Laughing Is Worth A Good Chuckle

By Patrick Hurley

It’s the old story: A starry-eyed young man dreams of making it big as an actor, and circumstances seem to always be just right for making that happen. Such is the story behind Enter Laughing the Musical, which is playing now at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

The Night is Alive and Well

“Evil has no meaning,” there is an existential core in Conor McPherson’s new play The Night Alive, playing now through March 15 at the Geffen Playhouse.

On Suffering: Sons Finds Some Light

By Patrick Hurley

Nietzsche said that to live is to suffer, and to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. Such is the sentiment that propels much of Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet, playing now through March 15 at The Blank Theatre. For his characters, however, survival is about making light in dark times. Mr. Karam uses his deft comic touch, and flair for melodrama to spin a theatrical yarn about the nature of suffering that is as funny as it is pointed. It asks us to consider suffering, through the age-old platitude, what are the odds. A platitude that serves as a kind of guiding force of this play.