When Marine warrior Jenny Sutter (Lily Mojekwu) returns home from Afghanistan to a dirty bus station in LA, she seems listless as she simply sits staring into space. She is befriended by the quirky, always-traveling Lou (Jenny Avery), a recovering addict with many issues. Lou senses Jenny’s melancholy as she befriends her and coaxes her to travel to their California desert hideaway – Slab City.
Read MoreGriffin Theatre has found another little gem of a show with The Burnt Part Boys. It is a bluegrass folk operetta set in coal mining country in 1962 in West Virginia ten years after a devastating mine explosion and fire killed five miners. We meet the two surviving teenage sons of one of the killed miners – Peter (Charlie Fox) and Jake (Mike Tepeli).
Read MoreCourt Theatre returns after nearly ten years to remount their successful holiday show based on a James Joyce short story- The Dead. As conceived and written by Richard Nelson with music by Shaun Davey, The Dead is a special, gentle and wholesome holiday musical. This time around, director Charles Newell and music director have a new cast that features an array of actors who can sing with several actor/musician to give the production an intimate realistic flavor.
Read MoreUnder director/choreographer Tammy Mader, dancing and tongue-in-cheek humor fuels the fun-filled romp back to the 20’s where the girls wore short hair and skimpy dress and the guys donned stripped pants and loud jackets. It was the era of fun times, especially at speakeasies and dance clubs.
Read MoreEvery policeman, watercress, ER nurse, and cab driver knows that two events trigger weird behavior in the public: a full moon and a major holiday. After a ten year run from 1992 through 2002, Will Kern’s Hellcab is being remounted by Profiles Theatre at their Main Stage in Lakeview. Kern’s play is based on his experience as a Chicago cab driver.
Read MoreJules Massenet’s Werther (1892) is a dramatically exciting and intensely passion and totally romantic French opera. Massenet’s varied music moves form lightly friendly even tranquil melodies depicting nature and happy children to intensely emotional feelings of a young poet madly in love with a woman he can never have.
Read MoreBut, The Odd Couple still gets laughs as Neil Simon’s biting zingers still contain the ingredients that laughs are made from. With exquisite timing, the cast lands the barbs expertly. You’ll still laugh and appreciate a master craftsman at work. Neil Simon’s ageless comedy still works thanks to Marc Grapey and his pals.
Read More…when the Mexicans are treated like “background” fodder by the American couple, the Mexicans concoct a ridiculous plan to kidnap the couple to force a confrontation. I wish that this premise would be a tad clearer early on in the play so audiences will “buy into” the premise. But the bumbling kidnappers and the quirky captives embark on a hilarious journey as each struggles to come to terms with their stereotypical views of both Americans and Mexicans.
Read MorePlayed for humor, I found Jack Or the Submission to be an over-the-top affair filled with screaming and shouting and cartoonish movements.
Read MoreO’ Neill’s family tragedy that features the Tyrone’s, a family in despair as they seem to be doomed and trapped in their dark past where fears, addictions and habits dominate the present. Long Day’s Journey Into Night is set in 1912 in the Tyrone summer home in New London, Connecticut. This most autobiographical play deals with the nature of family love where each person loves more than hates the other family members
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