RAISING THE CLOWN BAR Did the TV series It give you nightmares for decades? Does the art of John Wayne Gacy make you tremble? Does dear old Bozo make you break out in hives? If y…
STORMY ROMANCE It is sometimes the case that the plays that seem the simplest " three characters, a few dusty flats, a tiny, shoe-box set in a miniscule theater somewhere on the 12th floor o…
WHEN THE SAINTS COME DANCING IN Here's a charming revue that sets to song and dance the words of the great poet Gertrude Stein, mistress of new language and one of the tremendous free spirit…
PRO AND (EX-)CON In telling his true-life tale about being convicted of attempted murder and released following a hefty prison term, Joe Assadourian is proof that you can be a crook and stil…
PERHAPS THE POPE WAS BORED TO DEATH The Ahmanson stage is awash with white-haired old men in long sweeping gowns. No, it's not the old folks' home production of Priscilla Queen of the De…
AFRICAN MYTH ON THE BAYOU An atmosphere of mythic mystery suffuses Tarrell Alvin McCraney's compelling drama about family, sacrifice, and deceit. Awash with undercurrents of melancholy a…
TECHNICOLOR TURNCOAT It's like one of the Great Plagues of Egypt: Every so often, some producer decides to dust off another production of this old Andrew Lloyd Webber chestnut, and cast …
CRY!BOYS AND INDIANS Let’s be honest: Director Elizabeth LeCompte's sometimes astonishing adaptation of Shakespeare's Trolius and Cressida by the acclaimed Wooster Group of New Yor…
FLESH MADE TEDIOUS In my day job as a public librarian, I can tell you with certainty there is nothing more dreaded than finding E. L. James' turgid lust romancer Fifty Shades of Grey in …
LOVE GONE NUTS Here's a twisted little response to the maudlin sappiness of Valentine's Day: Steve Yockey's sprightly romantic farce is about love, all right, but it's love as pathologic…
A VILE VILLON MAKES FOR VILLAINOUS VIEWING Art isn't pretty " and neither is Murray Mednick's sharp, cynical comedy about the life of the great artistic poet François Villon, who, in 1…
RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES It was the shot heard round the countercultural world " the Big Bang of the Beats, as it were. At a party one night in Mexico City in 1951, writer William Burroughs dr…
AN OCEAN OF TIME If you ever climb to the top of the Granite Park Chalet trail in Montana, you will find at the end of the hugely winding, desperately steep pathway a log book containing ent…
STATIC ELECTRA Your college classics teacher be damned: For all the talk about the Greek literary themes of hubris and arête, the Greek tragedies are just gussied up soap operas, with…
A SHOW THAT'S BETTER THAN PROZAC Been to the drugstore lately? Sick of taking semi-useless pills three times a day every day? You've got your Losartan and your Lisinopril. You've…
SIC SEMPER BORE-ANNUS This solo musical effort by musician performer Hersey Felder has all the trappings of a work that is rich with worthy subject matter and culture.  Peppered with song…
EXPENSIVE VANILLA-SCENTED PERFUME For its inaugural stage dramatic production at the glittering new Bram Goldsmith Theater, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is presenting …
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: A DARK CARNIVAL OF DEATH AND TERROR! This tour de force of trickery from creators Todd Robbins and the magician Teller (the traditionally silent half of th…
THE HAM IN WINTER Here's a show that means well, but which somehow falls a little short of expectations. It's actually somewhat difficult to put one's finger on why: By rights, the p…
ROCK AND ROLL DREAM (MAYBE, IF YOUR DREAM IS VERY SMALL) Becoming a rock star is a uniquely American dream. And who wouldn't want to live a life of rock and roll excess and decadence?…
DEPRESSING DEPRESSION ERA DRAMA What a time! Folks standing on line for charity handouts, companies closing down, destitution and despair all around. Surprise, though, we're not talk…
MOZART'S SISTER: POSSIBLY MORE TALENTED, DEFINITELY BETTER LEGS In many one person shows that are biographies of historical personages, there's the risk of Wikipedia syndrome, in which the p…
VERDICT: WEAK ADAPTATION There's something innately suspenseful about a courtroom drama. Perhaps it's the fact that real life courtrooms are themselves theaters and a criminal trial is e…
NOT ONLY THE PLAY, BUT THE PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY’S THE THING The Storm Theater presents the first offering of its Ferenc Molnár festival with this gem, adapted by P.G. Wodehouse from…
FRANCE: WHERE THE WOMEN ARE WOMEN (AND THE MEN ARE WOMEN, TOO) Director Paul Urcioli's delightful production of Moliere's classic skewering of female emancipation is given an additional …