>NEW REVIEW THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED As Gertrude Stein once put it (but not about this play), "It's almost about something, and then it's just not." Douglas Carter Beane's comedy brings with it the New York cast that put the play on the map, and secured Julie White a Tony for her role as a Hollywood actors' agent who fires off scathing retorts with contrapuntal animation and a shit-eating grin. But is it really worth the trouble spending two-plus hours in the theater waiting for said actor (Brian Henderson) and the street hustler (Johnny Galecki) he regularly employs to figure out whether or not they're really gay, and whether or not they're really capable of love. If Mitchell (Henderson) comes out of the closet, there goes his career, 'cause a straight guy playing gay is "noble," whereas a gay guy playing gay is just "boasting." It's a play that probes the obvious and discovers almost nothing amidst some sweet repartee, and a quartet of performances (Zoe Lister-Jones plays the hustler's sardonic girlfriend) that are convincing enough to add the illusion of substance. One brilliant scene in which the actor and the agent interview an offstage playwright for the film rights to the scribe's openly gay opus snares the Industry's layers of deception with contemptuous delight. It's the one scene to which the entire comedy is tethered, philosophically and dramaturgically. As funny as it is, it too pokes at truths so evident, there's no actual discovery. (Gosh, they lie in Hollywood!) When the play isn't ripping at such generic truths, it goes after things that just aren't true. The agent makes a quip about how L.A. has solved the problems of cellphones in the theater by not doing theater. "Choices were made." Big laugh. At what? A myth about L.A. that's so false, they don't even believe it in New York anymore. The difference between Beane and Oscar Wilde is that Wilde poked at hypocrisies that were assumed and barely discussed, thereby ripping open some fabric of the culture. Beane tears at threads that are clearly frayed, and that's just like a kid firing spitwads from the back of the class just to prove he can do it. Scott Ellis' direction is meticulously timed, though the technique used widely across regional theaters of having movable set pieces slip into place with the sound effect of a whoosh, or a reverberating slam - as though lifted from an ancient episode of The Matrix -- is fundamentally anti-theatrical and wearisome to those who believe that the possibilities of live theater can rise higher than such cheesy sound effects, and the gaps they're trying to fill. Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6 p.m.; through Dec. 21. (213) 628-2772. A Center Theatre Group Production (Steven Leigh Morris)

The Little Dog Laughed Photo by Craig Schwartz

Also reviewed this week: Deborah Pryor's mystical Appalachian one-act The Love Talker at Son of Semele Ensemble; Ionesco's The Killing Game at Unknown Theatre; A. R. Gurney's story of an oil executive who is made a middle-easter diplomat by the Bush administration, O Jerusalem, presented by The Production Company; Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden presented by SkyPilot Theatre Company; the L.A. premiere of Keith Bunin's The Busy World is Hushed, presented by Bright Eyes Productions at the Meta Theatre, Furious Theatre Company's L.A. premiere of The Night Before Christmas, Anthony Neilson's sardonic, Brit take on the darker side of the season, and Overtone Industry's It's a Pretty Good Life at Santa Monica's Miles Playhouse.

All of these latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS are embedded in this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATRE LISTINGS. For access, simply press the READ ON tab directly below.

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Check back here Monday after noon for the upcoming weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS of The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane's comedy about being oneself in Hollywood and elsewhere, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Deborah Pryor's mystical Appalachian one-act The Love Talker at Son of Semele Ensemble; Ionesco's The Killing Game at Unknown Theatre; A. R. Gurney's story of an oil executive who is made a middle-easter diplomat by the Bush administration, O Jerusalem, presented by The Production Company; Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden presented by SkyPilot Theatre Company; the L.A. premiere of Keith Bunin's The Busy World is Hushed, presented by Bright Eyes Productions at the Meta Theatre, Furious Theatre Company's L.A. premiere of The Night Before Christmas, Anthony Neilson's sardonic, Brit take on the darker side of the season, and Overtone Industry's It's a Pretty Good Life at Santa Monica's Miles Playhouse.

LODESTONE SAYS GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

One of L.A.'s prominent Asian-American performing troupes, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, has announced that it is closing its doors at the end of 2009. To get there, however, the company is throwing a four-night fundraiser, Lodestone After Dark: The Beginning of the End, to raise funds for its final season.

The cabaret style show will feature comedy sketches and musical numbers to celebrate Lodestone's ten years. There will be guest appearances on select evenings during the run of the show including: Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty), George Takei (Star Trek), Kaba Modern's Yuri Tag and Fysh N' Chicks' Taeko Collins (America's Top Dance Crew), Gedde Watanabe (R, Sixteen Candles), James K. Lee (Heroes) and other surprise guests. (The company notes that all appearances are subject to artists' availability). In addition, other Asian American performing groups will contribute to the show including the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, OPM and Cold Tofu.

GTC, Burbank, 1111-B West Olive Avenue, December 11-14, 2008, 8 p.m.
323.993.7245

In case you missed them, here are last week's New Theater Reviews

Press here for this week's theater feature on adapting Oliver Twist and The Joy Luck Club for the stage

Here's where to find this weekend's comprehensive theater listings or you can click on the READ ON tab directly below.

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CRITIC-O-METER

In case you're wondering what Rob Kendt has been up to in New York City, since leaving his post as editor of Back Stage West, first look no further than his byline - now Rob Weinert-Kendt. That's what a wedding can do.

He's also been having bowls of matzoh ball soup at the Polish Tea Room with fellow blogger Isaac Butler. Together the pair have concocted the exhaustive, and exhausting, ratings system for New York critics in a new blog called Critic-O-Meter.

It's not as dynamic as Colin Mitchell's L.A.-based website about critics, Bitter Lemons, in which Mitchell not only surveys critical opinions on currently running shows in L.A., he throws in ponderings via occasional posts aptly named "ponderings," on matters germane to the causes and effects of people's opinions about people's opinions about theater productions.

Mitchell's site actually does what Butler and Weinert-Kendt's site claims to do, but doesn't - at least not yet. Both sites cull numerous reviews on a given production - in Critic-O-Meter, that would be every Broadway and off-Broadway production in New York -- giving them a score. I wish they were scoring the quality of the review itself, which would, for once, put the critics in the hot seat, but instead, all of the web-hosts settle for a score that reflects the web-hosts' Consumer Reports interpretation of the review on either a grade scale of A to F (in Critic-O-Meter) and "sweet" to "bitter" in Bitter Lemons. It not only validates the power of the consumer review, it reduces the scope of drama criticism from it's potential to be a conversation to its insistence of being an assessment; it's the logical extension of the San Francisco Chronicle's legendary Little Man hovering over a theater review with a thumbs up or thumbs down, in case you can't be bothered to actually read the review.

Mitchell, however, does engage his readers in a kind of dialogue that keeps calling into question the purpose of and crisis in drama criticism, so that the reviews themselves are nuggets of evidence about larger ideas. Well, sometimes he goes there, and I like it when he does.

Here's how Butler describes his blog's purpose, as theater's answer to the film review compilation site, Rotten Tomatoes:

"Our goal with this site is to give everyone with an interest in New York theatre a one-stop-shop to find out what the critical response has been across the board. Because of time limitations, we are currently only focusing on Broadway and Off-Broadway but hope, should revenue streams allow us to take on more readers and writers, to also cover Off-Off.

