Theater

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

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

Why Be a Playwright in L.A.? 5 Writers Share their Reasons

The pay stinks. Hollywood is more glamorous (and pays more). And Broadway is 3,000 miles away. So why be a playwright in L.A.? That's the question posed by our theater issue this year, which comes out just in time for our theater awards on Monday. Check out Steven Leigh Morris' main story in the i ... More >>

The Nether, Jennifer Haley's New Play at Kirk Douglas Theatre, Takes Place in a Virtual Reality of Sexual Fantasies

The pay stinks. Hollywood is more glamorous (and pays more). And Broadway is 3,000 miles away. So why be a playwright in L.A.? That's the question posed by our theater issue this year, which comes out just in time for our theater awards on Monday. Check out Steven Leigh Morris' main story in the i ... More >>

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

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 Raden had good things to say about S.O.E. -- Jami Brandli's clever, three-character riff on the venerable ... More >>

A New Play About...LAUSD School Lunch?

Cornerstone Theatre Company does not believe in art for art's sake. Nor, for that matter, do they believe in merely putting on plays. At least not in the marbled-restroom, big-ticket-opulent sense of, say, the way the Taper puts on plays. Rather, Cornerstone believes in art as a means of social cha ... More >>

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

Cornerstone Theatre Company does not believe in art for art's sake. Nor, for that matter, do they believe in merely putting on plays. At least not in the marbled-restroom, big-ticket-opulent sense of, say, the way the Taper puts on plays. Rather, Cornerstone believes in art as a means of social cha ... More >>

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

Cornerstone Theatre Company does not believe in art for art's sake. Nor, for that matter, do they believe in merely putting on plays. At least not in the marbled-restroom, big-ticket-opulent sense of, say, the way the Taper puts on plays. Rather, Cornerstone believes in art as a means of social cha ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Prancing Horses on a Stage the Size of a Football Field

The Canadian troupe Cavalia wowed critic Lovell Estell III this week with its equestrian spectacle Cavalia's Odysseo. Good notices also for Diane Glancy's The Bird House at the Autry National Center, and for a revival of Carlos Murillo's Dark Play (or Story for Boys) at the Whitmore-Lindley The ... 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

L.A. Theater 2013: A Preview

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

Jon Robin Baitz's Play Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum, Reviewed

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 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 >>

Ovation Awards 2012: Center Theatre Group Leads L.A. Theater Prizes Announced Last Night

Center Theatre Group, which runs the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre downtown and the Kirk Dougas Theatre in Culver City, got lots of love at the 2012 Ovation Awards Monday night at downtown's Los Angeles Theatre. The company was awarded Best Season, while the Michael Arabian's staging of Wai ... More >>

A Look Inside Blackout, L.A.'s Most Extreme Haunted House

Imagine (1) somehow finding yourself among a group of apprehensive "fresh fish" being badgered and browbeaten by a brutal prison guard as he processes you through a penitentiary populated by Hannibal Lecter-esque psychotics and the lobotomized victims of grizzly, Mengele-like inmate experiments. Or ... More >>

How a Tiny L.A. Theater Succeeded by Focusing on Local Playwrights -- Leading to a New Stage Version of King Kong

Whether or not Los Angeles is a "theater town," it is certainly a town filled with theaters -- and actors. Small stages and itinerant acting companies are as ubiquitous here as car dealerships, and it's difficult to spit or pay a restaurant check without encountering another headshot-packing devotee ... More >>

Playwright Charles Mee Wants You to Steal From Him, Because He Will Steal From You

See also: *Our Latest Theater Reviews In Under Construction, a 2009 work by endlessly curious playwright Charles Mee, a character says, "If I understand something, I have no further use for it." Considering the world premiere of his latest play, Orestes 3.0: Inferno -- now playing at City Garage ... More >>

Mary Poppins, Moliere, 12 Angry Men and a Japanese Swordfight Play in This Week's New Theater Reviews

A bucket full of enthusiastic reviews this week, starting with the Pick of the Week, Sweet Thursday, Pacific Resident Theatre's stage adaptation of the novel by John Steinbeck. Also garnering good notices: Neo Ensemble Theatre's Epic Proportions, Moliere's The Fools at Santa Monica Playhouse, also i ... More >>

Radar L.A. Returns Next Year, Plus the Latest New Theater Reviews

Radar L.A., the festival of local and Pacific Rim performance troupes that performed last summer, has secured the funding to return to Los Angeles in September, 2013. This was confirmed by Olga Garay, Executive Director of L.A. city's Department of Cultural Affairs, and Diane Rodriguez, Director of ... More >>

How the Crossfit Homeless Photo Scandal Connects to Neil LaBute's Play in Hollywood

