Well once again you have the opportunity of experiencing one of the true treats of L.A. Sunday, May 22 – Forever

If you follow economic or political news at all, you know there has been a lot of discussion about our

The Boundless Artists Theatre Company has presented Fringe audiences with a production of the fairy tale The Little Mermaid, which

The Bravest Show of the Summer goes to: The Honorable Woman. Series creator Hugo Blick's masterful eye created a world of

By Ernest Kearney  —  Cooper Bates’ one-man show, Black When I Was a Boy is a truly heartfelt tale of

By Ernest Kearney  — The Fountain Theatre's production of  "Runaway Home" by playwright Jeremy J. Kamps, is a cannonade of

Cyanne McClairian’s one woman show, I Died

I'm a huge fan of The Voice, let me say that to begin. The elements of the blind auditions that

The Coeurage Theatre Company has a mission statement, startling in both brevity and boldness: “…to make impassioned theatre accessible for

Coming Soon!!

By Ernest Kearney — Premise-wise "Small Mouth Sounds," by Playwright Bess Wohl, has a lot of potential. The highly touted

The year 2015 is slipping away into history, and more importantly into memory. We are oblivious to the value of memory

In "Andy: The Red-Nosed Warhola," director/adapter Ezra Buzzington has crafted a swift, stylish and oh so entertaining rendering of the

For the Hollywood Fringe 2016, I employ a rating scale that should be familiar to my readers. For newcomers, I've inserted

Flamenco is exceptional. Nowhere is grace found infused with such power, nor the sorrow and the joy of the human condition expressed

“Clip Show” A clip show is primarily a creature inhabiting the realm of television. Basically it denotes a particular episode, sometimes called

By Ernest Kearney  —  Ain’t That America offers a truly unique viewpoint on a segment of our country that has

Friday, June 5 we will discover what it means to be "reborn" as a "Sensate." That's the day Netflix unveils

"Herpes: A Love Story," a show about the scourge of the sexual revolution, provides creator/performer Cherise Pascual with the opportunity

By Ernest Kearney  —  As I’ve been proclaiming for as long as I’ve been reviewing theatre in L.A., the hottest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4 So Leslie Gore is crying because someone messed with her party? She’s clearly not a 2016 Republican. The sound you hear out

The Hollywood Fringe Festival's Week One Diary—Part III is all about the Bard who is nicely represented this year with a

In the words of an FTWD character: “When civilization ends, it ends fast.” That’s Right. I love The Walking Dead. The discovery that I

Looking for the “Big Bang” — that spark which initiated what would become America’s if not the World’s interest in comics

Deaf West Theatre has produced some of the best theatre to come out of Los Angeles.

Even the best magicians never actually do magic—they give you a believable illusion that they are performing the impossible. Mostly,

By Ernest Kearney — Actor, Playwright, Joshua Thomas was last at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2014 with

Four Chords and a Gun at the Bootleg Theater, which relates the stories of when The Ramones worked with Phil

In "The Girl who Jumped off the Hollywood Sign" written and performed by Joanne Hartstone, under the direction of Vince

Walking Dead, Season Five

Arya now: "She could feel the hole inside her every morning when she woke. It wasn't hunger, though sometimes, there was

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 14. 2016) — Members of L.A.’s “PRO-99” theater community continue to gather signatures to demand a new

by Ernest Kearney — Forough Farrokhzad was the subject of Sussan Deyhim’s The House is Black which I recently reviewed

With hardly an exception the American Experience historical programs are gems. That the dumb heads in congress have succeeded in

by Darwyn Carson — Monopoly, I would wager, was always one of the first go-to games of choice amongst friends

By Ernest Kearney —  The story of Jim Jones­ has material enough for any ten dramatists. In the production "White

Irish playwright Martin McDonagh speaks fluent Grand Guinol, but speaks it with the lilt of Galway. The importance of this has

Wait, don’t put away the Christmas decorations just yet. I’ve got one more present for you—and you’re gonna to hate

"Stringmates" by Amanda Noriko Newman takes its core concept from the Asian legend of the “Red String of Fate,” the

These days, every comedian and commentator seems to be paraphrasing Bette Davis in All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts,

Well Hello Dolly! Without even needing a warm-up band or an opening act, the music starts, the lights come

