Charles Duncombe

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

This week, our critics enjoyed composer and musical director Gregory Nabours' 90-minute musical The Trouble With Words (Coeurage Theatre Company at the Unknown Theatre) as well as a quartet of one-acts at the Lillian under the collective title Unscreened. This week's Pick goes to Dorothy Fortenberry ... More >>

Caged

Tartuffe at Theatricum Botanicum: Anarchy Eluded

Miriam GeerAaron Hendry's "brilliantly realized Tartuffe" in a production that can't quite keep up with him.​Good notices this week for solo shows: John Paul Karliak homage to his two mothers, Donna/Madonna, at the Lounge in Hollywood; Guy Hollingworth's perf about card sharks, Expert at the Card ... More >>

We'll Do Our Own Damn Theater Panel: 'Uninvited' 99-Seat Theaters Rebel Against Radar L.A. and TCG

Stephen BirchPadua Playwrights' Guy Zimmerman makes a point​ The first jolt of Los Angeles' big summer of theater came to its convulsive close yesterday with the final curtain of the Radar L.A. festival and the wrap of downtown's TCG National Theater Conference. And even as the last of the vis ... More >>

The 32nd annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards

L.A. Theater in 2010

Thanks for the memories

Stage Raw: Rock With You

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS NEW THEATER REVIEW (see below)STAGE FEATURE on Cormac McCarthy's The Sunset LimitedNEW REVIEW GO  ROCK WITH YOU: THE KING OF POP, LATIN STYLE For those of us brought up to giggle at Michael Jackson's foibles, from his holding his son over a balcony by his arms t ... More >>

Paradise Park

Oh, Those Riotous Comedies

The Marriage of Figaro and The Playboy of the Western World

Flying Under the Radar: The Best of L.A. Theater in the '00s

Stage Raw: The Female of the Species

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTHIS WEEK'S STAGE FEATURE on Palestine, New MexicoFEMALE OF THE SPECIES The Geffen Playhouse just announced that Anette Bening will star in Joanna Murray-Smith's comedy, The Female of the Species along with David Arquette, Mirielle Enos, Merritt Weve ... More >>

Stage Raw: ZAR

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSTHEATER NEW REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on producer Sir Cameron MackintoshStage Raw: ZAR Theatre ZAR from Wroclaw, Poland has been in Southern California for over a week, conducting workshops of their choral-physical technique at UC Irvine and UCLA. Their Tryptich opens next w ... More >>

Stage Raw: Impacted Wednesday

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSTHEATER NEW REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Charles Duncombe's The Trojan Women and Julie Hebert's TreeIMPACTED WEDNESDAY​ Equivocation: Photo by Michael Lamont Three big openings on Wednesday: The  U.S. premiere of TR Warszawa's T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. (Polish director Grzego ... More >>

Stgage Raw: Maid in Los Angeles (Mary Poppins)

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSTHEATER NEW REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Charles Duncombe's The Trojan Women and Julie Hebert's TreeNEW REVIEW GO MARY POPPINS  ​Photo by Joan MarcusThe riveting theatricality of Bob Crowley's production design, climaxing in chimney sweep Bert (Gavin Lee) soft-shoeing ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Walworth Farce

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Charles Duncombe's The Trojan Women and Julie Hebert's TreeNEW REVIEW GO THE WALWORTH FARCE​Photo by Pavel AntonovModern Irish theater is filled with three things: people holding other people hostage, people making up crap, and play ... More >>

Rotten Families

Theater Reviews: Nibbler, Polyester the Musical, The Ghost Building

Stage Raw: The Browning Version

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Rachel Rosenthal at 83NEW REVIEW THEATER PICK THE BROWNING VERSION​Photo by Victor MartinsThough not as widely known or acclaimed as his contemporary British playwrights, Terence Rattigan was a superb dramatist and chronicler of hum ... More >>

Stage Raw: All Cake, No File

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Rachel Rosenthal at 83ALL CAKE, NO FILE ​Photo by Jonathan KalanDonna Jo Thorndale's Johnny Cash tribute with live cooking, All Cake, No File, continues this weekend as part of the WTF? Festival at the Actors' Gang/Ivy Substation in ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Treefall, One Woman, Two Lives, The Miser

Also, A Hatful of Rain, Franz Schubert: His Letters and Music and more

Stage Raw: The Miser

The latest NEW REVIEWS are embedded in this week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSAlso, this week's STAGE FEATURE on improvised musicalsNEW REVIEW PICK  THE MISER ​Photo by Miriam GeerDirector Ellen Geer delivers a hilarious and highly polished production of Moliere's  comedy. It's a fait ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Rehearsal

