Wednesday, January 21, 2015
BITTERSWEET Running somewhere around two and three quarter hours (with intermission), this is an ambitious but uneven effort: perhaps worth a trip for the notable songs and some of the danci…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:33PM[SHARE]SWEET Satie, differentiating her characters by their various European accents and slightly exaggerated demeanors, doesn’t bring these women to life much beyond their childhood tales. B…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:10PM[SHARE]Friday, January 16, 2015
BITTERSWEET Ransom, Texas is the second production in the past year that the Virago Theatre Company of northern California has brought down for a run at the Asylum on Hollywood’s Theat…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:59PM[SHARE]SWEET Despite script issues, Jack Lemmon Returns is a loving but complicated portrait of a revered man told by the son who obviously adored him. Chris Lemmon not only exposes new dimensions …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:20PM[SHARE]BITTER Contrasted against Robledo's 2012 staging of Adam Szymkowicz's comic-book-inspired satire Hearts Like Fists at Theatre of Note, this second collaboration disappoints. Pauline Adamek &…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:05AM[SHARE]SWEET What’s more shocking than the setup is that Viral largely pulls it off. Playwright Mac Rogers has an ear for the worlds he’s trafficking in and as bizarre as the premise se…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 12:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 15, 2015
SWEET The Life of the Night engages us with real people caught in the tides of love and need, and the mysteries of the night. It moves us to suffer with them, and it makes us laugh. And all …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 12:58PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 13, 2015
SWEET Playwright Gail Louw's masterpiece drama "Blonde Poison" has its American premiere at Beverly Hills Theatre 40. I was held captive for the entire ninety minutes. The story, based on th…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:26PM[SHARE]BITTERSWEET Although the story starts with a bang, the exposition required to catalog all of the exceptions and coincidences responsible for the incredible scenario soon bogs things down. Di…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:08PM[SHARE]Monday, January 5, 2015
BITTERSWEET This is a French farce and requires perfection every minute to keep up the comedy, and director Drina Durazo does a good but less-than-perfect job of keeping everything in order.…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:17PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 16, 2014
SWEET These engaging two hours should satisfy a niche audience of Coward fans. Coward is too often seen as a minor player in the firmament of artistic excellence, but don't believe it. He's …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 06:14PM[SHARE]SWEET It wouldn't be December at the Falcon Theater without the Troubadour Theater Company's latest holiday treat, and this year's The Snow QUEEN is not only one of their most entertaining e…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:37PM[SHARE]SWEET Directed by Bonnie Lythgoe, best known for her choreography and involvement in “So You Think You Can Dance,” she creates magic on the stage with actors of all ages who are …
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:14PM[SHARE]SWEET Coward’s work enables virtuosos who possess technique that’s as polished as it is effortless to reach new heights. Lansbury might as well be flying across the Ahmanson stag…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:46PM[SHARE]BITTERSWEET Fofi's production would be much better if Lopes's predominately muted, one-dimensional interaction with his colorful amalgam of riders was instilled with more emotion and greater…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 04:12PM[SHARE]BITTER Although it dutifully mirrors Chekhov's plot in the soaring ambitions and earthbound struggles of present-day artistic types, what dooms this six-character reduction is its systematic…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:07PM[SHARE]Friday, December 12, 2014
SWEET Often called a "jewel from Broadway's Golden Age", "The Chance's" inspired revival provides audiences with a sweet little yuletide tale that makes a delightful Valentine to this festiv…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:30PM[SHARE]SWEET Tom Yewell’s study of the male experience isn’t necessarily the counterpart to Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” that its obviated title suggests. Less pol…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:30PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 11, 2014
SWEET And if Morrison Christmas sets out to recapitulate the death-rebirth cycle in its theatrical arc, its more profound achievement is to progressively remove the ironic quotation marks fr…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:14PM[SHARE]SWEET Director Papazian serves up a slick and delectable series of comic turns, and he has assembled a cast of 18 accomplished actors for the occasion. All of them acquit themselves with cha…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:06PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 9, 2014
SWEET This OSF production at the Wallis may not have the star power of the screen version coming out on Christmas Day, but it has the buoyancy and complexity of feeling that have turned Sond…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:31PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 4, 2014
SWEET But just as the critic Eric Bentley cautioned us when approaching Henrik Ibsen’s plays to “look for the ideas behind the ideas,” it’s important with Gilman to e…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:35PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 3, 2014
SWEET In a swift hour, a dozen merry pranksters whirl and spin us through the classic tale of ghosts scaring the miser out of Ebenezer Scrooge. Singing and dancing to Denise Devin's baton, t…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 03:29PM[SHARE]SWEET Now the company has opened its final show of the season, "Oedipus," the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, and it is just as imaginative, just as outrageous, just as unusual as its pr…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:02PM[SHARE]SWEET Informative and engaging, this underappreciated chapter of our local history is portrayed with panache and grace. Philip Brandes – LA Times SWEET Under producer Ben Guillory's im…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 01:30PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 2, 2014
SWEET A heartening reminder of the human capacity for valor, this beautifully underplayed production is all the more moving for its very ordinariness. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times SWEE…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 08:21PM[SHARE]SWEET Indeed, the empathy, showmanship and craft on tap may just be the best match of historical figure and performing artist yet in this franchise, wholly attuned to a gratefully participat…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 07:58PM[SHARE]Saturday, November 29, 2014
BITTERSWEET The script could stand a vigorous pruning, several performances are still wobbly and the set changes are noticeably time-consuming " yet this production, directed by Gary Imhoff,…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 02:49PM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 26, 2014
SWEET This play is a must see though, especially if you're in the mood for performing arts that breaks the stuffy dramatic mold. "Ubu the Sh*t" creates a casual atmosphere of laughs for a la…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 11:23PM[SHARE]SWEET Based on a concept by Sondheim and Julia McKenzie, the result is a clever celebration of the Master-Composer's most enigmatic works, taking its name from a tune featured in his 1984 hi…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 07:43PM[SHARE]SWEET “What the Butler Saw” represents Orton at his most sophisticatedly silly. It’s a play bursting with references to other plays, including even one of the greatest trag…
SOURCE: Bitter Lemons at 05:26PM[SHARE] 
