The news out of the Middle East has been bad for a very long time now. It has been a hot bed of war and conflict since biblical times, with empires rising and falling, people enslaved, and tyrants in command. Paradoxically, it also happens to be the cradle of civilization—agriculture, writing, architecture, poetry, political organization, … Continue reading “Operation Ajax” at Little Fish Theatre
Neil Simon’s Fools was a Broadway flop that closed after forty performances back in 1981. Legend has it that, during divorce proceedings, an agreement was made with his wife that he would write a play and that she would receive the profits. So he wrote the play so as to flop, which it did, closing … Continue reading “Neil Simon’s Musical Fools” at Open Fist Theatre Company
As I was absorbing Stephanie Alison Walker’s new play, The Abuelas, a song burbled up in my fevered brain. It was “Desaparecido,” from Spanish singer-songwriter Manu Chao’s debut album, Clandestino. Back in the miserable Seventies, a brutal military junta took power in Argentina. Anyone who opposed this coup were told “to make themselves invisible, or … Continue reading “The Abuelas” at Antaeus Theatre Company
Canadians…great people, eh? Yes, indeed, I count several Canadians as my very good friends. But loving generalities cannot represent a diverse nation. Everyone knows that Canadians talk a little differently than us here in the lower forty-eight. Some people love to snicker at how they say “aboot” rather than “about.” Look in the mirror. Our … Continue reading “The Canadians” at South Coast Repertory
The opening night audience for Daniel Pearle’s revised version of his 2013 play, A Kid Like Jake, was enthusiastic and laughed a lot. Although there is humor in the play, as all great drama needs comic relief (Macbeth’s drunken Porter; Hamlet’s Grave Digger), this production quickly sucked me into the trying problems of an upwardly-mobile … Continue reading “A Kid Like Jake” at IAMA Theatre Company
In Treya’s Last Dance, actress/playwright Shyam Bhatt delivers with boundless energy a one-woman show that is filled with joy, angst, laughs and sadness—the whole gamut of human experience as rendered in the story of one human being. Treya is a young, native-born Londoner of Indian extraction. She is smart, glib, and bubbling with energy, as … Continue reading “Treya’s Last Dance” at Hudson Guild Theatre
The Edgar Allan Show won my heart the moment the house opened and I entered into the snug little Two Roads Theatre in Studio City. There on stage a vigorous young woman (Nika H. Mabson) was tapping her heart out with shuffle-hop-step-fa-lap-ball-changes and a delightful array of many other well-known terpsichorean routines. In my enthusiasm, … Continue reading “The Edgar Allan Show” at The Two Roads Theatre
