WRINKLES
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
The Fukutani-Komiyamas are your typical middle-class Pasadena family. Mom Nancy is a divorced single mother and successful attorney. Teenaged Jason is a high school student who’d rather listen to his iPod and play video games on his laptop than write the university essay his mom is always on his case about. “Why don’t you just bang me over the head with a blunt object,” retorts his frustrated mom when Jason informs her that his essay is (pointing at head) “up here.” Grandpa Harry shares digs with daughter and grandson, the better to provide Jason with a mature male influence. Yes, the Fukutani-Komiyamas are your typical middle-class Pasadena family with one exception.
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THE ODD COUPLE
Friday, February 4th, 2011
How many plays can you think of that have generated a film adaptation (and a 30-years-later sequel), a long-running sitcom, a short-running African American-cast sitcom, an animated children’s series, an alternate version with the male and female roles reversed, and an updated version with an all new title?
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MR. KOLPERT
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011NOT RECOMMENDED
When a play gets a 5-star review in London’s The Guardian yet fails to impress in an intimate Los Angeles production, one can’t help wondering, “What went wrong in the transatlantic transfer?”
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Monday, January 31st, 2011
From the moment the lights come up on Theseus, Duke Of Athens (Elijah Alexander), and Hippolyta, Queen Of The Amazons (Susannah Schulman) posing in glamorous 1950s garb to the flash of paparazzi light bulbs, you know this will not be your grandfather’s, your father’s, or even your older brother’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Clearly director Mark Rucker has tricks up his sleeve, the revelation of which make South Coast Repertory’s production of William Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy something very special indeed.
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PLAY DATES
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
The war between the sexes has never been funnier than it is in Play Dates, Sam Wolfson’s hilarious new comedy now playing at Theatre Asylum under the sparkling direction of Jennifer Chambers.
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ROOM SERVICE
Friday, January 21st, 2011
When a baseball pitcher launches the ball with a reverse spin, sending it curving toward the side of the plate from which it was thrown, it’s called a screwball. (Trust me. I looked it up.) Not surprisingly, the comedy genre that bears its name follows its namesake’s example by taking surprising turns and behaving in entirely unexpected ways. As a result, a screwball comedy guarantees more laughs per minute than just about any other theater or film genre, precisely what 1930s audiences needed in the Depression years which followed the Stock Market Crash.
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BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
There’s a fine line in theater between “period” and “dated.” A play that’s dated is one that’s no longer appropriate for a contemporary audience and may even be offensive to current sensibilities. On the other hand, a period play delights us with its look back at the way we were, as seen through then-contemporary eyes. That’s why, when someone recently described Neil Simon’s Barefoot In The Park as “dated,” my immediate response was, “No, it’s not dated at all. It’s period.”
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CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
There’s no treat for an avid theatergoer quite like the treat of seeing something absolutely fresh and original. Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation is just such a treat.
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