Dreams are often beautiful and always surreal. They sweep you into their world without qualification or disruption. They are immersive and expansive, but at the same time deeply personal. Priscilla Dreams the Answer is very much like a dream. For the short time that it lasts, it is stunning, and like any good dream, you […]
Archives for July 2011
Crave
Every heartbreaker eventually gets their heart broken. Cosmic justice, karma, the wheel of fortune – whatever you call it, the seesaw of relationships will always go from up to down and back again. But there’s a journey there, from paradise to hell and all the shades of grey in between. As Editors put it, “even […]
Rock of Ages
When you are at Rock of Ages, the question is out: are you ready to rock? Well, you’d better be: you are expected to.
Shrewing of the Tamed
The reversal in wording of Taming of the Shrew is not so much for a feminist message as for opening our minds. Get set for a bracing cocktail with a blast of Shakespeare’s bawdy at the Thrust Inn. Sexual innuendo intended.
Open Hearts
Miriam Kulick is a mensch. Now I probably should not be using that term for a woman because I think it’s supposed to just be used for men. But here is the relevant definition as far as I’m concerned: “a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague.” […]
T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!
At 5:45, Kimleigh Smith walks onto the stage at a decaying storefront known as the Apothecary. She is a stranger to most of us. When she takes her bow an hour later, the Los Angeles actor/ dancer has shared most of the major events in her adult life.
Divas Just Wanna Have Fun!
From the moment the 7 Sopranos, in their red gowns, walk on stage singing , there is no doubt they are talented. Their performances in Divas Just Wanna Have Fun! are impressive. It looks like the divas are having fun every moment of the hour-long performance.
Death Takes a Holiday
Alberto Casella’s play, as re-written for the American stage by Walter Ferris for the Shuberts of Broadway, produced in 1929, is rarely if ever revived. It is set in 1921 in the palazzo of the Duke and Duchess Lamberti and nothing could seem more removed from the New York of the 21st Century.
Gallantry: a Soap Opera in One Act
Faced with the sad decline of the American soap opera, where can a hungry populace turn for their daily fix of melodrama and overblown romance? It’s Opera Alterna to the rescue, offering up a slice of daytime drama with a classical twist in their inspired musical farce, Gallantry: a Soap Opera in One Act.
An Hour with Ken Johnson
Ken Johnson wants to teach you the secrets to his success. Unfortunately, he just isn’t that successful. This is the premise of Laura Zam’s play An Hour With Ken Johnson, which, just as unfortunately, is as unsuccessful as its main character.
The Foo Fah Show
Grubargs, an Eh, and a Berganoff, oh my! Unveiling a sequence of fairy tales peppered with the whimsical vernacular of Dr. Seuss, The Foo Fah Show celebrated the bare bones of the theatrical experience, where grandeur technical elements are replaced by human foley noises, a large Post-it pad covered in Crayola marker, and ultimately, the […]
Sanyasi
Can you ever truly detach from the world? From emotions, like heartache, greed, love? From the mundane, the pettiness of every day existence? Is this truly liberation, or is renunciation of the world a different kind of bondage?