KENTUCKY
Friday, November 18th, 2016Thomas Wolfe to the contrary, you can go home again. Just don’t expect to have fun once you’ve arrived, not if the family you’ve left behind in the Appalachians is as dysfunctional as Hiro’s in Leah Nanako Winkler’s Kentucky, an entertaining but hit-and-miss East West Players West Coast Premiere that could be a whole lot better without tonal shifts that take it back and forth from over-the-top sitcomish to authentically real.
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HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL
Friday, October 21st, 2016USC’s entirely student-run Musical Theatre Repertory kicks off its twelfth season with Heathers: The Musical, a screen-to-stage adaptation that may not work as well as the similarly-themed Carrie: The Musical, but nonetheless provides plenty of tongue-in-cheek musical darkness for its talented Trojan performers and behind-the-scenes team.
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FRIENDS IN TRANSIENT PLACES
Monday, October 17th, 2016A planeload of passengers jetting from New York to L.A. transports playwright Jonathan Caren into Sarah Ruhl territory in Friends In Transient Places, Caren’s experiment in magic realism that, while it may not have you glued to the edge of your seat as did his The Recommendation and Need To Know, offers its own unique pleasures.
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THE TRAGEDY OF JFK (AS TOLD BY WM. SHAKESPEARE)
Tuesday, October 11th, 2016
Jackie Kennedy believed Lyndon Johnson killed her husband, and so apparently does The Bard Of Avon in The Tragedy Of JFK (as told by Wm. Shakespeare), Daniel Henning’s devilishly clever “Julius Caesar Redux,” now getting an exciting (and sure to be controversial) World Premiere at Henning’s The Blank Theatre.
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AND THEN THEY FELL
Friday, September 23rd, 2016
Life can be tough for any teenager but it proves especially trying for the two teen castaways at the heart of And Then They Fell, Tira Palmquist’s riveting World Premiere drama, the latest from Brimmer St. Theatre Company.
BLUEBERRY TOAST
Wednesday, September 21st, 2016Ozzie And Harriet could take lessons from Walt and Barb in suburban perfection, or at least they could until Walt’s disdain for this morning’s breakfast entree turns things haywire in Mary Laws’ bizarre absurdist black comedy Blueberry Toast, an Echo Theater World Premiere highlighted by a pair of bravura performances by Jacqueline Wright and Albert Dayan.
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A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
Thursday, September 15th, 2016Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge, this year’s Best Revival Tony winner, has arrived at the Ahmanson in a production likely to leave audience opinion split between “brilliantly innovative” and “pretentiously boring.” Though it took me a while to get there, I ended up veering towards the former point of view. Still, unless you’re lucky enough to be sitting either onstage (an option here) or up close (if you’ve got the bucks), the Ahmanson proves far too large a venue for a production as intimate as this one.
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MUTUAL PHILANTHROPY
Sunday, September 4th, 2016Copiously consumed whisky and wine fuel a dinner party for four as playwright Karen Rizzo puts a personal face on the social divide between the super-wealthy and the other 99% of us Angelinos in her explosive dark comedy Mutual Philanthropy, now getting an excitingly acted World Premiere by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA.
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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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