All Entries Tagged With: "neal weaver"
CHESS IN CONCERT: 100% – Sweet
SWEET I’ve attended many concert and staged readings of musicals in Los Angeles and most tend to be simple presentations, on book at music stands, with little or no additional production elements. CHESS in Concert at Musical Theatre of Los Angeles has elevated the concert reading convention to new heights, with a lush 9-piece orchestra, [...]
THE EXERCISE: 33% – Bitter – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET Notwithstanding the excellent acting, the real exercise is more to see if the audience can sit for two hours plus coping with dialog that at first starts out bland and then escalates to predictable. There are some detours that are funny and a couple more that are poignant, but the questions that kept nagging [...]
A WOLF INSIDE THE FENCE: 75% – Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER One of three plays in the First Look Festival, Joseph Fisher’s dramedy creeps along at a maddeningly slow pace with a plot as thick and tedious as any world history textbook. The knock-you-on-the-side-of-your-head stock characters are of the typical all-American high school trope: the bad girl that smokes out front, a frustrated history teacher, [...]
FREE MAN OF COLOR: 100% – Sweet
SWEET Smith’s spare three-character study unfolds through intimate moments and intellectual discourse, powerfully examining the issues of its day, as well as questions surrounding citizenship and belonging, which continue to occupy us. The dialogue is especially refreshing for its crisp diction, for which the credit goes to both the cast and director Dan Bonnell. The [...]
ENGAGEMENT: 50% – Bittersweet – UPDATED
BITTER Granted, Barton’s curiously unedited spate offers flashes of fresh and funny philosophical insight. However, like pyrite in a streambed, obscured by the rushing flow of verbiage, the occasional nugget is not worth the excavation. F. Kathleen Foley – LA Times BITTERSWEET Unhappily, she is, so the course of their love does not run smooth. [...]
NOT ABOUT HEROES: 100% – Sweet
SWEET Both actors achieve a credible resemblance to their originals. Mann possesses the cragginess of Sassoon, and Hardin’s center-parted hair imparts boyish charm and period flavor. In the last third of the play, dealing with Owen’s death under fire just seven days before the armistice was signed, Mann achieves a potent elegiac tone and genuine [...]
BEDROOM FARCE: 67% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Director Ron Bottitta wisely keeps this soufflé in period, abetted by designers Kathi O’Donohue (lighting), Kathryn Poppen (costumes) and Bill Froggatt (sound). His players form a first-rate ensemble, the odd dialect glitch or overstressed beat trivial when set beside such unified light-comic style. The play remains middlebrow boulevard fare, albeit written by a master [...]
CIRCLE OF WILL: 33% – Bitter – UPDATED
BITTER A stumbling attempt at satire, the piece portrays Shakespeare as a lesser literary light and Burbage as a cretinous narcissist, fed up with dramas about death and threatening to walk unless he gets to be a hero in a play with a positive ending. The problem lies not in the lampoon of the theater [...]
BLACK COFFEE: 100% – Sweet
SWEET Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot give Theatre 40 one of its best productions with the Queen Of Crime’s classic mystery thriller Black Coffee, one which delivers at least as many laughs as thrills, the entire cast delivering sparkling performances with just the right amount of tongue in cheek. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA SWEET Agatha [...]
BEYOND: 75% – Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET Hankering for leggy showgirls, recorded New Age music and a vaguely pretentious storyline? Vegas too hot or expensive? Sashay over to the El Portal’s “Beyond,” a Frenchified revue hoping to become Cirque du Soleil when it grows up. An attraction of modest means, modest pleasures and inflated ambitions, this labor of love from quintuple [...]
PRAYING SMALL: 100% – Sweet
SWEET Relayed in nonlinear flashback, the play rivets our attention through the depth and breadth of the central character, an intrepid, introspective Everyman with a strong sense of irony, who references Thomas Wolfe and repeatedly mulls why it is that one can’t go home again. There’s humor here, too. The likable Morts delivers a dynamic [...]
SORORITY QUEEN IN A MOBILE HOME: 50% – Bitter
SWEET The play is not overly substantial, but director Paul Kampf makes it a funny, engaging diversion. Neal Weaver – Backstage BITTER Under Paul Kampf’s direction, the play accrues almost no momentum because of Weier’s show-and-tell interpretation. She broadcasts every attitude and opinion of this frustrated hausfrau, resulting in a parade of the obvious. Weier [...]
THE CLEAN HOUSE: 50% – Bittersweet – UPDATED
BITTER One cannot blame the actors entirely for their sterile performances, enslaved as they are by Stefan Kruck’s anemic and unimaginative direction. But, then again, a theater does not put a play like The Clean House on its season’s schedule out of a passionate commitment to art, but rather out of an impassionate commitment to [...]
JESSE BOY: 60% – Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER I know I will probably be in the minority of people who don’t like this play, there is everything here to arouse the sensibilities of the modern theatre audience — domestic violence, rape, molestation, dysfunctional relationships, obsessive love, sex, alcoholism, father/son relationships, murder, convicts with a heart of gold, strippers with a heart of [...]
CANNED HAM: 67% – Sweet
SWEET The title of Tom Judson’s autobiographical solo show might lead one to anticipate self-indulgent shenanigans, but in Judson’s refreshingly unpretentious string of anecdotes, this New York–born performer proves to be an ingratiating and captivating storyteller. Actor-singer-musician-songwriter Judson has experienced unorthodox career paths, and he wastes no time in sharing his remarkable adventures with us—some [...]
