Scott Paulin

L.A. Weekly Theater Awards 2013: The Nominees

See past recipients: *2012 *2011 (winners) *2011 (nominees) *2010 (winners) *2010 (nominees) *2009 (winners) *2009 (nominees) *2008 (winners) *2008 (nominees) Start looking for your postapocalyptic-chic attire. The 34th annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards, celebrating the best work on our smaller sta ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Mesmerizing Child's-Eye View of Grief, Walking the Tightrope

Child-like views delighted our critics this week, with Mike Kenney's Walking the Tightrope at the 24th Street Theatre taking Pick of the Week, and a nod to Albie Selznick's magic show Smoke and Mirrors at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood. There's also a recommendation for an adult comed ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Family Strife and Sexual Taboos in Machu Picchu, Texas

Family trauma drama Machu Picchu, Texas (pictured above) grabs our Pick of the Week this week. Good reviews also for Noel Coward's Fallen Angels at the Pasadena Playhouse and David Henry Hwang's Chinglish at South Coast Rep. For all New Theater Reviews, and this weekend's comprehensive listing ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Jane Kaczmarek in The Snake Can

Kathryn Graf's new comedy about women slipping into middle-age, The Snake Can, is this week's pick of the week. Also a nod for Cathy Rigby reprising her decades-long performance in Peter Pan. See below for all the latest New Theater Reviews, and this week's comprehensive stage listings. Also, two s ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground

Nods this week for Laguna Playhouse's production of Neil Simon's Chapter Two and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground at Zombie Joe's Underground in North Hollywood. For the latest new reviews and comprehensive stage listings, see below. Tanna Frederick and Robert Standley star in N. Richard Nash's T ... More >>

Emancipation Proclamations

Ingmar Bergman's Nora and two plays by Horton Foote at Open Fist Theatre present defiant women, in ways that feel almost nostalgic

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Pioneering Actress Hattie McDaniel

Our critic Lovell Estell was entranced by Vickilyn Reynolds' performance in a show based on the life of Hattie McDaniel, Hattie -- What I Need You To Know. For all the latest New Theater Reviews, and comprehensive stage listings, see below.This week's Stage Feature takes a look a three shows th ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Sherlock's Last Case

No new reviews this week, but these will return at the same time next week, as the new theater season gets underway. See below for complete listings of shows to see this week.In this week's stage feature, we asked our stable of critics what they most dread and anticipate when being assigned a s ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Japanese War Brides Musical Tea, With Music

A musical about World War II war brides, Tea, With Music, for which the author, Velina Hasu Houston, has added songs and music for this production, is our Pick of the Week. For all new theater reviews, see below. This week's stage fature looks a couple of plays aiming to be light fare: Micha ... More >>

Foote Notes

Stage Raw: Aaron Sorkin's First Stage Play

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS NEW THEATER REVIEWS Stage FEATURE on The Chinese Massacre and House of the Rising Son ​Maia MadisonAaron Sorkin's first stage play, Hidden in This Picture, is reviewed by Amy Nicholson; Neal Weaver was taken with the collection of theater-celeb-scribed gay-theme ... More >>

Stage Raw: Theatrification and Broadway 100

COMPREHENSVIE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Tim Crouch's The Author, and the Belarus Free Theatre L.A. WEEKLY THEATER AWARDS NOMINEESTHEATRIFICATION AND BROADWAY 100 ​Broadway and the Vaudeville circuit began in Los Angeles 100 years ago, in the downtown Historical Theater Di ... More >>

Stage Raw: Camino Real

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON THE BREAK OF NOON, AND CRACK WHORE GALORE -- LIVE!NEW PARTNERS ​CalArts teams up with the Theater @ Boston Court to present CAMINO REAL  (reviewed here on Tuesday) at the Pasadena theater. Photo by Ed Krieger. Another new pa ... More >>

Stage Raw: Furious Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse part ways

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON SPIDER-MAN, ON BROADWAYFURIOUS AND PASADENA PLAYHOUSE PART WAYSFor reasons having to do with Pasadena Playhouse's needs to lease its second space, The Carrie Hamilton Theater, and the need of Furious Theatre Company for a space with h ... More >>

