CINEPHILIA
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
New York cinephiles Johnny and Arden are 20something “friends with benefits,” or at least that’s how Johnny would refer to his “recreation” with Arden. She, on the other hand, considers their four-and-a-half years’ worth of occasional sex + conversations about movies a “relationship.” Imagine her dismay upon learning that Johnny plans to move to Los Angeles, that he’s already started packing, and that worst of all, it’s because he met a girl three weeks ago and the move out west is to be with her. Then there’s Johnny’s roommate of five years, Plato, who despite dating girls seems even more in love with Johnny than Arden is…and far more distraught about Johnny’s impending departure. Add to the mix the arrival of Johnny’s new girlfriend Natalie, and you’ve got Cinephilia, 80 absorbing minutes of clever conversation and twisted relationships.
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ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO
Friday, November 23rd, 2007RECOMMENDED
All This, And Heaven Too is an entertaining look at gay life over 40 viewed through a musical comedy lens. As the production’s soft shoe opener “Trolls” (the show’s original off-Broadway title) proclaims, gay men past a certain age are considered “mean and crabby, soft and flabby.” As All This, And Heaven Too reveals, they also have a zest for life, and more of an appreciation for the freedoms and the greater acceptance society has granted them post-Stonewall than “those little twits who don’t even know who Ethel Merman was.”
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ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE
Friday, November 16th, 2007NOT RECOMMENDED
Imagine a play without a plot or assigned speaking roles. Imagine a script which
does not specify particular locations, simply lines of spoken dialog which the
director can assign to whichever actor he chooses and scenes which take place
wherever the director’s imagination take him. Imagine this kind of play and
you’ve got British playwright Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life, the first joint
undertaking of Chris Covics’ Unknown Theater and Bart DeLorenzo’s Evidence
Room.
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CITY KID THE MUSICAL
Friday, October 26th, 2007
City Kid The Musical is two hours of virtually non-stop singing and dancing, a music
video come to life, featuring a tunefully accessible score and inventive
choreography, performed by a sensational young cast and backed up by the best
band in town.
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THE FASTEST CLOCK IN THE UNIVERSE
Thursday, October 18th, 2007NOT RECOMMENDED
The Fastest Clock in the Universe, by Philip Ridley, is the blackest of black
comedies. Captain Tock, a 50ish bespectacled gent in a black vaguely Chinese
smock and dark trousers, shares an East End of London flat with a much younger
and entirely self-centered hunk named Cougar Glass. Their relationship is
perversely symbiotic. Symbiotic= a close association of animals or plants of different
species that is often, but not always, of mutual benefit. (Emphasis in this case on
the “not of mutual benefit.”) Glass gets adoration from (and gray hairs plucked
by) Tock. Just what Tock gets from Cougar, other than constant humiliation, is
open to debate. Today is the 11th time Cougar is celebrating his 30th birthday,
and he has invited a 15 year old schoolboy as his annual present to himself. When
the schoolboy arrives with his pregnant girlfriend in hand, things get ugly.
LOST ANGELES
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Lost Angeles is the best written, best acted new comedy I’ve seen this year.
Caroline Treadwell has created ten alternately irritating/lovable (i.e.
human) Generation Xers, put them in real life situations, and let the
audience be flies on the wall, watching these very real people experience
the joys and pains of falling in and out of love.
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SWIMMING TO THE MOON
Thursday, October 4th, 2007NOT RECOMMENDED
The Beatles’ hit “When I’m 64” came out in 1967, the same year that Jim
Morrison recorded the most famous Doors hit, “Light my Fire.” Interestingly, had
he not died under mysterious circumstances in 1971 (at the age of 27), Jim
Morrison would be turning 64 this year.
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THE ROOM
Friday, September 28th, 2007
Twentieth century history comes vividly to life in Michael Franco’s fascinating
(and informative) world premiere drama, The Room.
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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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