THE GIFT
Friday, February 8th, 2013Fine performances, impressive design elements, and an absolutely stunning action sequence prove insufficient reasons for this reviewer to recommend a trip to the Geffen Playhouse for the American Premiere of Joanna Murray-Smith’s highly problematic dark comedy The Gift.
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THEIR EYES SAW RAIN
Monday, January 7th, 2013“Bang! Thunder kicks. Rain falls. Incessant. In the small town of Castle. There is indolence and apathy. Three brothers make it their mission to keep from being washed away.”
If the above publicity blurb seems frustratingly abstruse, West Liang’s World Premiere drama Their Eyes Saw Rain does little to clarify the confusion despite the best efforts of all concerned.
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THE MORINI STRAD
Monday, November 19th, 2012As any Colony Theatre regular can tell you, Burbank’s premier regional theater has had crowd-pleasing hit after hit with its series of “odd couple” two-character plays, from Rounding Third to Trying to Educating Rita to Visiting Mr. Green to Grace & Glorie to Shooting Star to Old Wicked Songs. That’s why, as a longtime Colony fan who loved each and every one of this magnificent seven, it pains me to report that their latest two-hander, The Morini Strad, failed to capture or hold my attention despite the best efforts of all concerned.
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THE RED ROOM
Monday, October 1st, 2012Memories of the past haunt the present of a once successful Hollywood mogul, his tormented wife, and their three adult sons in Christopher Knopf’s frustratingly abstruse The Red Room, now getting its World Premiere at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center.
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ENCOUNTER
Thursday, September 13th, 2012East West Players abandons its usual fare (i.e. Asian-American-themed plays and musicals and mainstream plays and musicals with Asian-American casts) for an evening of South Asian dance. Those expecting colorful, Bollywood-style musical numbers will be disappointed, however, and so too I fear will EWP’s subscriber and fan base. Far more suited for a limited run at a Performing Arts Center specializing in eclectic music and dance, Navarasa Dance Theatre’s Encounter, while artfully designed and beautifully performed, failed to ignite this reviewer’s interest, its eighty-minute running time feeling considerably longer despite the talent involved.
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STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Sunday, August 19th, 2012A smart, funny, sophisticated, incisive satire of old-school Orange County conservatives vs. the progressive LGBT minority in their midst would make for a terrific World Premiere production at Santa Ana’s Theatre Out. Unfortunately, Andy Black and Patricia Milton’s Strange Bedfellows is not that play.
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THE BAT
Friday, August 3rd, 2012The swanky upstate New York home designed by Jeff G. Rack seems the ideal setting for murder, the kind written about by Queen Of Crime Agatha Christie or her American predecessor Mary Roberts Rinehart. Ric Zimmerman has lit the elegant upper class digs for maximum suspense, with candles taking the place of electricity when the lights go out (more than once as we know they will). Bill Froggatt’s sound design provides an eerie, suspenseful musical underscoring to this tale of mystery and impending doom.
If only direction and performances came anywhere close to the collaborative efforts of these three top L.A. design talents in The Bat, the latest production from Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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