Well on here I am: Hollywood Fringe Show number forty-five now and here’s a just a recap of some of

“Hell is really cold, wet and smells like fish.” In the tale of his time as a greenhorn on a commercial

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

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

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

For Daniel Holden, danger lurks not just behind shadows, but in the harsh light of day; often prancing down the

We love Angela Lansbury. And PBS announced today, "She's ba-a-a-ck." Dame Lansbury with Michael Gambon will head the cast in

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

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

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

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

We've all heard it. Someone channel surfing tosses the remote aside and says: "Over a hundred channels and nothing's on

"Comic-Con The Musical" celebrates that Mecca of Nerd-dom, The San Diego Comic-Con International aka Comic-Con. Four magical days every

Conceived, written and produced by Linden Waddell — who also performs, with Miller directing — Hello Again! The Songs of

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

By Ernest Kearney  —  Puppeteer Jean Minuchin’s "Still Life of an Orange and Other Puppet Parables" starts off strong and

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

It's nearly here

For those who have not cultivated an appreciation for the theatrical craft and are unaware of the merits and delights

By Ernest Kearney  —  There is an adage in the creative pursuit of playwriting: “It’s easier to set them up

By Ernest Kearney —  "A Very Die Hard Christmas" is a rough little laugh-fest and delivers on what it promises quite nicely. 

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

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

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

By Ernest Kearney  —  On December 21, 1988 a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of

I’m a big mouth white guy of Irish descent who, most likely, has ancestral ties to former President Barrack Obama,

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

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

Candidates, hang yourselves! Nobody does it better than you. The victories scored by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the April

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

I hate writing "bad" reviews for shows. Hate it. Don't get me wrong, I will bring out the ol' file and

If The Honorable Woman was the bravest Freshman Drama of Summer 2014, Extant was the Most Surprising. Academy Award winner Halle

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

By Darwyn Carson — Writer/Performer Katt Balsan is a force of a singular nature. You can catch her through the

There have been three truly great social humorists in American history, Mark Twain, Will Rogers and Jon Stewart. The least

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

By Ernest Kearney  —  The Old Man and the Old Moon is an assemblage of all the elements that made

Victorian era pulp fiction by another name could have been Penny Awful, Penny Number, Penny Blood or Penny Horrible. The

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

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

Who's your favorite? Time to decide! My best guess as to who ends up on the high ground would be: Team Stark

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

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

By Ernest Kearney Playwright Greg Kalleres opens "Meanwhile Back at the Super Lair" interestingly enough; with a

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

By Ernest Kearney — There is a great deal of talent involved in "Two Fisted Love" at the Odyssey Ensemble

Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel drew its inspiration from a 2012 article in The New Republic concerning the assault

The TVolution Hollywood Fringe Festival Awards Coming Soon!

Wow. That’s about the most apropos comment across the board on Squeeze My Cans, Cathy Schenkelberg’s riveting, heart wrenching and ultimately

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

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

An advisor to Donald Trump recently explained the candidate’s multiple (and conflicting) positions on most issues with: Words don’t matter. Wow,

As I write this, it’s just a few days until the crucial Wisconsin primary, and the impossible is seemingly in

Just for a bit of fun: Emmy Speech Master Class featuring Parker Posey Be sure to suscribe to the TV Academy's You Tube

CURSED “MY ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD” is an Ear Wax Medal Winner I write this without the least rancor towards Ms. Mendoza. I

"He was looking for someone else, you say—someone who was not you?" "He was looking for little Miles." A portentous clearness

Monday night, January 30, is Acorn TV night with the premiere of another Agatha Christie reinvention. Based on one of

A few weeks back, Molly Ball wrote in the Washington Post about the 2016 Presidential Campaign’s “…rich irony that America's

A one-woman-show on Barack Obama’s mother

Never start off your career with a masterpiece. Where do you go from there? Known in some circles as the Joseph Kesselring

There have been a number of performances that will travel with me for quite some time during Hollywood Fringe 2017…

By Ernest Kearney  —  "American Conspiracy," playing during the Hollywood Fringe 2018 at The Lounge Theatre, recounts the trials and

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

Heck

For those of you who are unschooled in America’s favorite pastime, Van Lingle Mungo was a Major League pitcher who

The Superhero and his Charming Wife purports to be “inspired by archetypes and dreams” presented in the style of “an

What can be said about A Haunted House 2? My, it is rare to see such a testament to mediocrity.

by Ernest Kearney - Epics tend to be about champions, giant defeaters, kingdom conquerors, warriors of a thousand battles.

