I have a rule about avant-garde theater: if an artist chooses to deliberately obscure his/her/their meaning via unusual methods or flirts dangerously with pretentiousness, the play had bette…
When I told people I was going to see a new production of Sarah's Ruhl's play, In the Next Room, I received a series of blank stares, but when I included its subtitle, or the vibrator play, …
Some theater locations seem to be blessed, and in Los Angeles, one of those lucky places is The Matrix Theatre on Melrose. It's been producing and presenting high-quality shows for more than…
One of the core American principles is the right to free speech. However, this glorious principle runs into trouble when truly evil groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or Nazis wish to spread th…
It's 1998 in midwestern U.S.A, and three rap-loving teens live in a suburb of The City called The Hill. Hank (E.E. Williams) wants to be a rapper but maybe doesn't have the performance chops…
It's a Wonderful Life is now an undisputed holiday classic, but its road to perennial status was as long and difficult as its hero's journey to happiness. It began as a short story called "T…
It's the most wonderful time of the year…except for theatergoers. December is generally when every show except for A Christmas Carol or The Nutcracker shuts down for the holidays, but than…
The discussion of wealth inequality has come up a lot in this young century, as the accumulation of massive fortunes goes to fewer and fewer people while millions suffer all over the world. …
Theatre is an amazing artform, but one of the things it does less well is genre storytelling. Drama, comedy, musicals " absolutely. Even fantasy or thrillers. But horror, action, westerns " …
So my first large audience theatre experience since being fully vaccinated featured women sporting two-foot-long phalluses singing Liza Minnelli songs in a Greek amphitheater on the grounds …
In 1970, journalist Studs Terkel released his book, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, in which he interviewed people about living through that desperate time and how they …
Once it became apparent that the Covid pandemic wasn't going to be a short catastrophe, and theaters everywhere had to close their doors for more than a year, one thing was very clear to me.…
Plays that feature a series of short scenes with different characters whose relationships to each other become clearer as the story goes on have been popular since Arthur Schnitzler's La Ron…
As the pandemic has worn on, artists have attempted to maximize the potential of streaming theatre, trying to make the experience more engaging for the audience. So far I've seen pre-taped s…
For years now, film lovers in Los Angeles have enjoyed the yearly TCM Classic Film Festival held at the TCL Chinese Theatre complex in Hollywood. That area of town becomes the cinephile cent…
The standard definition for the term "pathetic fallacy" is "the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art or literature." This is so commo…
The thing about celebrity autobiographical one-person shows is that they're bound to be interesting; if the subject in question hadn't had a fascinating life, nobody would have put a show to…
As the world slowly begins to pull itself out of the abyss of the pandemic, the theatre world is following suit. The concept of outdoor productions is being discussed for this summer, and th…
The use of genre films to deliver a social or political statement has a long history. They're a convenient delivery device " the audience knows the rules, and without hitting them over the h…
Traditionally, the power of theater derives from it being a communal art form " a group gathers in person for a performance that is live and ephemeral. It's the sense that the combination of…
If this production hasn't already sold out, acquiring tickets to attend it would be one the best presents you could get or give this holiday season.
Roger Crane's The Last Confession has a doozy of an opening statement: "Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. I have killed the emissary of God."
The domain of higher education has become more treacherous in unexpected ways, and Steven Drukman's clever new play Death of the Author charts the territory with pointed wit. It's unfortunat…
Although their marriage has withstood the test of time, Agnes (Susan Sullivan) still wants to repair some rather large damage in her relationship with Tobias (David Selby).
A production of Midsummer that can't make Puck work has a serious problem.