TAKING STEPS
Friday, February 6th, 2009RECOMMENDED
With over seventy plays under his belt, Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most prolific (and successful) playwrights ever. He’s also one of the funniest and most original. It’s said that each of his plays has a gimmick. The Norman Conquests trilogy are three separate plays, each with the same set of characters, each taking place on the same weekend, each in a different part of a English country home. Amazingly, each play tells a complete story and can be seen in any order without the need to see either of the others. How The Other Half Loves superimposes two neighboring houses on the same set, so that characters standing within touching distance are often in two completely different locations. Taking Steps, currently at the Odyssey Theater, has a somewhat similar conceit. It places all three stories of a London home (“The Pines”) at the same stage level with a pair of staircases (one of them spiral) on which actors “ascend” or “descend” without ever moving up or down even an inch. With characters slamming doors and barely missing running into each other, this British farce is amusing indeed.
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SQUABBLES
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Theatergoers in search of laughter with a dollop of romance added for good measure need look no farther than Squabbles, currently lighting up the stage at the Palos Verdes-adjacent Norris Center For The Performing Arts.
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LIGHT UP THE SKY
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Moss Hart affectionately skewers the world of the theater in his 1948 comedy Light Up The Sky, now being given a pitch-perfect revival by Open Fist Theatre under the crackerjack direction of Bjørn Johnson.
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RESIGNATION DAY
Saturday, January 17th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
In Resignation Day, playwright Charles Pike imagines a day in the life of Terry Southern (played by Chairman Barnes), screenwriter of such 60s classics as Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider as well as cult favorites Barbarella and Candy, a day in 1974 which happens also to be the day that Richard Nixon resigned the office of President of the United States.
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THE BIRD AND MR. BANKS
Friday, January 16th, 2009
How, you might wonder, could a middle-aged nebbish of an accountant named Seymour Banks have become the FBI’s most wanted man in America? The answer to this puzzler can be found in Keith Huff’s quirky, original, and entirely unpredictable dark comedy, The Bird And Mr. Banks, now getting its West Coast Premiere at the illustrious Road Theatre.
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THE BALTIMORE WALTZ
Sunday, January 11th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Paula Vogel’s 1992 The Baltimore Waltz received the Obie for Best New American Play, yet has rarely if ever been performed locally. For this reason alone, Rude Guerrilla’s just opened production is sure to generate considerable interest. Director R.J. Romero writes that Vogel’s work has been “a major presence throughout my adult reading and theatre viewing life,” making it a certainty that love and care have gone into this production. Romero’s sound design is especially effective in creating a fanciful, romantic atmosphere, and his cast demonstrate real commitment to achieving the director’s goals.
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YOU NERO
Sunday, January 11th, 2009RECOMMMENDED
Imagine a Mel Brooks spoof about the fabled Roman emperor Nero, or one written and performed by the Monty Python gang, or perhaps a classic Nero sketch from the 1950s’ Your Show Of Shows, with Sid Caesar as Nero. Now, stretch it out to two acts with a running time of two hours and fifteen minutes and place it on the Julianne Argyros Stage at South Coast Repertory—and you have Amy Freed’s You, Nero.
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AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Diversionary Theatre’s production of Paul Oakley Stovall’s As Much As You Can couldn’t come at a more appropriate moment, November’s Yes On 8 victory having focused attention on the African American community’s attitudes towards gays and lesbians in general and same-sex marriage in particular. These timely topics form the heart of Stovall’s perceptive, thought-provoking, hopeful, and downright hilarious comedy, a contemporary gay take on Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.
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