Email Author Steven Leigh Morris

Awards

• 2011 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club

  Theater Reviews

• 2007 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club

  "Guerillas in our Midst"

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2013 Stories by Steven Leigh Morris

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Pulitzer Finalist About the Iraq War

  published May 23, 2013

  Lee Melville, a true gentleman and decades-long friend of our theater, died last night. Melville was a critic and editor at Drama-Logue and, most recently, L.A. Stage. More details as they come in.... More >>

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  Solo Show At the Flash Looks at a Single Gay Bar Through the Decades

  published May 23, 2013

  In March 2012, Ian MacKinnon presented a gay history one-man show at Moving Arts in Silver Lake, named Gay Hist-Orgy! Parts 1 & 2. It... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Jacobean Incest Melodrama

  published May 16, 2013

  The scandal surrounding a love affair between a brother and his sister forms the centerpiece of John Ford's 17th century play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Archway Theatre's downtown production is this ... More >>

• The Grapes of Wrath

  published February 28, 2013

  There are no weak links in Michael Michetti's staging of The Grapes of Wrath. It is a study of characters adrift, American refugees of the... More >>

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  With Dulce Rosa, an Isabel Allende Story Becomes Opera

  published May 16, 2013

  It's taken 11 years to get director-lyricist Richard Sparks and composer Lee Holdridge's new opera, Dulce Rosa, from the germ of an... More >>

• Theater to See This Week, Including a Riveting Police Story

  published May 09, 2013

  L.A. Weekly critic Lovell Estell III found a police melodrama Cops and Friends of Cops to be a refreshingly unpredictable new play, and made it this week's Pick. Good reviews also for Peter Pan, prese... More >>

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  Marco Ramirez's The Royale and Theatre Movement Bazaar's Hot Cat Make Old Stories New

  published May 9, 2013

  There's a road leading from the Actors Theatre of Louisville (Ky.) to Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group. Now onstage at CTG's Kirk Douglas... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Docudrama About Slavery

  published May 02, 2013

  Lovell Estell III found Chromolume Theatre's production of Do Lord Remember Me stirring, and made it this week's Pick. Neal Weaver also found a multimedia Brecht on Brecht at Atwater Village Theater... More >>

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  Colorblind and I'm Not Rappaport, Two Plays Dealing With Race Relations

  published May 2, 2013

  Wallace Demarria bills himself as executive producer, writer, director and star of his play Colorblind, playing through the weekend at... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Riveting Drama About Holocaust-Era Poland

  published Apr 26, 2013

  Our critic Deborah Klugman found Tadeusz Slobodzianek's drama, about Polish complicity in the German Nazis' persecution of Polish Jews in the 1940s, and presented by Son of Semele Ensemble at Atwater ... More >>

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  A Pair of Two-Person Shows, One Starring Comedy Couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally

  published April 25, 2013

  Is it possible that two-person plays, economically expedient for their small casts, are on the rise in L.A.? That they pose a challenge to... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week

  published Apr 18, 2013

  Adapter-performer Brian T. Finney has adapted Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in what Paul Birchall describes as "hypnotic." It's this week's pick of the week. Neal Weaver found charm and passion i... More >>

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  Geffen Playhouse Revives David Mamet's Classic American Buffalo

  published April 18, 2013

  If you need an illustration of how much the early writing of Harold Pinter influenced the early writing of David Mamet, you need only check out... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Garry Marshall Directing a Play About the Making of Double Indemnity

  published Apr 11, 2013

  Lost Moon Radio did another bang-up job hosting the 34th annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards Monday night. (See the full list of L.A. Weekly Theater Award winners here.) Thanks to Lauren Ludwig, Trish H... More >>

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  A Janis Joplin Musical Boosts the Pasadena Playhouse Box Office

  published April 11, 2013

  Writer-director Randy Johnson's musical bio-concert One Night With Janis is breaking records for daily sales, reports the Pasadena... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Marilyn Monroe Kissing a Girl and Liking It

  published Apr 04, 2013

  Marilyn Monroe liked the ladies -- so proposes this week's Pick of the Week, Marilyn -- My Secret, Odalys Nanin and Will Manus' new play in MACHA/Globe Theatre in West Hollywood. See below for all th... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Theater Issue 2013: Why Be a Playwright in L.A.?

  published April 4, 2013

  Toward the end of the new, futuristic play The Nether, a female detective faces the man she's been investigating — a man who has... More >>

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  Alexander Woo, a Playwright Who Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 'Idiot Box'

  published April 4, 2013

  Achieving an entirely plausible yet unorthodox version of "success" — at least for a playwright — Alexander Woo has settled... More >>

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  What Is Art Good For? Two Plays Answer the Question

  published April 4, 2013

  With the arts always the first programs to be budget-cut in school curricula, and with the cries of woe on editorial pages that we're not... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland

  published Mar 28, 2013

  Tracie Bennett knocked the socks off our critic Tom Provenzano with her impersonation of Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow at the Ahmanson, which he made this week's Pick of the Week. Also Bill Rade... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Psycho-Sexual Boxing Match

  published Mar 21, 2013

  Pycho-sexual spectacles got nods from our critics this week, including Illyrian Players' Lord Blackberry's Apocalypse and our Pick of the Week, Tender Napalm. Nice reviews also for Doma Theatre Compa... More >>

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  Donald Freed's Play Tomorrow Interlinks Macbeth, George W. Bush and a Theatrical Dynasty

  published March 21, 2013

  At the age of 80, Donald Freed is one of the oldest living American playwrights. A consequence of his age and his prolific output, Freed now... More >>

• Solemn Mockeries

  published March 7, 2013

  Richard Creese's new play about the Englishman William-Henry Ireland, having its world premiere in a production by Independent Shakespeare... More >>

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Unusual Look at Motherhood

  published Mar 14, 2013

  This week, our critics enjoyed composer and musical director Gregory Nabours' 90-minute musical The Trouble With Words (Coeurage Theatre Company at the Lost Studio) as well as a quartet of one-acts at... More >>

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  Nina Raine's Play Tribes Depicts a Family That Talks a Lot But Doesn't Listen

  published March 14, 2013

  Nina Raine's lovely play Tribes, now at the Mark Taper Forum, is likely to be done all over the place, having just the right blend of... More >>