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Von Bach and Absolutely Filthy — Parodies That Pop
One of the reasons satirists sometimes make sure their efforts are described as “parodies” is because the First Amendment allows parodies to proceed without requiring the satirists to obtain rights to...
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The Oklahoman and the Chicano Should Be Friends
One particular detail in a program note caught my eye last Saturday, at the opening of A Noise Within’s revival of John Steinbeck’s epic novel The Grapes of Wrath, as dramatized in 1988 by Frank...
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It’s Raining Women on San Fernando Valley Stages
The southeast San Fernando Valley women’s theater festival is booming. You haven’t heard of this festival? Neither had I, until I realized that last week I was seeing five shows in the southeast Valley...
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From Tribes to Our Town
Director David Cromer, who shed new light on Thornton Wilder’s Our Town last year at Broad Stage, has returned to the LA area with the opening of Nina Raine’s Tribes, at the Taper. It happens to...
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Sitting With The Whale and Sexsting. Bob Verini Sings.
I spend too much time sitting at my computer, as I write this column and also edit other people’s writing for LA STAGE Times. Lately, as the media picks up on the ominous catchphrase “sitting is the...
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Spring, Melancholia, Nether and Four Diva Shows
Two of LA County’s most prominent theatrical venues are being temporarily shape-shifted. For Spring Awakening, the current production at La Mirada Theatre, the audience of up to 199 sits on the stage...
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The Problems With Cornerstone and David Mamet
Cornerstone Theater Company often guides me into corners of the city that I otherwise wouldn’t see. On Saturday it brought me to the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus, home of Los Angeles High...
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Going Down to the Red Line and Up to Roof Piece
I see so many plays that I seldom have the opportunity to see much dance (except in musicals). And I very seldom get to see the sort of large-scale site-specific dance that erupted over large parts of...
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All-American Metaphors in Misfit and Buffalo
When the first word in a play title is “American,” it usually means that the writer is working on a larger metaphorical scale than we might assume from a first glance. This weekend I saw the new...
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The Tribulations of Lorenz Hart, Romania and Rodney King
Some potential theatergoers might be misled into thinking that Falling For Make Believe is just another musical revue. The title sounds glossy, with a slight danger of veering into gassy. The fact that...
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A Two-Laramie Marathon and a Same-Sex Subject Sampler
Hmm, this sounded interesting — The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Chance Theater. Surely the sequel to a production as momentous as The Laramie Project should be seen, but as far as I know, the...
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20th Century Torments in Our Class, Parade, Joe Turner’s, Royale
Can the stage produce anything about the anti-Semitism that culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust that we haven’t already seen? Well, I’ve seen a lot of plays related to the Holocaust, but I have...
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Diversity Dilemmas at LA STAGE Day
LA Stage Day – Terence McFarland. Photo by Katie Gould Does LA have one “theater community” or many? Often the latter notion seems more plausible. When we define communities within an area as far-flung...
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Artifice, Anyone? From The Fantasticks to Trainspotting.
Some audiences want their theater to be as theatrical as possible. Acknowledge the artifice, and use its tools to explore themes that might not be apparent in realistic settings. This is the world of...
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Presenting Scottsboro, Sleepless, Priscilla, Normal and The Crucible
I’m emerging from a five-day musicals binge — the premiere of Sleepless in Seattle, the first LA appearances of The Scottsboro Boys and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the first indigenous LA production...
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Adapting Saturday Night Fever, Shakespeare and Seneca
Here they come. In LA theater, summer is now known primarily for two annual phenomena — lots of alfresco classics and of course the flood of indoor Hollywood Fringe productions. Summer hasn’t even...
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Comedy Tonight: Yes, Prime Minister, Neva, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Bob
Comedies and farces are frequently funnier if something within them provides a shock of recognition — the feeling that the writer is reflecting something that’s happening within our own lives or our...
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fringe
I’ve fretted a lot about the Hollywood Fringe Festival in this column. At first, in 2010, I asked why was a Fringe necessary, when LA in general and Hollywood in particular have a steady stream of...
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Women of the World: Judy Show, Heart Song, Opheliamachine, Others
Even as I was writing last week’s LA STAGE Watch column about the Hollywood Fringe Festival, I was aware that my selection of shows might appear somewhat male-centric. I took some of my cues about what...
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LA Chronicles: Bronzeville, revolver, Sweet Karma
Now that the totally non-curated Hollywood Fringe Festival has once again come and gone, I’m fondly remembering a component of one of its predecessors, the Edge of the World Theater Festival — a...
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