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…
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…
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…
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 …
"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…
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 …
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…
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…
"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…
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…
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…
An intellectual's intellectual, playwright David Hare specializes in a kind of theatrical exegesis, exploring the philosophical motivations behind immensely complicated characters. No except…
"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…
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…
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 "…
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 …
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…
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…
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 …
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 …
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 …