Playwright Oliver Mayer’s Members Only takes place in the milieu of professional boxing in New York City in 1982, and intersects with the insidious rise of a mysterious disease that came to be known as AIDS that went on to decimate, first the gay population, then, indiscriminately, millions world wide. The story features a champion … Continue reading “Members Only” at Latino Theater Company
So far as I know, the Musical Theatre Guild is a totally unique company of extraordinary, thoroughly professional performers unlike anything I have ever seen anywhere. Dedicated to “exploring and preserving works from the musical theatre repertoire that were either forgotten, neglected, or unfairly dismissed,” the Guild works under “a special Actors’ Equity Concert Staged … Continue reading “Zorba!” at Musical Theatre Guild
Nate Rufus Edelman’s Desert Rats, a black comedy thriller is instantly intriguing. Performed in the small industrial Avalos Theatre of the Los Angeles Theatre Center and configured in three-quarter round, the audience is literally within arms reach of the players, at least this audience member was. I could have lit one of the actor’s cigarettes. … Continue reading “Desert Rats” at Latino Theater Company
Luis Valdez has employed theatrical art to fight for social justice since the 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike and Boycott. Fresh out of the San Jose State Masters program, where his first play, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa was a hit, he, with the participation of many others, formed El Teatro Campesino to perform short … Continue reading “Valley of the Heart” at The Mark Taper Forum
Bruce Jay Friedman’s Steambath is a comedic relic of its time, 1970. The show is famous for its religious irreverence and nudity, old hat by then since Hair and Oh! Calcutta! had already broken the naked barrier. The play is set in a steam bath with a bunch of men having a schvitz, sweating with … Continue reading “Steambath” at Odyssey Theatre
Writer/director Jeff Gould snatches a page from the Rod Serling playbook with his fast-paced comedy, The Marriage Zone. A middle-aged couple, Beth (Rene Ashton) and Cal (Matt Harrison), squabble over a planned move to a more upscale neighborhood with a better school for their fifteen-year old son, Ryan (Kody Fields), an amiable sort totally engrossed … Continue reading “The Marriage Zone” at Santa Monica Playhouse
After decades of reviewing theatre, opera, dance and other performances (Cirque de Soleil, for example) in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am continually amazed, in my three years plus residency in Los Angeles, at the stunning variety and quality of the LA Theatre scene. One expects excellence in the major venues like the Taper … Continue reading “Cal in Camo” at VS. Theatre
