All Entries Tagged With: "curtain up"
MARY POPPINS: 100% Sweet
SWEET Eyre’s direction is spot-on and he has managed to hold onto some of the stories grit. The dances by Bourne are brilliant. The magical set and set pieces (statues that come to life and dance), a kitchen disaster that is all put back together in a flash, are just two of the many wonderful [...]
EQUIVOCATION: 100% Sweet
BITTERSWEET Bottom Line: An original and often witty play that says less than it wants to say in more words than it needs to use. Jay Reiner – Hollywood Reporter BITTERSWEET Cain should be congratulated for the breathtaking boldness of his endeavor here. But rather than equivocate myself, let me say that more playwriting discipline [...]
“Come Back, Little Horny”: 100% Bittersweet
SWEET Director Martha Demson’s character-driven production artfully emphasizes the subtext underlying the family’s brittle relationship. Not a line is spoken that doesn’t seep with layers of corrosive back story. Although the pacing occasionally falters — and the piece frankly could use some cutting, particularly during the final third — the writing is smartly full of [...]
“Dirty Dancing”: 67% Sweet
BITTERSWEET We’re all here to see Baby come into her own, but it sure takes a while. The producers could easily cut 20 minutes off the evening without losing the heart of the story. As is, the endless parade of camp activities and general stage busyness takes the air out of a storyline ultimately intimate [...]
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET An ebullient synthesizer of world data, Joseph is not just alert to the fevered geopolitical madness surrounding us, he’s also endlessly inventive in finding bold theatrical metaphors to depict the extent of the depravity. “Bengal Tiger” marks the breakthrough of a major new playwriting talent. Attending the opening gave me a sense of what [...]
“Courting Vampires”: 50% Bittersweet – UPDATE
BITTERSWEET Unfortunately, the whole doesn’t end up equaling the sum of its parts, leaving the audience with numerous great moments that don’t fuse into a powerful or coherent story. Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly BITTERSWEET Laura Schellhardt’s play works best when it pursues a comic vein. Nina’s attempts to teach Rill the art of seduction [...]