Archive for January, 2009
Critique of the Week
Pippin by Steven Leigh Morris GO I know that we’re on the cusp of a Depression and theater audiences ache for frivolity and distraction, but this one really vexes, largely because it’s so damnably seductive. First, Roger O. Hirson’s book and Stephen Schwartz’s music and lyrics combine into what has been one of the most-produced [...]
“Stormy Weather”: 70% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET The show is too long, particularly the first act. Horne’s amazing life, both as a performer, and a civil rights pioneer, who often sacrificed her family life for those causes, is the kind of struggle that makes dynamic theater and it’s easy to see why book writer Cohen tried to pack everything in. Skillful [...]
“Macbeth”: 0% Bitter
BITTER The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble is tackling the Bard’s most superstitiously pondered text at the Powerhouse Theatre, despite scores of tales about ill-fated productions. The show is a mixed-bag of self-conscious performances, sure-footed textual interpretations, effective lighting, costuming mishaps, sluggish pacing, and glimpses of directorial vision. Amy Lyons – Santa Monica Mirror BITTER Sadly, [...]
A Ray of Fog in the Thick of the Night
Daniel Lehman over at Stage Blog seems to think these morsels of news are cause for optimism in the otherwise bleak climate of theatre. Not I. He offers these glad tidings: Bloomberg writer Philip Boroff notes that most of the new productions are either star-driven small plays, which cost less than big-budget musicals, or revivals [...]
“Reverb”: 67% Sweet
BITTER The characters are compelling and well sketched, yet the playwright doesn’t delve perceptively enough into their personalities to make their emotional and psychological fault lines truly convincing. Lovel Estelle III – LA Weekly SWEET Headland has written a scary play, and directed it with frightening intensity, more than matched by Whitehead and Stephens. They [...]
“Pippin”: 73% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET The production, however, gets off to a bit of a shaky start. The ensemble, boasting a skimpily clad chorus, hits one overly emphatic note after another. But once the company eventually calms down, the staging becomes quite seductive with its unostentatious inventiveness and capacity for witty surprise. Charles McNulty – LA Times BITTER Roger [...]
If There Were No Critics, Would We Have To Invent Them?
What would a theatre community without critics look like? Would we remain forever “unvalidated”? Would we forever be dubious of our own opinions and tastes without the “expert” and “authoritative” last word? Without the taint of being judged would we then be less judgmental? Would our productions play in a vacuum? Would our self-esteem falter? [...]
“LA’s Theatre Company”
Don Shirley challenges Center Theatre Group’s assertion that they are “LA’s Theatre Company”. Don offers this lovely roasting: Is there a speck of evidence to support this latter claim – that CTG is especially tuned in to Angelenos and their distinctive concerns? A look at the company’s 2009 programming in its three venues – the [...]
“The Dining Room”: 100% Sweet
SWEET Direction of this play requires a choreographer’s mind; thus Kay Cole helms the work with mastery of entrances and exits to join the scenes, imbuing the work with a memory-play feel. Vandy Scoate’s costuming helps differentiate eras and ages: With a perky pair of shoes or a saggy cardigan, we’re instantaneously clued in to [...]
“Hunter Gatherers”: 80% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET If you think that getting in touch with your inner primitive is the ideal antidote to the sterility of modern civilization, San Francisco-based playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s “Hunter Gatherers” urges you to reconsider. In a razor-sharp staging from Furious Theatre Company, Nachtrieb’s bitingly hilarious black comedy spares neither savages nor saints as a polite [...]
Exhibit A
I greatly appreciated Don Shirley checking in and commenting on my Capsule Review post yesterday. His points are well taken. But Don, dude, saw this review today for “A Skull in Connemara”: In Martin McDonagh’s early play, Mick (Morlan Higgins) clears old bones – including those of his departed wife – out of a rural [...]
“A Skull in Connemara”: 83% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Director Stuart Rogers’ production is terrifically entertaining, and the cast works McDonagh’s deadpan rhythms masterfully. Higgins may have the most watchable face in all of Los Angeles theater, and McGivney’s Mairtin operates with a kind of giddy comic logic that recalls Harpo Marx. The show also features one of the more ingenious set designs [...]
Big Dogs Barking
Over at the LA Times Culture Monster Blog. Epps, Cates & Ritchie talking on the radio about the dismal state of theatre criticism here in the city. Ritchie offers this zinger: “Sometimes getting praise from a critic is like having a proctologist tell you you’ve got a nice ass – -sooner or later, there’s still [...]
Theatre, Inc.
Interesting article, again referencing the ever-beguiling Mike Daisey and a provocative monologue he’s been performing in D.C. The basic premise; Did corporate American kill American Theatre? Well first off, I don’t think American Theatre is dead. But corporate America certainly wounded it. But I find this to be a good thing. Innovation and originality has [...]
“Dias Y Flores”: 100% Sweet
SWEET Flaunting its lyrical romanticism on its literary sleeve, “Dias y Flores” is a far cry from the visceral conflict of “Blade to the Heat,” Mayer’s breakout boxing-ring drama. Some bewildering segments in need of greater clarity make the playwright appear less sure-footed in the arena of the heart, but he continues to illuminate the [...]