"Once all of the reviews are read, graded and excerpted, we assign a number score to each grade. An F- is worth 0, and it goes up one point per increment (F = 1, F+ = 2 etc.) until we get to A+, which equals 14. Then we average them together, and retranslate this new number back into a letter grade."

In addition to scoring each review with a grade, and then scoring the production with a cumulative grade, Butler and Weinert-Kendt provide salient excerpts from the review, with a link to the complete full-length versions of the reviews (as does Mitchell in L.A.) Butler says that this provides readers with both a superficial glimpse of the critical climate, if that's what they want, or the option of digging deeper for more of a comparative analysis. The net effect, Butler says, is to increase conversation about both the plays and their critics, not to diminish it, as his detractors have argued.

I discovered all this New York critic Garrett Eisler's blog, Playgoer, and his posting on Critic-O-Meter drew some of the most scintillating comments I can recall reading, at least recently, about the nature and purpose of theater criticism.

Wrote Silent Nic@Knight: "The Critic-O-Meter is evidence that the final stage in the devolution of the theatre review has arrived. I doubt any reviewer who seriously still attempts criticism appreciates his words being reduced to the equivalent of a grade school report card.

"At least the capsule reviews most of print now offers as their product consists of full sentences. And even pull quotes used in PR consist of complete words, if not full phrases. But Critic-O-Meter encourages the playgoer herd to only read a letter grade to evaluate the relative worth of any theatre experience."

Eisler weighed in that the crisis of criticism is a print phenomenon and he concurred with another respondent that the links to the full articles render the Internet a haven for instant, in-depth research, even more so than the print versions of reviews.

Silent Nic sparked back: "Garrett, I am not attacking Internet writing, unless you consider assigning a letter grade to a theatre review some new genre of writing. But I am attacking the devolution of the theatre review."

Countered Butler: ". . . You begin to realize that there are core issues being debated across the reviews. This is what's most interesting to me, and it's this cross-review discussion that is lacking if you don't read all of the reviews. For example, with A Man For All Seasons the reviews were discussing the following issues:
(1) Frank Langella... brilliant or hammy?
(2) Is the play worth reviving?
(3) Doug Hughes' decision to cut "The Common Man" from the play

Silent Nic returned for a parting shot that lingers blissfully in my mind: "Best of luck to Isaac and Rob on the consumer service they are trying to build, but I don't envy them. Reading and pondering over and over the dramaturgy and metaphysics of "Frank Langella... brilliant or hammy?" and such, sounds like a horrible day job to me."

I like Silent Nic. If pondering the dramaturgy and metaphysics of "Frank Langella . . . brilliant or hammy?" is the standard of comparative criticism that Critic-O-Meter strives for, I'd rather watch reruns of Mr. Ed, where at least there's some excitement. Butler and Weinert-Kendt's noble experiment is built from twigs. If you wish to build a house that will endure, you start with seasoned wood, something that will stand up through time. Silent Nic rightly points out that most print reviews, and the online reviews that emulate them, are primarily consumer reports - twigs - a far cry from the oak of criticism that aims to investigate a production rather than merely judge it. Perhaps, as Butler suggests, examining the way these twigs may or may not intersect in the grand architecture of our arts criticism will lead to some deeper insight about something or other. I don't believe it. But if I'm wrong, please, give me a shout. I'll be the guy watching the talking horse.

Don't be left out in the rain, check out this week's New Theater Reviews

This week's Stage Feature is on adapting the novels Oliver Twist and The Joy Luck Club to the stage.

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Woyzeck Photo by Andrew Rothenberg

>NEW REVIEW THEATER PICK WOYZECK 19th Century German playwright Georg Büchner's an unfinished horror story of the common man crushed by military and medical machines, has been fodder for myriad adaptations throughout the last century, and there's no sign of its relevance or resonance abating. Woyzeck (Christian Levatino) is a troubled soldier, barely able to support his unhappy and unfaithful lover, Marie (Sierra Fisk), and their infant son. To make ends meet he volunteers to perform petty tasks for his Captain (Allen Andrews) and submits to abasing medical tests, predicated on a diet of only dried peas. The more his body and mind deteriorate from his treatment, the more he is targeted by for abuse from everyone around him. Director Bob McDonald places the action in a nebulous world of contemporary western politics and military confusion. Despite his rapid pacing, he mines every powerful emotion and moments of ugliness and cruelty in stark detail. Areta Mackelvie's outstanding light design is the more impressive in this small, spartan space and its obviously limited supply of lighting instruments. Married to the fine lighting is a sharp and sometimes shocking sound design by Adam Phalen that magnifies McDonald's intensity. My only quibble comes with several comic interludes that seem a bit forced in the style of a British music hall, taking it out of the present-day hell so vividly imagined by the creators. Little Victory Theatre, 3324 W. Victory Blvd., Toluca Lake; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; through Dec. 14. (818) 841-5422. A Gangbusters Theatre Company production. (Tom Provenzano)

Also reviewed this week: Part 1 of Robert Schenkkan's The Kentucky Cycle at Cal Rep in Long Beach; Theatre/Theater's revival of Del Shore's Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got the Will; Bernard Solano's new play Lost, about a man and a woman in distress on an L.A. highway, presented by Company of Angels; Spyants presentation of Kidnapped by Craigslist Katie Goan and Nitra Guttierrrez' comedy at the Elephant Lab; Barbara Weichmann's play about a spiritual intervention, The Holy Mother of Hadley, New York, presented by Theatre of Note; Tom Baum's comedy about modern psychiatry, Shock Therapy at the Lillian Theatre; and the Groundlings' latest comedy sketches and improvs, Groundlings Special Lady Friend

For this week's STAGE FEATURE on what a the size and temperature of a theater can do to a production, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-11-20/stage/how-the-hall-changes-spring-awakening-and-the-bourgeois-gentilhomme/

For the latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS embedded within the coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS, press the READ ON directly below.

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BROADWAY CARES

This Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 10 p.m., the cast of Spring Awakening (currently at the Ahmanson ) will perform a special show at L.A.'s Upright Cabaret with proceeds to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and other local charities here in the southland.

Mark’s Restaurant, 861 N. LaCienega Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 652-5252 http://www.uprightcabaret.com/events

THE 2008 OVATION RECIPIENTS

The peer judged, 2008 Ovation Awards were held Monday night at Cal State L.A.'s Luckman Auditorium. Recipients are as follows:

Playwriting for an Original Play: Jane Anderson, The Quality of Life
Geffen Playhouse

Book/Lyrics/Music for an Original Musical: Music and Lyrics by John Bucchino;
Conceived by John Bucchino and Daisy Prince, It's Only Life
Rubicon Theatre Company

Ray Stricklyn Memorial Award for Solo Performance: Nilaja Sun, No Child...
Center Theatre Group: Kirk Douglas Theatre

Ensemble Performance Stan Chandler, David Engel, Larry Raben, Darcie Roberts, The Andrews Brothers
Musical Theatre West

Direction of a Play Matt Shakman, Secrets of the Trade
Black Dahlia Theatre

Direction of a Musical, Nick DeGruccio, Jekyll & Hyde
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Direction of a Musical, Larry Raben, Singin' in the Rain
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Choreography, Bradley Rapier, City Kid - The Musical
City Kid Productions, LLC

Musical Direction: Alby Potts, Singin' in the Rain
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Touring Production, Avenue Q
Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre

Play Intimate Theatre, The Quality of Life
Geffen Playhouse

Play Large Theatre, R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe
Rubicon Theatre Company

