Posts Tagged ‘Geffen Playhouse’

LIGHTS OUT: NAT “KING” COLE

The impending live broadcast of the 42nd and final episode of network TV’s first black-hosted variety show becomes an existential nightmare for its celebrated star in Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor’s Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, a Geffen Playhouse West Coast premiere not without its problems but one well worth catching, and not just for the drama-song-and-dance showcase it provides its triple-threat star Dulé Hill.
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CHARLES DICKENS’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A New York-based director, star, and production design team have joined forces to bring Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to spectacular solo-performance life at the Geffen Playhouse.
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THE UNTRANSLATABLE SECRETS OF NIKKI CORONA

An intriguing premise and promising first act are sabotaged by a ridiculous post-intermission trek to the hereafter that bodes little to no regional theater afterlife for José Rivera’s The Untranslatable Secrets Of Nikki Corona, a Jo Bonney-directed Geffen Playhouse World Premiere.
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OUR VERY OWN CARLIN MCCULLOUGH

Amanda Peet takes a trio of characters we’ve seen before–a parent, a prodigiously talented child, and a dedicated coach–and weaves them together into the cliché-defying Our Very Own Carlin McCullough, as riveting a World Premiere as I’ve seen at the Geffen Playhouse, or just about anywhere else for that matter.
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SKELETON CREW

If Arthur Miller had written a play about auto workers facing the personal and professional consequences of a possible plant closure, it might have been Skeleton Crew, which is about the highest praise I can bestow upon Dominique Morisseau’s powerful blue-collar drama, now making a breathtakingly designed, directed, and performed Geffen Playhouse debut.

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SIGNIFICANT OTHER

The gay guy finally gets to be Julia Roberts (or Janeane Garofalo circa The Truth About Cats And Dogs) in Significant Other, Joshua Harmon’s smart, funny, bracingly sardonic romcom now getting a terrific East Coast-cast West Coast Premiere at the Geffen.
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IRONBOUND

A dark cloud may seem to follow Polish immigrant Darja across New Jersey, but that doesn’t stop Marin Ireland from lighting up the stage like nobody’s business in the West Coast Premiere of Martyna Majok’s astringently funny, surprisingly affecting Ironbound, now getting a superb West Coast Premiere with its original off-Broadway leading lady joining it for its five-week visit to L.A.
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CHASING MEM’RIES: A DIFFERENT KIND OF MUSICAL

Tyne Daly rises above the material she’s been given in Chasing Mem’ries: A Different Kind Musical, though if by “different,” book writer Josh Ravetch means clichéd, maudlin, sitcommy, and song-deficient, then this Geffen Playhouse World Premiere “musical” is indeed quite different from the rest.
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