Coming in January: KING LEAR at The Studio/Stage

What to do after you've seen 12 different tellings of the plight of Ebenezer Scrooge? Come see a man with REAL problems. The Porters of Hellsgate mount a production of William Shakespeare's KING LEAR, set to open at The Studio/Stage January 4th.

The Porters have a long history of presenting the works of the Bard in an entertaining and accessible way, so it will certainly be exciting to see how they interpret one of Shakespeare's most tragic figures.

"King Lear has divided his kingdom among his three daughters. Deceived by age and pride, he banishes his youngest daughter, blind to her devotion and the greed and cruelty of his two eldest. Lear is cast out by his eldest daughters into a raging storm and forced to keep company with fools and madmen, while Gloucester's bastard son Edmund schemes against his half-brother Edgar. Tension mounts as sanity is lost, sight is taken, and war breaks out for control of the kingdom in the Bard's stunning meditation on aging, family and hysteria." - The Porters of Hellsgate

Beginning January 4, 2013, the production will run Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm with Sunday matinees at 5pm through January 27th. Subsequent performances will run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm through February 9th. Cast talk-backs will take place the 2nd and 4th Sundays.

The Studio/Stage is located at:
520 N. Western Avenue
Los Angeles 90004

Tickets are $20 ($15 for students/seniors/AEA).
Make your reservations by clicking here: http://PortersLear.brownpapertickets.com

Start your new year off right by supporting independent theatre.

Shakespeare, the dead, and the end of the world...

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare. Produced by the always talented and entertainment Porter of Hellsgate, this show is running now through 10/28 at The Whitmore Theatre (11006 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood). Tickets are $20, $15 for students/seniors 60+/AEA. Reservations are available online via BrownPaperTickets.com

West Adams 'Living History Tour' presented by the West Adams Heritage Association. This one day only event is THIS WEEKEND. Saturday, September 29th actors will portray select people who have been interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. This year's tour will feature athletes, musicians, magicians and Marilyn Monroe's dear grandmother. Tours depart every 25 minutes from 9 am to 12 noon; Reservations are required (and they sell out, so truly you should have bought them already). If you're lucky a few may still remain; visit www.WestAdamsHeritage.org, call 323-732-4223 or email  tours@westadamsheritage.org to find out.

The city has told us to stay off the freeways this weekend, but hundreds of artists and community leaders (including our good friends at the Hollywood Fringe Festival) are encouraging us to take to the streets! ARTmageddon is upon us! September 29 & 30, ride your bike to local art happenings near you. Support local art by experiencing the performances, concerts, screenings, exhibitions and more, being created and presented in your own backyard.

Visit www.ARTmageddonLA.com to discover listings for art happening near you.

Romeo and Juliet at Actors Circle Theater

Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare


Actors Circle Theater
(7313 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood 90046)


A production of Coeurage Theatre Company


Date of reviewed performance: April 27, 2012


Cast
Romeo - Jonas Barranca
Gregory - Kristopher Lee Bicknell
Sampson - Joe Desoto
Friar Laurence - Noah Gillett
Peter - Gedaly Guberek
Lady Montague - Aimee Karlin
Lady Capulet - Mary Jo Kirwan
Benvolio - Graham Kurtz
Paris - John Klopping
Nurse - Lynn Ann Leveridge
Tybalt - TJ Marchbank
Balthasar - Jeffrey Masters
Prince Escalus - Ryan Miller
Montague - Lawrence Peters
Capulet - Franc Ross
Mercutio - Deven Simonson
Juliet - Sammi Smith
Abram - M. Jennings Turner


Romeo and Juliet has been produced so many times, even the most infrequent of theatre patrons will be able to compare one production they’ve seen to another for better or worse. Luckily for us, Coeurage’s production falls squarely in the “for better” category.

Director Jeremy Lelliott smartly fills the show with the kind of visual bawdiness that would make the Bard proud. The result is a multitude of memorable performances, with many from unexpected places. It’s a production that gives the text the reverence it is due while still allowing teenagers to be exactly what they are.

Sammi Smith delivers a breathtakingly realistic Juliet. She has the requisite innocence, yes, but she also has strength and determination. She is not a Juliet merely led by the stars in her eyes – the decisions she makes are clearly her own. Ryan Miller may have produced one of the only memorable Prince Escalus’s in recent history. Mr. Miller’s Escalus is angry; he takes the Montague/Capulet feud terribly personally and scolds Verona’s citizens with the passion of a parent trying desperately to keep their children from harm.  We also have a slightly different take on Mercutio.  Deven Simonson portrays Romeo’s childhood friend as bit of an ass. The audience may weep slightly less for this Mercutio when he dies, but until then we have a smart-mouthed, lewd older teen who reminds us of every other teenaged punk we’ve ever known. His energy is nothing less than magnetic (and he grabs his crotch enough times to be an honorary member of a boy band).

Another standout feature in this production is the fight choreography. TJ Marchbank, who also plays Tybalt, did an amazing job writing these fights. They are impressive and entertaining to watch while remaining simple and clean.


The show runs (intermission included) two and a half hours. Often, the actors seem as though they are all too aware of this fact. The lines are largely delivered very quickly, but some of the actors aren’t capable of reciting and emoting while speaking clearly at that pace. Merely slowing down would likely cure the hiccups that ensue, but the ever present clock won’t allow it.


Hiccups or none, this is one of the most exciting Romeo and Juliets I’ve seen in some time. You should see it before May 20^th and let me know how it compares to others you remember.

Romeo and Juliet runs through Friday, May 20^th, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 7:00pm. Tickets are “pay-what-you-want” and can be purchased in advance through their website or at the door. For more information, please visit http://www.coeurage.org/

Directed by Jeremy Lelliott

Assistant Director - Laura Crow

Stage Manager - Emily Page

Costume Design by Karen Fix Curry

Lighting Design by Michelle Stann

Choreography by Graham Kurtz

Fight Choreography by TJ Marchbank

Technical Director - Ric Perez-Selsky

Musical Director - Ryan Ayers

Voice & Text Coach - Gedaly Guberek

Waiting for Godot at Mark Taper Forum

Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett

Mark Taper Forum
(135 N. Grand, Los Angeles 90012)

A production of Center Theatre Group

Date of reviewed performance: April 10, 2012

Cast
Estragon - Alan Mandell
Vladimir - Barry McGovern
Pozzo - James Cromwell
Lucky - Hugo Armstrong
Boy - LJ Benet

Generally, I begin these reviews by taking a stab at summarizing the play’s plot. In this case, it may a practice best to skip as we deal with one of theatre’s most famous enigmas.

Waiting for Godot has no simple meaning. The play consists of five characters, a naked tree, a rock or two and the sky. Two of the characters are patiently waiting for Godot, a vague acquaintance of theirs whose pending arrival promises to deliver them to comfort and safety from a life of destitution and violence. One of the characters is a pompous sadist and another his broken slave barely hanging on to the end of his literal rope. The final character is a young messenger boy who arrives on two occasions to announce that Godot will not arrive as planned.

Waiting for Godot is an allegory through which theater patrons have been ritualistically searching for meaning since 1953. There are those who feel certain that Godot is a thinly veiled stand-in for God - though Beckett himself has said that Godot does not symbolize God. It is even said that Beckett came to regret naming the absent character with such a phonetic kinsman that it would give rise to those assertions. The keys to the rest of the symbolism are even more elusive.

Although the show is a puzzling parable, the performance Michael Arabian has staged is a clear victory in every way. Alan Mandell delivers a sensitive, heart-tugging performance as the tattered and tired Estragon (or “Gogo”). He is reminiscent of everyone you have ever met that you have wanted to scoop up and take care of, even as they continue putting one foot in front of the other anyway.