Going into South Coast Repertory’s production of adapter/director David Catlin’s Moby Dick, based on the novel by Herman Melville, I

by Ernest Kearney  —  Imagine if Donald Trump was president for life, that all the TV stations were operated by

With the return of Sherlock premiering on New Year’s Day, this past week, BBC Worldwide and Fathom Events will present

The Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) the Los Angeles-based repertoire dance ensemble will perform in a joyous evening of dance,

It amazes me what a higgledy-piggledy of sources have served as inspiration for musicals. Little Shops of Horror, Cats, Sunset Boulevard

There are a number of events and venues here in L.A. which I maintain are under appreciated. I’m talking about

(Now please, if you can’t make it through this rather long winded harangue of homage, simply scroll to the end

By Ernest Kearney  —  There is a great deal of love and passion that has gone into Shannon Penrod’s one

Summary: Streaming detective show Bosch, based on the long-running (17 and counting) popular series by author, Michael Connelly, doesn’t stray

"My Janis," at The New Collective during Fringe 2017, is not actually a play. It is a moment

Photo above is from Creative Commons: “hacker army 2.0” by Rodrigo Paoletti is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The American election season never ends with the election. Not anymore. Nailing the president-elect for reneging on his second-biggest campaign promise

I can’t tell if Donald Trump is brilliant or an idiot—and maybe he’s both. On Monday, August 8th, he trotted

No, not that race card. But some candidate will play it before the election. Promise. I mean the horse race card.

by Ernest Kearney  —  I do have a soft spot for weird sci-fi flicks - The History of Future Folk

The Hollywood Fringe Festival is a premier example of a thriving Los Angelean creative arts scene. Modeled after the famed Edinburgh

By Ernest Kearney — "An Odyssey" by Patrick Denney is a solid piece of writing that is well-directed

The 2014 Pulitzer prize-winning drama, “Water by the Spoonful,” at the Mark Taper Forum through March 11, is Act II

A life lacking passion is paralysis. The particular focus of that passion counts for beans. Take your pick: Video Games, Persian rugs,

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend Come inside! Come inside! There behind the

The Chromolume Theatre at The Attic has been the site of some stunning successes, and while their current production of

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Uncivil Correctness: Joan Rivers, Abbie Hoffman, Bin Laden," apparently, began as a class project and, unfortunately,

By Ernest Kearney - "House of Tales" is bursting with concepts and ideas to the point of avalanching the audience

In its quintessence, theatre is the bonding of poetry and dance. That is oft forgotten in this age of directors as

by Darwyn Carson  —  With an eye and a heart dedicated to cohesive connection and support of local theatre, Better

Can the lightening in the bottle that was the essence of the limited special event of True Detective, Season 1

by Ernest Kearney — The world premiere of "Jackie Unveiled" by award-winning playwright Tom Dugan has been extended at the

Round One has begun, a first clang! in the bruising prize fight that Donald Trump’s presidency threatens to become. It’s

Whether you view the later works of Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett as avant-grade, Theatre of the Absurd, tragicomic

Well we’re off to the races, Hollywood Fringe 2016 has opened, and here is the first handful of reviews for

By Ernest Kearney  —  From the very start of the preshow it was evident that the cast of "Mackers!" was

There are more individuals whose talents deserve some Note of Distinction this year, and we, at TheTVolution wish the privilege

Recorded in Hollywood has been extended. What's this, you say

Talk about being overly optimistic. My previous TheTVolution post seems positively Pollyanna-ish. The headline read: "The Voice Finally Acknowledges Songwriters."

By Steve Schlich  —  Admit it: you’ve clicked on the link “How the Right Lost Its Mind” and read with anxious

By Ernest Kearney — In "Jocasta A Motherf**king Tragedy," Brian Weir and the Ghost Road Theatre Company have

In Part I, we celebrated two dazzling effects of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s landmark musical Hamilton: with his theatrical retelling of our

It was rather fitting that on the night of the first presidential debate I found myself sitting in the audience,

Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts is a stunningly sincere and heartfelt drama that is sure to move any audience. That may

Say it ain’t so

The Hollywood Fringe Festival 2015: Final Tallies & Reviews HOUSE OF RABBITS CHARIVARI IN VOYEURVILLE (Platinum Medal) House of Rabbits Charivari in

