MEET & GREET
Monday, August 25th, 2014
“A+ CAST PLUS BOFFO SCRIPT EQUALS FRINGE FEST SMASH” is how I concluded my review of Meet & Greet, Stan Zimmerman and Christian McLaughlin’s outrageously funny tale of a quartet of fictional Broadway/Hollywood divas vying for a sitcom pilot lead, when it played this past June at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Now, Meet & Greet is back for a second run at Theatre Asylum, and as evidenced by the nonstop laughter at yesterday’s SRO matinee, Meet & Greet 2.0 is even more outrageously funny the second time around than it was the first.
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Saturday, August 16th, 2014
No set, no frills, the original script cut by more than half, and abundant imagination and flair add up to quite possibly the shortest and without a doubt one of the most entertaining Midsummer Night’s Dreams in the four-hundred-twenty or so years since those foolish mortals first ventured into the woods, sixty-five minutes of madcap Midsummer 2014 magic courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group.
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6 RMS RIV VU
Monday, August 11th, 2014
One of theatergoing’s greatest pleasures is the discovery of “forgotten gems,” plays that may have hit it big when they debuted but for one reason or another have faded into obscurity in the intervening years. Such is the case with Bob Randall’s 1972 romantic comedy 6 Rms Riv Vu, now getting a sparkling Sierra Madre Playhouse revival under Sherrie Lofton’s pitch-perfect direction.
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LEADING LADIES
Friday, July 25th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Boys will be girls when a pair of traveling Shakespearean thespians impersonate a pair of long-lost sisters in hopes of inheriting a fortune in Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies, now entertainingly revived at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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FAMILY PLANNING
Friday, July 18th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Burbank’s Colony Theatre opens its 40th Season with Michelle Kholos Brooks’ entertaining if overly familiar Family Planning, and while the World Premiere comedy’s couple of battling 70something ex-spouses will likely appeal to the Colony’s post-retirement-age regulars, particularly as brought to life by TV’s venerable Bruce Weitz and Christina Pickles, the coming year’s bolder later selections appear more apt to revitalize the Colony’s aging subscriber base than its Season 40 opener.
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DIXIE’S TUPPERWARE PARTY
Friday, July 11th, 2014RECOMMENDED
When playwright Kris Andersson and his Tupperware Lady alter ego “Dixie Longate” debuted their “one-woman” show Dixie’s Tupperware Party at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival, little did they realize that ten years later, their comedy confection would earn a slot at Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse. As to whether it merits a run at one of L.A.’s most prestigious regional houses … Well, I’ll say this for Dixie and her honest-to-gosh Tupperware party: There are far less entertaining ways to spend an evening at the theater than in the presence of the trailer-trashy redhead and her multi-colored plastic bowls, canisters, jars, and other assorted gadgets.
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TWO GROOMS: BIG GAY NORTH HOLLYWOOD WEDDING REDUX
Monday, July 7th, 2014
You don’t have to be gay to add Two Grooms: Big Gay North Hollywood Wedding Redux to your Must-See List. In fact, this astutely tweaked reprise of 2009’s smash hit A Big Gay North Hollywood Wedding is fabulous entertainment for theatergoers of all sexual/gender shadings, and what’s even better, it’s all real … or the next best thing.
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DENTAL SOCIETY MIDWINTER MEETING
Friday, June 27th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Buzzworks Theater Company returns with the often entertaining West Coast Premiere of Laura Jacqmin’s Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, and though the one-act comedy proves a hit-or-miss affair, I’d gladly take it over a January in Skokie, Illinois.
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