AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
When a show gets called “flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years” by none other than the New York Times, then goes on to win both the Tony and the Pulitzer in addition to the Drama Desk, Drama League, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and Outer Critics Circle awards, there’s nothing StageSceneLA can say to add to the excitement surrounding its arrival at San Diego’s Old Globe. But here goes:
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THREE SISTERS OR PERESTROIKA
Sunday, May 8th, 2011NOT RECOMMENDED
At the risk of alienating the many who consider Anton Chekhov one of the world’s greatest playwrights, I must preface this review with a confession. I am not now, nor am I likely to become, a Chekhov fan. Having seen one or two productions each of his four greatest works, I have come to the conclusion that the author of The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, The Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya is simply not my cup of tea—or should that be vodka? Therefore, any Chekhov lovers reading this review should take whatever I say about Three Sisters Or Perestroika with a grain of salt. By the same token, those with a similar lack of affinity for the very talky Russian may want to pass on Pavel Cerny’s 1980s adaptation of Chekhov’s ode to Moscow.
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DRIVE
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011RECOMMENDED
Drive, Laura Black’s World Premiere comedy-drama running Wednesdays at Open Fist Theatre, starts out as its title suggests with a road trip, its lead character Peggy (Jane Hajduk) traveling up the I-5 with a pair of longtime lesbian friends. Only her frequent asides to the audience cue us in to the fact that things may not be as clear-cut as they might seem on the surface.
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THE COLUMBINE PROJECT
Sunday, May 1st, 2011
Few L.A. theater projects have had quite the success (or the journey) of The Columbine Project, Paul Storiale’s meticulously researched docudrama about the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. World premiering in April of 2009 at the 48-seat Avery Schreiber Theatre in North Hollywood, The Columbine Project was extended twice before transferring to off-Broadway with unprecedented swiftness (and with the entire L.A. cast intact). Its July through October New York run at the Actors Temple Theatre was praised by the prestigious New Yorker magazine as a production which “fills the tiny, funky theatre with talent and gravity.” In December of the same year, the original North Hollywood production was awarded five ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Awards including a Best Director award for its creator/writer/director Paul Storiale.
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HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND
Sunday, May 1st, 2011NOT RECOMMENDED
Theatre @ Boston Court’s Southern California Premiere of Fin Kennedy’s How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found has so much going for it, I wish I could say I enjoyed it more. Performances are superb, beginning with a tour de force star turn by Brad Culver. Direction by Nancy Keystone is imaginative and even inspired at times. Design elements, particularly John Zalewski’s striking sound design, are way up at the level of excellence theatergoers have come to expect @ Boston Court. The play was the first ever to win the prestigious John Whiting Award before being staged. British critics were ecstatic at the play’s World Premiere and I expect the Boston Court production will garner equal praise. And yet I failed to be engaged by its story or characters and in the end (and this is something I rarely say), I would have been happier accepting a different press invitation this past Sunday afternoon.
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I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER
Friday, April 29th, 2011
As long as there are parents and children and their accompanying relationship ups-and-downs, Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang For My Father will remain every bit as relevant to our times as the latest World Premiere drama. For proof positive, do not fail to catch The New American Theatre’s superb revival at the McCadden Place Theatre.
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HOUSE OF THE RISING SON
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
“There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one”
The New Orleans mansion Trent Varro shares with his father Garrett and grandfather Bowen may indeed prove the ruin of Felix Martin, or so it would seem when the young Angelino catches sight of the shocking tableau which ends Act One of Tom Jacobson’s World Premiere drama House Of The Rising Son. (No, the last word isn’t misspelled.)
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THE CHINESE MASSACRE: ANNOTATED
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Late 19th century Los Angeles history comes to vivid, complex, highly theatrical life in The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), award-winning playwright Tom Jacobson’s latest World Premiere, and once again (as with Jacobson’s Ouroboros, Bunbury, and The Twentieth Century Way), audiences are in for something special indeed.
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