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, THIS COMING WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSAlso, this week's INTERVIEW with playwright Richard GreenbergTHE REHEARSAL is this week's Theater PickThe Rehearsal Photo by Craig SchwartzNEW REVIEW THEATER PICK In French dramatist Jean Anouilh's scintillating 1958 play, The Re ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Seafarer

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, THIS WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS  NEW REVIEW: THE SEAFARER at the Geffen PlayhouseJohn Mahoney and Andrew Connolly in The Seafarer Photo by Michael LamontNEW REVIEW GO THE SEAFARER If you're seeking innovation in the theater, look elsewhere. Conor McPherson's I ... More >>

Stage Raw: Stick Fly

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: THE WEEKEND'S NEW THEATER REVIEWS EMBEDDED WITHIN THIS COMING WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSand this week's THEATER FEATURE: an Off-Broadway roundupReviewed this week: the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair at South Coast Rep; the west coast ... More >>

The 30th Annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards

Actors and chickens and bears, oh, my!

Stage Raw: Land of the Tigers

CLICK HERE FOR COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSLAND OF THE TIGERS IS THIS WEEK'S PICKLand of the Tigers Photo by Jon Beauregard Noises OnCool Cats and Hot ActorsAct 1 of the Burglars of Hamm's hilarious and thought provoking comedy, Land of the Tigers, outlandishly crosses Cats with Planet of the Ape ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Photograph 51, Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara, Ghosts

Also, The School for Wives, Tragedy: A Tragedy and more

Stage Raw: Photograph 51

THE 30TH ANNUAL L.A. WEEKLY AWARDS, HOSTED BY JAKE BRODER AND VANESSA CLAIRE SMITH (OF LOUIS & KEELY: LIVE AT THE SAHARA) IS HAPPENING  AT THE EL REY ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, MONDAY NIGHT MARCH 30. DOORS OPEN AT 6:30 P.M.,  AND NO IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO RSVP OR BUY TICKETS.BRODER AND SMITH ... More >>

Stage Raw: Monsters and Prodigies

Reviewed this week: Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum; Jack Chandlers' new comedy-mystery, Murder on the Bounding Main, at Sierra Madre Playhouse; a dance-rock fusion, Vibrating Sun, at Unknown Theatre; Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble's staging fof Macbeth; Echo One-Act Festival at Stage 52; Furious Th ... More >>

The 30th Annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards

The Arts Crisis Edition

Stage Raw: L.A. Weekly Theater Awards Nominees

Light up the Sky is this week's Pick of the Week. Light up the Sky Photo by Maia Rosenfeld THEATER PICK Moss Hart's sharp, hard-boiled 1946 farce, Light up the Sky, is the quintessential backstage tale of the mid-20th century. His characters are often based on real people: fast-talking produ ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Biggest Thank You Ever Given

The Biggest Thank You Ever Given I'm thunderstruck and deeply moved by the outpouring and quality of your appreciations to me in your emails and in the comments to Friday's posting on the elimination of the L.A. Weekly's Theater Editor position. What a privilege: to read all that, to have served ... More >>

How the Hall Changes Spring Awakening and The Bourgeois Gentilhomme

Hot ice and Strange Snow

Theater Reviews: Eat the Runt, Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, Cute With Chris

Miss Witherspoon, The Bourgeois Gentilhomme and more

Bad Penny

Scott Ritter and The Mission (Accomplished)

Empire and its discontents

Theater Reviews

Heads, Invasion! The Musical, The Complications of Purchasing a Poodle Pillow and more

Theater Reviews

Including Sugar Plum Fairy, Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants and this week's pick, Mabou Mines Dollhouse

Mabou Mines Dollhouse and Weekend Theater Reviews

Including Sandra Tsing Loh's Sugar Plum Fairy, Sister Act and Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants

Theater Reviews

Including this week's picks The Car Plays, San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Second Annual Latino New Works Festival

Theater Reviews

Agamemnon

Patriotic Gore

When the world explodes

Company Town

How a big city became America’s small-theater mecca

Political Toys in the Attic

The Empire Builders takes City Garage up a step

Frederique the Great

Live Inaction Heroes

Wordplays about history and its atrocities

Grave New Worlds

When misogynists and robots take over

Heil! Heil! The Gang’s All Here

Theater’s hate crimes of the heart

The 20th Annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards