These days, every comedian and commentator seems to be paraphrasing Bette Davis in All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy election.” For 2016, I would add: cinch up your Kevlar vest and tighten the chin strap on your battle helmet.
Well, what with the solid production at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble of the seldom seen Kingdom of Earth, and now the Fountain Theatre’s staging of Baby Doll, hard core fans of Tennessee Williams must be thinking they’ve died and gone for gumbo in the bayou. Now
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 there are two exceptions to this ‘I hate,’ etcetera business. If the play is a deceitful con job that has duped the innocent and the ignorant,
Playwright Laurel M. Wetzork has filled Blueprint for Paradise, now playing at the Hudson Theatre, with fascinating tidbits plucked from Los Angeles and Southern California history. The ruins of Hitler’s California “White House,” the first African-American to be granted membership in the American Institute of Architects,
Do not be fooled by the title, One of the Nice Ones. There is nothing “nice” about Erik Patterson’s play. Point of fact, it is relentless in its anti-niceness. Think your typical office politics row only with Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken taking turns holding a
Never start off your career with a masterpiece. Where do you go from there? Known in some circles as the Joseph Kesselring Curse (as in Arsenic and Old Lace which was then followed by ten flops), Tennessee Williams compounded on this by starting his career with a
It amazes me what a higgledy-piggledy of sources have served as inspiration for musicals. Little Shops of Horror, Cats, Sunset Boulevard are three examples of successful adaptations from odd starts. Stephen Sondheim has made a career crafting shows from subject matter that hardly seems suitable for
Four Chords and a Gun at the Bootleg Theater, which relates the stories of when The Ramones worked with Phil Spector on recording their End of the Century album, is scary. Now the story of anyone working with Phil Spector, (legendary music producer of “Be My
At the top of where the Angel’s Flight Trolley once deposited its riders (and hopefully will again one day), nestled between a pair of impressive skyscrapers, you’ll find the California Plaza and one of L.A.’s best kept secrets, the Water Court. An artfully designed combination of
It is not with eyes alone that we read a novel’s passage or play’s scene; we read them through the grinded lens of culture and the glass of moment. Some times these “bi-focals” bring the matter read into a startling clarity never appreciated before, with new
