Blogcritics

Theater Review (LA): Julie Andrews: The Gift Of Music with Julie Andrews at The Hollywood Bowl

Robert Machray — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:44:49 EDT

A musical version of Julie Andrews' "Simeon's Gift" plus a Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute.
The lights dim, and on the screen at the Hollywood Bowl we see pictures of Julie Andrews at different stages of her life: at her childhood home in England, her first appearance in America at the ripe age of nineteen, her appearances in the stage versions of My Fair Lady and Camelot, and the finally her iconic performance in the movie of The Sound...

Theatre Review (Stratford-upon-Avon, UK): The Merchant of Venice

Nigel Simons — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:44:12 EDT

How do you solve a problem like Shylock? Has Tim Carroll's production ripped the heart from Shakespeare's problem play?
How do you solve a problem like Shylock? The process of aging has had differing effects on Shakespeare’s plays in modern performance. In the case of The Merchant of Venice, age has added much body, and history a deep maturity, leaving a work of immense potency, a rich complex drama that asks as much of the audience as it does of the...

Theatre Review (LA): Zastrozzi by George F. Walker at the NoHo Arts Center

Robert Machray — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:32:40 EDT

A criminal mastermind, a virgin, a vamp, and a religious fanatic, brought to you by a Canadian playwright.
The NoHo Arts Center has come up with a real winner with its newest endeavor, Canadian playwright George F. Walker’s Zastrozzi: Master Of Discipline. A gothic tale told in a film noir style, it's based on a novel by Percy Shelly, so you know it’s a bit twisted. It’s a mystery, a murder drama, a morality tale, and a...

Theater Review (LA): American Tales by Jan Powell and Ken Stone for The Antaeus Theatre Company at Deaf West Theatre

Robert Machray — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:34:22 EDT

Mark Twain and Herman Melville, set to music, make for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
The Antaeus Company is as fine a group of actors as you will find anywhere in Los Angeles. Every year about this time they put on their Classics Fest, presenting works in progress from a as far back as fourteen years (Troilus and Cressida) to a fully staged piece that was especially written for Antaeus, American Tales. The latter is a musical based...

Theater Review (LA): Desert Sunrise by Misha Shulman at the Lillian Theatre

Robert Machray — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:45:47 EDT

West Bank combatants meet in a moving, tragic-comic play written by an Israeli Army veteran.
If you have ever been in the desert you might have seen a beautiful sky at sunrise. A beautiful, award-winning play by the name of Desert Sunrise recently opened at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood, where it is given a first-rate production with three powerful and moving performances. The story concerns a chance meeting between a Palestinian...

Theater Review (LA) : The Voice Of The Prairie by John Olive at the Colony Theatre

Robert Machray — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:13:12 EDT

A tale of the early days of radio, broadcast from the American Prairie.
The Colony Theatre in Burbank is presenting a great yarn about the first days of radio in the USA. It's called The Voice of The Prairie, by John Olive, and it’s a humdinger, especially if you're a history buff and/or love excellent acting. The story concerns Davey Quinn, who has a special ability to tell stories about his life. A...

Theater Review (NYC): The Strangerer by Mickie Maher

Ethan Stanislawski — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:03:35 EDT

A fine existential play comes to New York, and will either baffle its audience to catharsis or bore it to sleep.
The Strangerer is a 90-minute attempt to murder Jim Lehrer that goes nowhere. The premise of a theater-loving, existential hero Bush is absurd, and the format of reinterpreting the first 2004 Presidential Debate only adds to the absurdity. What is the point of committing such a pointless, arbitrary act for the purposes of theater? The point, my...

Theater Review (LA): The Wizard of Oz at The Carpenter Center

Robert Machray — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:34:42 EDT

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My.
It was with great trepidation that I journeyed down to Long Beach to see a stage version of that beloved classic movie The Wizard of Oz, which starred Judy Garland with help from Ray Bolger, Burt Lahr, Billie Burke, Jack Haley, Frank Morgan, Margaret Hamilton, and of course those Munchkins. Though not highly successful at the time, the movie has...

Theater Review (NYC): Bouffon Glass Menajoree

Jon Sobel — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:22:48 EDT

This parody of the Tennessee Williams classic is grotesque in the original and best sense of the word.
Just as there are all sorts of dramatic traditions, from Elizabethan to operatic to Noh, so are there multiple styles of clowning. One that we hear relatively little about, despite its continued presence in popular culture (from the early films of John Waters, for example, and Cirque du Soleil), is the French bouffon tradition. This began, so it is...

Theater Review (LA): Looped by Mathew Lombardo at the Pasadena Playhouse

Robert Machray — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:26:20 EDT

Valerie Harper triumphs as Tallulah Bankhead.
Three seasons ago, LA was treated to a one-woman show about Katherine Hepburn called Tea At Five. Mathew Lombardo was the playwright and Pasadena Playhouse the venue. The last thing you would think Lombardo would want to do is try to top himself by writing another play about a theatrical icon. But that's what he's done. Having heard of a...