Mormon Still Funniest F@#king Show Ever.

It’s been nine years since it first opened on Broadway, and The Book of Mormon is back on tour and just as raunchy and remarkable as ever.

Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Continue reading “Mormon Still Funniest F@#king Show Ever.”
Advertisement

Swan Still Stuns

When art becomes transcendent, it is unlike anything else. There is something sublime, something transportive, as if one is suddenly and rapturously catapulted into a meditative trance, invited into the imaginative rendering of an auteur and his truth. Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake: The Legend Returns, playing now at the Ahmanson, is a work of such beauty that its exquisiteness lies in the sheer audacity of its own existence. The re-telling of the classic ballet through the ingenious queer lens of a master storyteller is awe-inspiring.

Photo by Craig Schwartz
Continue reading “Swan Still Stuns”

A Play is a Poem is A Play about America.

Five short plays, meant to create a pastiche of Americana comprise Ethan Coen’s A Play is a Poem, and it’s having its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum.

Photo by Craig Schwartz
Continue reading “A Play is a Poem is A Play about America.”

Beckett Appreciation 101

Few writers are able to capture the imagination through irony, metaphor, and despair as startling or as vividly as Samuel Beckett. His prose has proven as deeply layered and richly textured as a perfectly aged bottle of wine. And much like wine, it is definitely an acquired taste.

Photo by Craig Schwartz
Continue reading “Beckett Appreciation 101”

John Leguizamo Gives a Long Overdue, Passionate and often Hilarious History Lesson

Most American History textbooks are lying to us. The Eurocentric, xenophobic, and excruciatingly myopic view of this land we call America gets a proper re-telling by the hilariously entertaining John Leguizamo in his solo show Latin History for Morons, playing now at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Photo by Matthew Murphy.
Continue reading “John Leguizamo Gives a Long Overdue, Passionate and often Hilarious History Lesson”

A Lesson in Dramaturgy

The Echo Theater Company is presenting the world premiere of Handjob written by Erik Patterson. In the #MeToo, Times Up, Harvey Weinstein era, this play seems to be positioning itself as a statement piece. It wants to join the conversation, but is it able to? If we break the play down to its most basic dramatic parts, we’ll find the answer.

Photo by Darrett Sanders
Continue reading “A Lesson in Dramaturgy”

Confounding Witch Leaves Much to Be Desired

At some point recently, the theater, at least in Los Angeles, has changed from a medium of thematic exploration and development to one of undisguised political posturing and heavy-handed morality.  The latest victim of this sophomoric writing style is Witch, written by Jen Silverman and playing now at the Geffen Playhouse. 

Photo by Jeff Lorch
Continue reading “Confounding Witch Leaves Much to Be Desired”

Deconstructing Female Empowerment in 1930s New England

By Patrick Hurley

Considered a feminist classic, an avant-garde trailblazer, and a groundbreaking theatrical experience Fefu and her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes, playing now at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, is at once confounding, inquisitive, and thought-provoking.

Photo by Enci Box
Continue reading “Deconstructing Female Empowerment in 1930s New England”

Wrong Proves Sometimes To Be Sort of Right.

By Patrick Hurley

Somewhere between a Vegas show and a Theme park experience sits The Play That Goes Wrong, a Mischief Theatre Production- playing now at the Ahmanson theatre.

Photo by Jeremy Daniel
Continue reading “Wrong Proves Sometimes To Be Sort of Right.”
Melissa LaFontaine The Blog

spirituality / art / ethics

Jnana's Red Barn

From Sunrise County to the Universe

Still Time...

A Family Project

carotid artistry

the double functions of the external and the internal

Patrick Hurley

Musings of a Very Confused Writer

The Daily Post

The Art and Craft of Blogging

WordPress.com News

The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.