THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT Unless the overview of a story is grossly inadequate, people seldom ask for both the summary and details. Presented as two monologues on a sparsely furnished sta…
SOME FRAGILEÂ PERFORMANCES CAN’T BREAK MENAGERIE’SÂ SPELL The Glass Menagerie is getting lots of airtime this summer. Having just been produced in the Steppenwolf Garage, Red…
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ART AND DRAMA Without ever denigrating the work of Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, I have to say I never quite got part three of his trilogy of play/art-show/p…
IT'S A PLEASURE TO BE IN HARMS' WAY It's been quite a year for veteran Chicagoland actor James Harms; after receiving critical acclaim nationally for his performance in The Iceman Cometh at …
TRASHY FUN Audience expectations need to be adjusted for a show like The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The title lets patrons know what they are in for: The topic will be trailer tras…
MIND YOUR MANOR Site-specific theater productions"that is, theatre which is performed in unconventional spaces compatible to the script"remain mystifyingly uncommon. For example, why do outd…
PRACTICAL PERFECTION There is a good natured pragmatism at work in the stage musical version of the film classic Mary Poppins, now back in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson through September 2. It…
A MONUMENTAL FAILURE The Monument opens with a young man strapped into an electric chair, recounting the actions that led him to the moment of his execution. If playwright Colleen Wagner had…
FUN, FRIVOLOUS, FLAMBOYANT, ANDÂ FULLY FORGETTABLE The remarkable thing about Bullet for Adolf, the new play written by Woody Harrelson and Frankie Hyman, is how entertaining it is despite…
THE THEATER WAS HOME TO THE LUNTS, BUT THIS WAS THEIR HOME FROM THE THEATER From the 1920's through the 1950's, the husband and wife team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the First Coup…
THE SKY PARTS FOR THE ROYALS There are few regional theater pleasures more delectable than attending the outdoor American Players Theatre on a balmy afternoon or evening. The theater, about …
A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY Productions of William Shakespeare’s plays grace the Los Angeles stage year round, but in the summer they multiply prolifically and fill public spaces. Amon…
A THREE-RING ONE-MAN SHOW Start with a true story about a family circus that shot to prominence even though it eschewed big-business-conglomerate backing, ran in a single ring without exotic…
THE TRUE AMERICAN DREAM: KILL A PRESIDENT The cast is terrific in the Coeurage Theatre Company's revival of Assassins at the Actors Circle Theatre"and it is their commitment to the material …
THE ARTISTIC HOME PROVIDES GOOD DRAMA, BUT CAN’T FIX A TROUBLED PLAY Apparently in The American Plan, the name of the game is deception, but no one seems to think they're playing. In R…
BRING ON THE BOTOX Fans of reality television, rejoice! The Real Drunk Housewives of the San Fernando Valley has just hit the stage " live and in person, sloshed and singing. While this new …
COMEDIC CARNAGE SHARPLY WALKS THE LINE OF TRAGEDY Playwright Yasmina Reza has said, “My plays have always been described as comedy, but I think they’re tragedy. They are funn…
CALIFORNIA DREAMS The 2012 Ice Factory Festival closes with The Girl of the Golden West, a heartfelt musical ode to the great American myth based on David Belasco's 1911 novel, which had pre…
O.C. STORY First, scroll down to the bottom of this review; there you will find the information you need to buy your tickets to Oanh Nguyen's magnificently re-interpreted production of West …
THE BAT: A SWING AND A MISS Nowadays, more times than not, new plays are a wham-bam, down-and-dirty, in-and-out in 80 minutes “theater-lite” affair. Not that I’m complainin…
POETRY OUT OF MOTION I was quite keen to see Amy Freed's The Psychic Life of Savages; curious about its fictional take on Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, the dead, messy poet heroines of my an…
CARRYING THE ALBATROSS Adrift takes its inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which tells the story of a sailor stricken by horrible misfortune after he sho…
WHO NEEDS HORSES? FARM BOY GALLOPS ALL ON ITS OWN War Horse is the theatrical juggernaut that took London by storm, crossed the pond, swept the Tony Awards and hit the road, recently complet…
A GOGOL BORDELLO In adapting Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 comedy The Government Inspector (also known, in direct translation, as The Inspector General) for a modern idiom, Oded Gross has taken…
BEST BE ON YOUR AVANT-GARDE Understanding the origins of REDCAT, the downtown center for innovative visual, performing, and media arts, will assist the uninitiated in preparation for the ava…