BABE
Monday, September 26th, 2022Cliffhangers are perfectly fine if you’re writing a series pilot or season finale. Not so much if you’ve written what purports to be a full-length play, which is why, engaged as I was throughout Echo Theater Company’s Babe, I left feeling frustrated, angry, and confused as to why playwright Jessica Goldberg didn’t finish what she’d started so provocatively sixty-five minutes earlier in a more satisfyingly conclusive way.
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SANCTUARY CITY
Monday, September 19th, 2022
Martyna Majok puts a personal face on the plight of undocumented Americanized teens in Sanctuary City, a riveting, thought-provoking Los Angeles Premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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SILENT SKY
Sunday, September 11th, 2022
Sierra Madre Playhouse pays tribute to a groundbreaking, trailblazing astronomer who refused to let her gender hold her back in Lauren Gunderson’s engaging, informative biodrama Silent Sky.
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TROUBLE THE WATER
Monday, August 22nd, 2022
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum pays tribute to a little-known figure in African-American history in Ellen Geer’s illuminating, emotion-packed biodrama Trouble The Water, freely adapted from Rebecca Dwight Bruff’s award-winning 2019 novel of the same name.
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MUD
Monday, August 22nd, 2022Loft Ensemble imagines a dystopian future populated by ten nameless, genderless global calamity survivors in Mud, a World Premiere drama I found alternately pretentious and preachy
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KING LIZ
Saturday, July 23rd, 2022
Broadway star Sabrina Sloan sizzles as a powerhouse A-list sports agent named Liz Rico, and newcomer Evan Morris Reiser electrifies as a high school grad with NBA superstar potential, in Fernanda Coppel’s off-Broadway dramedy King Liz, now getting a largely absorbing Los Angeles Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse.
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THE DESPERATE HOURS
Monday, June 6th, 2022Joseph Hayes’ The Desperate Hours may have won a Tony as the Best Play of 1955, but the 67-year-old suspense melodrama is showing its age these days with its stilted dialog and Father Knows Best-meets-Dragnet characters, and some questionable casting choices don’t help its 2022 revival at the Group Rep.
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BELOVED
Saturday, May 28th, 2022
The Road Theatre Company’s three-shows-in-a-row return season goes from good to better to best of all with the World Premiere of Arthur Holden’s Beloved, a suspense-filled, twist-packed stunner that will leave you blown-away and breathless.
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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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