Earlier this month the L.A. Weekly broke a troubling story that starkly illustrates the growing chasm between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' in today's society. The article brought to light the callous actions of Ronnie Teasdale, owner of L.A.'s Crossfit Mean Streets gym, who plastered his gym's Fa ... More >>

Sex-Change Comedy (Missing Dick), in the Latest New Theater Reviews, Plus New Works Festivals Bustin' Out

REDCAT's annual New Original Works Festival opens this weekend with Poor Dog Group's The Murder Ballad; Opera Povera's To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation; and puppeteer Susan Simpson's, Exhibit A. For compete schedule visit redcat.orgNext week, the Ojai Playwri ... More >>

The New Electric Ballroom, House and Very Still and Hard to See

Three plays that favor genuine emotion, at Rogue Machine and the Production Company at the Lex

A String of GOs in This Week's New Theater Reviews, Plus a Best of Fringe Award

The third annual Hollywood Fringe festival is now history, and this L.A. Weekly best of award goes to Eric Davis' demonic Red Bastard. Also check out this week's stage feature on Theatricum Botanicum's production of Shaw's The Heartbreak House, and Guy Zimmerman's The Black Glass. Our critics were ... More >>

Why Clybourne Park Is Overrated

I have a dirty theater secret: I thought Clybourne Park was pretty good. As in merely pretty good. As opposed to the modern classic it's now perceived to be, after its premiere Off-Broadway brought it the Pulitzer Prize, followed by runs at the Mark Taper Forum, a hop to Broadway, and finally, on Su ... More >>

Fellowship!: the musical parody of Lord of the Rings Returns to the Steve Allen Theater, Plus the Latest New Theater Reviews

Bryan Harnetiaux's new play, Holding On -- Letting Go is difficult to watch for the way it captures the realistic agonies of a wife slowly losing her husband to liver cancer. It is nonetheless a tender drama, well rendered under James Reynold's direction at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasade ... More >>

Quiara Alegria Hudes wins 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Good People at the Geffen, and More New Reviews...

David Lindsay-Abaire's Tony-nominated play about class rifts in America, Good People, now playing at the Geffen, is this week's Pick of the Week, by Neal Weaver. Paul Birchall was also taken with Doug Knott's autobiographical solo show at the Asylum Lab Theatre, Last of the Knotts Find all the lates ... More >>

We Don't Need No Playwright: How Ensemble-Created Work Is Changing L.A. Theater

David Lindsay-Abaire's Tony-nominated play about class rifts in America, Good People, now playing at the Geffen, is this week's Pick of the Week, by Neal Weaver. Paul Birchall was also taken with Doug Knott's autobiographical solo show at the Asylum Lab Theatre, Last of the Knotts Find all the lates ... More >>

A Spider-Man That Doesn't Bite

David Lindsay-Abaire's Tony-nominated play about class rifts in America, Good People, now playing at the Geffen, is this week's Pick of the Week, by Neal Weaver. Paul Birchall was also taken with Doug Knott's autobiographical solo show at the Asylum Lab Theatre, Last of the Knotts Find all the lates ... More >>

L.A. Weekly Critic Steven Leigh Morris Gets Two-Book Deal to Write About L.A. Theater History, Chickens

​The Weekly's critic-at-large, Steven Leigh Morris, has landed a two-book publishing deal with New Hampshire-based Smith and Kraus Publishers. The first book -- working title Building Snowmen in the Desert -- is a three-year research project for a comprehensive history of Los Angeles theater. Thi ... More >>

Short Eyes, King of the Desert, The Lonesome West, and more New Stage Reviews . . .

​Miguel Pinero's 1970s prison play Short Eyes nabs this week's Pick of the Week.​ Good notices also for Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West at Santa Monica's Ruskin Theatre Group; Rene Rivera's King of the Desert at Casa 0101 in East L.A.; and Molly Smith Metzer's new play, Elemeno Pea at South ... More >>

Helen Hunt in Our Town at the Broad Stage

​Miguel Pinero's 1970s prison play Short Eyes nabs this week's Pick of the Week.​ Good notices also for Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West at Santa Monica's Ruskin Theatre Group; Rene Rivera's King of the Desert at Casa 0101 in East L.A.; and Molly Smith Metzer's new play, Elemeno Pea at South ... More >>

Top 10 Plays We Want to See in 2012

The venerable "best bets for the new year" critic's post always carries with it the uncertain odor of the racetrack tout. Even the seeming sure things -- the NYC-anointed, blue-chip transfers of Broadway hits -- are too often diminished by dispiriting changes in the cast or production design that ca ... More >>

