MY ANTONIA
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
Willa Cather’s epic 1918 novel has been transformed into an absolutely exquisite memory play by writer/director Scott Schwartz. For those like myself who missed the production’s debut at the Ventura’s Rubicon this past May, Antonia is back, in the more intimate setting of Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre, and certain to enchant audiences of all ages for weeks to come.
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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Downsizing Broadway musicals to fit Equity waiver stages has become an L.A. theater tradition (and challenge) to companies with limited space and budgets. Though somewhat rough around the edges, the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles succeeds admirably and enthusiastically, re-imagining La Cage as a Studio City “tranny” bar yet losing none of the original’s laughter, musical dazzle, and tears.
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THE LAST SEDER
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Jennifer Maisel’s warm and winning family dramedy The Last Seder opens with Michelle (Elisa Donovan), the youngest of four adult sisters, inviting Josh (Douglas Dickerman), a total stranger, to her family home. Michelle’s Alzheimer’s afflicted father Marvin (Joseph Ruskin) is about to be moved for long-term care into the serenely named Serenity Willows and the family home is soon to be sold, thus this year’s Seder will be the family’s last together and Michelle does not want to arrive empty-handed, so to speak.
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BETRAYAL
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
In the year 1999, Jerry confesses to Emma, his best friend’s wife, that he has loved her since he was best man at her wedding to Robert, and they begin an affair which goes on for years. In 2008, two years after ending the affair, Jerry and Emma meet again. With her marriage breaking up, she needs someone to talk to. In the course of conversation, Emma reveals (to Jerry’s dismay) that Robert knew about (and didn’t particularly mind) their affair. Indeed, says Emma, he knew about it as far back as 2004.
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AMERICAN TALES
Friday, June 27th, 2008
The Anateus Company opens its 2008 ClassicsFest series (of 8 works in progress and 6 “first looks”) with a world premiere fully staged production of a pair of absolutely charming one-act chamber musicals, billed together as American Tales.
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SHIPWRECKED!
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Whether you are eight years old or eighty, you will delight in the sheer magic of live theater at the Geffen Playhouse’s production of Donald Margulies magnificent adventure story, Shipwrecked! What would cost Hollywood a couple hundred million dollars to achieve, the geniuses behind this production and its three supremely gifted actors (doing the work of the proverbial “cast of thousands”) achieve at a fraction of the cost, with equal or greater entertainment value.
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THE FIX
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
If there are any L.A. musical theater lovers who are not yet Musical Theatre Guild subscribers, I have only five words for you, “What are you waiting for?”
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IN HEAT
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
“How can you mend a broken heart?” asked the BeeGees a few decades back. If you are actor Malcome Danare, you write a play. The result of Danare’s 2006 heartbreak is In Heat, a “comedy in four one-acts,” currently playing at The Lost Studio, and a very funny and original comedy it is.
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