THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
Tuesday, November 8th, 2016Ten of L.A.’s finest actresses (and a couple of equally talented guys) deliver superb performances, and the production they are starring in proves one of the year’s most stunningly designed. Still, as was the case when I saw Lily Tomlin perform it as a one-woman showcase back in 1987, I found The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe, Jane Wagner’s collection of (mostly women’s) monologs and occasional multi-character scenes only intermittently engaging in its Los Angeles LGBT Center intimate-stage “revisitation.”
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ATLAS PIT, OR THE GARBAGE MAN’S SON
Saturday, October 8th, 2016
Playwright Alex Burkart takes a grieving teenager, the girl he’s lost for eternity, his desperate parents, and a drug-dealing high school buddy, stirs in the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, and mixes these ingredients to often powerful effect in his World Premiere drama Atlas Pit, or The Garbage Man’s Son, the latest from The Los Angeles New Court Theatre.
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OUR TOWN
Monday, October 3rd, 2016
Inspired direction, refreshing diversity in casting, and striking production design breathe fresh new life into Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s classic bit of Americana that first astonished audiences in 1938 with its then revolutionary look at birth, life, love, and what comes after.
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ANDREW LIPPA’S WILD PARTY
Sunday, September 11th, 2016Kristina Miller ignites the stage as Queenie in Quentin Garzón’s passion-project intimate staging of the 2000 off-Broadway musical adaptation of Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 epic poem The Wild Party, one which Garzón and company have redubbed “Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party,” the better to distinguish it from the Michael John LaChiusa Wild Party that played on Broadway the same year.
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CHARM
Saturday, September 10th, 2016
Edward J. Olmos’s Jaime Escalante did it in Stand And Deliver. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Louanne Johnson did it in Dangerous Minds. Sidney Poitier’s Mark Thackery did it in To Sir With Love. And now Lana Houston’s Mama Darleena Andrews does it in Charm, transforming the lives of a classroomful of rebellious teens, only this time round the teacher in question is a transgender sexagenerian and her students an unruly bunch of homeless LGBT teens. Talk about a setup for an edgy, funny, and (you guessed it) heartstrings-tugging crowd-pleaser, the latest all-around winner from Celebration Theatre.
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LIKE BLOOD FROM A CHEAP CIGAR
Wednesday, September 7th, 2016An effective use of reverse chronology and a luminous Genevieve Joy are the two best reasons to catch Like Blood From A Cheap Cigar, Joy’s short, bittersweet look at love gone bad, now concluding a limited run at Hollywood’s Hudson Guild Theatre following its Hollywood Fringe Festival debut this past June.
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DUTCH MASTERS
Tuesday, September 6th, 2016
A classic setup—Hitchcock called it Strangers On A Train—is given an excitingly edgy contemporary spin in Greg Keller’s edge-of-your-seat two-hander Dutch Masters, a Rogue Machine Theatre West Coast Premiere that will keep you guessing throughout its riveting seventy-five minutes, then have you talking about what you’ve seen long after its powerful final fadeout.
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THE TWO KIDS THAT BLOW SHIT UP
Sunday, August 28th, 2016
Playwright Carla Ching takes a tried-and-true formula (best friends who can’t quite get it into their noggins that they are Made For Each Other) and turns it on its head in her World Premiere dramedy The Two Kids Who Blow Shit Up, not only L.A. theater at its intimate best but a textbook example of how #diversity works.
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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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