By Ernest Kearney  —  David Lucarelli’s "Doctor Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror" is straight forward fun.  As directed by Kevin

I've turned so many people on to this show and have never heard any regrets. The best is my brother

Good news here. Acorn Media Group, the first company to provide live streaming of the best in classic and contemporary

By Ernest Kearney  —  In these turbulent and twisting times that find so many bewildered and baffled, suckered punched by

This production has it all. 'Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities' is running now through March 26 at Lone Star

Some of the most jaw dropping, chill raising, and yes tear inducing, imagery ever shot makes up BBC America’s prequel

The tunes in "Save Me a Spot" were both charming and moving, and wisely limited to ten in number.

by Ernest Kearney  — The origins of Taiko drumming in Japan is lost in that vast attic called history, but

THE GOLD MEDALS: ANNABELLA BOOZE, BALLS AND BLUEGRASS THE DEVIL YOU SAY RESERVE CHAMPION REVOLUTIONARY LOVE THE THREE MUSKETEERERS: CLOWNS WITH SWORDS THE BRONZE MEDALS: FIFTY SHADES OF

By Earnest Kearney  —  I Can Hear You Now, performed and written by Mitchell Bisschop and directed by Daniel De

I must admit an admiration for Tricia Aurand’s undertaking in "Nicaea." Not only does she present an historical tale, but

When the bar is set as high as writer/director David Hare and thespian extraordinaire Bill Nighy (yes, I am biased)

Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop won the 2010 British Olivier Award for Best New Play. In 2011 it opened in New York

What strikes one—when inspecting television’s hugest failures—is the large percentage of those which are remakes and retooling’s. Now with the right

The Goodwill store outlets are a treasure trove for the adventurous DVD hunter. After extended practice I can breeze through the

In the hands of the right actors "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," by playwrights Adam Long, Daniel Singer and

The Hollywood Fringe Festival 2015 has drawn to a close. The following is the Medal Tally for the 57 Shows I attended: 13

Welcome to Springtime TV Madness: Sarah Manning faces off against manic Castor Clone Rudy (Ari Millen) aka "Scarface." Watch "The Weight of this

Not much delivers more joy than the reup of a favorite TV show. Case in point: The third season of

"Monsters, John! Monsters from the Id!" That's the warning delivered by a dying Warren Stevens to Captain Leslie Nielson just before

We just elected a man with zero experience in government, primarily because he has no experience. That’s especially scary considering

by Ernest Kearney — Playwright Henry David Hwang has joined the ranks of an exclusive group. James Thurber the humorist best

Thank goodness, we’re almost through the lull in Hamilton news. After the multi-week coverage of its record number of Tony

I love Shakespeare. Straight up. If I could cook him down I'd probably be mainlining the Bard. Any Shakespeare junkie has a

The bed is our most formidable arena. And two people in bed alone are never really by themselves. Bed by Sheila Callaghan,

Our culture shoots black men. Kills them. And our culture acquits their killers—if they are the police. This headline grabbed

If you're not excited about the return of Matthew Rhys on The Americans tonight on FX, then you haven't been watching.

By Ernest Kearney — Writer/Performer Kathryn Taylor Smith has accomplished something remarkable with her one woman show "A

THE GOLD MEDALS: ANNA IN THE DARKNESS LA LA LA STRADA NELL GWYNNE – A DRAMATICK ESSAYE ON ACTING AND PROSTITUTION SHAKESPEARE'S LAST NIGHT

Heck

Let’s say you’re a hotshot movie producer and I’m this schlub of a writer who thinks he’s bringing the next

By Ernest Kearney  —  Set in the Florida Keys during a raging hurricane "Spaceman," by Writer/Director Melissa Vitello, plays like

There's a lot of hot to the touch TV to watch these days. Only a few shows on the buzzed

Terrifying in some circles, hotly desired in others: the party divided by a populist revolution and defeated by an electorate

1897. The Glorious Century, a period of unprecedented peace across all Europe was at a close. As that gilded, moribund age

by Ernest Kearney — Klaus Kinski (1926-1991) was celebrated for his talent and disparaged for the madness that served as

By Steve Schlich — Above: #PlaidShirtGuy mocks Trump at a Montana rally. He (and friends) were eventually shooed off-camera, but

You’re in Los Angeles and looking for the perfect space to mount your production. Available for your play, meeting, workshop or

