WHERE THE GREAT ONES RUN
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
Mark Roberts writes plays about abuse, adultery, addiction, illness, incest, and suicide in the American Midwest, or at least that’s the terrain he covered in Parasite Drag, reviewed here a couple years back. Rogue Machine Theatre produces dark, edgy dramas like Small Engine Repair and Blackbird, which swept virtually every major theater award in town this past year. That’s why Roberts’ and Rogue Machine’s maiden collaboration, Where The Great Ones Run, comes as such a surprise. Though alcoholism, domestic violence, homosexuality, and a rather long bit of full-frontal male nudity would doubtless make this Mark Roberts play rather too daring for, say, Actors Co-op, coming from Rogue Machine, Where The Great Ones Run seems downright sunny, more Horton Foote than Sam Shepard, and if you’re anything like this reviewer you’ll love every minute of Roberts’ only slightly acidic valentine to small-town Indiana life. (read more)
REX PICKETT’S SIDEWAYS THE PLAY
Saturday, May 26th, 2012
Longtime best friends Miles and Jack set off on “the ultimate road trip, the last hurrah” in Rex Pickett’s Sideways The Play, now getting a terrific World Premiere staging by Santa Monica’s The Ruskin Group Theatre Co.
(read more)
PANACHE
Friday, May 25th, 2012
Here’s a question for romantic comedy buffs. When is the last time you saw a stage play that drew you into its spell and held you throughout laughter (and a tear or two) to a picture perfect fade-out in the same way that romcom favorites like You’ve Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, and Notting Hill have been doing for decades on the silver screen. It’s been years since this reviewer (and romcom lover) has seen a comedy as intoxicatingly romantic as Don Gordon’s Panache, now in the homestretch of its six-week run at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre. As I write this review, you’ve got only two more chances not to miss out on his romantic comedy gem.
(read more)
THE CHILDREN
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
When Susan Smith confessed to having drowned her two small children back in 1994, it was hard not to draw parallels between this murderous mom of today and that lethal lady of mythology known as Medea. Though their motives were different (Susan wanted to get rid of her kids, the better to fool around with a man who didn’t want a “ready-made” family; Medea killed hers to punish her husband for an adulterous affair), the results were tragically the same.
Perhaps inspired by this tale as old as Greek tragedy and as recent as today’s headlines, playwright Michael Elyanow has written an extraordinary (if a tad too intricate) new play, The Children, which Theatre @ Boston Court is now World Premiering under the inspired direction of Jessica Kubzanky.
(read more)
LOVE STRUCK
Saturday, May 12th, 2012
Playwright Dale Griffiths Stamos follows her 2011 collection of family-based one-acts, Thicker Than Water, with an even bigger and better bunch for 2012, an octet of love-themed playlets aptly titled Love Struck.
(read more)
THE BEWILDERED HERD
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Among political commentator Walter Lippmann’s best known quotes is the following: “The public must be put in its place…so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd.” In other words, if you want democracy to work, you’ve got to control the minds of the masses, something which political consultant Charlie “Bingo” Bingham, the (anti)hero of Cody Henderson’s World Premiere The Bewildered Herd knows only too well. You might even call it Bingo’s mission in life to keep the bewildered herd (i.e. the people in his life—and you and me) in line.
(read more)
THE PRINCE OF ATLANTIS
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
An adult adoptee attempts to connect with his birth father, who then concocts a cockamamie scheme to have his younger brother pretend to be Dear Old Dad, in Steven Drukman’s The Prince Of At Atlantis, now getting its World Premiere at South Coast Repertory.
(read more)
1969: A FANTASTICAL ODYSSEY THROUGH THE AMERICAN MINDSCAPE
Monday, April 2nd, 2012RECOMMENDED
Ovation Award winner Damon Chua takes audiences on an LSD trip through the year 1969 in his ambitious new play 1969: A Fantastical Odyssey Through The American Mindscape, and though he may have bitten of more than any play or playwright can chew, some particularly fine performances and what could well be the year’s most exciting video design make this a psychedelic voyage that adventurous theatergoers may want to take a chance on.
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2026 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY