Don’t Miss The Bitch is Back: An Elton John Cabaret
By Ernest Kearney — The Bitch is Back: An Elton John Cabaret is exactly that, no more no less. Director James Carey, with Darci Monet serving as vocal director, guides five actress/singers
Happiness is … “Jack Benny” at The Fringe
By Ernest Kearney — "Jack Benny (A Ménage En Train)" is the first perfect Fringe show of 2018. What does that entail? It is superbly performed, excellently staged, intelligently conceived and was so entirely unexpected
The Cup Runneth Over in “House of Tales”
By Ernest Kearney - "House of Tales" is bursting with concepts and ideas to the point of avalanching the audience underneath them. Director Changting Lu has an actor wandering the lobby, even before the show commences, all wide-eyed with a lit, ball-shaped lantern searching every
“A Very Die Hard Christmas” Whips it up at the Fringe
By Ernest Kearney — "A Very Die Hard Christmas" is a rough little laugh-fest and delivers on what it promises quite nicely. Writer Josh Carson and director Gregory Crafts have taken the 1988 Bruce Willis movie blockbuster "Die Hard" and twisted it up very nicely.
“Henry V” Presented in an Extraordinary Space
By Ernest Kearney — "Henry V" has long been considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays; called a “stirring piece of drum-beating and flag-waving” by one critic. But "Henry V" offers more buried ore to be mined than nearly any other work of the Bard.
The “Glitch” is on at the Fringe
By Ernest Kearney — There is some solid writing in Playwright/Director Travis Snyder-Eaton’s "Glitch," a two-person play about Rachel, a journalist (Gemma Pilar Alfaro), who is interviewing Jonathan, a convicted spree killer (Jordan Klomp).
“Blind Spots” is Full of Them
By Ernest Kearney — Blind Spots by Colette Freedman is political, witty and confounding. Gretchen Baxter (Veronica Wylie) is a liberal journalist who lives with Birdy (Koni McCurdy), — her ʹ60s “Peace Corps” mother— is having an affair with her young, student intern Janna (Tamara
Matthew Marcum Channels Pollock at the Complex
By Ernest Kearney — The Unconventional Empire’s production of "Matthew Marcum’s Pollock: A Frequency Parable" proves they are more than capable of living up to their name.
A Worthwhile Re-imagining in “An Odyssey”
By Ernest Kearney — "An Odyssey" by Patrick Denney is a solid piece of writing that is well-directed by Turner Munch and well-acted by Julia Davis, Joe DeSoto and Carolina Montenegro.
Mime Time with James Direct Presents: Get Out of Your Head!
By Ernest Kearney — James Royce is an okay mime. It’s ironic in a way that he’s performing his show in the Complex’s Ruby Theatre. It was Richmond Shepard who first began to connect store fronts along Santa Monica Boulevard and so is one of the