Franklin R. Levy Memorial Award for Musical Intimate Theatre Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara
Sacred Fools Theatre Company

Musical Large Theatre Miss Saigon
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities

Set Design Intimate Theatre, Desma Murphy, And Neither Have I Wings To Fly
Road Theatre Company

Set Design Large Theatre, Thomas S. Giamario, Bus Stop
Rubicon Theatre Company

Lighting Design Intimate Theatre, Jeremy Pivnick, Crime and Punishment
Actors Co-op/Crossley Theatre

Lighting Design Large Theatre, Darrell Clark, Miss Saigon
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities

Lighting Design Large Theatre, Steven Young, Jekyll & Hyde
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Sound Design Intimate Theatre Ken Rich, The Common Air
Elephant Stageworks

Sound Design Large Theatre, John Feinstein, Miss Saigon
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities

Costume Design Intimate Theatre Scott A. Lane, Pest Control - The Musical
Open at the Top Productions

Costume Design Large Theatre Paul Tazewell, Ray Charles LIVE - A New Musical
Pasadena Playhouse

Lead Actor in a Play, Joe Spano, R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe
Rubicon Theatre Company

Lead Actor in a Play John Glover, Secrets of the Trade
Black Dahlia Theatre

Lead Actress in a Play Laurie Metcalf, The Quality of Life
Geffen Playhouse

Lead Actor in a Musical Robert J. Townsend Jekyll & Hyde
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Lead Actress in a Musical Jennifer Paz, Miss Saigon
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities

Featured Actor in a Play, Barry Lynch, Of Mice and Men
Theatre Banshee

Featured Actress in a Play J. Nicole Brooks As Much As You Can
Hendel Productions West

Featured Actor in a Musical Randy Rogel Singin' in the Rain
Cabrillo Music Theatre

Featured Actress in a Musical Gwen Stewart, All Shook Up
Musical Theatre West

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS, embedded with the latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS press the READ ON tab directl below.

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THE OVATION AWARDS ARE TONIGHTMonday at Luckman Auditorium, on the Cal State, Los Angeles campus. For more information, contact http://www.lastagealliance.com

LATEST NEW THEATER REVIEWS

BEAUTY OF ASHES Writer and star Peres Owino's furious semi-biographical poetry and dance piece about female victimization initially argues that for rape victims, the only way past the pain is whoring, being hanged or suicide. Owino's women and girls span centuries, from a modern day prostitute to an African princess sold into slavery to a 6-year-old hiding under the stairs; all are united by Owino's committed portrayal of their suffering. As directed by Ayana Cahrr, supporting dancers Katy O'Toole, Nicholas Utley, and Mecca Andrews (the play's strong, tall choreographer who has the arm-span of a condor)_hiss "bitch" and "slut" while slinking across the womb painted on the floor, then simulate Owino's true-life horrors behind a translucent curtain. In Owino's most searing scene, she argues the viewpoint of one of her oppressors, a charismatic village elder who calls herself "the giver of wisdom" for performing clitoridectomies, preferably without numbing potion; the woman is so entrenched in her own cultural subjugation, she brags that her patients have a success rate of only 12 beatings. Owino's detours into the language of her native Kenya had a few women in the audience nodding along. The rest of us catch up to her train of thought when her contemporary character dissuades herself from putting a gun in her mouth. She realizes that path to healing isn't warding off shame and convincing herself that she "wanted it"; from there, she moves on to give an earnest speech about real empowerment. Stage 52 Theatre, 5299 W. Washington Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sun., 7:30 p.m.; thru Nov. 16. (323) 960-4429. Nyar Num Productions (Amy Nicholson)

ELOVE – A MUSICAL.COM/EDY This world premiere musical by Wayland Pickard explores an online romance between an older man and woman who are newly single. After a website called “eLove” matches Frank (Lloyd Pedersen) and Carol (Bobbi Stamm), love seems to blossom as they begin chatting online. The opening number “I’m Single” has a catchy tune with some clever lyrics; unfortunately the highlight of the show comes five minutes in. The rest devolves into repetitive and unimaginative quips punctuated by musical numbers that plunge from the pedestrian to something akin to theme songs from ‘80s sitcoms. Pickard does everything in this production but act; his staging lends it a one-dimensional quality that might have been avoided with greater collaboration. He is so focused on trying to milk puns for laughs that his direction employs hackneyed devices such as talking to pets and monologues delivered out to the audience. Stamm stumbles over one too many lines, though she and Pederson have pleasant voices, but Chris Winfield’s cramped set allows them little freedom to physically explore their characters. The piece, in effect, becomes an Ed Sullivan-style stand-up routine with dialogue so trite, it makes George Lucas look like Edward Albee. NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood; Fri., 8 p.m. (Dec. 5-21 only); Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through December 21. (323) 822-7898. An Angry Amish Production. (Mayank Keshaviah)

GO FATA MORGANA Hungarian playwright Ernest Vajda is perhaps best known for the screenplays he wrote for director Ernst Lubitsch (including that for The Merry Widow) but this forgotten gem of a romantic comedy, written in 1915, with a tempestuous young man-meets-older woman love affair at its core, is an engrossing, emotionally nuanced oddity. Innocent teenager George (Michael Hanson), a provincial boy living in his family's isolated chateau in the Hungarian countryside, finds his life turned upside down when his distant cousin's wife, Mathilde (Ursula Brooks), a sultry vixen ten years his senior, arrives from the city for a vacation. In a twist of fate that would not seem out of place in the Hungarian 1915 issue of Penthouse Forum, Mathilde shows up on the doorstep while George's parents just happen to be out for the evening -- and she almost instantly beds the virginal, horny young man. , who afterwards falls in love with her. Complications ensue when Mathilde's pompous lawyer husband (Scott Conte) arrives at the house the next morning. Although Vajda's three act comedy occasionally falls pray to patches of inert dialogue, director Marilyn Fox's psychologically assured production, blessed by Audrey Eisner's gorgeous period costumes, possesses a delicate, melancholy emotional truth. In this fragile relationship. Mathilde, who knows the boy better than he knows himself, adores the idea of living forever in the young man's memory. Performances are deft and multidimensional, particularly Brooks' inscrutable older beauty. Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd, Venice. Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Dec. 21. (310) 822-8392. (Paul Birchall)

HISTRIONICS This slate of one-acts, based on recorded events, is told through characters forgotten by history. The idea is intriguing, but the end results are far from satisfactory. The dazzling performance of Leigh Anne Goodoff is the only thing that stands out in Michael McKeever’s “Laura Keene Goes On.” She skillfully channels an egotistical, out-of-sorts thespian backstage on the night of Lincoln’s assassination. Ken Brisbois directs his own, very funny “Sticks & Stones,” in which a pair of convicts (Scott Rognlien and Rob Smith) share humorous reflections and much agony while hanging on their crosses, awaiting the arrival of J.C. Rognlien directs Sean Presant’s “A D-day at the Beach.” Here, as elsewhere on the bill, silliness and dull humor pervade: A pair of clueless Brits (Maia Peters and Jason Frost) holiday at Normandy during the historic invasion by Allied forces. Owen Hammer’s peurile “Primitive Peoples” finds Ali Kahn as a Meso-American chief whose idyllic life is threatened by the arrival of Europeans and an alien. Pilgrims and Indians share a meal and vapid conversation in Maggie Bandur’s “More White Meat,” directed by Stuart Meltzer. Here, Khan is quite funny as a native with a surprising strain of sophistication. The Lounge Theater, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., (no perf. Thanksgiving) through Nov. 30. (323) 805-9355. Produced by The Next Arena. (Lovell Estell III)

