A CHORUS LINE
Sunday, July 10th, 2016
It takes balls to reimagine a classic and an abundance of talent to pull it off, particularly when the classic in question is the 1975 megaclassic A Chorus Line. Fortunately, Chance Theater’s Oanh Nguyen and Hazel Clarke have both, resulting in an A Chorus Line that might provoke protests from purists who’d have Michael Bennett’s direction and choreography set in stone but will likely thrill everyone else, this reviewer included.
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THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Saturday, July 9th, 2016
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has set up shop at the Sierra Madre Playhouse for the next two months in a 99-seat production sure to delight both Bee newbies and veteran Bee buffs like this reviewer, who enjoyed Bee 14.0 every bit as much as his very first thanks to Robert Marra’s zesty direction/choreography and a cast to rival the best I’ve seen.
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FOOL FOR LOVE
Friday, July 8th, 2016
I may never go gaga for Fool For Love, but if ever a production could make me a believer in Sam Shepard’s overheated take on Greek tragedy in today’s Wild Wild West, it’s the one now playing at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre thanks to some refreshingly subtle directorial touches and a quartet of superb performances, chief among them star turns by Burt Grinstead and Charlotte Gulezian.
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SMOKE
Monday, July 4th, 2016
Fearless only begins to describe Patrick Stafford and Emily James’ stunning performances in Kim Davies’ walk-on-the-wild-side two-hander Smoke, now running in raw, risk-taking Rogue Machine rep with the similarly single-word-titled Honky and Bull.
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BULL
Monday, July 4th, 2016
Youtube videos would like bullied teens to believe “It Gets Better” once high school days are over and done. Not so in the dog-devour-dog business world of Mike Bartlett’s Bull, where it’s one pitiful runt going head to head against a pair of vicious pit bulls. Sorry, make that one pit bull and one pit bitch. Now running in rep with Rogue Machine’s Honky and Smoke, Bull makes for one devastatingly funny, mercilessly soul-shattering fifty-five minute ride.
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CHURCH & STATE
Sunday, July 3rd, 2016
A North Carolina senator’s “Road To Damascus” conversion from staunch 2nd Amendment advocate to gun control champion may sound about as improbable as Barbara Boxer suddenly turning pro-life, but it makes for powerful, thought-provoking comedy (that’s right, comedy) in Jason Odell Williams’ Church & State, now being given a sensationally acted and directed NNPN Rolling World Premiere* by Skylight Theatre Company.
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A FEW GOOD MEN
Saturday, July 2nd, 2016
An edge-of-your-seat suspense-filled script, a mystery it would take a Sherlock Holmes to solve, courtroom sequences that would do Perry Mason proud, razor-sharp direction by Tony Pauletto, a topnotch production design, and crackerjack performances by a cast of twenty-four, most particularly by KC Clyde in the role that scored a pair of Toms (Hulce and Cruise) respective Tony and Golden Globe nominations, all of the above add up to a NoHo Arts Center guest production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men that rivals work being done by L.A.’s finest intimate theater companies.
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BAD JEWS
Friday, July 1st, 2016
Cousins clash over religion, their heritage, and a precious family heirloom in Joshua Harmon’s equal parts side-splitting, button-pushing, discussion-provoking Bad Jews, back in L.A. as a mostly quite successful guest production at Hollywood’s Theatre Of NOTE.
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