POWER OF SAIL
Saturday, February 19th, 2022
The consequences are catastrophic when a respected Ivy League professor invites an infamous white nationalist to speak at Harvard in Paul Grellong’s Power Of Sail, a powerhouse Geffen Playhouse West Coast Premiere sure to have audiences talking long after the lights go out, and not just because of Bryan Cranston’s riveting lead performance and Amy Brenneman’s fiery featured turn.
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THE CHILDREN
Sunday, November 28th, 2021Its Best Play Tony nomination aside, I found Fountain Theatre’s Los Angeles Premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children to be a depressing, upsetting downer.
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PARADISE BLUE
Saturday, November 20th, 2021
A nightclub owner haunted by a lifetime of demons meets a woman who spells “trouble” with a capital T in Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue, the kind of noir Hollywood could have made back in the late 1940s but didn’t, an explosive West Coast Premiere at the Geffen.
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THE SOLDIER DREAMS & NEVER SWIM ALONE
Sunday, November 7th, 2021
Daniel MacIvor’s unique gifts are on display in Open Fist Theatre Company’s The Soldier Dreams and Never Swim Alone, best seen as an evening double feature to fully appreciate the Canadian playwright at his most rule-breaking and rewarding.
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AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS
Friday, November 5th, 2021Performances are impeccable and so is its stunning production design, but I found my mind drifting throughout much of the over three-hour-long August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at A Noise Within.
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THE NINTH DOOR
Sunday, October 10th, 2021
A playwright/actor’s two Marine Corps deployments in Afghanistan inform Matthew Domenico and Katherine Connor Duff’s The Ninth Door, now holding audiences riveted at West Hollywood’s The Other Space.
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ASCENSION
Friday, October 8th, 2021D.G. Watson’s trippy Ascension may run a good fifteen minutes too long and leave an audience wondering what on earth this “immersive, interactive, sci-fi mystery thriller” was all about, but the Echo Theater Company World Premiere is nothing if not different, and a terrific showcase for its designers.
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CLOSELY RELATED KEYS
Sunday, August 29th, 2021A hotshot young corporate lawyer discovers she has an Iraqi half-sister from her father’s long ago extramarital relationship in Wendy Graf’s Closely Related Keys, an International City Theatre production every bit as topical as it was in its 2014 World Premiere, though ultimately not as effective as it was the first time round.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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