GO THE JOY LUCK CLUB The quartet of mothers from Feudal China and their American daughters form the heart of Amy Tan's novel, and her screenplay for Wayne Wang's 1993 film. Susan Kim's stage adaptation, which premiered in New York in 1999, presents an inordinate challenge to any director: keeping the four story threads and their spiraling flashbacks, anchored in 1980s San Francisco, from fraying in the morass of Tan's epic landscape. Jon Lawrence Rivera's staging tackles that challenge head on with the use of John H. Binkley's elegant set and projections that have duel purposes: A kind of suspended parchment scroll unfurls to form the stage floor to unite the whirlwind stories; furthermore, projected titles offer clear chapter headings and the names of characters being “framed,” in order to sustain some clarity of focus. The result of Rivera's noble effort is a kind of duel between dramatic unity and the sprawling essence of Kim's adaptation (and Tan's novel.) King Lear, which hangs on the sagas of three daughters and their hubristic father, has a similar theatrical swirl, but imagine adding a fourth daughter, and all their mothers. Rivera gets an array of lovely performances, with particularly striking turns from Celeste Den, Karen Huie and Emily Kuroda. Also Rivera's use of live music adds atmosphere that mostly enhances but occasionally suffocates the tender scenes being played out. David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Little Tokyo; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Dec. 5. (213) 625-7000 or http://www.eastwestplayers.com. An East West Players production. (Steven Leigh Morris)

MELODRAMA PLAY First produced by La Mama in 1967, Sam Shepard’s rock ‘n roll-studded one act takes an acerbic look at the music business and the wannabes who hunger after its glories. Long-haired Duke (Aaron David Gleason) is a singer with one megahit under his belt; now his manager Floyd (Gerard Marzilli) is pressuring him to come up with another, but the creative juices aren’t flowing; that’s because, unbeknownst to Floyd or Duke’s excitable girlfriend Dana (Rebecca White), Duke had stolen the winning song from his brother, Drake (Nick Denning), and his buddy, Cisco (Harry May-Kline). The strained relationship between the brothers becomes irrelevant after Floyd places all three musicians and Dana under the intimidating watch of a psychopathic muscle-woman named Peter (Fortune Feimster, a successful cross-gender casting choice at variance from the original script). The vigil is to last until a new winning number is produced. Peter’s appearance on the scene injects this hitherto hobbling production with a new dynamic, emanating from the character’s odd mix of menace and vulnerability, and her comic propensity for violence. Under Peter Choi’s direction , the serviceable performances unfortunately lack much spark. In particular, Gleason’s spacey rocker comes off phlegmatic to a fault; by contrast, White as his opinionated companion, inclines toward histrionics. Paul Gleason Theater, 6520 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Nov. 22. (323) 255-5636. A Trystero Theatre Company production.(Deborah Klugman)

SALVAGE The title of Diane Glancy’s drama refers both to the play’s setting in an auto salvage yard and the larger struggle Native Americans face in reclaiming their dignity and traditions in the White Man’s world. Glancy’s work also confronts the turmoil that can erupt among Native peoples when their rage against that world is taken out on each other. While driving home with his father to his small-town yard on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, Wolf (Noah Watts) accidentally hits another car, seriously injuring his father, Wofert (Robert Owens-Greygrass), and the family in the other vehicle. But the other victims’ clan has a history of bad blood between Wolf’s family, and when one victim dies, Wolf and his kin become targets of vengeance. With Wolf’s devout Christian wife Memela (Elena Finney) counseling restraint and Wofert seeking wisdom from his late wife’s spirit, Wolf tries to avoid the “us against us” battle, but it tragically overwhelms him nonetheless. Glancy structures her play into all too brief scenes that pique then deflate our interest and at times she displays a penchant for clumsy exposition. While Owens-Greygrass’ performance is steady, Sheila Tousey’s direction results in mostly melodramatic histrionics from the tentative Watts and Finney. Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way, L.A.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 &.8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Nov. 23. (866) 468-3399 (Martín Hernández)

THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT Peter Whelan's talky history drama, set between 1592 and 1593, cuts to the purpose of art. There's no doubt this purpose deserves some explanation in our economic crisis, with soaring debt and unemployment, a time when the arts descend even further on the scale of our national priorities and perceptions – as though they ever resided much beyond the bottom ring of sludge. Whelan's central character is atheist Christopher Marlowe (Gregory Wooddell), around whom Whelan casts an eventually suspenseful mystery leading to Marlowe's murder amidst camps of paranoid royalist Protestants and their Catholic detractors. While the play makes allusions to his Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, the author himself is presented as something of a prankster, the kid in the back of the class hurling spitwads at anything and anybody that wields authority. God heads that list, and that's where Marlowe starts in mock poems and prayers, reversing his name by praying to “Dog.” And that, ultimately, is art's highest purpose, Marlowe posits – to so upset the presumptions of our theology and even our existence, that new conversations and perceptions might emerge. Among Sir Walter Raleigh (Henri Lubatti) and other Elizabethan rock stars, Marlowe's young peer, Shakespeare (John Sloan), puts in the kind of appearance that calls into questions the authorship of his much of his canon. (Critic Robert Brustein posited similar questions about the originality of Shakespeare's ideas in his Pulitzer nominated comedy, The English Channel.) Marlowe has some great insights about the distinction between a the ideas of a playwright and the ideas of a play. But it's the dank blend of writers and thinkers talking about writing and thinking, and the arch grandeur of Bill Alexander's otherwise nicely sculpted staging, that renders the heart of Whelan's idea about the higher purpose of art as somehow quaint – giving perverse and obviously unintended support to Marlowe's opponents, and all opponents of art as dissent. Amidst the solid and stylish ensemble, Alicia Roper's Audry Walsingham, carrying a perpetual sneer and gravel-voiced articulation, is never less than hypnotic. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown; Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; through Dec. 17. (213) 680-2772. (Steven Leigh Morris)

THYESTES' FEAST In the very good monologue that opens writer-director Peter Wing Healey's uneven tragedy, the Sun (Bridgette Trahan) argues the primacy of the Greek classics, plays that "rise above the evening news." Contridictorily, the play's contemporary resonance isn't dug out of the myth but spackled over it. Here, the vengeful House of Atreus is here a tale of economics, not of blood guilt or cursed inheritance. King Thystes (Robert Long) is a social democrat ruling over ingrates: the communist peasants are restless and the capitalist gentry is transferring allegiance to his cutthroat brother Atreus (Clint Steinhauser). In another dig to the ribs, Atreus' cabinet occasionally adopts a Crawford, Texas twang and the actor cast as Thystes is slim, young, even-tempered, and black. When Atreus tricks his brother into eating his own sons, instead of recalling their grandfather Tantalus' forays into cannibalism, we're meant to think of Karl Rove trying to stick mud to his rivals. Much of this distracts from, not enriches the myth, as does the direction which jumps from burlesque to Expressionist to Shakespearean within a single scene, and casting that also favors eclecticism over ability. A monologue recited in a sheep's bray only distracts the audience from paying attention to its crucial content. Costume designer Karolyn Küsel's costumes, however, are fabulous, particularly in her frocks for Healey who plays the two-timing Queen Aerope in larger-than-life drag. Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center, 11006 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood; Sun., 7 p.m.; Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Nov. 30. (323) 960-7745. (Amy Nicholson)

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Check back here Monday after noon for NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Peter Shelan's speculative drama about challenging authority and Christopher Marlowe's death, The School of Night, at the Taper; Susan Kim's stage adaptation of Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club, at East West Players; Peter Wing Healey's play, Thystes' Feast, based on fragments of lost Greek pays, at the Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center; Sam Shepard's Melodrama Play at the Paul G. Gleason Theatre; the world premiere of Wayland Pickard, Sherry Netherland and Deborah Johnson's eLove, A Musical.Com/edy, at the NoHo Arts Center; Peres Owino's poetical drama about self-discovery, Beauty for Ashes, at Stage 52; Pacific Resident Theatre's revival of Ernest Vajda's romantic comedy, Fata Morgana; Cherokee playwright Diana Glancy's play, Salvage at the Autry Museum; and The Next Arena's series of playlets about "history written by the losers," (instead of the winners), Histrionics at the Lounge Theatre.

