Email Author Lovell Estell III

2009 Stories by Lovell Estell III

• The Glass Mendacity

  published December 17, 2009

  Devotees of Tennessee Williams will surely delight in this send-up of the playwright's best-known dramas. Maureen Morley and Tom Willmorth have... More >>

• The River Niger

  published November 13, 2009

  Joseph Walker was among a handful of black playwrights who came to prominence during the Civil Rights era and won acclaim for their dramas about... More >>

• Growing Up With Uncle Miltie

  published November 5, 2009

  As a young girl growing up in New York City, Patt Benson dreamed of making her mark in show business. Thanks to a combination of luck, talent and... More >>

• Cirque du Soleil: Kooza

  published October 15, 2009

  It’s been about a decade since the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau (big top) was seen at Santa Monica Pier. This touring production marks the... More >>

• Eclipsed

  published October 1, 2009

  Playwright Danai Gurira powerfully dramatizes the ugly realities of women caught up in the Liberian Civil War. The action unfolds circa 2003,... More >>

• Legally Blonde

  published August 13, 2009

  I'll admit it. I'm a bald, mustachioed, macho man who enjoyed this saccharine sweet, feel-good girly-girl musical. I even found some of it... More >>

• Horror-Fest

  published August 13, 2009

  These four horror-themed vignettes run the gamut from the darkly humorous to ghoulish. The bill opens with Zombie Joe’s creepy... More >>

• Hellz Kitchen Ablaze

  published July 30, 2009

  Tommy Carter’s hard-hitting drama delves into the sadly familiar terrain of police brutality and corruption. After a drug raid in which a... More >>

• Shakespeare Unscripted

  published July 2, 2009

  The idea hasn’t lost anything in the decade since I reviewed this concept-driven improvisation. Shakespeare Unscripted is an impromptu... More >>

• Big, The Musical

  published May 14, 2009

  Director Richard Israel and his fine cast have a first-rate revival of this 1996 Broadway musical, based on the film that made Tom Hanks a star.... More >>

• Bronzeville

  published April 30, 2009

  Tim Toyama and Aaron Woolfolk's drama centers around the Goodwins, a black family looking for a new life and respite from Southern racism in Los... More >>

• Falling Upward

  published March 19, 2009

  Ray Bradbury is better known for his formidable achievements in the arena of science-fiction, but he’s also penned a number of plays,... More >>

• Dracula

  published March 5, 2009

  Director Ken Sawyer, who recently helmed the delightful Lovelace: A Rock Opera at the Hayworth, scores again with this stylish production... More >>

• Flight: The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh

  published February 12, 2009

  Garth Wingfield's bio-drama of the famous American aviator is more like an overstated cautionary tale about the perils of being a celebrity.... More >>

• Reverb

  published January 29, 2009

  Leslye Headland's sobering dramedy gives new meaning to the term "dysfunctional relationship." Dorian (Wes Whitehead) is a struggling musician in... More >>