All Entries Tagged With: "santa monica mirror"
A WITHER’S TALE: 91% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET A Withers Tale is a nice change of pace for the Troubadour Company but as they are so cosmically gifted at side-splitting silly stuff, let’s hope that their next production is more seriously funny. Lynne Bronstein – Santa Monica Mirror SWEET The somber saga builds to Walker’s showstopping rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine,” enhanced [...]
BONES: 89% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET There’s a double-whammy irony about the power of the past to shape our lives: the more traumatic the event, the less reliable our ability to recall it accurately — and the more remote the possibility of moving past it becomes. Such is the equation of psychological paralysis that playwright Dael Orlandersmith charts with devastating [...]
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 [...]
THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE: 100% – Sweet
SWEET This kind of theatrical blood sport won’t be for everyone. (Pity the crew assigned to clean up the mess after each performance.) But if a flincher like me found himself tittering with open eyes, maybe you’ll be tickled by McDonagh’s malign mirth as well. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Playwright Martin McDonagh taps [...]
THE THREE MUSKETEERS: 83% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Ellen Geer, doyenne of the leafy Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, employs some 50 thesps for almost three hours in Alexandre Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers,” adapted in the cram-it-all-in-there spirit of the RSC’s “Nicholas Nickleby” and Steppenwolf’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Cinematic rather than theatrical — which is to say, played as straight naturalism [...]
SOUTH PACIFIC: 100% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET But this “South Pacific” is to be treasured above all for Cusack, whose interpretation of her character’s embarrassment of Rodgers & Hammerstein riches is so stunningly suffused with heart that it was as if I were hearing the songs for the first time. Nellie vainly tries to “wash that man right outta” her hair, [...]
BACKSTREET: 60% – Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER This musical—with a book by Evelyn Rudie, Matthew Wrather, and director Chris DeCarlo—has an engaging premise but was much more effective when originally produced at the Santa Monica Playhouse in 1998. During the first act of the current revival, the music so overpowers the singers that their voices are virtually inaudible, while most of [...]
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 [...]
LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE: 90% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Sullivan has the cast occasionally act out bits of dialogue, which adds a sense of theatricality to the reading, and breaking up “Gingy’s Story” adds cohesion to the evening. Even the weakest stories have interesting elements, and performed by this cast, they are engaging and entertaining. Jeff Favre – Backstage SWEET “What I Wore” [...]
PALOMINO: 89% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET As it happens, Kieren tries to get Edward, who has a connection to Vallie, interested in publishing his tell-all diaries. This coincidence enables Cale to take his theme of the bartering of love in a more generous direction. The outcome is far from inevitable, but Cale’s initial conceit sparks enough fascination to sustain our [...]
SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU/ THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE: 100% – Sweet
BITTERSWEET The play, however, challenges a very old system of doing things: Catholicism. Durang does away with God by interrogating a horrible representative of the religion, the Sister, with all the major faith-based questions. A lot of people, perhaps Durang, are introduced to God and turn away from God because of a particular religion. And [...]
ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S THE 39 STEPS: 85% – Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Tony Award nominated Director Maria Aitken has successfully transplanted the brilliance of the Broadway production to the incarnation currently running at the Ahmanson Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The production utilizes a sparse collection of set pieces and then challenges the imagination to engage in the world created by the quartet’s tireless Pantomime, a [...]
NIGHTMARE ALLEY: 27% – Bitter – UPDATED
BITTER Although Jonathan Brielle does a neat job of compressing the action into two hours onstage, he fails to capitalize on the terrible implications of falling from grace into a hell beyond the reaches of spirituality or religion, and neither his lyrics nor music is memorable. Laurence Vittes – Hollywood Reporter BITTER But mystery and [...]
Critique of the Week
THE WAKE Review by Amy Lyons Lisa Kron has a lot to say in her new play, The Wake. The problem is she’s saying a wee bit too much, packing multiple heady, on-the-nose political debates into a triangular love story that examines traditional family roles and classism. The writing is exceedingly smart, but the drama [...]
THE BLUE ROOM: 22% Bitter – UPDATED
SWEET With carefully choreographed direction by acclaimed director Elina de Santos, the action takes place on a minimal set, with excellent and evocative lighting, set design, musical segues and costuming to buoy the exploration of sex and the sense of existential meaninglessness that accompanies it here. Bea Wolff – Tolucan Times BITTER In director Elina [...]
THE WAKE: 69% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET If “The Wake” succeeds more as a character study than as an assessment of the historical zeitgeist, it’s probably because Ellen is too much of an individual to bear the metaphorical burden placed on her. Those blind spots she’s begun to recognize don’t belong to her exclusively. But her journey into understanding the heartbreak [...]
URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET With a well-performed good-versus-evil story between Bobby Strong (David Laffey), Caldwell B. Cladwell (Michael Heimos) and a solid supporting cast, “Urinetown” will definitely leave its musical savvy audiences tickled with laughter and happiness. Parimal M. Rohit – Campus Circle SWEET Whether the title Urinetown amuses you or disturbs you, it should at least intrigue [...]
THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES: 70% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET All right, given this impressive pedigree, what’s my beef? Well, beyond the play’s passé style, I have trouble with the workmanlike use of the symbolic roses that inspire the title and even more with scenes that sometimes seem like acting workshop exercises. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Yet traditional dramatic styles needn’t be [...]
DIGGING UP DAD: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET “Digging Up Dad” may not have much in the way of shock value or serrated-edged satire, still, it has a lot of heart for a ‘tough guy’ who finds that forgiveness can be the toughest thing of all. Cris D’Annunzio was well advised by Kevin Spacey to see his monologue through and introduce us [...]
LOVE IN BLOOM: 100% Sweet
SWEET It was as if we were watching Shakespeare set to music with its Faerie King Orion (Chris DeCarlo) and Faerie Queen Talia (Evelyn Rudie) at the helm of Love in Bloom at the Santa Monica Playhouse. Written by these two brilliant and talented Co-Executive Directors of the Playhouse, they have, once again, created a [...]
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES: 89% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET The script has an unending flow of verbal and physical high jinks but too many sitcom-quality one-liners and a lazy reliance on popular culture for easy laughs. There also is too much insincere rattling on about the sexual issues that Bening’s character has made her career by exploiting. And there’s no pretense at character [...]
WRECKS: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET Yet, thanks to Harris’ Herculean acting feat, the contrived ending almost becomes beside the point. Harris’ portrayal of Edward Carr, a grieving middle-aged Midwestern man at a funeral parlor, sorting through complex feelings following his wife’s death, works on basic human levels that stand apart from the tacked-on story twist. Never mind that the [...]
THE COLLECTOR: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET After you’ve watched the subtle, nuanced performance of Dane Zinter as Fredrick, a pathetically lonely, obsessed madman in “The Collector,” you may be excused for concluding that the actor himself is more than a little deranged. His defensive smirk, his furrowed brow, his awkward gestures with his hands are so spot-on that you simply [...]
LOYALTIES: 67% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER Pasqualini’s play is not really a thesis drama, but it often sounds like one, treating its characters as mouthpieces. There are, however, some potent scenes. Though we’re clearly intended to sympathize with Michael, he’s too whiny and self-centered to take seriously. Director David Gautreaux has able actors but sometimes allows them to succumb to [...]
A SONG AT TWILIGHT: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET In this age of Facebook, Twitter, and texting, where the English language has been reduced to grunts and groans and fractured grammar, Noel Coward has come to the rescue, at least for an extremely delicious few hours, in the form of the West Coast premiere of A Song at Twilight at the Odyssey Theatre [...]
AN OAK TREE: 89% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET On opening night, Gallagher’s grief-stricken father produced an atmosphere of anguish that cast light on some of Crouch’s impenetrable themes. Of course, the tone will necessarily change with each new performer, but the final point, one suspects, will remain elusive. What is clear is that Crouch is an assured puppet master who inspires trust [...]
ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET The gloves come off in John Patrick Shanley’s romantic comedy at the Ruskin Group Theatre. Performed by an outstanding cast, the play follows the delightful mishaps of love and hate as Aldo (John Collela) tries to help his good friend Huey (Chad Wood) woo back his shrewish ex-wife, Janice (Amy Jacobson Ruskin) in a [...]
PALESTINE, NEW MEXICO: 38% Bitter – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET This curious development leads to a fantasy sequence featuring, among other harebrained shenanigans, a golem in the shape of a cactus. The high jinks have a fatuous air that aims to translate the zaniness of the Marx Brothers and Aristophanes into Culture Clash’s unique brand of tomfoolery. But the plot is convoluted in a [...]
THE BROWNING VERSION: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET The actors give amazing performances, under Marilyn Fox’s elegant direction, including the superb Orson Bean as the unctuous headmaster and Michael Redfield and Caitlin Beitel as the newlywed Gilberts, who are itching to take over the Crocker-Harris’ position and flat. Good luck to them. Madeleine Shaner – Backstage SWEET From this sedate tapestry of [...]
“Pay Attention”: 80% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTER Performance is an effective tool for healing, and while this show is honest and includes the witty self-deprication that is often the engine of this kind of work, South’s muddy performance is hard to parse. At 130 minutes with no intermission it is an ordeal, and I suspect that there are times when South [...]