RAVENSRIDGE
Friday, February 29th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Remember the days when Hollywood regularly turned out major films with
politically or socially relevant themes, movies like The China Syndrome? The
fact that T.S. Cook’s Ravensridge was (in the playwright’s own words)
“summarily rejected by networks and studios alike” is proof that those days are
no more, and is particularly ironic because Cook was one of the Oscar
nominated writers of that award-winning 1979 film.
(read more)
A GOOD SMOKE
Friday, February 22nd, 2008RECOMMENDED
Don Cummings’ darkly funny A Good Smoke could just as easily be titled Life
With The Mother From Hell, but that might just be the teensiest bit off-putting.
After all, how many of us would choose to spend an hour and a half with one
of the most unrelentingly angry women ever put on a stage? But rest assured,
on opening night the Chandler Theatre was filled with uproarious laughter,
and I was among those who laughed the loudest. Black as the comedy in as
A Good Smoke is, this is a very funny comedy indeed.
(read more)
VOICES FROM OKINAWA
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008RECOMMENDED
East West Players follows its superb productions of Julia Cho’s Durango and
Jeanne Sakata’s Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi with Jon
Shirata’s Voices From Okinawa.
(read more)
TALK ABOUT THE PASSION
Sunday, February 10th, 2008RECOMMENDED
An unshaven, disheveled young man carrying a backpack arrives at the office
of book editor Evelyn Ayles, who is seated at her desk. Too busy (or too above
it all) to even look the man in the eye, Evelyn simply points to a chair and keeps
on talking on the phone as if he were not present. Finally she tells him (still not
making eye contact), “You’ve wasted your time coming here today,” and
tosses back the “clichéd” manuscript he has sent to her, then returns to
ignoring him. The man persists, “This is my life, and you call it a cliché!” And
then, before Evelyn even has a chance to see what he’s doing, the young
man removes a plastic strip from his pocket and locks her into her own office.
“You’re not going anywhere until we can talk,” he declares. “I want to talk to
you about my son.”
(read more)
JAMES JOYCE’S THE DEAD
Saturday, February 9th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Open Fist Theatre Company is nothing if not versatile. Following The Idiot Box, its
clever dark comedy about reality intruding on sitcom perfect lives, and The
Room, a fascinating look back at American history and politics in the 1930s,
Open Fist now presents a musical, or more aptly put, a play with music, James
Joyce’s The Dead.
(read more)
DEPARTURES
Friday, February 1st, 2008RECOMMMENDED
Departures is a theatrical experiment that works. Seven playwrights each
independently wrote a 10-15 minute one-act about an airline passenger or
group of passengers gathered in an airport waiting area. Open At The Top’s
artistic director James L. Mellon then compiled and condensed the playlets,
“composing” them into a fluid hour and twenty minutes of intertwining stories.
The result is an entertaining and often moving dramedy that feels for the most
part like the work of a single writer. We meet, in order of appearance:
(read more)
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
Sunday, January 20th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Hedwig And The Angry Inch is back in L.A. in a bravura star turn by Chuck
DiMaria.
(read more)
SAY YOU LOVE SATAN
Sunday, January 20th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Say you’re an average-Joe sort of gay man. Suddenly a vision of male
perfection appears before you and asks you out on a date. Wonder of
wonders this hunk of hunks wants YOU! Say, then, that you happen to notice
a tiny tattoo just where his forehead meets his hairline, a tiny tattoo of the
number 666, aka “the number of the beast.” What if this perfect new
boyfriend of yours just happened to be the son of Satan? What if, in fact, he
was Satan himself, evil incarnate with a six pack!? Would you just dump him
and return to your perfect-in-every-way-but-just-too-sweet (sort of) boyfriend?
Or would you keep on walking on the wild side, knowing that you might just be
heading down a path towards … ETERNAL DAMNATION?
(read more)
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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