deLEARious
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Open Fist Theatre has come up with a winner in their World Premiere production of deLEARious, a Monty Python meets William Shakespeare delight of a musical within a musical within a musical.
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THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Open Fist’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors may be the most fun I’ve ever had at a Shakespeare play, and that’s saying something for a Shakespeare-phobe like me. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t really hate Shakespeare, and I have had fun at a Shakespeare play … a few times, at least. The trouble is that the Bard’s 16th Century English and tangled plotlines often go right over my head, or at least past my ears without really sinking in. Not so with Open Fist’s Comedy Of Errors. I’m not quite sure how they did it, but director Ron West and his cast of zanies have somehow clarified Shakespeare for me, archaic speech, convoluted storyline and all. The play’s 90 minutes (clearly some judicious snipping took place) just zipped by and I actually understood what was happening most of the time! I had a ball!
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7 REDNECK CHEERLEADERS
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
Spread the news! Those 7 Redneck Cheerleaders are back in town for even more over-the-top fun!
For all those who couldn’t get enough of their smash 2006 return engagement, the Elephant Theatre Company’s band of zanies once again provide broadminded Angelinos with the most outrageously funny show in town, directed to perfection by Amy French.
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BODY POLITIC
Friday, August 1st, 2008
Every so often I see a play that hasn’t been on my “must see” list, a play that I just happen to pick because it fits into my schedule, a play that sounds like it might be interesting but then again maybe not … and then it turns out to be something extraordinary, and I think to myself, I almost missed that!
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PLASTIC CRYSTAL
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Michael Miller has lived with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since the age of seven. He always arranges his shoes “just so” before going to bed, moving them from this position to that one and back again, and then to another, until he is satisfied. He locks his apartment from the outside even when his girlfriend is still inside, even when she has just told him not to. Even worse are his obsessions, most particularly his obsession with blood. Michael once found a small stain on a shirt and soon became convinced that it was AIDS infected blood. The discovery of a band-aid inside a load of laundry washed at a public laundromat sends him into a frenzy, disinfecting everything the clothes may have touched.
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AMERICAN DEAD
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Five years ago, Grace Tisdale, a young Midwestern deputy sheriff and Mark Shawver, a teenage bagger, were gunned down in a grocery store robbery, precisely the kind of crime big city dwellers read about on a daily basis. To the residents of this small American town, however, it was not merely the deputy and the teenager who were victimized. Grace Tisdale left behind a husband and a brother, both of whose lives were forever changed.
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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Downsizing Broadway musicals to fit Equity waiver stages has become an L.A. theater tradition (and challenge) to companies with limited space and budgets. Though somewhat rough around the edges, the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles succeeds admirably and enthusiastically, re-imagining La Cage as a Studio City “tranny” bar yet losing none of the original’s laughter, musical dazzle, and tears.
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THE LAST SEDER
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Jennifer Maisel’s warm and winning family dramedy The Last Seder opens with Michelle (Elisa Donovan), the youngest of four adult sisters, inviting Josh (Douglas Dickerman), a total stranger, to her family home. Michelle’s Alzheimer’s afflicted father Marvin (Joseph Ruskin) is about to be moved for long-term care into the serenely named Serenity Willows and the family home is soon to be sold, thus this year’s Seder will be the family’s last together and Michelle does not want to arrive empty-handed, so to speak.
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