A theme unites a weekend’s activities Five events, randomly spread across a late September weekend, had, in retrospect, a common thread. Though never the focus, a different aspect of brotherhood was part of each, whether it was a Friday night Dodger game, a Saturday night dance performance, a morning fundraising walk, or matinees of ‘American …
NO SMALL PARTS The Brothers Arkin get swallowed by whales by CRISTOFER GROSS L]/dropcap]arger-than-life characters, from Achilles and Lysistrata to FDR and Harriett Tubman, are literature’s meat-and-potatoes. How the everyman reaches greatness, or how the mighty fall, fuels both inspirational stories and cautionary tales that share what it means to be human. In Herman Melville’s …
A SONDHEIM SUMMIT SCR services ‘Sweeney Todd’ well with a soaring production that gives voice to the master’s masterwork. by CRISTOFER GROSS n the second half of the 20th Century, Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for 14 full productions and lyrics for another half-dozen. The range of subjects and styles he explored gave …
MARK RUCKER’S CURTAIN CALL A group portrait of the brilliant theater director who recast bow-taking by CRISTOFER GROSS PROLOGUE
A BOUNTIFUL TRIP TO ‘ORANGE’ Aditi Brennan Kapil circles back to the family in foreign Orange County by CRISTOFER GROSS laywrights start each script staring into blankness. Somewhere in that word doc or sheet of paper is the trailhead to something undiscovered – possibly ancient and unformed – they hope to capture in words and …
Bettering the bard Amy Freed throws herself into a revision of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. by CRISTOFER GROSS ike a titanic father figure, William Shakespeare has cast a shadow over four succeeding centuries of playwrights. Were he somehow watching each descendant generation he would surely take personal pride in those he inspired to soaring …
‘ROCK’ AND A HARD PLACE Lauren Yee’s dive into 1970s Cambodian pop lands her amid standing ovations. by CRISTOFER GROSS he audience at the first Saturday night performance of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, a new play with music receiving its world premiere at South Coast Repertory through March 25, had remained seated and soundless …
APRIL 2016 Click title to jump to review OFFICE HOUR by Julia Cho | South Coast Repertory THE REVISIONIST by Jesse Eisenberg | Wallis Annenberg SEX WITH STRANGERS by Laura Eason | Geffen Playhouse SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR by Luigi Pirandello, adapted by Robert Brustein | A Noise Within TELL ME I’M …
MARCH 2016 Click title to jump to review CLOUD 9 by Caryl Churchill | Antaeus Theatre Company GOING TO A PLACE WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE by Bekah Brunstetter | South Coast Repertory WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD by Sheila Callaghan | Kirk Douglas Theatre Sunsetting
INTERMISSION | 15 minutes with … Aaron Posner The dazzle: The writer-director is having a big year with adaptations of Chekhov and Shakespeare aron Posner’s work was terra incognita for me until last spring, when Arye Gross told me his next stage role would be Dr. Sorn, blending brother Sorin and Dr. Dorn from Chekhov’s …
