hey brother

A 20something Asian-American adoptee fantasizes about the sibling she might possibly have in China as a pair of North Carolina brothers find their real-life relationship considerably thornier than the one she can only imagine in Bekah Brunstetter’s World Premiere dramedy hey brother, the terrific latest from the company of young artists who call themselves Fresh Produce’d L.A.
(read more)

SERIAL KILLER BARBIE

The season’s brightest, bounciest, and most crowd-pleasing musical surprise turns out to be Colette Freedman and Nickella Moschetti’s Serial Killer Barbie, hardly the splatter fest its catchy albeit misleading title might suggest, but a show that anyone who’s gone through the 12 rounds that are Elementary, Middle, and High School can identify with and cheer.
(read more)

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

From family-friendly animated funfest to powerful grown-up fare, Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame has been transformed by the folks at La Jolla Playhouse into a new stage musical so darkly dramatic that Broadway’s Phantom Of The Opera seems almost light and frothy by comparison. In other words, what they’ve come up with is that rarity—a Disney musical with the proviso “Leave the kids at home.”
(read more)

ZEALOT

The phrase “ripped from today’s headlines” has rarely been more applicable than it is to Theresa Rebeck’s gripping, provocative new drama Zealot, a South Coast Repertory World Premiere sure to inspire post-performance discussion as highly-charged as the action unfolding at the temporary headquarters of the British Consul in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where Zealot is set.
(read more)

A Or B?

Sometimes the course a life takes can depend on something as inconsequential as a cell phone service provider, or so Abby and Ben discover in Ken Levine’s fascinating and funny romantic comedy A Or B?, now getting its World Premiere at the Falcon Theatre.
(read more)

LITTLE MAN

The much-dreaded, much-anticipated gathering we call the High School Reunion would seem such a surefire source of comedy, drama, and audience empathy that it comes as a surprise how few films and plays have centered on this once-in-a-decade event. Playwright Bekah Brunstetter helps fill this gap in her highly enjoyable World Premiere dramedy Little Man, the latest from The Los Angeles New Court Theatre.
(read more)

WICKED LIT 2014

The Mountain View Mausoleum And Cemetery is the undisputed star of Wicked Lit 2014, providing a venue so mysterious and spooky that it outweighs any objections one might have about the 5th-annual creepy, kooky trio of terr(or)ific one-acts’ more than three-hour-long running time.
(read more)

BRIGHT STAR

Some of the most gorgeous songs I’ve heard in a new musical plus a bevy of equally memorable performances bode well for the post-World Premiere future of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star despite an “original story” so reminiscent of this or that 1930s/40s Hollywood weeper that audience members may find themselves convinced they’re watching the musical stage adaptation of an oldtime Barbara Stanwyck/Claudette Colbert flick. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
(read more)

« Older Entries Newer Entries » « Older Entries Newer Entries »