DIVORCE! THE MUSICAL
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Imagine you’re a multitalented young writer-musician-performer with two failed marriages under your belt—and you’re not yet thirty. Would you consult a lawyer? Too late for that now. See a therapist? Been there, done that. Write an original musical about your experiences on the divorce battlefield? Now THAT’s an idea!
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THE GRADUATE
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Say the words The Graduate and the first thing likely popping into your head will be the voices of Simon and Garfunkel singing “Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson” or perhaps “The Sounds Of Silence.” Then there’s the famous movie poster of a very young Dustin Hoffman gazing at Anne Bancroft’s stockinged leg filling the foreground. And who can forget Hoffman’s semi-incredulous, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me,” one of the American Film Institute’s 100 most famous movie lines … ever.
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POPE JOAN
Thursday, January 29th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Following their award-winning revival of Hair, producer Michael Butler and director/choreographer Bo Crowell return with the world premiere musical Pope Joan, the saga of history’s only female pope, who (supposedly) reigned for less than three years in the 850s.
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LIGHT UP THE SKY
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Moss Hart affectionately skewers the world of the theater in his 1948 comedy Light Up The Sky, now being given a pitch-perfect revival by Open Fist Theatre under the crackerjack direction of Bjørn Johnson.
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MISSIONARY POSITION
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009RECOMMENDED
Mormon Boy Steven Fales recalls his two-year stint as missionary in Portugal in Missionary Position, a sort of prequel to Fales’ alternately captivating and compelling solo piece Confessions Of A Mormon Boy, which like its processor proves a terrific showcase for its writer-star’s triple-threat talents as actor, storyteller, and showman.
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THE SERMONS OF JOHN BRADLEY
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
The story of a young gay man’s journey to self-acceptance has been told countless times before in plays, films, and novels. What makes The Sermons Of John Bradley unique (and particularly powerful) is the manner in which playwright/actor Hunter Lee Hughes tells his story, as a series of “sermons” given by the son of a disgraced Southern Baptist preacher. Neither solo performance nor performance art (though it has aspects of both), The Sermons Of John Bradley is ultimately just very fine theater, and a memorable showcase for the talents of a gifted young writer-actor.
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RESIGNATION DAY
Saturday, January 17th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
In Resignation Day, playwright Charles Pike imagines a day in the life of Terry Southern (played by Chairman Barnes), screenwriter of such 60s classics as Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider as well as cult favorites Barbarella and Candy, a day in 1974 which happens also to be the day that Richard Nixon resigned the office of President of the United States.
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BILL W. AND DR. BOB
Sunday, January 4th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Bill W. And Dr. Bob, Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey’s biodrama about the founders of AA, has been around L.A. for quite a while now. Its current incarnation at Theatre 68 is in fact its fifth Los Angeles run and follows its 2007 New York Times-reviewed off-Broadway premiere at New World Stages. Having finally gotten the chance to see this often very moving story of the men who, almost by accident, revolutionized the treatment of alcoholism and other addictions, I can understand its popularity and appeal. Despite certain structural drawbacks and its air of “disease movie of the week,” Bill W. And Dr. Bob is both educational and entertaining, and in the second act especially, emotionally powerful.
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