ICEBERGS
Friday, November 18th, 2016
An indie filmmaker and his actress wife invite a trio of friends into their Silver Lake home for ninety minutes of contemporary American playwriting at its most entertaining in Alena Smith’s timely and touching, humorous and human Icebergs, a World Premiere dramedy that proves one of the Geffen Playhouse’s best.
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VICUÑA
Monday, October 31st, 2016
A $110,000 vicuña wool suit may be all that stands between business tycoon-turned-reality TV host-turned Republican Presidential nominee Kurt Seaman and the White House in Jon Robin Baitz’s ripped-from-today’s-headlines Vicuña, a Kirk Douglas Theatre World Premiere drama that proves as hilarious as it is gripping and talk-provoking.
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DISTRICT MERCHANTS
Thursday, October 13th, 2016
Playwright Aaron Posner offers theatergoers his 21st-century riff on Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice in District Merchants, a South Coast Repertory West Coast Premiere at once unabashedly romantic, cautiously cynical, and resolutely hopeful. I loved every minute of it.
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NEVERMORE
Saturday, October 8th, 2016Imagine an Edgar Allan Poe story with Poe himself as protagonist and you’ve got Nevermore, Matt Ritchey’s theatrical riff on The Fall of the House of Usher (with bits of The Pit And The Pendulum and The Tell Tale Heart thrown in for good measure), arriving at Theater Unleashed in time for Halloween in a production that could be better, but provides just enough laughs and thrills to make for ‘60s thriller movie-style fun.
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SEMINAR
Thursday, October 6th, 2016
What Terrence Spencer was to his tyrannized music students in Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning Whiplash, so novelist-turned-magazine correspondent Leonard is to the equally intimidated writers attending his uber-pricey workshop in Theresa Rebeck’s darkly comedic, dramatically potent Seminar, now being given a terrific Chance Theater Orange County Premiere.
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CHARM
Saturday, September 10th, 2016
Edward J. Olmos’s Jaime Escalante did it in Stand And Deliver. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Louanne Johnson did it in Dangerous Minds. Sidney Poitier’s Mark Thackery did it in To Sir With Love. And now Lana Houston’s Mama Darleena Andrews does it in Charm, transforming the lives of a classroomful of rebellious teens, only this time round the teacher in question is a transgender sexagenerian and her students an unruly bunch of homeless LGBT teens. Talk about a setup for an edgy, funny, and (you guessed it) heartstrings-tugging crowd-pleaser, the latest all-around winner from Celebration Theatre.
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MUTUAL PHILANTHROPY
Sunday, September 4th, 2016Copiously consumed whisky and wine fuel a dinner party for four as playwright Karen Rizzo puts a personal face on the social divide between the super-wealthy and the other 99% of us Angelinos in her explosive dark comedy Mutual Philanthropy, now getting an excitingly acted World Premiere by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA.
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THE TWO KIDS THAT BLOW SHIT UP
Sunday, August 28th, 2016
Playwright Carla Ching takes a tried-and-true formula (best friends who can’t quite get it into their noggins that they are Made For Each Other) and turns it on its head in her World Premiere dramedy The Two Kids Who Blow Shit Up, not only L.A. theater at its intimate best but a textbook example of how #diversity works.
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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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