THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Sunday, September 29th, 2019Student produced, student directed, student designed, and student performed, Musical Theatre Repertory at USC’s intimate staging of the 2005 Broadway hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is as all-around splendiferous a Bee as any of the sixteen I’ve now seen.
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LAS MUJERES DEL MAR
Tuesday, September 24th, 2019Playwrights’ Arena closes its all-around terrific 2019 season with Las Mujeres Del Mar (The Women Of The Sea), Janine Salinas Schoenberg’s 3-generation, 2-country, 72-minute Mexican-American family saga told from a female point of view.
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THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER
Friday, September 13th, 2019Sex, described by its participants in the most graphic of terms, begins the recovery process for a young married couple in Jack Thorne’s The Solid Life Of Sugar Water, a provocative British two-hander made something quite special indeed when translated into American Sign Language and staged by Deaf West Theatre in its American Premiere.
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LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS
Tuesday, September 10th, 2019If John Leguizamo’s Latin History For Morons sounds like it’s going to be nothing more than a light-hearted accumulation of dates and names and facts we all ought to know but don’t, think again. Though Leguizamo’s one-man show is indeed as funny and elucidating as any theater-going moron could wish for, it’s also a justifiably rage-filled attack on those who’d rather see his people erased not just from history books (as they already are) but from America itself.
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HANDJOB
Monday, September 9th, 2019Credibility is strained and logic defied throughout a big chunk of Erik Patterson’s Handjob, an otherwise provocative, sensationally performed Echo Theater Company World Premiere.
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EARLY BIRDS
Tuesday, August 20th, 2019Night-and-day-different 70somethings bond aboard ship in Dana Schwartz’s Early Birds, a World Premiere comedy as entertaining and charming as it is predictable, and nothing wrong with that.
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HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO
Monday, August 19th, 2019Magic realism has never been my thing, and since Hannah And The Dread Gazebo relies on an abundance of it to tell the story of a 30something Korean-American’s visit to her parents’ homeland, I ended up unengaged by Jiehae Park’s overly fanciful comedy despite some terrific performances and a dazzling production design.
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THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
Sunday, August 4th, 2019Baseball season just got a whole lot more entertaining with The Unauthorized Musical Parody Of A League Of Their Own, the UMPO Series’ latest musical movie spoof at Rockwell Table & Stage.
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