THE SOMETHING-NOTHING
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Fielding Edlow’s The Something-Nothing is a hilarious, biting, highly original look at a 20something love triangle in pre-9/11 New York City.
ECSTASY: THE MUSICAL
Sunday, June 7th, 2009RECOMMENDED
“There was a girl who went to college. She was plain and shy. She was a stranger to love’s passion. She had a secret admiration for a certain guy, and she was ready for some action. One day she stumbled on a groovy place I’d like to share, where you can do whatever pleases. Ecstasy’s the name and I can take you there. It’s gonna bring you to your knees-es.”
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SETUP & PUNCH
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Nine years following her acrimonious split from Brian, Vanya (nee Yvonne Patricia) takes pen to paper to write (yes, write, not email) her onetime creative partner with a request. “Dear Brian,” she writes. “I know I can’t make up with you but I hope we can be friends.”
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TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Papo is a Puerto Rican hustler who’s been selling his body on the mean streets of early 1990s New York City since the age of fifteen. Brian is a 26-year-old gay virgin who frequents phone sex lines and adult bookstores, alternately craving and fearing his first sexual experience. Bobby is a 16-year-old runaway whose older brothers have been raping him daily since he was twelve.
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BIG THE MUSICAL
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Following its award-winning productions of Zanna, Don’t and Assassins, West Coast Ensemble continues its winning streak of musical hits with a sensational intimate staging of Big The Musical.
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THE CRUCIBLE
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible holds a special place in my heart. It gave me my very first experience as a stage actor at the age of 16, and though I later watched the 1996 film on video, it wasn’t until December 2007 that I saw The Crucible staged for the very first time, decades after high school, in a production that left me devastated, as the playwright certainly intended.
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VOICE LESSONS
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
No one writes comedy quite like Justin Tanner; his writing style and comic sensibility are, quite frankly, almost impossible to describe. Wacky? Demented? Bizarre? Over the top? Maybe even brilliant? The answer is all of the above, and never has this been clearer than in the hour of inspired lunacy that is Voice Lessons.
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THE DEVIL WITH BOOBS
Friday, April 17th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Open Fist Theatre Company’s West Coast Premiere of Dario Fo’s The Devil With Boobs is the kind of show that most people will either love or hate. I ended up pretty much in the middle. While I absolutely loved the performances, and found the show gorgeous to look at, I must confess to not having “gotten” Fo’s mishmash of styles, his nonstop use of vulgarity, and what seems often to be the antithesis of sophistication.
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