STOP KISS
Monday, August 3rd, 2009RECOMMENDED
The recent rash of gay bashings throughout the U.S. makes Rogue Machine’s Los Angeles premiere of Diana Son’s GLAAD Award-winning Stop Kiss timely indeed. Though its movie screenplay-like structure presents staging challenges not always overcome by directors Elina de Santos and Matthew Elkins, a provocative storyline and excellent performances make the production a largely engrossing experience.
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BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
What a difference a director and cast can make!
When I saw a production of John Patrick Shanley’s Beggars In The House Of Plenty about four years ago, I found myself squirming in my seat waiting for it to end. I couldn’t make head nor tail of what was going on as the play got more and more bizarre and heavy-handed. My guest and I looked at each other when the lights went back up and said almost simultaneously, “Now what was that about?” Arriving home, I did some googling and saw that at least one reviewer had raved about the production, leading me to wonder what she had seen in it that my friend and I had not.
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TERMINUS AMERICANA
Saturday, July 25th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Publicity materials for Terminus Americana provide the following synopsis for Matt Pelfrey’s play: “After barely surviving an office rampage, Mac Winchell is thrust into a nightmare landscape populated by lost Marlboro Men, psychotic vagabonds, sinister corporate thugs and a strange cult known as a ‘The Church of Christ, Office Shooter’. Mac attempts to escape this twisted reality by undertaking a quest that ultimately leads him into the darkest corners of the American Dream. Terminus Americana is a surreal, visceral and challenging examination of our violence-saturated culture.”
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
The Tennessee Williams estate is very particular about whom it grants right to Mr. Williams’ plays. Justly concerned about protecting the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s reputation, the estate won’t let just any theater company stage the Williams oeuvre, particularly the two plays which won him the Pulitzer—A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Other than A Noise Within’s 2000 production and the Geffen’s in 2005, I can’t recall a local staging of Cat, nor can I recall its being produced by a 99-seat theater. Thus, The Neighborhood Playhouse’s just-opened revival of the 1955 classic is a major Southland theatrical event.
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EQUUS
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Let’s play a game of word association. I say “Equus” and you say the first thing that pops into your head. Here goes. “Equus.” All right, what was your answer? Was it
a) Horse? b) Richard Burton? c) Psychiatrist? d) Nudity? e) Broadway?
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THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
FINANCIER BILKS CLIENTS OF INVESTMENTS
FORTUNES LOST IN FINANCIAL SCANDAL
Sound familiar? Could these headlines be referring to convicted felon Bernie Madoff?
Actually, not.
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THE UNSEEN
Friday, June 26th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
My idea of a perfect theatergoing month would be one in which twenty shows out of twenty would merit a WOW! review. I realize that this would only bolster the erroneous impression that, as one person put it, “Steven Stanley has never met a show he didn’t like,” but I’ve never understood reviewers who consistently pan what they see and then keep going back for more. I go to the theater because, quite frankly, nothing makes me happier.
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FARRAGUT NORTH
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Farragut North is the Washington D.C. subway stop where political has-beens debark to do the only thing left for them in the world of politics—boring, thankless consultant jobs. It’s also the title of Beau Willimon’s exciting, riveting new play about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings (and back-stabbings) of a Presidential primary campaign, a 2008 off-Broadway production now transferred to the Geffen Playhouse for its West Coast Premiere.
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