TEEN GIRL
Thursday, May 29th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Though Justin Tanner’s Teen Girl features some of the wackiness of his Space Therapy and Oklahomo, it is at heart the story of a teen girl’s awakening to the possibilities of love.
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TAKING STEPS
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
British master of comedy Alan Ayckbourn turns his hand to farce in the hilarious Taking Steps, onstage now in an absolutely crackerjack production at South Coast Repertory.
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NYMPHONY IN 12D
Saturday, May 24th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
Apartment 12-D tenant Brick Wilson (Rusty Hamrick) is the biggest up-and-coming opera singer in the Ansonia Hotel, which isn’t saying much. His best role so far has been that of the bearded lady in a zarzuela. Brick is frequently visited by a beauteous (though occasionally invisible) nymph (Beth Whitney), whose mission is to inspire him to greatness. Unfortunately for the nymph, Brick is gay, so her beauteousness is pretty much lost on him.
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HILLARY AGONISTES
Saturday, May 17th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
The year is 2009, Hillary Clinton is our President, and 65,000,000 people have disappeared across the world. “Who are these people who would just disappear without their clothes?” wonders Hillary. And who (or what) is behind this phenomenon? Is it terrorists? Aliens? The Rapture? Female Chief of Staff Morag advises (in a Scottish brogue), “Aliens is the way to go on this. It defuses the Rapture scenario. Some people can’t bear the stigma that the Lord has passed them over. You have to leave them something to believe in. Certainty soothes.”
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TOOTH AND NAIL
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
The Elephant Theatre Company follows the outstanding Anything with an even better world premiere comedy, Gena Acosta’s absolutely fabulous Tooth And Nail.
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AND HER HAIR WENT WITH HER
Friday, May 9th, 2008
Tonya Pinkins and Tracie Thoms are two actresses who could get together on a stage and captivate audiences merely by reading the proverbial phone book. Performing in a winner of a play like Zina Camblin’s And Her Hair Went With Her, the duo is theatrical magic.
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PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Theatergoers who made the recent production of Trying a monster hit for the Colony Theatre are hereby advised to head on down to Long Beach for International City Theatre’s superb revival of Israel Horovitz’ 1981 two-hander, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard. Like Trying, Park Your Car takes two people who are different in every possible way (age, sex, education, religion, family background, etc.), puts them in the same space, and lets the sparks fly. Like Trying, affords an actor in his eighties the part of a lifetime. Like Trying, the actress playing opposite said actor gets the gift of a role so richly drawn that sinking her teeth into it proves a veritable feast, both for the actress and for the audience.
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THE INJURED PARTY
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
South Coast Repertory has a bonafide hit on its hands. Richard Greenberg’s latest, The Injured Party, is one of the most exciting plays I’ve seen since John Guare’s Six Degrees Of Separation, a work which it shares a number of common themes with. Both deal with family, love, art, money and ambition among New York’s very rich. Both are exceedingly smart without being pretentious. Like Six Degrees, The Injured Party features a gay lead character whose sexual orientation is not central to the story. Both plays keep you riveted from curtain up to curtain calls.
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