Stage Raw: Shadow Anthropology

NEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON PUZZLER AND ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICALCOMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW REVIEW GO SHADOW ANTHROPOLOGY ​Photo by Nigel DookhooTen years after 9/11, the plight of rural Afghanis caught in the crossfire between American forces and the T ... More >>

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: 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 >>

Theater Reviews: Beyond, Priscilla's Perfect Day, Arcadia

Also, The Girl Who Would Be King, St. Nicholas, Oklahoma! and more

Stage Raw: Beyond

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE ON IN THE HEIGHTSNEW REVIEW GO BEYOND ​ Photo courtesy of El Portal Theatre This musical extravaganza, conceived and directed by Aurelien Roulin, is described as a cross between French cabaret and Cirque de Soleil, but ... More >>

Theater Reviews: The Mystery Plays, The Arsonists, There Is Truth, Love Is Real

Also, Richard & Felix: Twilight in Venice, The Drawer Boy and more

Stage Raw: The Mystery Plays

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTHIS WEEK'S STAGE FEATURE ON THE L.A. WEEKLY THEATER AWARDSNEW REVIEW GO THE MYSTERY PLAYS ​Photo by Dlugolecki Photography Though its title alludes to the Biblical pageants of Medieval Europe, playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's 2002 pair of sup ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Dirty Dancing, Ten to Life

Also, Ochre & Onyx: The Langston Hughes Project and more

Stage Raw: Ten to Life

Last week's NEW THEATER REVIEWS are embedded in the current COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS; also, see this week's THEATER FEATURE on Kevin King's The Idea ManTEN TO LIFE"Hacienda Heights" (from Ten to Life) Photo by Nic Cha KimNEW REVIEW GO TEN TO LIFE Leave logic at the door  and you'll get ... More >>

Stage Raw: Ivanov

IVANOV Ivanov Photo Credit: Thomas Aurin Berlin's Volksbühne presents its U.S. premiere of Chekhov's Ivanov at UCLA's Freud Playhouse tonight and Satruday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m. Click here for more information. FOURPLAY @ BOSTON COURT The Pasadena theater hosts readings of four new ... More >>

Stage Raw: Cocks of the Walk

COCKS OF THE WALK The same people who brought us Naked Boys Singing are at it again -- this time showing considerable more restraint with a musical revue subtly named Hangin' Out -- described as "a celebration of the human body . . . exploring different aspects of nudity in song and dance." Now ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Little Dog Laughed

>NEW REVIEW THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED As Gertrude Stein once put it (but not about this play), "It's almost about something, and then it's just not." Douglas Carter Beane's comedy brings with it the New York cast that put the play on the map, and secured Julie White a Tony for her role as a Holly ... More >>

Stage Raw: Lodestone Says Goodnight and Good Luck

Check back here Monday after noon for the upcoming weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS of The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane's comedy about being oneself in Hollywood and elsewhere, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Deborah Pryor's mystical Appalachian one-act The Love Talker at Son of Semele Ens ... More >>

Shock Therapy

Theater Reviews: Woyzeck, Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got the Will

Also, Kidnapped by Craigslist, and more

Stage Raw: Critic-O-Meter

CRITIC-O-METER In case you're wondering what Rob Kendt has been up to in New York City, since leaving his post as editor of Back Stage West, first look no further than his byline - now Rob Weinert-Kendt. That's what a wedding can do. He's also been having bowls of matzoh ball soup at the Polish ... More >>

Stage Raw: One Sucker's Lament

Woyzeck Photo by Andrew Rothenberg >NEW REVIEW THEATER PICK WOYZECK 19th Century German playwright Georg Büchner's an unfinished horror story of the common man crushed by military and medical machines, has been fodder for myriad adaptations throughout the last century, and there's no sign of ... More >>

Deep in the Heart of Texans

Horton Foote's lone stars shine bright

Harrison, Texas

Trip to Doubtful

Horton Foote’s sad elegy to life

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

Officers’ Mess

Sophocles goes to Baghdad

Letters