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| Kat Hess |
| Michal Sinnott and Christopher Illing in Tommy Smith's "White Hot," The Vagrancy at Theatre Asylum |
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It's Fringe, Fringe and more Fringe festival coverage this week in new theater reviews (see below) and this week's theater feature. There will be a bit more Fringe coverage next week, but we'll also be turning our attention to some deserving productions that got pushed to the Fringes by the Fringe.
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| Craig Schwartz |
| The ensemble of The Scottsboro Boys -- a minstrel show about the Jim Crow era |
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Kander & Ebb's musical The Scottsboro Boys, a Broadway-import minstrel show about Jim Crow, rolled into the Ahmanson and grabbed this week's pick. Good notices also for Zayd Dohrn's immigration saga Long Way Go Down at the Art of Acting Studio, and for the silly Aussie import Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Pantages. See below for all the latest new theater reviews and local theater listings.
This week's theater feature takes a newsy look at how the fledgling real estate boom has lowered the boom on two Hollywood theater companies that may soon to be homeless: Open Fist Theatre Company and The Celebration Theatre. The culprit: rising rents that are increasingly unaffordable for even our most established smaller theater companies.
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| Zombie Joe |
| Anna Gilchrist, W. Lochridge O'Bryan and Lee Kissman in Shakespeare's Richard III at Zombie Joe's Underground |
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Zombie Joe's Underground and director Denise Devin turn Shakespeare's Richard III into an enthralling one-hour redux, says critic Jenny Lower. The production is this week's pick of the week. For all the latest new theater reviews, and comprehensive theater listings, see below.
Beauty to be found in dark places through art forms the centerpiece of two shows highlighted in this week's stage feature: A Fried Octopus at Bootleg, and Heart Song at the Fountain Theatre
Former L.A. Times Drama Critic Sylvie Drake remembers Lee Melville, local critic and editor who died last week: "A free-lancing career for various theatre publications ended when Bill Bordy, owner of the trade publication Drama-Logue, tapped Melville to become its editor.
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| John Flynn |
| Burt Grinstead and Laurie Okin in Christopher Shinn's Dying City at Rogue Machine |
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Lee Melville, a true gentleman and decades-long friend of our theater, died last night. Melville was a critic and editor at Drama-Logue and, most recently, L.A. Stage. More details as they come in.
Christopher Shinn's drama Dying City, about a family in the wake of the Iraq War, being performed at Rogue Machine, is this week's pick. For all the latest new theater reviews, see below.
This week's theater feature is on a one-man show that chronicles five characters, each showing up at a gay bar called the Flash, during a different decade. With this scheme, the play becomes a kind of history of gay attitudes in the U.S.
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| Archway Theatre |
| Tis Pity She's a Whore: Jonny Rodgers and Hannah Skye Wenzel, as brother and sister in lust |
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The scandal surrounding a love affair between a brother and his sister forms the centerpiece of John Ford's 17th century play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Archway Theatre's downtown production is this week's pick. See below for all the latest new theater reviews and comprehensive theater listings.
This week's theater feature profiles the co-creators of a new opera, Dulce Rosa being presented by L.A. Opera at the Broad Stage. It launches L.A. Opera's "Off-Grand Initiative."
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Kate Compton Andrew Hawkes and Johnny Clark in VS Theater's "Cops and Friends of Cops"
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This week's main review looks at Marco Ramirez's The Royale at the Kirk Douglas and Theatre Movement Bazaar's Tennessee Williams riff, Hot Cat.
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| James Esposito |
| Alysia Livingston and Charles Mathers in Do Lord Remember Me |
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This week's theater feature looks at a pair of plays in small theaters that examine black-white relations -- Wallace Demmaria's new play Colorblind at Meta Theatre and Herb Gardner's 1985 comedy I'm Not Rappaport at the Pico Playhouse, though the latter is more about aging.
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| Kim Chueh |
| Our Class |
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Our critic Deborah Klugman found Tadeusz Slobodzianek's drama, about Polish complicity in the German Nazis' persecution of Polish Jews in the 1940s, and presented by Son of Semele Ensemble at Atwater Village Theatre, to be a model of stagecraft and emotional to watch. For all the lastest new theater reviews, see below.
A pair of plays, each performed by two actors, is the topic of this week's theater feature. Bart DeLorenzo directs Annapurna, featuring married couple and comedy duo Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman. Meanwhile, The Skylight Theatre presents Allen Barton's Years to the Day at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
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| Jean-Louis Darville |
| Brian T. Finney stars in his own adaptation of Heart of Darkness |
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Adapter-performer Brian T. Finney has adapted Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in what Paul Birchall describes as "hypnotic." It's this week's pick of the week. Neal Weaver found charm and passion in Actors' Co-op's revival of The Miracle Worker. See below for all the latest new theater reviews.
David Mamet and Harold Pinter started out in what seemed like the same camp -- politically and aesthetically. You can see it by comparing Mamet's American Buffalo (now at Geffen Playhouse) to Pinter's The Dumb Waiter. So how could two playwrights with such a similar view of the human condition wind up with contrary views of what to do about it? The question is addressed in this week's theater feature.
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| Chelsea Sutton |
| Sean O'Haven and Kevin Blake as Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder in Billy & Ray |
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Lost Moon Radio did another bang-up job hosting the 34th annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards Monday night. (See the full list of L.A. Weekly Theater Award winners here.) Thanks to Lauren Ludwig, Trish Hadley and the LMR troupe for their talent, and thanks for all the kind missives from people who had a great time. The house was packed with celebrants eating and partying and largely yakking through much of LMR's wit and song -- some people in the house told me they were so pissed (in a couple of ways) they moved to the front just to be able to hear. We always said we wanted a show where giving out awards was a backdrop to a big party. Looks like, for better and worse, we got what we asked for.
I have only one thing to say about Backstage's knuckle-headed decision to drop theater and film reviews -- web hits don't necessarily equal value. When we equate popularity with worth, we're just thinning out the spectrum of ideas. Backstage's reviewers are some smart, passionate people. (Okay, that's two things.)
For all the latest new theater reviews, see below. This week's theater feature revisits One Night With Janis at the Pasadena Playhouse -- a non-profit theater that's looking a whole lot like a commercial one. And it probably needs to.
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