The rest of the cast is also excellent. Barry McGovern wonderfully plays fellow vagrant Vladimir - an optimistic sort with a plan (albeit a passive one); James Cromwell turns in a masterful performance as the egotist Pozzo; Hugo Armstrong as the long-suffering slave, Lucky, and LJ Benet as angelic errand boy (“Boy”) complete the perfect cast.

Other highlights of the show include the costume designs of Christopher Acebo and the projection design of Brian Gale. The costumes are all so well conceived and actualized that each piece speaks volumes without the actors within them saying a word. Similarly, a projection of a lonely man walking in silhouette towards the audience at the very start of the show brings home the isolation of Vladimir and Estragon's world in the most efficient and intense of ways.  

Waiting for Godot runs through Sunday, April 22nd, however weeknight performances are now sold out. Tickets can still be had for  2:30pm and 8:00pm on Saturday, April 21st and 1:00pm and 6:30pm on Sunday, April 22nd. Ticket prices range from $45 to $70 and can be purchase through Center Theatre Group's website. For more information, call 213-628-2772.

Directed by Michael Arabian
Stage Manager - Susie Walsh
Set Design by John Iacovelli
Costume Design by Christopher Acebo
Lighting and Projection Design by Brian Gale
Casting by Erika Sellin

American Idiot at Ahmanson Theatre

Green Day's American Idiot
Music by Green Day
Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong
Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer

Ahmanson Theatre
(135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012)

Date of reviewed performance: March 27, 2012

Cast
Johnny - Van Hughes
Will - Jake Epstein
Tunny - Scott J. Campbell
Heather - Leslie McDonel
Whatsername - Gabrielle McClinton
St. Jimmy - Joshua Kobak
The Extraordinary Girl - Nicci Claspbell
Ensemble - Talia Aaron
Ensemble - Krystina Alabado
Ensemble - Gabriel Antonacci
Ensemble - Larkin Bogan
Ensemble - Jennifer Bowles
Ensemble - Matt DeAngelis
Ensemble - Dan Gleason
Ensemble - Kelvin Moon Loh
Ensemble - Jarran Muse
Ensemble - Okieriete Onaodowan

What happens when a faux punk band takes the art of selling out one step further and creates faux theater? Green Day's American Idiot.

Based on tracks off Green Day's 2004 album of the same name, the show follows three vaguely angry male friends over the course of a year. Why are they so pissed? Who knows. All we need to know is that they are. One buys bus passes so the three can split town... and the half-hearted attempt at a story ends there.  Things happen at random (hook ups, break ups, drug addictions, jobs). It's like watching a series of live-action music videos.  If you're a big fan of Green Day's music, then perhaps that will be enough for you.  However, for those of us who go to a Center Theatre Group production expecting to see theater, this show is nothing but a disappointment. There isn't a single persona with a redeeming virtue, leaving the audience to put up with a cast of unrelatable (and don't forget vaguely angry) characters. In fact, some audience members didn't put up with them. In my section alone there were half a dozen walk-outs before the performance was half over.

But who needs a storyline or likable characters when you have dancing? There is a lot of dancing. This could be really entertaining if it weren't basically the same dance to every song. This "rock musical" has some of the laziest choreography I've ever seen.  They try to make dance numbers more exciting by flashing lots (lots!!) of strobe lights, but that's just irritating after a while. Perhaps they should have added more cowbell.

The thing that irritates me the most about how awful this production is, is that Center Theatre Group has the deep pockets and visibility necessary to bring actual groundbreaking theater to Los Angeles but instead of getting behind something truly artistic and important they bring us this schlock. For that, I say to Center Theatre Group: Shame on you.

Green Day's American Idiot runs now through April 22nd. Tickets range from $25 to $120 and can be purchased through Center Theatre Group's website. For more information, call 213-628-2772.

Directed by Michael Mayer
Choreography by Steven Hoggett
Scenic Design by Christine Jones
Costume Design by Andrewa Lauer
Lighting Design by Kevin Adams
Sound Design by Brian Ronan
Music Director: Jared Stein
Stage Manager: Monica Dickhens