Forever Flamenco is back at the Fountain Theatre, which is cause for celebration. I am a self admitted aficionado, whose been

By Ernest Kearney  —  In 1944 The Glass Menagerie established its young playwright, Tennessee Williams as a major new talent

Well Hollywood Fringe 2016 has come to a close and with it comes the last of the Round Ups

The main stage for How to Get Away With Murder is a university lecture hall full of bright, eager, first-year,

Actually, “muttered” does no justice to the chanting and booing that echoed like city noise down an abandoned alleyway as

What: BBC America’s Psychological Detective Thriller— One Night, Three Hour Movie Event TVolution Quick Take Summary: We thought we’d seen the

John Farmanesh-Bocca has in the past impressed me. Now he’s pissed me off. Though, I am still impressed. A number of years back

By Ernest Kearney  —  Like little boys with their toy soldiers, so, too, are little girls with their dolls: They

It's been nearly two years since The Reichenbach Fall and the deadly confrontation between Sherlock and his psycho-nemesis Moriarty, wherein

Wendy Graf has written an intelligent, craftsman work about an idealistic All American Girl seeking to convey her love of

The TVolution Hollywood Fringe Festival Awards Coming Soon!

Pete Docter began Inside Out with a seedling of an idea, after he noticed the transition that his adolescent daughter

Take a sneak peak at my experience on the red carpet for the Los Angeles, California movie premiere of The

By Ernest Kearney  —  The Bitch is Back: An Elton John Cabaret is exactly that, no more no less.  Director

Surprise. You don't have to be a zombie movie lover to enjoy the three part mini-series premiering tonight on BBC

By Ernest Kearney — The Silence of the Lambs, the 1991 thriller directed by Jonathan Demme—based on the Thomas Harris

Ana Lily Amirpour's intelligent and superbly crafted film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is definitely a world view

This long runnng Brit series, which has been refreshed, all to the good, several times over is available for viewing

The Clone's world has expanded

What does this all mean? A flashy, vulgar celebrity/businessman runs for public office with no prior experience except having run a

Check out this "Game of Thrones" location video focusing on Iceland and Spain; just luscious

A friend of mine, (one who knows I’ve just finished a year long project of re-reading the Bible—for the fifth

Who wouldn't be excited to see what the producing team, who gifted viewers with the much lauded Entourage, has in

Post-debate note: The political wind seemed to change at the second debate. So--praise cheeses!--this may be the last Trump-centric column. He’s

by Darwyn Carson — Time to Gird Your Loins everybody. If you haven't refreshed your memory yet, there's plenty of

The Leftovers jumps deep into a mass of angst gurgling inside nearly everyone 'left' untouched after what may have been

Theatre Unleashed, who has employed a sense of intelligence and willingness to push the envelope over the ensuing years,

TheTvolution.com Award Tallies for mid run of the Hollywood Fringe Festival ‘18 (HHF18): We rank all the shows we attend

It opens with a real-life catastrophic event: a meteor the size of a small house hits a small town in

On the hunt for a different sort of dark-doing this Halloween? Look no further than the Echo Theater Company’s production

By Ernest Kearney — The other night my lovely wife Marlene and I were out walking with a couple of

...Not even close. Primaries are the tribal councils of this metaphorical Survivor season. That’s because opinion polls and voting are not the same

I haven’t teased you with a Survivor metaphor in months. Well, the last time someone got voted off the island was in

The last time the Tap Overload Company came to the Hollywood Fringe, my review of their show "Office Beat" was

It's nearly here

You don’t have to be paying rapt attention to the 50-inch rectangular flat screen hanging above the fireplace or the

I hate writing bad reviews. Honest. I’d rather write glowing reviews, pouring forth accolades and singing praises to high heaven. I truly would. Now

The audience has come to The Lovelace Studio Theatre in the Wallis Center for the Performing Arts, in expectation of

…and tracks it all over our political kitchen floor! Not that the place was spotless to begin… This edition was supposed

Both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile told the officer who shot them, “I have a gun.” They may have thought

When I first heard news of a weekly series set in hip hop and R&B music industry with a predominately

Now we know. The Game's Episode 5 delivered—as promised—the identity of The Mole. Clever writing, this, from series creator Toby

Every campaign has at least one noir moment, when (as in film noir) the protagonist tries to do The Right

