Los Angeles
CHANGE MY LOCATION
News By Topic
Jean Schiffman
Life and love in The City
- Imagine a cross between TV’s “Friends” and Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” and you have an idea of “Insignificant Others,” composer/lyricist L. Jay Kuo’s sweet-and-silly (and poignant) musical valentine to young homo- and heterosexual love in San Francisco.
- Imagine a cross between TV’s “Friends” and Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” and you have an idea of “Insignificant Others,” composer/lyricist L. Jay Kuo’s sweet-and-silly (and poignant) musical valentine to young homo- and heterosexual love in San Francisco.
An elegant noir thriller — presented Word for Word
- In a way, Word for Word is slumming — but deliciously so — with its theatricalization of noir writer Cornell Woolrich’s 1937 “Angel Face.” The ensemble is known for staging works of literary fiction — chapters of novels or short stories by great writers — verbatim, the “he saids,” “she saids,” etc. distributed among the characters in ways that are deeply revealing. Yet this murder mystery is genre fiction, hardly great literature.
‘Not Fitting,’ but funny
- Things are so mystifying in the opening segments of Will Franken’s new solo show at the Marsh, “Grandpa It’s Not Fitting,” it took me awhile to connect with the lanky, wild-eyed writer/performer. What are we to make of a recorded song about ejaculating into a swan, and a meandering, extended sequence in which an amplified voice-over intones repetitive stage directions as Franken, in a lab coat, gazes quizzically at the tech booth and telephones a terminal breast cancer patient, represented by a gnatlike buzzing in his ear?
- Things are so mystifying in the opening segments of Will Franken’s new solo show at the Marsh, “Grandpa It’s Not Fitting,” it took me awhile to connect with the lanky, wild-eyed writer/performer. What are we to make of a recorded song about ejaculating into a swan, and a meandering, extended sequence in which an amplified voice-over intones repetitive stage directions as Franken, in a lab coat, gazes quizzically at the tech booth and telephones a terminal breast cancer patient, represented by a gnatlike buzzing in his ear?
Review: Mime troupe makes 'Killing'
- ll the ingredients were there at Dolores Park on the Fourth of July: radicalized crowds, hot sun, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence offering an ersatz convocation — and, for the 48th year, the San Francisco Mime Troupe opening its latest original, leftist, musical political satire.
“Making a Killing” is one of the troupe’s best, textually: Written by Michael Gene Sullivan with Jon Brooks, it’s a tightly plotted military “murder-most-foul” mystery, smoothly limned by the usual suspects in multiple roles, most of them longtime members of the troupe.
And though you probably won’t go out humming this year’s not-especially memorable musical numbers (score by Pat Moran, who also performs some small roles and plays in the three-person “Army band”; lyrics by Moran, additional lyrics by Velina Brown), this spot-on, witty critique of American government propaganda about the Iraq war certainly compensates.
The action plays out on the troupe’s portable stage with compact side closets for characters to pop out of (design by Jon Wai-Keung Lowe).
In the military-trial framing device, a histrionic prosecutor (Lisa Hori-Garcia) sets out to prove that Cpl. Jones (Victor Toman) — a newspaper reporter assigned to write a puff piece about the American-built hospital for children in a cancer-cluster Iraqi village — murdered idealistic new recruit and co-reporter Cpl. Johnson (Kevin Rolston).
A blustering Col. Randolph (Sullivan) is the
- ll the ingredients were there at Dolores Park on the Fourth of July: radicalized crowds, hot sun, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence offering an ersatz convocation — and, for the 48th year, the San Francisco Mime Troupe opening its latest original, leftist, musical political satire.“Making a Killing” is one of the troupe’s best, textually: Written by Michael Gene Sullivan with Jon Brooks, it’s a tightly plotted military “murder-most-foul” mystery, smoothly limned by the usual suspects in multiple roles, most of them longtime members of the troupe.
And though you probably won’t go out humming this year’s not-especially memorable musical numbers (score by Pat Moran, who also performs some small roles and plays in the three-person “Army band”; lyrics by Moran, additional lyrics by Velina Brown), this spot-on, witty critique of American government propaganda about the Iraq war certainly compensates.
The action plays out on the troupe’s portable stage with compact side closets for characters to pop out of (design by Jon Wai-Keung Lowe).
In the military-trial framing device, a histrionic prosecutor (Lisa Hori-Garcia) sets out to prove that Cpl. Jones (Victor Toman) — a newspaper reporter assigned to write a puff piece about the American-built hospital for children in a cancer-cluster Iraqi village — murdered idealistic new recruit and co-reporter Cpl. Johnson (Kevin Rolston).
A blustering Col. Randolph (Sullivan) is the
Mime troupe makes ‘Killing’
- All the ingredients were there at Dolores Park on the Fourth of July: radicalized crowds, hot sun, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence offering an ersatz convocation — and, for the 48th year, the San Francisco Mime Troupe opening its latest original, leftist, musical political satire.
- All the ingredients were there at Dolores Park on the Fourth of July: radicalized crowds, hot sun, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence offering an ersatz convocation — and, for the 48th year, the San Francisco Mime Troupe opening its latest original, leftist, musical political satire.
Hilarity is not ‘Imaginary’ in ACT play
- American Conservatory Theater’s world-premiere adaptation of 17th-century French playwright Moliere’s last play, “The Imaginary Invalid,” begins with a trio of doctors in commedia masks singing a Gilbert-and-Sullivanesque ditty about being quacks (“If it ducks, then it’s a quack,” goes the refrain).
- American Conservatory Theater’s world-premiere adaptation of 17th-century French playwright Moliere’s last play, “The Imaginary Invalid,” begins with a trio of doctors in commedia masks singing a Gilbert-and-Sullivanesque ditty about being quacks (“If it ducks, then it’s a quack,” goes the refrain).
‘Anna’ mythic, startling, tragic
- On the face of it, “Anna Bella Eema” is about an agoraphobic single mother and her preternaturally bright 10-year-old, Anna Bella, the last holdouts in a trailer park about to be demolished to make way for an interstate freeway. It’s a simple, all-American setup that naturally elicits empathy for the disenfranchised.
- On the face of it, “Anna Bella Eema” is about an agoraphobic single mother and her preternaturally bright 10-year-old, Anna Bella, the last holdouts in a trailer park about to be demolished to make way for an interstate freeway. It’s a simple, all-American setup that naturally elicits empathy for the disenfranchised.
Evening of short plays delights
- Throughout the year, artistic director James A. Kleinmann’s PlayGround helps selected local writers develop new works, eventually showcasing the best of the resulting short-shorts on a single bill. Those on offer in this 11th annual festival — all written in response to eclectic assigned topics — are a mixed bag but comprise a delightful evening.
- Throughout the year, artistic director James A. Kleinmann’s PlayGround helps selected local writers develop new works, eventually showcasing the best of the resulting short-shorts on a single bill. Those on offer in this 11th annual festival — all written in response to eclectic assigned topics — are a mixed bag but comprise a delightful evening.
