Author Archive
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Actors Co-op is attempting pretty much the impossible—a 90 minute version
of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime And Punishment, featuring a cast of three. The
adaptation, written by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus, debuted
several years ago in Chicago, where it won the Jefferson Award for “Best New
Adaptation.” The playwrights deserve high marks for condensing a mammoth
novel into a one-act play without sacrificing cohesion. Its message of
redemption is particularly appropriate for the Christian-based Co-op. Director
Ken Sawyer is a master of the visual, and the production looks great.
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IN A GARDEN
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Middle East Meets West in Howard Korder’s thought-provoking culture clash dramatic comedy In A Garden, now playing to considerable acclaim at South Coast Repertory.
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SWEENEY TODD
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Anyone who’s seen only Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd or the “high-concept” production at the Ahmanson last year is hereby advised to head down (or up or over) to Torrance and catch the absolutely phenomenal revival being staged at El Camino College.
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SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Yes, Virginia, there was a Stephen Sondheim before Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday In The Park with George, Into The Woods, Assassins, Dick Tracy, and Passion—as the 1976 musical revue Side By Side By Sondheim makes perfectly clear.
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TRYING
Saturday, March 13th, 2010
There are times when all it takes is two actors to fill a stage, to fill it with humor and drama and heart. Trying, Joanna McClelland Glass’s much-loved two-hander, provides a pair of actors with just such an opportunity to shine.
THE WILD PARTY
Friday, March 12th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Just like the kids who pooled their talents to “put on a show” in 1939’s Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland flick Babes In Arms, so the young 21st Century performers of Still Hungry Theatre have banded together to stage Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party on a shoestring—with commendable results.
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HARAM IRAN
Thursday, March 11th, 2010NOT RECOMMENDED
In 2005, the Western world recoiled in horror at photos of Iranian teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, hangman’s nooses around their necks, about to be put to death for, it was reported at the time, the crime of consensual homosexual acts.
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OEDIPUS EL REY
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Where so-called “edgy” or “experimental” theater is concerned, the line between brilliant and pretentious is a fine one indeed, and in this reviewer’s experience at least, the latter is more often the case than the former. That’s why it’s such a pleasure to report that Theatre @ Boston Court’s production of Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey is out-and-out brilliant theater, even for playgoers whose tastes run, as mine do, more toward the traditional.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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