
SWEET This one hour play, adapted by Timothy Sprague, captures the complex essence of the original piece. Dialogue and song have been included which has enhanced the organic unfolding of thi…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 11:29PMSWEET A song, a dance, betrayal, and contagious laughs should be remedy enough to get the most paranoid germaphobe out of their sickbeds and into the ZJU funhouse. Christine Palau – No…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 09:32PMSWEET “Premeditation” — as with several other plays developed by Fernandez and her director and husband Jose Luis Valenzuela (who happens to be a UCLA professor) — ac…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 06:50PMThursday, May 1, 2014
BITTERSWEET Daniel Beaty brings this story to the Mark Taper Forum in his solo show “The Tallest Tree in the Forest,” a respectful and intelligent if dramatically disappointing r…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 08:34PM BITTER Even though Moses’ nicely-vulnerable Yolande is the show’s lead, all characters orbit around Guillory’s blustery turn as Du Bois. It is unfortunate that Smith’s writing…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 07:33PMSWEET The Christian boy band known as the Altar Boyz have returned to L.A. for the first time in five years in a no-frills production that proves that even without a fancy set, pricy costume…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 07:03PMMonday, April 28, 2014
BITTER For a while, the piece is intriguing, and one struggles to discern some idea or purpose that would pull together the disparate elements and bring some sort of unity. But after a time,…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 09:22PMSWEET Director Sara Botsford elicits fine performances from her well-balanced cast. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEET Gracefully segueing from what initially seems like a breezy roman…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:22PMBITTER Soon, even the murderous villain, Super-Nova (Jeff Alan-Lee), tosses in his similarly vague musings, the end result being a play that runs completely off of the rails after a thorough…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:48PMSWEET “The Yellow Boat” a play with music by David Saar is billed as based on a true story which makes it even more poignant and heart breaking. Patricia Foster Rye – Pat Rye Revie…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:54PMWednesday, April 23, 2014
BITTERSWEET Perhaps the problem, aside from the material, is in Bening’s decision to direct herself. Aside from a vocal quality onstage that always seems a bit flat and somehow forced, Ben…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 11:18PMFriday, April 18, 2014
SWEET Details aren’t really the point. And I don’t want to spoil the surprises in store for those interested in viewing the show. Let me instead simply point out the cast–i…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:07PMThursday, April 17, 2014
SWEET It’s hard to imagine what would ever drive someone to the point where they would want to be consumed by another human being but Taste treats this bizarre scenario with an unflinching…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:29AMSWEET The performances, particularly of the two leads, are confident, nuanced and memorable. And the rich sensory feast Kubzansky and her team have served up — which also includes lighting…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:49AMTuesday, April 15, 2014
SWEET Three years ago, also with the help of Estienne and Krawczyk, Brook reduced Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” down to its ritualistic essences, removing the magic and retain…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 08:48PM 
