recent programs
All the World's a Stage
Thursday, September 28, 2006. [ MORE ]

Greek to Mee & Classic Getty [Listen]
It's always been a great irony that Santa Monica's most avant-garde, European-style theater is next door to a Hooters restaurant. This juxtaposition reaches even more ridiculous heights this month as City Garage stages The Bacchae, Charles Mee's radical reworking of the tragedy by Euripides which tells of lusty females who devote their lives to the god of sexuality... Thursday, September 21, 2006. [ MORE ]

Pageant of Disasters [Listen]
The urge to recreate famous paintings is seemingly innate. How many times has Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" been imitated or parodied in photographs, movies, and even at large family dinners? Here in Southern California, that urge has yielded an entire festival devoted to re-creating famous paintings. Each summer, Laguna Beach hosts the "The Pageant of the Masters" where giant, life-size versions of paintings (like "The Last Supper") are recreated with real people in elaborate sets and costumes... Thursday, September 14, 2006. [ MORE ]

Serious Celebrities [Listen]
Thursday, September 7, 2006. [ MORE ]

Kings and Crustaceans [Listen]
The great Polish critic Jan Kott wrote that "King Lear gives one the impression of a high mountain that everyone admires, yet no one particularly wants to climb." Indeed, for hundreds of years after Shakespeare's tragedy was written, no one did perform it. Bastardized versions of the play that cut characters and tacked on happy endings were often staged; but it wasn't until the 19th century, over 200 years after Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of King Lear that it could be seen as a tragedy...
Thursday, August 31, 2006. [ MORE ]

Curtains [Listen]
American musicals: They just don't make 'em like they used to... well, almost. Last week, Los Angeles hosted the world premiere of Curtains, a new musical comedy written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. This duo wrote their first Broadway show together 41 years ago and would go on to pen Cabaret and Chicago--not to mention a little ditty titled New York, New York. At the time of Mr. Ebb's death in 2004, the songwriting team was working on four musicals, and one of these was Curtains. With the help of Rupert Holmes and director Scott Ellis, Curtains was completed and brought to the Ahmanson Theatre, were it received a warm reception at a celebrity-filled opening night last Wednesday...
Thursday, August 24, 2006. [ MORE ]

Little Women, Tall Fences [Listen]
In Chapter 46 of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the character of Jo thinks to herself: "What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?" In her play The Sisters Rosensweig, written a mere 121 years after Little Women, Wendy Wasserstein makes the answer quite clear: simply gather in your sister's posh London sitting room for two days trading wisecracks and soon your troubles will be gone...

Thursday, August 10, 2006. [ MORE ]

Snakes & Shakes [Listen]
Nothing kills a death scene faster than a rubber snake. The final scene of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra calls for the Queen of the Nile to die at the fangs of poisonous asps. Of course common sense (not to mention equity regulations) rule out actual snake bites on stage, but in Act III of Theatricum Botanicum's new production of the Bard's last, great tragedy, Cleopatra enters wearing a live python...
Thursday, August 3, 2006. [ MORE ]

Ironies & Pyrenees [Listen]
Of the many consequences resulting from the terror attacks of September 11th, one was supposed to be the death of irony. Yet a quick pulse check, with 9/11's 5-year anniversary only a few weeks away, suggests that irony is alive and well...
Thursday, July 27, 2006. [ MORE ]

Feast of Fools [Listen]
Two giant personalities, who also happen to be fools, are made even larger this month on two of L.A.’s smaller stages. First, Valere, the main character in David Hirson’s 1991 play La Bête. Valere is a street performer in 17th century France. Valere is also a fool—but he’s an ambitious, gregarious, self-obsessed fool who overwhelms anyone who tries to impede or improve his musings...
Thursday, July 20, 2006. [ MORE ]

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