If it's not one thing, it's your mother " a bit of bumper sticker wisdom, perhaps, but on the heels of Mother's Day it's an apropos adage for three of this week's selections from Southern Ca…
"Smart Love" at Pacific Resident Theatre appears destined to be a garden-variety dysfunctional family portrait, but then Brian Letscher's new comedy unexpectedly pivots into a quirky take on…
What begins as a comic road trip of ancestral rediscovery takes a hairpin turn into tragic history as "Everything Is Illuminated" makes its Southern Californian stage debut courtesy of Santa…
Questions of gender and identity drive headlines daily, so it's only natural to find the topic taking center stage in our theaters. With emotional tones ranging from light to dark, this week…
If you've ever had the dizzying feeling you're watching the world through the twisted reflection of a fun-house mirror, you're already familiar with the central metaphor of "Fuddy Meers," no…
Perseverance in the face of adversity is a common theme this week on "The 99-Seat Beat," our selections from L.A.'s theater scene. The human spirit endures, whether in the mythic quests of a…
In the face of moral ambiguity, what does integrity look like? This week, promising shows from the intimate theater scene include a hip-hop-infused drama with a Black Lives Matter story line…
"Do the right thing" is more easily said than put into practice, especially when there's no moral compass to guide our choices. Quandaries that resist tidy solutions figure in this week's pr…
Unless you've lived them, chances are the disruptive travails of new motherhood charted in Molly Smith Metzler's "Cry It Out" will come as a shock " and an unexpectedly sobering rebuttal to …
It's summer, and love is in the air " and in the story lines of this week's small-theater offerings. Romance figures comically in Shakespeare's ode to midsummer frolics, tragically in a brie…
Among the many unsettling questions raised by the murderous protagonist of Antaeus Theatre Company's electrifying Southern California premiere of "Native Son," the least difficult to answer …
This week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: "Forever Bound" at Atwater Village Theatre, Rogue Artists Ensemble's "Wood Boy Dog Fish" at the Garry Marshall Theatre in Burbank, Buzzworks's "Sex" …
This week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: "The Willows" at the Bootleg Theater, "The Dorothy Parker Project" at Pacific Resident Theatre. "Disgraced" at L.A. Theatre Works and "The Invisible …
Stop me if you've seen this one: An aging, tempestuous, narcissistic ruler craves adulation, exiles those who question him, and neglects those who suffer on the fringes of society. We're tal…
This week's picks from L.A.'s small-theater scene: "All's Well That Ends Well" at ISC Studio, "Pigs and Chickens" at Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, "An Undivided Heart" at Atwater Village Theat…
In this week's small-theater guide: Open Fist's "One Year Later," Sacred Fools' "The Art Couple," Actors Co-op's "A Walk in the Woods" and Celebration's "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The…
Sigmund Freud, C.S. Lewis, Michael Kearns, Disney's "Splash" and the '80s soap "Dynasty" all factor into this week's roundup of "The 99-Seat Beat," our weekly highlights from L.A.'s small-th…
This week's highlights in the small-theater scene include Michael Kearns' show "Bloodbound" at Highways, Lounge Theatre's "Bugaboo & the Silent One" and "Freud's Last Session" at the Odyssey.
This week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: Independent Shakespeare Company's "A Christmas Carol With Charles Dickens," 24th Street Theatre's "Pang!," the Latino Theatre Company's "The Latina C…
Never take your pop culture for granted. Today's animated sitcom might just turn out to be tomorrow's sacred text " an evolution ingeniously depicted by Sacred Fools Theater Company in the d…
The immersive art-gallery theater piece "Caught," IAMA Theatre's "Redline" and "Sinner's Laundry," Coeurage Theatre's "The Secret in the Wings" and "The Red Dress" at the Odyssey are this we…
In case turning back the clock to the stability and prosperity of the early 1960s seems an enticing alternative to today's sociopolitical turbulence, consider the fate of Lenny Bruce. The co…
This week in L.A.'s small-theater scene: "Captain Greedy's Carnival" at the Actors' Gang, "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play" at Sacred Fools, "Ridiculous Darkness" at Son of Semele and "Mrs. …
There are no easy outs in the Grove Theater Center revival of David Harrower's "Blackbird" " not for its two characters locked in brutal psychological warfare, nor for anyone in the audience…
With DACA ending, a Dreamer's tale of navigating the American immigration system leads our list of small-theater picks for the week.