Jean-Paul Sartre

Susan Rubin's New Play eve2 Is Like Eden Meets The X-Files

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Ionesco Vaudeville Musical

This week in L.A. theater, Ionescopade, the vaudeville musical based on Eugene Ionesco's plays, was our pick of the week, while Alcestis at the Boston Court also got a "Go." All new theater reviews are below. As Steven Leigh Morris is on vacation this week, our stage feature is a piece on L.A.'s bo ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Watson and Holmes, Together Again

This week in L.A. theater, Jamie Robledo's Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini was our pick of the week, while ModRock at the El Portal also got a "Go." All new theater reviews are below. Our stage feature is an interview with Val Kilmer about his new Mark Twain solo show at the Kirk Douglas T ... More >>

Theatre to See in L.A. This Week, Including Broadway's Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson

Kander & Ebb's musical The Scottsboro Boys, a Broadway-import minstrel show about Jim Crow, rolled into the Ahmanson and grabbed this week's pick. Good notices also for Zayd Dohrn's immigration saga Long Way Go Down at the Art of Acting Studio, and for the silly Aussie import Priscilla Queen of ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Richard III In Overdrive

Zombie Joe's Underground and director Denise Devin turn Shakespeare's Richard III into an enthralling one-hour redux, says critic Jenny Lower. The production is this week's pick of the week. For all the latest new theater reviews, and comprehensive theater listings, see below. Beauty to be found in ... More >>

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

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. Christopher Shinn's drama Dying City, about a family in the wake of the Iraq War, being performed a ... More >>

The Crucible

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

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 Village Theatre, to be a model of stagecraft and emotional to watch. For all the lastest new theater ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week

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 in Actors' Co-op's revival of The Miracle Worker. See below for all the latest new theater reviews. ... More >>

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

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 Hadley and the LMR troupe for their talent, and thanks for all the kind missives from people who had ... More >>

Art Shay, Legendary Celebrity Photographer, Talks About the Crazy Tricks He Used When Taking Photos of Famous People

Art Shay has been a troublemaker ever since he moved from the Bronx to San Francisco to become Life magazine's youngest bureau chief at 26. "That was recently," he jokes, "in 1948." On election day of that year, then-California governor and Republican candidate for vice president Earl Warren was po ... More >>

10 People Making L.A. a Better Place

From to a 70-year-old woman teaching others how to use medical marijuana to a man dedicated to saving the sea lions, these Angelenos prove that do-goodery can be vastly more interesting, creative, and fulfilling than writing a monthly charity check or two. Check out our entire People 2012 issue her ... More >>

Varun Soni: The Real Spirit of Troy

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. When he was named dean of religious life at USC, Varun Soni became the first Hindu in American history to serve such a role. Even today, four years later, he's the only non-Chr ... More >>

Shoah

Stage Raw: Brewsie & Willie

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON LINDA PURL'S FESTIVALBREWSIE AND WILLIE ​Poor Dog Group's adaptation of Gertrude Stein's novella, is among the productions being reviewed this week. Photo by Scott Grolier Check back here on Monday night for reviews of THE BAKER'S ... More >>

Stage Raw: Unknown Future, Theater on Seward Closes Its Doors

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Lieutenant of Inishmore and A Tale Told by an IdiotAN UNKNOWN FUTURE: Theater on Seward Closes its Doors John Fleck performs tonight (Thursday), 8 p.m. with his sardonic one-man comedy about Trader Joe's (and points beyond), Side E ... More >>

Stage Raw: Pasadena Playhouse Emerges from Bankruptcy

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE on KING LEARCAPTURED AURAL PHANTASY THEATER ​CAPT presents a special event tonight (Friday) night, Hooray for Hollywood Extravaganza, celebrating the legends of Our Fair City, In a style mixing radio and vaudeville. The Galler ... More >>

Stage Raw: Wuthering "Heights"

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE ON THE HOLLYWOOD FRINGEWUTHERING "HEIGHTS"​Lin-Manuel Miranda stars in his own Broadway hit, In The Heights, now at the Pantages. Photo by Joan Marcus "Wuthering" actually means windy not withering. Though the former is preval ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Leiris Picasso, A Memory of What Might Have Been, The Jesus Hickey

Also, The Importance of Being Earnest, Grace and Glorie and more

Leiris/Picasso

Stage Raw: A Memory of What Might Have Been

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCurrent STAGE FEATURE on Anton Chekhov's 150th Birthday BashNEW REVIEW GO  A MEMORY OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ​ Photo courtesy of Zombie Joe's Underground George Bernard Shaw wrote that "men and women are made by their own fancies in the image ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Other Festivals

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCurrent STAGE FEATURE on Anton Chekhov's 150th Birthday BashTHE OTHER FESTIVALS Running concurrently with the Hollywood Fringe (June 17-27) is Arts Olympus (June 17-20) on board the Queen Mary in Long Beach. AO includes a contemporary Russian exhib ... More >>

Theater Reviews: It Ain't All Confetti, Tracers, Road to Saigon

Also, Crimes of the Heart, The Maids, Skylight and more

Stage Raw: Lease Subsidy Program Gets Another Lease

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT FEATURE ON BORN TO BE ALIVE and THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACELEASE SUBSIDY PROGRAM GETS ANOTHER LEASE A recommendation by L.A.'s Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana to restructure (eliminate) the city's Lease Subsidy Program for non- ... More >>

Stage Raw: Tracers

COMPREHENSIVE THEATRE LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT FEATURE ON AUDIENCESNEW REVIEW GO TRACERS ​ Photo courtesy of the Loft Ensemble Thirty years after its Los Angeles debut, writer John DiFusco's anti-war drama retains its relevance and power. Written collaboratively in the 1970s by DiFu ... More >>

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Rachel Rosenthal: 83 and Still Swearing

... rats and all

Being Jewish in France: MOTs meet friend and foe in history-minded doc

No Exit

Theater Reviews: Personality Crisis, No Exit, Klub

Also, Coffee Will Make You Black, and more

Theater Reviews

No cartooning today

All three of these bear the date 11/25/84.  I remember some details of the day.  I was a freshman art student at Rutgers University and had just gotten the thick black frame glasses, modeled more on Arthur Miller and Jean Paul Sartre than Woody Allen, that I still wear today.  It was ... More >>

De Tocqueville, Part Deux

Bernard-Henri Lévy on American sex, American religion and American Vertigo

L’Étranger in a Strange Land

Michel Houellebecq’s Weekend in L.A.

Half-Drunk With Arnold

Gary Indiana’s political rant seethes with paranoia, illogic and, yes, contempt for us all

Hollywood Satiricon

Bruce Wagner infects his novels with madness, celebrity, name-dropping, drugs and sex. And that's just the realism.

Lush Life

Bukowski in and out of his cups

Monsieur Lévy’s Working Holiday

The anti-anti-American French philosopher survives the New York press

The Three Faces of Ivan

Meet the trinity of filmmakers behind the Tolstoy adaptation that’s making Hollywood crazy

Good Work

The director of Time Out, Laurent Cantet

J’Accuse!

Michel Houellebecq sticks it to the class of ’68

Existential Funk

A summer guide to solipsistic Sartre rock

Original Jamsters

No-dress-code jazz releases

A Day in the Life