FAKE RADIO'S SING ALONG WIZARD OF OZ

L.A.'s old time radio troupe stages a recreation of the original 1950 broadcast of Lux Radio Theatre's version of The Wizard of with Debra Wilson Skelton from MADtv. The show performs at Bang! Comedy Theatre, 457 N. Fairfax Avenue; Nov. 16, 7 p.m. cocktails; 7:30 p.m. show starts. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/47066

For last weekends NEW THEATER REVIEWS, visit www.laweekly.com/theater

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A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT LEPAGE

Canadian Robert Lepage is an internationally preeminent director-actor, whose work is often compared with that of his contemporaries, Robert Wilson and Peter Brook, for its highly visual and imagistic qualities. His latest work The Blue Dragon co-commissioned by UCLA Live, written by Lepage and Marie Michaud, and performed by Ex Machina company members Lepage, Michaud and Tai Wei Foo, plays at the Freud Playhouse, on the UCLA campus, Wed-Sat, Nov. 12-15 at 8 p.m; Sun., Nov 16 at 7 p.m.; Tues.-Fri., Nov 18-21 at 8 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 22 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Here is how Lepage's press material describes The Blue Dragon, a follow up to his The Dragon Trilogy in which he played a character named Lamontagne, on his way to China.

“Twenty years later, Lamontagne resurfaces in Shanghai’s Moganshan 50, a former industrial complex converted into an arts centre, now the heart of the contemporary Chinese art scene. Here he meets Claire Forêt, a Montreal ad executive, drawn like so many others to take advantage of the Chinese economic miracle. Claire, who had known Pierre in another life at art school, casts a decidedly western eye on his current existence. Through the shock of their rediscovery and confrontation, their common past opens an unexpected door to the future for both. Enter Xiao Ling, a Chinese artist exhibiting at Pierre’s gallery. As she faces wrenching choices, the young woman awakens hopes long buried in Claire.”

For more information, visit http://uclalive.org/Event.asp?Event_ID=559

Lepage spoke to the Weekly by phone.

L.A. Weekly: You've said in the past that you don't create works about a topic in the society, but that you use the rehearsal process to discover, through the resources you have available and the actors' intuitions, what the piece is about. Has that changed over 20 years?

Robert Lepage: It's pretty much the same approach. We still don't start with intellectual ideas. For The Dragon Trilogy [an antecedent to The Blue Dragon], we were interested in the Chinese contemporary art scene, so we went to China. What is China about today? We don't ask that. The method is much the same, but in the early days we were much more imageistic and into what the piece would look like visually. I'd say that we're now more preoccupied by writing and dialogue.

Weekly: How does the dramaturgy work?

Lepage: We try things for that evening's performance. Okay now we have this mess of a show, let's try to figure this out. Because we do it in front of an audience, it's very different from playing Shakespeare with a quill, it's more sporty. The audiences inform you of what your shows are about. So in the first 20 or 30 performances, things become set, and "executive decisions" occur in those first performances, so people now have this impression that this character is about this and about that – it has more to do with sculpting a show than about writing a show.

Weekly: So the audience helps create the piece?

Lepage: We're not dictated by the audience. We listen to impressions. It's a very organic process. Some things are more tricky than others, but it's a playful place – this is not a soul-searching process or therapy.

Weekly But you're not performing in a vacuum. You're reflecting on the world from within it.

Lepage: We did a show called Polygraph, it was written in early 1989, it was all about the Berlin Wall, and somebody who fled Germany and went to Montreal. In the middle of the show, the Wall fell, so we had to ask ourselves, what are we going to do with that? It helped shape the piece.

We did a show called Zoom Time that we were supposed to perform in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. It made reference to terrorists and airliners being used as bombs, and all the people we consulted the week before were now on TV giving commentary on the real life events.

Right now in China, we did expect that there would be something important happening on the day of the opening of the Olympics, that element didn't necessarily influence the new version, but we felt we had to be aware.

Maybe it comes out that way because we don't write about the past that much. I guess like all these guys used to do in Shakespeare's time, they were the chroniclers of their own time.

Weekly: Robert Wilson investigates our relationship to time and our attention span with works that go on for days, quite literally. He recently admitted that he passed out trying to watch one of his performances in its entirety, and that, unlike in a play by Shakespeare, the experience is not diminished if audiences leave for an hour or two, then return later. Do you look into that territory?

Lepage: Blue Dragon is a two hours show, but we have a nine-hour performance called Lip Sync (about the voice), but we divide our pieces into small fragments, stories. In our case, you can break it apart and not feel lost. Yes, people can see only three parts instead of nine, and not feel lost.

We live in a holographic time. In the actual DNA of a hologram, you can take a small component of it and it contains the information for the whole thing.

Jackson's Pollack's splashes on a canvas responds to different ways of seeing science. How we see the world influences the way an artist conceives the work

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How could Chris Leavins exploit such cute little creatures. Find out in Cute With Chris: Live Photo by Yoko Takashi

>NEW REVIEW GO CUTE WITH CHRIS: LIVE Aside from his TV career, Canadian actor Chris Leavins made his name creating one of the most popular series on the Internet – 100,000 hits per show by using a $300 videocam and uploading broadcasts of himself, in his apartment (somewhere between Silver Lake and Echo Park, to judge from the images he beams onto a screen in his one-man show), and showing photographs of people's cute pets that he's solicited. His one-hour live performance is a kind comic exegesis on the essence of “cute” -- and his larger purpose – residing somewhere between that of David Lettteman and Ira Glass, is trying to find the stories that bind us. In cream suit and sneakers, Leavins' humor derives partly from his slightly forlorn expression, which he beams out like a laser whenever the audience responds with “ooohs” and “aahs” to the broadcast picture of a baby kangaroo in a pouch, or a kitten with a bow. No sentimentalist, Leavins deadpans that “cute” last about six weeks; then you're in for 12 years of cat poop and matted fur. His broader cultural insight is on the fleeting value we place on superficial attraction – pet photos that have little purpose to anyone but ourselves and are relegated -- like worn out mementos, the detritus of our lives, perhaps like our lives themselves – to ashes or dust. He found one photo of a woman with a dog that he purchased simply because, he explains, he could not reconcile himself to an image that held so much meaning for somebody at some time being simply forgotten. And so he invented a story around the photo, imbuing it with a new meaning, which is exactly what we do to a photo, or a painting, or a story, that we call a classic. Leavin's droll act has a kind of muted beauty and profundity lurking beneath his otherwise snappy and amiable presentation. Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd.; Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; though Dec. 14. (323) 960-7785. (Steven Leigh Morris)

Also reviewed over the weekend: Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon in its West Coast premiere at the El Centro Theatre; Rachel Kolar and Lauren Brown's experimental New at Son of Semele; Kitt Steinkellner's adaptation of the Cervantes novel, Quixotic at the Powerhouse Theatre; Neil Bartlett's adapatation of Oliver Twist at A Noise Within; Robert Riechel, Jr.'s comedy about the kidnapping of a theater critic for a Fresno daily, Eat the Runt, at the Hudson Guild; E.M. Lewis' "play about the science of life and loss," Song of Extinction at [Inside] the Ford; Rob Mersola's "not-so-romantic comedy of bad manners, Eat the Runt at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre Cafe; Cornerstone Theatre Company's third play in its Justice Cycle, For All Time at Shakespeare Festival/LA; and Moliere's The Bourgeois Gentilhomme at City Garage

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Check back here Monday after noon for NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon in its West Coast premiere at the El Centro Theatre; Rachel Kolar and Lauren Brown's experimental New at Son of Semele; Kitt Steinkellner's adaptation of the Cervantes novel, Quixotic at the Powerhouse Theatre; Neil Bartlett's adapatation of Oliver Twist at A Noise Within; Chris Leavins' live internet sensation, Cute With Chris: Live at the Elephant Theatre; Robert Riechel, Jr.'s comedy about the kidnapping of a theater critic for a Fresno daily, Eat the Runt, at the Hudson Guild; E.M. Lewis' "play about the science of life and loss," Song of Extinction at [Inside] the Ford; Rob Mersola's "not-so-romantic comedy of bad manners, Eat the Runt at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre Cafe; Cornerstone Theatre Company's third play in its Justice Cycle, For All Time at Shakespeare Festival/LA; and Moliere's The Bourgeoise Gentilhomme at City Garage

NEW REVIEW BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON There's delicate poetical imagery in Robert Schenkkan's 2005 drama about the meeting of and fleeting romance between two exiles in an Austin suburb. That delicacy, however, is saturated by generic chat between the characters and a somewhat predictable romance. You know a play's in trouble when a gun has to be drawn in order to elicit some palpable drama. That's no slight against the actors -- Demian Bichir and Shannon Cochran -- whose sincere and layered interpretations of a Cuban gardener and his deeply troubled white, female employer keeps the action watchable. But this is a play about how they got to where they are -- stories of their respective betrayals, as both victims and perpetrators, their guilt and their defenses as life's hardships have piled up against both of them. So the drama consists of them meeting, courting, spurning that courtship, her regretting their one-night stand, and the stories that spill out of both of them with far too much ease to be an entirely plausible reflection of the grief they've both suffered. Michael Ganio's ornate set consists of an outdoor jungle of pampas-grass for Act 1, which yields to the woman's bedroom in Act 2. It has a kind of cinematic realism that seems at odds with the metaphysics the play is driving at -- where freedom is the freedom to imagine. Neither the play nor the set ask for much imagination on our part. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood; Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 & 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; through Dec. 7. (310) 208-5454. http://www.geffenplayhouse.org (Steven Leigh Morris)

or the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-11-06/stage/theater-reviews-lions-spring-awakening-a-man-39-s-a-man/

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RING AROUND LOS ANGELES: MAJOR ARTS FEST HEADED OUR WAY

Plácido Domingo and LA Opera just announced a major arts festival for Los Angeles to coincide with their presentation of Richard Wagner's “Ring Cycle,” performing April 15 to June 30, 2010. This could be the largest and most comprehensive arts festival to occur here since Peter Sellars headed (or beheaded) the L.A. Arts Festival in 1993.

More than 50 cultural and educational institutions are expected to participate in or collaborate on a wide variety of special exhibitions, performances, symposia and events.

"We can all be proud that so many diverse organizations are joining together in this incredible effort," said Los Angeles County Board Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Organizations currently scheduled to participate in Ring Festival LA include:

Music Center, Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County
Center Theatre Group
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Ace Gallery
American Cinematheque
American Jewish University
Bergamot Station: Ruth Bachofner Gallery
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
California Art Club
California Institute of the Arts
c3: Center for Conscious Creativity
Cinespia
Classical KUSC FM 91.5
The Colburn School
Descanso Gardens
Eli and Edythe Broad Stage
Geffen Playhouse
Gelson's
German Consulate General - Los Angeles
The Getty Center
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
Grand Performances
Griffith Observatory
Hispanics for LA Opera
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
tituto Italiano di Cultura
KCET Television
LA Inc.
The Latino Museum
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Los Angeles Conservancy
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
LA Film Festival
Los Angeles Magazine
Los Angeles Public Library / Library Foundation of Los Angeles
LA Trade Technical College
LA Unified School District / Arts Education Branch
Mount St. Mary's College
Museum of Contemporary Art
Norton Simon Museum
OPERA America
The Opera League of Los Angeles
Operetta Foundation
Patina Restaurant Association
Santa Monica Museum of Art
Southern California Wagner Society
Sundance Institute
University of California Los Angeles
University of Southern California
USC Brain and Creativity Institute
USC Thornton School of Music
Urban Educational Partnership
The Verdi Chorus
Villa Aurora

A complete calendar of festival events will be announced in January 2010.

SMALL BREAST CRISIS

SKIN collaborative presents Ellen Clifford's biographical comedy, Flat about a young woman who overcomes her eating disorder by embracing her biggest flaw, “her infinitely small breasts.” The show features Clifford and director Lora Ivanova. Cavern Club, Casita del Campo, 1920 Hyperion Avenue, Silver Lake; Nov. 6-8, 8 p.m. http://reznak.com/FLAT

SUSAN EGAN AT ZIPPER HALL

Vox Femina Los Angela kicks off its 12th season with “Sing-ular Sensations”, featuring Susan Egan
performing a tribute to Broadway musicals. Zipper Hall in the Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Avenue, downtown. http://www.voxfeminala.org

REDDY OR NOT

Alex Boling and Joanna Parson appear in Lance Werth and Parson's musical comedy tribute to crooner Helen Reddy at ITA productions, 10820 Washington Boulevard in Culver City. Nov. 7-9, 8 p.m. http://www.reddy-or-not.com

FARID MERCURY

TeAda Productions and Highways Performance Space present Iranian/Guatemalan performance and spoken-word artist Robert Farid Karimi, directed by Brian Freeman, formerly the head of CTG's Blacksmyths Theater Lab. Fri.-Sat., Nov. 14-15, 8:30 p.m. at Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica. http://www.highwaysperformance.org

For the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-11-06/stage/theater-reviews-lions-spring-awakening-a-man-39-s-a-man/

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For the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Spring Awakening at the Ahmanson; Ron Sossi's staging of Brecht's A Man's a Man at the Odyssey; Virginia Watson's solo perf, Better Late Than Never at the Lost Studio; West Cost Jewish Theatre's staging of Leonard Spigelgass' A Majority of One; Fountain Theater's revival of Gem of the Ocean; Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding at the Colony Theatre in Burbank; and Vince Melocchi's new play, Lions at Pacific Resident Theatre, press the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section.

SURVIVING THE SURVIVING CRITICS

Another john gets thrown out of another whorehouse on Beachwood Drive: Lena Starostina, Maria Silverman and David Medina. Photo by Kim Sharp

I know there's an election going on, but can we talk about something important for a moment? My play just opened off-Broadway.

“Welcome to the other side,” an L.A. publicist wrote me, answering my note about the slew of respectful mixed reviews that my play, Beachwood Drive, had received for its New York premiere by the Abingdon Theatre Company. <http://www.abingdontheatre.org> The experience offered this critic a bracing and healthy lesson in compassion for the people who invest so many years in putting on a play. It also gave truth to something I’ve heard from any number of locals: “You have no idea what it is to get bad reviews in New York.”

The first public reaction I received was during previews. I was on the “A” train, heading to JFK Airport for a return trip to L.A., when, rolling through Brooklyn, I noticed a couple sitting across the aisle reading a program from my play. When the people next to them got off the train, I sat down by the woman and, without identifying myself, asked if the production was any good.

“Oh, we loved it, she exulted, and continued to rave all the way to Queens — though, after I told her I was the playwright, she did give me a few notes about a scene she’d like me to add.

The theater was also comforted by what staff described as uniformly impassioned and enthusiastic responses from its audience, which they overheard in the lobby during intermission and after the show.

Then came the press.

The actors fared just fine. But Variety hated the play and noted that I didn’t know how to tell a story, which I would have given more credence to had the critic gotten the name of the play correct. (The magazine fixed it online two days after the review was posted.) Misspelling the play’s title doesn’t speak well for that critic’s attention to detail. The writer had also missed the play’s core structure of retelling three different times the story of a Ukrainian prostitute’s murder by the Russian Mafia after she is caught in an LAPD sting operation. The critic described the time-sequence shifts in the retold scenes as “clumsy dramaturgy.”

<<http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938863.html?categoryid=33&cs=1>
> >

The New York Times was more generous.

“There’s much to admire in the first act of Steven Leigh Morris’ intelligent but uneven new play, ‘Beachwood Drive,’” wrote Rachel Saltz, who then described the “theatrical presentation of human connection in the digital age,” and how the play “mines the strange dynamics of unexpected pairings.”
“Mr. Morris...is too smart to write a strictly conventional play,” Saltz continued (that’s the quote I would put on a billboard), “but he gets tripped up in the second act, set in the police station where [the prostitute] is being pressured to give up her madam. Here Mr. Morris spells out what was compellingly mysterious in the first act.”

<http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/theater/reviews/30beac.html?ref=theater >

Compare this to Karl Levett’s inverse assessment in Back Stage :
“In Beachwood Drive , Steven Leigh Morris unfolds a police case study that is a truly chilling cautionary tale. The drama, unfortunately, has a much too leisurely beginning, with the whole first act devoted to setting up the dire situation of the play’s central character, Nadya. Dramatic traction really doesn’t start until the introduction of the colorful Los Angeles police detective who opens the second act; from there on, however, the play is never less than compelling.”

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003884156

From my vantage point “on the other side,” I was struck by the contempt theater supporters bear toward critics. One Broadway investor I spoke to characterized New York critics as angry, frustrated misfits. I’ve heard the same complaint in L.A. about the critics here. But at most, this view offers a half-truth. The critics I’ve encountered on both coasts feel a passion for the theater that a grateful community should cherish, given that reviews have little bearing on audience attendance these days. Perhaps because of this, critics are losing their jobs in unprecedented numbers as support for the arts in the print media continues to wane.

Also in my adventure as a critic-through-the-looking-glass, I found that not only are the reviews as subjective as the many responses to the play, but the interpretation of the reviews is just as varied as the reviews themselves.

After the reviews were posted, director Alan Mandell e-mailed me a photo of a tar-saturated seabird on some beach hit by an oil spill, with the caption “Fuck it, I’m going home.” Being a Beckett aficionado, he was also “comforting” me with that master of gloom’s words: “Next time, fail better.”

We were sitting together in the back row before a performance that included a group from Sanctuary for Families, when the organizer of that group approached to congratulate us on that day’s review in The New York Times , which Alan and I, with our inflated hopes, had regarded as a benevolent dismissal.

The following day, the theater’s associate artistic director said that he, too, was receiving similar congratulations on the NYT notice. By the end of the week, one of the actresses had received a request for picture and résumé from CBS TV (from someone who had not seen the play but had read the reviews), and I’d received a message through the theater that a film company in L.A. had requested a copy of the script. The theater’s associate artistic director, believing, as I had, that we had been lightly broiled by the critics, remarked that our communal skepticism was “hysterical” (in all senses of that word), and that not only do people see in a play what they want to see, “they read in a review what they want to read.”

Only a squib in Flavorpill.com was able to articulate with precision my larger aim — to interlink themes of international slavery to a murder mystery.

http://flavorpill.com/newyork/events/2008/10/17/beachwood-drive

Meanwhile, the audiences had less difficulty grasping, or at least appreciating, this core idea. Theater staff noted the discrepancy between the reactions of the audiences, and those of the critics.

Yet in one instance, audience reaction mirrored that of the critics. As the lights faded after Act 1 on a Saturday matinee, I overheard the woman next to me tell her friend, “This play is terrible .”

Her friend replied, “What are you talking about? I love this play.”
They must have noticed me observing them, because the woman next to me asked me if I was associated with the production. I told her that I was the playwright.

“Let’s talk after,” she said.

As the audience stumbled over us after play’s end, the woman next to me echoed the Back Stage review — but with more enthusiasm. “Your Act 2 is brilliant,” she said. “But I have to tell you, I didn’t give a hoot in Act 1.”

“She’s wrong,” said her friend, who had offered a one-woman standing ovation during the curtain call. “It’s fine the way it is.”

I wrote this on a flight back to L.A., having just reshaped some scenes at Liberty Airport in New Jersey. A play is almost as bewildering as life in the land of mixed reviews. Next time, fail better.

ACORN PICTURES PRESENTS ONE-ACTS AT THE ODYSSEY

Acorn pictures is presenting its 2nd annual LIVEworks, an evening of one-act plays about things not being what they seem. Members of Acorn Pictures are enrolled in New York's Atlantic Acting School's inaugural Los Angeles Conservatory Program. Faculty include David Mamet, William H. Macy, Clark Gregg and Felicity Huffman. Performances are at the Odyssey Theater, 2055 Sepulveda Boulevard in West L.A., Nov. 607, 8 p.m.; and November 8 at 7 p.m.

For tickets log onto http://www.odysseytheatre.com or call 310-477-2055.
http://acornpictures.com

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MILTON KATSELAS DIES AT 75

Rumors had been swirling for about a week, but official word came in on Wednesday that teacher-director Melton Katselas, who founded Camelot Artists Theatre 20 years ago, died on Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 75.

Katselas' career as a director began in the 1960s with the original off-Broadway production of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, and he was nominated for a Tony Award for his direction of Butterflies are Free. Katselas directed over sixty plays, as well as several feature films for Columbia, United Artists, CBS and Fox.

Under his direction, Blythe Danner won a Tony Award, Eileen Heckart an Academy Award, and Bette Davis her only Emmy Award. Katselas directed such actors as Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Goldie Hawn, Christopher Walken, Burt Reynolds, George C. Scott, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton.

