MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
If William Shakespeare has been called an acquired taste, the time has come for this reviewer to confess to having—despite considerable kicking and screaming—acquired a taste for the Bard. No longer can I protest too much, as I have in years past, that (to quote from a 2008 review) “I often get lost in his convoluted plots, whole chunks of dialog whizzing past me or over my head without really sinking in.” Yes, Shakespeare’s plots can still be hard to follow, and yes, there are still passages that even the finest Shakespearean actor cannot render comprehensible to my 21st Century ears, but after having (in the past year alone) raved about productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (two of them!), The Comedy Of Errors, Measure For Measure, The Taming Of The Shrew, and The Merchant Of Venice, I’m actually starting to look forward to “Another Op’ning, Another Show.”
The Old Globe 2011 Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing can now be added to the above list, director Ron Daniels and an extraordinarily talented cast having come together to create a truly magical evening of romance and laughter under the San Diego stars.
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SMALL ENGINE REPAIR
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
If you grow up in New Hampshire, chances are your elementary school best friends will remain your besties for life, even in Manchester, its biggest city, whose population of 109,565 would make it hardly more than a small town here in Southern California.
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THE UNDERPANTS
Friday, August 19th, 2011
What a difference two seconds can make. That’s how short a time Louise Maske insists that her undies dropped down to her ankles “in front of the neighbors, in front of strangers, and at the King’s parade” in The Underpants, adapted from German playwright Carl Sternheim’s 1910 original by none other than Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin, whose unique take on love and life makes Long Beach Playhouse’s production of The Underpants a delightful August surprise.
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CHICAGO
Monday, August 15th, 2011
To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, “Everything’s coming up Chicago” these days. Still going strong at 6000+ performances on Broadway, the musical smash is at long last lighting up regional and community theater stages, giving directors, choreographers, performers, and designers the chance to put their own stamp on the John Kander/Fred Ebb classic.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
When you hear the words “Shakespearean Comedy,” which of the Bard’s plays most quickly pop to mind? A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Twelfth Night? The Taming Of The Shrew? Much Ado About Nothing? As You Like It? All of the above?
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AGATHA CHRISTIE’S SPIDER’S WEB
Saturday, August 13th, 2011
Theatre 40 has another Agatha Christie hit on its hand with The Queen Of Crime’s 1954 comedic mystery Spider’s Web. Though not quite on a par with T40’s previous Christie gem Black Coffee (Dame Agatha’s plotting and the cast’s British accents are slightly less razor-sharp this time), Spider’s Web nonetheless makes for a thoroughly entertaining brain teaser with nearly as many laughs as you’d expect in an English farce.
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TRYST
Friday, August 12th, 2011
George Love has never met a woman he couldn’t seduce, wed, fleece, and abandon (all in short order), and he has never met a woman more ripe for seduction than Adelaide Pinchin. It’s no wonder, therefore, that this master of the romantic con makes the plump, plain, downright pathetic London seamstress his latest target in Karoline Leach’s Edwardian thriller Tryst, now making a welcome return to L.A. area stages at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre.
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PASSING PROPER/PASSION AND PRECISION
Sunday, August 7th, 2011
A would-be screenwriter attempts to navigate the shark-ridden Hollywood waters in Passion And Precision, the second of a matched set of one-acts by Joe Davis Massingill. That the first of the two, Passing Proper, just happens to be a staged version of the very screenplay the writer is hoping to sell is just one of several reasons to check out the two plays running on a single bill at Theatre 68.
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