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING: 86% – Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET The situation is winning, but if it weren’t for such standout numbers as “A Secretary Is Not a Toy,” “I Believe in You” and “Brotherhood of Man,” the plot — a succession of sketches, really — would seem interminable. Music director Darryl Archibald and his soaring orchestra are forever rescuing the work from its [...]
TEMPODYSSEY: 100% – Sweet
SWEET Goofily attracted, Springthorpe and Sidell recall Chaplin and Paulette Godard, adrift in post-Modern Times but longing for connection in director Emily Weisberg’s acute and emotional grounded production. Dietz sometimes lets the play get away from him, but even an incomplete ending can’t blunt the exhilarating punch of this wild and engaging experiment. Charlotte Stoudt [...]
THE GIFT HORSE: 67% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Their efforts often counter some nascent showcase aspects and an overloaded narrative that, for all its cagey theatricality and character focus, doesn’t always match up with its ambitions. Even so, “The Gift Horse” has both value and validity. Diamond devotees should certainly check it out. David C. Nichols – LA Times BITTERSWEET It’s a [...]
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO: 50% – Bitter – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET This new translation, by director Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe, is serviceable and fairly traditional. It is also a tad overlong, and a bit of discreet editing would not be amiss. Michel has pitched her production as broad farce, with sometimes-obtrusive stylized movement, which can be distracting. Playing artificial comedy artificially seems like overkill. [...]
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD: 88% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Elliot’s pacing is just right, gentle enough to catch the emotion and the beauty of the language yet brisk and smart enough to serve the comedy. Among the lovely performances are Jill Hill’s Widow Quinn (who shares the dainty, word-wise qualities of Mance’s Countess in Figaro); the eccentric and idiosyncratic William Dennis Hunt’s Philly [...]
SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE: 80% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER You might wanna see something else. Cynthia Citron – LA Examiner SWEET Exciting, imaginative, gripping, and musically adventurous—See What I Wanna See is all this and more. With Henning at the helm and a cast and band more than up to the task, this is innovative, modern musical theater at its best. Steven Stanley [...]
JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS: 86% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living Paris” is an action-packed, two-hour musical featuring world-class songs from celebrated singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. It allows audiences to fully experience the incredible range of emotion onstage while sitting in their seats. Liana Aghajanian – Glendale News Press SWEET With master director Jon Lawrence Rivera [...]
GETTING FRANKIE MARRIED – AND AFTERWARDS: 75% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET In L.A., Foote’s Lone Star State irregulars can seem close to parody, which makes underplaying essential. Some of the supporting cast in Scott Paulin’s solid production push too hard, working against the fine performances by leads Lacy and Demson. But by the second act, the play finds its groove, and James Spencer’s cheerful living [...]
BUFFALO HOLE: 67% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET If it sometimes seems that Reichel has assembled as many improbable elements as possible, neglecting to shape them into a credible, coherent whole, Zeke Rettman provides impeccable direction while an able cast acts the piece with demented zest on Danny Cistone’s cluttered, ramshackle house-trailer set. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly BITTER Why any of [...]
TEA AT FIVE: 100% Sweet
SWEET This time, she captures the essence, humor, witty cynicism, heart, and innermost thoughts of the late, great Katharine Hepburn. Written by Matthew Lombardo, this revealing telling has been performed in California by Stephanie Zimbalist and Kate Mulgrew in the past. Lombardo’s currently-running hit Broadway solo show, “Looped,” starring Valerie Harper, continues his legacy. Self-directed, [...]
THE ROSE BOWL QUEENS: 100% Sweet
SWEET This folksy musical, with book, music and lyrics by Barbara Hart and Cheryl Gimbel, and music direction by Mary Ekler, combines a gaggle of mostly country songs and deliberately lame jokes, with good-hearted but naïve dramaturgy. Director-choreographer Kay Cole has assembled a lively, colorful cast, and marshals them with panache. Much of the material [...]
AWAKE AND SING!: 92% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Long before feminism made it a catchphrase, “Awake and Sing!” revealed just how political the personal can be. And though its language often sounds dated, the play’s discordant notes continue to speak to the turbulent longing in our national soul. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Director Andrew J. Traister captures the play’s potent [...]
THE DIVINERS: 100% Sweet
SWEET Leonard’s attempt to give his tale cosmic significance doesn’t entirely convince, but as a sweet folk tragi-comedy, his play is highly engaging. Smith makes Showers completely persuasive, Herring is funny and touching as Buddy, and, under T L Kolman’s able direction, the whole cast offers fine support. Alex Egan and Reed Armstrong find rich [...]
LIBERTY INN: THE MUSICAL: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET The impeccable set is changed by Faber and the Captain’s Aide (Mark Doerr) in choreographed perfection. Dean Cameron, who designed the set, also did the costumes, particularly outdoing himself in the Revolutionary War uniforms. Ryback plays his own score with dashing brilliance, including an overture and scintillating arpeggios. May and Snow have outstanding voices, [...]
INFLUENCE: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Sometimes, Bitterman’s internecine politics are so abstruse, they should be accompanied by Wikipedia supertitles. Yet director Steve Zuckerman’s staccato, Mamet-esque pacing keeps things lively, and his actors attack their material like junkyard dogs set loose in a meat packing plant. Simultaneously charming and repugnant, Bitterman’s characters are so daringly dislikable, you have to love [...]