At 100% full on energy the entire night, Garth Brooks IS the ultimate entertainer. From the moment he takes the

Hamid Rahmanian is a film maker and graphic artist who in 2013 undertook to illustrate the Shahnameh.  He has now

Political Survivor: USA. This show plays almost continuously, with an ever-changing cast, on many shows and many networks. I discovered the

Playwright Laurel M. Wetzork has filled Blueprint for Paradise, now playing at the Hudson Theatre, with fascinating tidbits plucked from

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the shows of playwright Peter Lefcourt and director Terri Hanauer. Their prior productions,

There were Poirots before him. There will be Poirots to follow. Right now, for over seven hundred and fifty million

By Ernest Kearney  — "Dracula's Taste Test" is no great shakes, but neither does it hold itself up as anything else.

A recap of The Musketeers — Season One. Season Two begins January 17, 9/8c only on BBC America.

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Jack Benny (A Ménage En Train)" is the first perfect Fringe show of 2018.  What does

Mrs. Elizabeth Handy, wife to the “Father of the Blues” W. C. Handy, lay critically ill on the street outside

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Skin Jobs" by Jim Vejvoda is a short indictment of the undercurrent of racism still in

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Desert Rats" by Nate Rufus Edelman is hardly the first play ever written about a kidnapping. 

With a solid reputation for superior dramas, PBS's Masterpiece Theatre has undoubtedly been a hard act to follow. Now its

A man brings his guitar and a cooler out to the beach, and as he faces the setting sun tries

First a bit of Irish history. The Black and Tans were a force of mostly former soldiers enrolled in the

 By Ernest Kearney  —  "Gloria," the Pulitzer Prize-finalist, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is best described as an E-Ticket ride to the

Director/writer/set designer Donovan Glover won the 1991 UCLA Best-New-Play-of-the-Year Award for this work and at times "Just Like Life" certainly

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, there were two official newspapers: Pravda (“The Truth”) and Izvestiya (“The News”). A

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Henry V" has long been considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays; called a “stirring piece of

"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we know least." Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) In viewing Peter Landesman's Parkland (2013), it is

In “The King’s Language,” writer/director Chris Yejin, has presented the Fringe with an entertaining and intelligent little history lesson of

by Ernest Kearney  —  Matei Visniec is a Romanian playwright who sought and was granted political asylum in France in

By Ernest Kearney  — Bill Posley’s superbly slick, and raucously funny show, "The Day I Became Black," reveals to

By Ernest Kearney — This is Festival Fringe Time in Hollywood 2018 -Part II. This being Hollywood Fringe,

Here's the bulletin: A tough new detective, year 1864, is coming to our airwaves. Tom Weston-Jones stars in BBC America's,

Jesus Christ Superstar is a great show. Lyrics by Tim Rice, and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and for my

Let us talk the lowest of high concept. Take the most obnoxious representatives of our society’s ills: A woman (Rebecca Larsen) obsessed

I love speaking to a kindred soul whose passions are rooted in another field different from mine. It always fascinates

Is anyone still criticizing quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem? “Some people say” that his actions are

by Ernest Kearney —  My Own Private River Phoenix is a smart and funny piece that is just not ready to

The November 13 Paris attacks changed the trajectory of our 2016 presidential election, and not for the good. I know

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has five definitions for "entropy" [ěn′ trә-pē]. Four of the five could

Hollywood Fringe, Week One —Part IV  The main stays of any Fringe are the solo performances; one-man shows, one-woman, one-whatever shows.

We're back on the boat deck filled with potential Survivor contestants, waiting to see who will commit by jumping into

Just two years ago, documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia began interviewing Amy Winehouse's family, friends and collaborators in a darkened London

In "The Sacred Beasts" for Hollywood Fringe 2017, writer/director Chris Wollman has mined a particularly rich vein of historical gold

Here you have reviews of two shows The Princes of Kings Road at the Neutra Institute Museum and Gallery, and Café

You need valleys. Without valleys how can you appreciate the heights of hills? For me 2016 was a valley, 2014 and 2015

Please believe me when I tell you that Julia Migenes is an amazingly talented performer. She originated the role of Hodel

By Ernest Kearney —  A small town unemployed knuckle-dragging ne'er-do-well (Adam Ferguson) is approached by a producer of reality TV