125 stories by "Philip Brandes"
Depending on your point of view, the enduring topicality of Frank McGuinness’ 1992 Middle East hostage drama, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me,” can be seen as a testame…
The ready-made edginess of hit men, hookers and gangsters is a foundation that a story can either build on or coast on. Writer-director Brian Peterson’s "The Misadventures of Rick the …
The disarmingly cross-eyed puppets of “Avenue Q” may have taken up a more modest residence than in touring productions past, but they’re still thoroughly engaging in DO…
“Some problem with the nuclear thing again …” Such is the breezy way locals in a remote New Mexico community shrug off a declared state of emergency following a nearby ura…
Taking its name from the tail number of a crashed airplane, “One November Yankee” at the NoHo Arts Center is about a disaster rather than being a disaster, which is always the be…
Skypilot Theatre Company’s “Kong: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla” sets its satirical aircraft targeting system on a rather sizable object. Managing it on a small stage with …
What are you most afraid of? Posing that question directly to the audience at the outset of his “Smoke and Mirrors” theatrical magic show at the Promenade Playhouse in Santa Moni…
Tolerance is an ideal easily invoked in the abstract, but it seems to be losing ground when it comes to follow-through. In a particularly timely revival, “Cherry Docs,” David Gow…
Dazzling repartee between the pair of divorced sophisticates at the center of “Private Lives” is one reason Noël Coward’s 1930 comedy of bad manners never goes out of st…
Thirty years before a certain caped crusader commenced his crime-fighting career, a cloaked criminal commandeered a comparable chiropteran cognomen for his crooked capers. We refer of course…
One sure way to stage “As You Like It” to make way sure you like it is to send in the clowns — an approach director Kenn Sabberton takes rather seriously in the Shakespeare…
As the title suggests, Alan Aymie’s “A Child Left Behind” at the Beverly Hills Playhouse takes critical aim at the ways under-resourced educational institutions fail those …
At what point does creative freedom collide with moral accountability? Sheila Callaghan’s bleakly sardonic “Roadkill Confidential” at Son of Semele Theater poses the questi…
That perennial harbinger of summer — Shakespeare in the great outdoors — is once again upon us, as one of the Southland’s spectacularly scenic venues, the Will Geer Theatri…
“What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it?” demands the superb Anthony J. Haney as former Underground Railroad conductor Solly Two Kings in an early defining mo…
A weeklong road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley wine country drives two middle-aged buddies to unexpected tests of both their varietal and moral palates in “Sideways: The Play.&rdqu…
The demonic potential in even the most innocuous-looking child’s doll should come as no surprise to parents who've felt its eerie supernatural impact on their wallets. But, far more si…
Buoyed by a ship-shape cast, the Colony Theatre Company’s “Dames at Sea” revival broadsides the 1930s movie musicals of Busby Berkeley with tongue firmly in cheek. It&rsquo…
Philip Brandes reviews the political satire "Early and Often" at the Open Fist Theatre.
Philip Brandes reviews Cheri Steinkellner's new Tin Pan Alley-themed jukebox musical, "Hello! My Baby" at the Rubicon Theatre.
Maniacal laughter echoing through the opening sound montage doesn't pose much spoiler risk, given that the name of the monologue is "Diary of a Madman."Maniacal laughter echoing through the …
Philip Brandes reviews "Diary of a Madman" at Actors Circle Theatre.
Philip Brandes reviews Mike Schlitt's comic monologue "Jesus Ride" at Son of Semele Theatre.
Besides wringing ample hilarity from the breezy plot, Johnson s staging manages a bit of substance.
Philip Brandes reviews Ken Ludwig's backstage farce, "Moon Over Buffalo," at Open Fist Theatre.