Seminar, Maple and Vine and The Mountaintop in New York

The venerable "best bets for the new year" critic's post always carries with it the uncertain odor of the racetrack tout. Even the seeming sure things -- the NYC-anointed, blue-chip transfers of Broadway hits -- are too often diminished by dispiriting changes in the cast or production design that ca ... More >>

Stephen Sondheim's New Book Look, I Made a Hat Unloads on Theater Critics With Both Barrels. Here's Where He's Wrong

​ If you thought the week's top story had anything to do with mass protests on the streets of Cairo or the collapse of the deficit-reduction "super committee" in the halls of Congress, consider yourselves members of that misguided majority who inhabit what has wryly been called "the real world ... More >>

Gregory Moss' House of Gold

Ionesco Meets JonBenet Ramsay

Ovation Awards

What do all the glittering prizes mean?

Gil Cates dies at 77

Craig SchwartzA Noise Within cuts open a new path in Pasadena​GIL CATES DIES: The Geffen Playhouse's artistic director, and Academy Awards producer, was found in a UCLA parking lot Monday night, having died of natural causes. More on this story to come. A Noise Within opened it's new Pasadena digs ... More >>

Reviews of A Widow of No Importance; The Vault: Unlocked; The Stories of Isaac Leib Peretz; and more . . .

Hector Cruz Salvador"The Vault: Unlocked"​"The gentrification of downtown Los Angeles is a sinister metamorphosis engineered by spoiled hipsters and well-heeled land grabbers in this whodunit parody by the Latino Theatre Company," writes Amy Lyons about The Vault: Unlocked, at Los Angeles Theatre ... More >>

For the Record: The Coen Bros.: a Cabaret Show About Big Lebowski Filmmakers, and Other Reviews

​Anti-Semitic graffiti found on a market wall in central Houston last month is just one symptom of why The Merchant of Venice belongs on our shores. The Porters of Hellgate have their version running at the Whitmore Theatre in North Hollywood. See Theater feature on Wednesday​Capsule reviews of ... More >>

D. Tucker Smith's Quake

​Anti-Semitic graffiti found on a market wall in central Houston last month is just one symptom of why The Merchant of Venice belongs on our shores. The Porters of Hellgate have their version running at the Whitmore Theatre in North Hollywood. See Theater feature on Wednesday​Capsule reviews of ... More >>

Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy

​Anti-Semitic graffiti found on a market wall in central Houston last month is just one symptom of why The Merchant of Venice belongs on our shores. The Porters of Hellgate have their version running at the Whitmore Theatre in North Hollywood. See Theater feature on Wednesday​Capsule reviews of ... More >>

Stage Raw: Othello

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS (after the jump) NEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Merry Wives of Windsor in Topanga Canyon and Griffith ParkBrian HelmOthello​On a care-free, car-free Carmageddon weekend, all of our critics got to their shows. Among the favorites, Lovell Estell III's warm apprai ... More >>

Stage Raw: D is for Dog

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Gregg Ostrin's KowalskiKris BicknellD is for Dog​This week, Deborah Klugman was smitten with Kate Polebaum's new play about 1950 suburbia gone awry, D is for Dog. Also, weekly critics filed strong reviews this week for As You Like ... More >>

Gregg Ostrin's Kowalski

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Gregg Ostrin's KowalskiKris BicknellD is for Dog​This week, Deborah Klugman was smitten with Kate Polebaum's new play about 1950 suburbia gone awry, D is for Dog. Also, weekly critics filed strong reviews this week for As You Like ... More >>

Stage Raw: Posting Delayed

COMPLETE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Radar L.A.With apologies for the delay, This week's NEW THEATER REVIEWS will be posted tonight.

Stage Raw: Bash'd

NEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Radar L.A.Sean LambertBash'd, A Gay Rap Opera​A string of recommends comes with this week's theater reviews: Bash'd, A Gay Rap Opera at Celebration Theatre, Blackbird at Rogue Machine, Blood Wedding at the Odyssey, Broadsword at the Back Dahlia, Closet Land at ... 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 >>

Stage Raw: It's Official, Rada to replace Dillingham at CTG

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWS   Stage FEATURE on Rajiv Joseph's The Monster at the Door Craig SchwartzEdward L. Rada to replace Charles Dillingham at CTG​An unconfirmed tip reported to the Weekly a couple of weeks ago that Edward L. Rada would be taking over the reti ... More >>

Theater Reviews

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWS   Stage FEATURE on Rajiv Joseph's The Monster at the Door Craig SchwartzEdward L. Rada to replace Charles Dillingham at CTG​An unconfirmed tip reported to the Weekly a couple of weeks ago that Edward L. Rada would be taking over the reti ... More >>

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 >>