“Taking Over”: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Hoch’s one-man show is worth seeing if only for the Puck-like nimbleness he uses to portray a series of men and women from a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood. Physical dexterity is matched by verbal, with his hypnotic renditions of rapid-fire local cadences. Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly SWEET Directed by Berkeley Repertory artistic director [...]
“Pope Joan”: 38% Bitter – UPDATED
SWEET Vet Broadway producer Michael Butler (“Hair”) has instilled impressive production values into this finely wrought but thematically underwhelming tuner perusal into the life of a mythical ninth century female-in-monk’s-clothing who briefly ascended to the title of Bishop of Rome. Scripter-composer Christopher Moore does not offer enough plot substance or scenic evolution to buoy his [...]
Capsule Reviews
How do we feel about the old “capsule” review? And more specifically, Don Shirley’s capsule reviews over at LA CityBeat. Now I haven’t been on the job long enough to know if these capsule reviews have been encapsulated from longer more thorough reviews, but after a few months of assessment it doesn’t look like it. [...]
More Higher Education
Thoughts from a “higher educator” here at the A Poor Player site. Some grist to chew in the continuing debate.
Maxwell Henderson Mitchell
Yesterday I was an Us, today I am a We. Yesterday I knew happiness, today I know joy. Yesterday I only looked, today I finally see. Yesterday I had myself, now I have a boy. Please join me in welcoming Maxwell Henderson Mitchell to the world. Unleashed on this day at 12:29pm, all 6lbs, 8oz [...]
Cattle Call
One of many interesting discussion going on at the Big Cheap Theater site (a bit of a mothership for the Yahoo list bigcheaptheatre) is the call for a “cattle call” audition where all the theatre companies in Los Angeles gather and get a look at all the actors in Los Angeles who’d like to be [...]
“The Bourgeois Gentilhomme”: 100% Sweet
SWEET Though Molière’s stock-in-trade was the combining of extravagant artifice with down-to-earth commonsense, director Michel’s penchant for stylization sometimes results in her treating artifice a bit too artificially, but the prevailing wit, buffoonery, and slapstick provide necessary grounding. And Michel has assembled a large and able crew of farceurs. Neal Weaver – Backstage SWEET The [...]
The Higher Education Situation
Mike Daisey (who is starting to intrigue me more and more) has an interesting post on MFA’s and their use in the “real” world for theatre artists. Don’t agree with everything Mike has to say as I believe it’s impossible to equate the MBA and the MFA. One is geared towards the art of commerce, [...]
Critique of the Week
Missionary Position by Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA Mormon Boy Steven Fales recalls his two-year stint as missionary in Portugal in Missionary Position, a sort of prequel to Fales’ hit one-Mormon-show Confessions Of A Mormon Boy. Confessions focused on Fales’ marriage (which produced two children), his realization that he could no longer live a “heterosexual” life, [...]
“The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit”: 100% Sweet
SWEET Ray Bradbury’s venerated work in the science-fiction genre can overshadow the comic side of his talent. Such is the gentle appeal of “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” at Fremont Centre Theatre. This resourcefully appointed Pandemonium Theatre Company revival of Bradbury’s tickling parable about five Latinos who yearn for the title apparel is as light [...]
“Missionary Position”: 83% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET With director Michael A. Shepperd along to snap the obvious nature of the material into exuberant theatrical shape, Fales’ effort succeeds not because it’s innovative or revelatory but because the elemental nature of art is to tell stories — and Fales is an infectious storyteller. Travis Michael Holder – Backstage SWEET While Missionary Position [...]
“The Baltimore Waltz”: 33% Bitter
SWEET Director R.J. Romero and company preserve the always whimsical tone of the 1992 play, downplaying the satirical aspects of the script by presenting the episodic material in a broadly comedic style. Anna’s combination of beauty, a simplistic approach to one-night-stand sex, and naiveté regarding men make the character so interesting, and Adrien Jade Paul [...]
“Light Up the Sky”: 100% Sweet
SWEET Hart’s script crackles with wit and wisecracks, and, under the clever direction of Bjorn Johnson, the laughter is near-constant on Victoria Profitt’s art-deco set. Burdick is a dynamo of verbal pyrotechnics, and he’s evenly matched by most of the cast, who make the most of Hart’s cynical/sentimental Valentine to show business. Neal Weaver – [...]
More “Notes”
There’s a little dust up going on over a NY Times review for a play called Wickets. Mike Daisey has some interesting commentary on the subject. Some are suggesting that everything could have been solved if the critic had just read the PROGRAM NOTES. Some more comments from Chicago’s Kris Vire. Hmmm. More later. I’m [...]
“Mammals”: 80% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET “Forget other people,” Lorna advises Phil, in one of the play’s moments of bracing candor. For better or for worse, you’re not likely to forget Bullmore’s savage, acutely human “Mammals.” Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times SWEET Persuasive performances under John Pleshette’s skillful direction lend humor and heft to this dark comedy by first-time British [...]