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

THE PLATINUM MEDALS: BRIGHT SWORDS THE LEGEND OF BOBBY DARIN: AN UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY SIMON CORONEL: GLITCHES IN REALITY TIANANMEN ANNIE NO TRAVELER: A COMEDY ABOUT

Stephen Sachs is an intellectual juggernaut of a playwright who plumbs premises for his pieces from the pages of the

By Ernest Kearney — At the very least, congratulations must be bestowed on Writer/Director Amit Itelman’s "Bride of Blood" as

Sunset Baby is an intelligently written play with a superb cast that positively gleams from those benefits which blesses any

By Ernest Kearney — At its best, theatre spans vast separations of time and culture revealing how shared struggles makes

Starting June 1st and running throughout the entire month Hollywood Fringe 2017 will be offering up 356 shows; all vying

What’s so embarrassing for me (an old white man) about watching an old white presidential candidate say—almost indignantly—“Well

"Silent Sky" in its final weekend at Long Beach's International City Theatre, is a well-crafted feel-good evening in the theatre. 

Under the direction of Giovanna Sardelli, solid performances command the stage, in a new work by Rajiv Joseph; author of

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

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

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

ShoWorks Entertainment has traveled from South Africa to stage two offerings at the Fringe, both written by South African playwright

By Ernest Kearney  —  We are told by author Alan L. Brooks, he is "a doctor, not a playwright –

by Ernest Kearney — The Fountain Theatre’s West Coast Premiere of “The Chosen,” adapted for the stage Aaron Posner and

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

by Ernest Kearney  —  That Sussan Deyhim’s The House is Black Media Project had such a limited engagement at the

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

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

By Ernest Kearney — “DoubleDouble,” playwright Guy Zimmerman reveals in the program notes, “came out of a case I wanted

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

For those of you unaware of the fire storm unleashed on Colin Mitchell, former editor of Bitter Lemons, L.A.’s ground

"The Tomb" by Ed Sharrow (at the Complex Theatre during Fringe 2017) is an encapsulated tale of Anthony the Great,

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

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

OMG Moments on Empire • An unexpected gift, a single red rose, is dropped at the entrance to Cookie's swank apartment

In 'Class' getting ready for Fall Prom is more than finding a pretty dress and matching corsage. (BBC America)

Seven years prior to American Idol breaking out on Fox to become one of the most successful and talked about

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

by Ernest Kearney “My mother didn’t wear sneakers,” Fahn proclaims at the opening of her one-woman show, Under the

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

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

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Fresh Meat" is set in a dystopian future where the world order seems to have fused into

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

Cyanne McClairian’s one woman show, I Died

The peaceful dawning has come and gone. This day is like a long breath of air that has been held

Let the Games Begin in How To Get Away With Murder

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

Yesss! We’re finally back to our ersatz Survivor season. We’ve endured months of chest pounding and breast beating on the beach, with

Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls is a frequently poetic, consistently absorbing mishmash of Paglia’s pronouncements, Bettelheim’s theories

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Baba, Jee (Father, Yes)" is a solidly written, smartly directed and tightly performed piece. The story

The Latino Theater Company offers up a first-class troupe for the world premiere of Jonathan Ceniceroz’s “The Cruise.”

The Puckwit Gang’s "Chimpskin" is a stylishly clever history of Lucy (1964-1987), the chimpanzee raised by Maurice and Jane Temerlin,

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

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

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

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

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

When the topic turns to the worst series ever, one is walking a tightrope of wet tissue.

Panos Vlahos, making his U.S. debut at Hollywood Fringe (2017) in “Mistero Buffo,” combed three pieces from the last half

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

Wake up you princes of Westeros. Stay alert you Mother of Dragons. Justice is sweet. Justified vengeance is better. HBO released

By Ernest Kearney - The Cherry Poppins Productions have embraced a formula which has served them well in Hollywood Fringe

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

In the U.S. recently: Pope Francis. Chinese President Xi Jinping. Russian President Vladimir Putin. And a political zombie—yet another threat

Obama’s had a great couple of weeks politically, but he’s still gone as of January 20, 2017. That leaves a

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

Okay, a quick side bar. My mother came to Los Angeles in the early '50s as a single parent. She was a

Say it ain’t so

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

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

Santiago Cabrera is Aramis.  Though they are, the four of them, multilayered individuals, Aramis would seem to be the one

At one point in the production of Lauren Gunderson's I and You at the Fountain Theatre, the main character's bedroom

By Ernest Kearney  —  "Pretty Dead Girl – A Musical Necromance."  There’s a title that holds promise, wouldn’t you say?

