LADY
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Craig Wright may be most familiar as the writer/(executive) producer of TV’s Dirty Sexy Money and Six Feet under, but theatergoers know him as a prodigious playwright, the author of such radically different fare as Orange Flower Water, Grace, and Recent Tragic events, all three of which have had superb L.A. productions over the past two years. Orange Flower Water is a harrowing drama of adultery, Grace mixes that theme with evangelical Christianity, and Recent Tragic Events dares to imagine a screwball comedy taking place the day after 9-11. Now comes the West Coast Premiere of 2007’s Lady, and the trio of outstanding local productions of Wright’s work is now a quartet.
(read more)
DINNER WITH FRIENDS
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
“You never know what couples are like when they’re alone.”
Thus speaks one of the characters in Donald Margulies’ Dinner With Friends, a play which allows us, the audience, to see what its two couples are like behind closed doors. Like flies on the fourth wall, we observe Gabe and Karen’s (and Tom and Beth’s) most private moments. We also see each couple as they see the other, and what they see is often quite different from the other couple’s intimate reality.
(read more)
MAYFLOWER
Monday, April 14th, 2008The year is 1984 and the city of Baltimore is devastated. Its hometown football team, the Colts, has snuck away in the middle of the night, their entire belongings loaded into a fleet of Mayflower Transit trucks bound for Indianapolis. Reviled team owner Robert Isray’s name is less than mud in Baltimore on this snowy March morning, when its residents awaken to the news that the Baltimore Colts are no more.
(read more)
WHAT THEY HAVE
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Thousands upon thousands of actors choose Los Angeles as their career base for the obvious reason; no other city offers them as many opportunities to do film and television work as L.A. does. Nevertheless, even many of the most successful choose to make regular stage appearances for the challenge and joy of performing before a live audience. The same holds true for movie and TV writers who, despite big and small screen success, continue to write for the theater, to the benefit of L.A. audiences.
(read more)
SNAKE IN THE GRASS
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake In The Grass is a real change of pace for the “British Neil Simon.” Famed for his clever comedies (Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests, Bedroom Farce), the prolific (at nearly 70 he still averages 2 to 3 plays a year) writer tries his hand at a dark comedy/thriller here and succeeds admirably at darkness, comedy, and thrills.
(read more)
THE DYING GAUL
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
In the 1990 film Longtime Companion, Craig Lucas wrote what remains
arguably the best dramatic depiction of the epidemic which wiped out much
of an entire generation of gay men. His sensitive screenplay revealed the
goodness and generosity of those 20/30/40something couples whose devotion
was proof that there was much more to gay love than just sex, and that the
gay community was capable of greatness in the face of callous government
disregard.
(read more)
THE VIOLET HOUR
Friday, March 14th, 2008
Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour seems throughout Act 1 (at least
superficially) to be a light and semi-absurd (albeit very intelligent) comedy.
However with the blackout line which concludes the act, it transforms itself in
Act 2 into a far more provocative (and intellectually stimulating) drama. The
two acts together form a funny and thought-provoking evening of theater.
(read more)
RAVENSRIDGE
Friday, February 29th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Remember the days when Hollywood regularly turned out major films with
politically or socially relevant themes, movies like The China Syndrome? The
fact that T.S. Cook’s Ravensridge was (in the playwright’s own words)
“summarily rejected by networks and studios alike” is proof that those days are
no more, and is particularly ironic because Cook was one of the Oscar
nominated writers of that award-winning 1979 film.
(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