LAVENDER MEN
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022
Queer playwright Roger Q. Mason explores the love that dared not speak its name between Abraham Lincoln and his “close friend” Elmer Ellsworth in Lavender Men, at once a gay American history fantasia, a very public therapy session for its self-described “black, fat, femme” author, and one of the most stunning productions in town.
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TROUBLE THE WATER
Monday, August 22nd, 2022
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum pays tribute to a little-known figure in African-American history in Ellen Geer’s illuminating, emotion-packed biodrama Trouble The Water, freely adapted from Rebecca Dwight Bruff’s award-winning 2019 novel of the same name.
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MUD
Monday, August 22nd, 2022Loft Ensemble imagines a dystopian future populated by ten nameless, genderless global calamity survivors in Mud, a World Premiere drama I found alternately pretentious and preachy
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BEACH PEOPLE
Sunday, August 14th, 2022
A quartet of sunbathers philosophize on the sand in Charles A. Duncombe’s absurdist existential comedy Beach People, a City Garage World Premiere impressively acted by a skin-revealing cast of four.
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REMEMBERING THE FUTURE
Monday, August 1st, 2022
Imagine if the person you were at age 18 could tell 58-year-old you exactly what they think of your life choices. Playwright Peter Lefcourt does precisely this in his entertaining new “existential comedy” Remembering The Future, now tantalizing audiences with “What ifs” at the Odyssey Theatre.
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CLOWNFISH
Saturday, July 16th, 2022Playwright Amy Dellagiarino’s script shows considerable promise, but her Theatre of NOTE World Premiere comedy Clownfish would work a whole lot better had the director reined in one particularly over-the-top performance (and those around it in the play’s frenetic midsection).
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THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
Saturday, July 9th, 2022
Tim Venable’s hot-button-issue World Premiere two-hander The Beautiful People will have you thinking and talking about the gut-punching latest from Rogue Machine long after the stage has gone dark at Melrose’s Matrix Theatre.
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ARENA: A House MUSIC-al
Sunday, June 26th, 2022A young gay Latino exits the closet to a ‘90s dance club beat in Abel Alvarado’s ARENA: A House MUSIC-al, a heartfelt but overpopulated coming-of-age story that works best when the spotlight is on Alvarado stand-in Lucio, particularly as brought to engaging, charismatic life by newcomer Preston Gonzalez Valle.
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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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