FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIRE DE LUNE
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Frankie and Johnny were lovers and (as the song goes), “Oh Lordy, how they could love,” that is until she caught Johnny cheating on her “with that high-browed Nellie Bly” and shot him dead.
Fortunately, things are a good deal more hopeful for the lovers in Terrence McNally’s moving two-character, two-act dramedy, Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune, now playing at International City Theatre in Long Beach. With the superb Libby West and Thomas Fiscella in the title roles and master director Todd Nielsen at the helm, ICT’s production proves to be one of their finest.
INHERIT THE WIND
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Is there any play from the 1950s more relevant in 2008 than Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit The Wind? It’s been 83 years since Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in the classroom, yet only a half dozen years ago, a suburban Atlanta school board voted unanimously to allow teachers to introduce students to “different views about the origins of life”—a codeword for “creationism,” and John McCain’s choice to be Vice President of this country is a woman who says she is open to teaching “creationism” in public schools.
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THE PAVILION
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
As the strains of The Beatles “Across The Universe” fade, a young man appears on a bare black stage.
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SONA TERA ROMAN HESS
Sunday, August 17th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
“Some people never die, and I am one.”
These are the words that begin Sona Tera Roman Hess, described in press materials as “the story of a family struggling to reconstruct itself in the aftermath of a strange infidelity, set against the backdrop of impending war.”
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PEN
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
If 17-year-old Matt Bayer had to choose a Stephen Sondheim song to describe his mother Helen, it would doubtless be “You Could Drive A Person Crazy.” Helen may once have been a happy and healthy wife and mother, but in recent years multiple sclerosis has bound her to a wheelchair, sent her ex-husband into the arms of a younger woman, and made living with her the proverbial “living hell,” at least for Matt. The poor kid can’t even make it out of their apartment to see a movie. Mom will do anything to keep Matt by her side tonight, and if she has her way, forever.
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BODY POLITIC
Friday, August 1st, 2008
Every so often I see a play that hasn’t been on my “must see” list, a play that I just happen to pick because it fits into my schedule, a play that sounds like it might be interesting but then again maybe not … and then it turns out to be something extraordinary, and I think to myself, I almost missed that!
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PLASTIC CRYSTAL
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Michael Miller has lived with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since the age of seven. He always arranges his shoes “just so” before going to bed, moving them from this position to that one and back again, and then to another, until he is satisfied. He locks his apartment from the outside even when his girlfriend is still inside, even when she has just told him not to. Even worse are his obsessions, most particularly his obsession with blood. Michael once found a small stain on a shirt and soon became convinced that it was AIDS infected blood. The discovery of a band-aid inside a load of laundry washed at a public laundromat sends him into a frenzy, disinfecting everything the clothes may have touched.
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MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
With eight fully staged productions in a scant ten months, The Production Company (aka TheProdCo) has quickly established itself as Los Angeles’ most prolific new theater company. It is also one of the most consistently reliable, opening one excellent production only days after the preceding has closed, with yet another in rehearsal. Amazing!
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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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