LOVE IS A DIRTY WORD
Friday, June 23rd, 2017
Plenty of actors have stories to tell, and plenty of those may be as solo-show-ready as Giovanni Adams’ tale of growing up black and “sissy” in Jackson, Mississippi, but few end up as exquisitely written, stunningly performed, and strikingly designed as the Yale University grad’s World Premiere Love Is A Dirty Word.
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THE MONSTER BUILDER
Wednesday, May 17th, 2017A topnotch cast attack The Monster Builder with gusto, but a rather creepy lead character and a bit too much of the quirky and bizarre make Amy Freed’s South Coast Repertory World Premiere satire of architectural pretention more miss than hit despite occasional forays into the weirdly hilarious.
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SPECIES NATIVE TO CALIFORNIA
Sunday, May 14th, 2017
Imagine if Chekhov had set The Cherry Orchard in 21st-century Mendocino County and you’ve got Dorothy Fortenberry’s Species Native To California, am IAMA Theatre Company World Premiere dramedy that proves that every good story is worth a good retelling.
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ACTUALLY
Friday, May 12th, 2017
We all know that “No” means “No,” but what’s a college student to think and do when the young woman with whom he thinks he’s having consensual, albeit drunken sex tells him “Actually, um…” mid-coitus?
Anna Ziegler takes this question as her point of departure in Actually, the New York playwright’s darkly comedic, compellingly dramatic look at sex, race, gender, and booze now getting a first-class co-World Premiere* production at the Geffen.
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ARCHDUKE
Wednesday, May 10th, 2017
Leave it to playwright Rajiv Joseph to turn the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, the event that led directly to the outbreak of the First World War, into Archduke, not only the year’s screwballsiest comedy but one with contemporary relevance in a world of suicide bombers and suicide voters.
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THE HOUSE IN SCARSDALE: A MEMOIR FOR THE STAGE
Monday, May 8th, 2017
A disowned playwright embarks on a quest to uncover his dysfunctional family’s long-buried truths in Dan O’Brien’s powerful, poetic autobiographical memory play The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir For The Stage, now being given a superbly acted, directed, and designed World Premiere Production at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
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A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2
Tuesday, April 25th, 2017
Nora’s come back to the “doll’s house” she once called home, though how long she’ll stay is anybody’s guess in Lucas Hnath’s audacious, scabrous, wordy, discussion-prompting, and often surprisingly droll sequel to the Henrik Ibsen classic, the South Coast Repertory World Premiere of A Doll’s House, Part 2.
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LORD OF THE UNDERWORLD’S HOME FOR UNWED MOTHERS
Saturday, April 15th, 2017Unplanned pregnancy yields ghastly consequences in Louisa Hill’s Lord Of The Underworld’s Home For Unwed Mothers, a Skylight Theatre Company World Premiere whose cast, director, and production design succeed as often as not in overcoming the memory play’s abrupt second-act tonal shift, some cardboard supporting characters, and too much narration throughout.
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