From the first moments of "Mary’s Medicine," currently running at the Complex Theatres during Hollywood Fringe 2017, playwright/director Matthew Robinson

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

Out of the 380-plus shows presented during Hollywood Fringe Festival Show 2018, 80 were viewed by TVolution critics: 69 of

Playwright Michael Leoni’s characters connected with the audience to an intense degree, and yet

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

For the first decade of this century I didn't pay much attention to the music business. After close to 30

Jack Lukeman has a voice that feels like a friend’s hand on a troubled shoulder.  From his 1995 debut album

Noel Coward’s Hay Fever at Theatre Palisades is a wonderfully delivered comedy of manners. Laughs and folly spring from the

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

By Ernest Kearney  —  The history of the United States Army installation of Fort Huachuca located in southeast Arizona is

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

Henry Mayhew, in 1841, named his pioneering humor magazine after the gleeful little murdering bastard. Neil Gaiman sought him out

It took several tries before I could finish this Charles Krauthammer article about the Republicans squandering their “victory” over the so-called mainstream

I’ve started this column several times, but the news keeps getting ahead of me. And not in a good way.

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

"Blue," by filmmaker Charles Huddleston, is not a complex plot. It’s a pretty straightforward morality tale wrapped in the landscape

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

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

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

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

You enter the REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CaLArts Theater) to find a mass of chairs arranged seemingly haphazard in the

In "Ashlee Olivia Presents E.A.R.T.H.A.," Ms. Jones delivers an exceptional performance of an exceptional performer

In the 1998 film Bulworth, Warren Beatty played a disillusioned politician who puts out a contract on himself, and then feels

By Ernest Kearney  —  The Open Fist Company under Ben Martin’s skillful direction have done well by Author Dylan Thomas

“Drumpf – that’s the sound of shit hitting the wall, and sticking.” — a tweet from @slothlax A couple of weeks

Sometimes, someone posts something on Facebook that is of intrinsic value. The following thought-piece—published here with the author’s permission—is such

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

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

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

We are all Donald Trump now. In 1963, JFK went to the Berlin wall and said, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I

The Wrecking Crew were a group of uncredited Los Angeles studio musicians who played on and created hundreds of hit

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

Here’s a quickie to help you prepare for the Republican debate on Thursday August 9. In 2012, my wife and

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

For a complete medal tally for all 60 viewed by this contributor see click HERE.  Below is a The TVolution

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

Director, Christopher Johnson is too clever by half, which is clearly demonstrated in his current Fringe offering: a raucous, genderbending,

Long-awaited "Game of Thrones'" Season Seven—winner of 12 Emmy's just last September, remember— is no longer coming. It's Here: July

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

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

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

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

Coming Soon!!

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

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

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

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

One of my favorite game announcers for the San Francisco Giants is a former Giant himself, pitcher Mike Krukow. He

Michael Ondaatje’s eponymous 2011 novel grants romance and intrigue to the lowliest dining area on a ship—The Cat’s Table. There

The GOP field presidential candidates held a noisy war drum circle on December 15

Netflix is shooting out product faster than the bullet train. The Jason Bateman starrer, "Ozark," streaming now, is sprinting toward

By Ernest Kearney — Well I can’t say that I was able to discern the “three short plays, written by

The Fringe Week One Continued

Ironic, isn’t it? We’ve endured eight years of haters excoriating Barack Obama for his use of teleprompters, and a year of repeated

by Ernest Kearney — In "Keith Moon the Real Me," playing at Hudson Theatre’s Maintstage thru April 15, writer

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

by Ernest Kearney — Ice at the 24th Street Theatre is really a matter of  “All the King’s horses and

By Ernest Kearney  —  In his latest Hollywood Fringe Festival offering, "New Kid on the Block," playwright John Patrick Daly's heart is

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

Well another Fringe has come and gone. I attended 60 shows and managed to review 55 (denoted by the asterisk:

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

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

"The Second Coming of Klaus Kinski" writer, performer Andrew Perez presents Kinski and all his demons with such unnerving commitment

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

Above: July 18, 2017 MSNBC screen grab. At you thought he couldn’t look stupider! Let’s be truthful about the reason that

A lot of attention is being given to that first basket, the “basket of deplorables,” as Mrs. Clinton called it

CNN debate anchor Anderson Cooper was intent on confrontation and stirring up rivalries

Unlikely heroes unite against an unknown making its way through the underground of New York and perhaps