Devoted readers and new visitors: Stage and Cinema is undergoing a change. We will look largely the same but operating under a different system. Everything will be in order soon, so please bear with us. To find reviews that have been previously published, the old version of our site is still available at http://old.stageandcinema.com. Sorry [...]
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STREEPED DOWN TO NOTHING A friend called me and said that comedian Roy Cruz, who reenacted Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada) in his stand-up act, decided to collect an impressive array of actors to perform an evening of monologues from Meryl movies. You have to see Taylor Negron do Sophie’s Choice, [...]
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NOW IS THE WITHERS OF OUR DISCONTENT For 15 years, the Troubadour Theater Company (AKA, The Troubies) have amalgamated freely altered classics with music of a particular artist – creating riotous sketch/improv/entertainments that are liberally seasoned with an air of Commedia dell’Arte; this gives the immensely talented players the opportunity to act, sing, dance, improvise, [...]
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A MIXED DRAG If Parasite Drag were a product of Playwriting 101, its author, Mark Roberts, would be the brightest kid in the class. He has an ear for dialogue, a sure way of shaping a scene, and beautifully subtle insights into women, a rare enough gift these days, especially in a male playwright. And [...]
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PULL THE CHAIN AND FUDGE IS MADE! MilkMilkLemonade is the sweetest – and most incendiary – gay love story this reviewer has ever seen. It is the story of a couple of children – Emory, who wants to be a girl, and Elliot, a bully who torments Emory but who, of course, really likes him [...]
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WHEN A MARRIAGE GOES WRONG Let’s not pull any punches. The Los Angeles critical community is under attack. And this reviewer is leading the charge against them. Just as they admired en masse the woefully inadequate revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s How The Other Half Loves in Long Beach a few months ago, they have lavished [...]
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A TOWN CALLED ARNENE Black and white is the actor’s friend. So said Peter Bogdanovich, during his onstage appearance at the Plaza Classic Film Festival Aug. 14, before a screening of his 1971 masterpiece, The Last Picture Show. Bogdanovich was quoting his friend, Orson Welles, who was occasionally known to bum around the director’s home [...]
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EXPECT THE EXPECTED Is this all that I have to look forward to? Three or four decades of looking back to the good old days? While I remain at an age when I can effectively deny the presence of gray hairs, I’m still displeased with this future. When I’m 60, will I look back or [...]
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PREPARE TO ROLL YOUR MOISTENED EYES If you are into political rallies that are jam-packed with guilt-inducing inspiration, then bundle up your harmonica, washtub bass, guitar, picket signs, seat cushions, and picnic; call forth a sense of injustice, and march to the hippie hills of Topanga. No, you’re not on your way to a fundraiser [...]
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MILLER CLASSIC STILL DELIVERS Emmanuel Ax brought new life to Brahms Concerto No. 2 last week at the Hollywood Bowl. Should you then refuse to see the piece with another pianist? Of course not. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which received an astounding rendering recently at the Raven, deserves to be seen in the revival [...]
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