Ending out the 12 months with a couple of final notes…2023 has been a jubilee of stage. Los Angeles theater made a tidal wave comeback with authentic in addition to touring productions to expertise. Homes massive and small have been open for enterprise and illuminated reside storytelling – with love. Onward!
Critiques by Tracey Paleo, