The best play in town right now is Elephant Theater's production of
Stephen Adly Guirgis's In Arabia We'll All Be Kings. Guirgis's Our Lady of
121st Street just closed (its wonderful double-cast ensemble is LA Weekly
Award nominated) and now we have yet another brilliant ensemble of
actors disappearing completely into the skins of a dozen or so bar
denizens in mid-90s Hells Kitchen New York City. (Interestingly, Small
Tragedy occupies more or less the same time frame.) Joel David's superb
set and lighting design transports the audience inside a rundown bar
from the moment of entering the theater.

The cast (special credit to Jade Dorfeld as the tragic hooker/junkie
Chickie, Steven Schub as dim but sexy druggie Skank, and Jason Warren
as desperate and vulnerable ex-con Lenny) has not a single weak link
and needless to say David Fofi's direction is flawless. Anyone looking in
from outside would not doubt for a second that these are real New
Yorkers in a real bar with real problems and addictions. If you want to
marvel at the perfection that great actors can bring to their craft, this is
your best bet currently playing in L.A
FEBRUARY 2007, ELEPHANT THEATRE, HOLLYWOOD

--Steven Stanley