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…
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…
The current production at A Noise Within is a chance to experience a near-optimum staging of an American classic.
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 …
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-…
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.
Our weekly theater recommendations include Jeanine Tesori's "Violet" at the Chance Theater in Anaheim, the premiere of "Two Fisted Love" at the Odyssey, the Culture Clash-Buyepongo show "Sap…
Harold Pinter wrote "The Hothouse" in the 1950s, then buried it in a drawer before resurrecting it in 1980 for a production that he himself directed. During the interim, what Pinter initiall…
Our weekly report on the small-theater scene starts at the Rubicon in Ventura, which escaped the Thomas fire but was forced to cancel previews and opening weekend performances of "A Christma…
This week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: "Magic Fruit" from Cornerstone Theater Company, "Yerma in the Desert" from Greenway Arts Alliance and Urban Theatre Movement, "Sherlock Holmes and th…
Our weekly look at L.A.'s small-theater scene opens with a modern "eco-feminist" adaptation of "An Enemy of the People," Ibsen's classic about government corruption retold as the story of a …
The most promising shows in L.A.'s small-theater scene include new work from some big names.
As anyone from a large family can attest, it's a wonder how so many wildly different individuals can spring from the same genetic pool. In Daniel MacIvor's "Marion Bridge," a guest productio…
Playwright Roger Bean has based his career on jukebox musicals like "Life Could Be a Dream" and "The Marvelous Wonderettes," durable crowd-pleasers that have been widely produced throughout …
Lauren Yee's play starts out straightforwardly enough: An actress playing Yee (Stephenie Soohyun Park) is rehearsing the play with an actor portraying the playwright's father, Larry Yee (Fra…
The music and lyrics from "Dogfight," now at the Hudson Mainstage, are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the "Dear Evan Hansen" songwriting team. It's a consummate production of a not-perfect s…
Terence Rattigan's "Separate Tables," two one-acts cobbled into one evening at Theatre 40, is a prime example of 1950s theater at its most retro: chatty, discursive and often busy to a fault…
Twentieth-century French literary maven François Mauriac once observed, "If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads." That epigram could be ex…
Twenty years old and counting, the Troubadour Theater Company has been celebrated for its blend of rock music, commedia-based clowning and improvisational flair, building an audience comp…
When playwrights have experienced firsthand the dog-eat-dog Hollywood system, it must be satisfying to return to the theater, where they have the kind of power and respect that can be hard t…
Edward Albee defied the downward trajectory of an aging genius. Lauded in his youth and then critically reviled in middle age, Albee disarmed detractors in his later years with "Three Tall W…
Veteran theater provocateur Erik Patterson stings once again in "One of the Nice Ones," his new play presented by Echo Theater Company at the Atwater Village Theatre. The title is a pointed …
Proudly propagandistic, "Church & State," a new play at the Skylight that runs in tandem with "Obama-ology," another premiere, offers a didactic political message in the theatrical tradition…
If you think improvisational theater is a freewheeling genre that's strictly for laughs, you haven't experienced an Impro Theatre show. The seasoned team at Impro raises the stakes of improv…
Playwright Rajiv Joseph defies categorization. His most famous work, "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," is an absurd anthropomorphic romp that blurs the line between animals and humans, humo…