As a teacher, the list of noteworthy actors who benefited from his tutelage includes Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Kate Hudson, Kim Cattrall, Anne Archer, Kyle Chandler, James Cromwell, Tyne Daly, Jenna Elfman, Miguel Ferrer, Penny Fuller, Jorge Garcia, John Glover, Beth Grant, Michael Pena, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kelly Preston, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Urich, Jeffrey Tambor, Tom Selleck, and Patrick Swayze.

He was also mentored by such stage and film directors as Elia Kazan and Joshua Logan. It was through these influences and his subsequent extensive directing experience that Milton ultimately created his technique taught at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

THIS COMING WEEKEND'S NEW REVIEWS

Check back here Monday after noon for NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Spring Awakening at the Ahmanson; Ron Sossi's staging of Brecht's A Man's a Man at the Odyssey; Virginia Watson's solo perf, Better Late Than Never at the Lost Studio; West Cost Jewish Theatre's staging of Leonard Spigelgass' A Majority of One; Fountain Theater's revival of Gem of the Ocean; Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding at the Colony Theatre in Burbank; and Vince Melocchi's new play, Lions at Pacific Resident Theatre.

Last weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS can be found at http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-30/stage/theater-reviews-lovelace-the-rock-opera-u-s-drag-how-cissy-grew/

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS and press the Read On tab at directly below.

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APOLLO BOUND FOR OREGON

After many years of development, the third part of director Nancy Keystone's Apollo trilogy ("Apollo (Part 3): Libertation) is on its way to completion, and the entire Apollo trilogy is on its way to Portland Center Stage. http://ww.pcs.org

It's being presented in Los Angeles, as part of USC’s Visions and Voices series.

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m.
USC's Bovard Auditorium
Free Admission
Reservations requested: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/86638

BETH LAPIDES AT HIGHWAYS

Lapides "100% Happy 88% of the Time" performs at Highways Fri.-Sat., Nov. 7-8, 8:30 p.m. Visit http://highwaysperformance.org

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS and the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS, press the Read On tab at directly below.

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CTG RECEIVES $90,000 NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT GRANT

As one of two recipients of NEA support for an its New American Play project, Center Theatre Group will receive $90,000 to support advanced development activities, culminating in a full production and world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo” in May 2009 in the Kirk Douglas Theatre’s 2008-2009 season.

"CTG will collaborate closely with playwright Joseph on activities such as workshops and staged readings of the new play," CTG reported.

The project is administered by Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage, which will present a festival of all the plays funded by the NEA program, as part of its stated mission of support for new voices in the American theater.

There are many nuances to this project, to be discussed later on this blog.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF LINDA LOVELACE

Lovelace: A Rock Opera Photo courtesy of The Hayworth Theatre

>NEW REVIEW PICK OF THE WEEK LOVELACE: A ROCK OPERA Linda Lovelace, star of Deep Throat, wrote four autobiographies that muddled, not clarified, her unusual life. In the first two, she was a nympho; the second two, a victim. In all, however, her husband Chuck Traynor (here, played biliously by Jimmy Swan) is clearly a sleaze who lured her into prostitution. Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey's dark and haunting musical is anti-pimp, not anti-porn, even though the two are inextricably linked. Ken Sawyer's well-staged production is fated to descend into hellish reds and writhing bodies, yet it's shot through with beauty and sometimes even hope. As Linda, Katrina Lenk is sensational -- she has a dozen nuanced smiles that range from innocent to shattered to grateful, in order to express whatever passes as kindness when, say, a male co-star (Josh Greene) promises to make their scene fun. Waronker and Caffey were members of two major girl bands, That Dog and The Go-Go's respectively, and their music -- with its keyboards, cellos, and thrumming guitars -- has a pop catchiness that works even with the bleakest lyrics, some originally written by Jeffery Leonard Bowman. Though the facts of Linda's past went with her and Chuck to the grave (both died within months of each other in 2002), there's strong evidence that her life was even worse than the musical's ending suggests, but it's cathartic to watch her stand strong and sing of her hard-fought independence before flashing lights that, in ironic defiance of the play's title, beam out her real name: Linda Boreman. Hayworth Theater, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Nov. 23. (323) 960-4442, www.plays411.com. (Amy Nicholson)

Press the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section for this weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS embedded within this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS.

This week's reviews include of Brett Neveu's “table at a bar” play, Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing at the Hayworth Studio; Larry Gelbart's political satire, Mastergate at Actors Group Theatre; Furious Theatre Company's season opener, the west coast premiere of Gina Gionfriddo's U.S. Drag, upstairs theater at the Pasadena Playhouse, it's a “jet black comedy about two Manhattan women seeking love and happiness, but they'll settle for rent money”; Theatre Unleashed's production of Andrew Moore's new play, Pin-Up Girls, a study of 1940s burlesque, and those dancers trying to get by; David Rambo's study of Ann Landers, The Lady With All the Answers at the Pasadena Playhouse; Michael Sargent's sex comedy about the emotional grime surround '90s zine lit, Torn Between Two Bitches; Syzgy Theatre Group's revival of William Saroyan's Love's Old Sweet Song at CTG Burbank; and Susan Johnston's How Cissy Grew, at the El Portal Forum Theatre.

For last week's New Theater Reviews, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-23/stage/tragedy-a-tragedy-leading-ladies-good-bobby/

For this week's stage feature on Robert Wilson and Ralph Harris' North Philly visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-23/stage/ralph-harris-39-quot-north-philly-quot-and-robert-wilson-39-s-challenge-to-the-way-we-receive-art/

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS and the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS, press the Read On tab at directly below.

Read on...

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Stage Raw: Spring Awakening Oct 24, 2008
Stage Raw: Confessions of a Subterranean Playwright Oct 22, 2008
Stage Raw: To Ser With Love Oct 20, 2008
Stage Raw: Face It Oct 17, 2008
Stage Raw: Playboy of the Western World Oct 15, 2008
Stage Raw: The Sequence Oct 13, 2008
Stage Raw: Another L.A. Production in NYC Oct 10, 2008
Stage Raw: You've Come to the Right Place Oct 8, 2008
Stage Raw: Latino New Works Fest Oct 6, 2008
Stage Raw: Robert Wilson at USC Oct 3, 2008
Stage Raw: Actors Equity goes Soviet Oct 1, 2008
Stage Raw: Abuse for Its Own Sake Sep 29, 2008
Stage Raw: Creative Criticism Sep 26, 2008
Stage Raw: Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas Sep 24, 2008
Stage Raw: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ex-Presidents Sep 22, 2008
Stage Raw: On the Blume Sep 19, 2008
Stage Raw: Speech & Debate Sep 17, 2008
Stage Raw: Underestimating Public Intelligence Sep 15, 2008
Stage Raw: A New Era, or Just Another Robinsons? Sep 12, 2008
Stage Raw: In Defense of Sarah Palin Sep 10, 2008
Stage Raw: The Sarah Palin Dictionary Sep 8, 2008
Stage Raw: Zombie Joe's Underground Scores in New York Sep 5, 2008
Stage Raw: Last Call for "Wicked" Sep 3, 2008
Stage Raw: Better Late Than Never? Sep 1, 2008
Stage Raw: Who Needs Plays? Aug 29, 2008
Stage Raw: It Helps to Be Bi Aug 27, 2008
Stage Raw: Cooperation and Dissent Aug 25, 2008
Stage Raw: Ajax and Zappa Aug 21, 2008
Stage Raw Aug 19, 2008
Stage Raw Aug 14, 2008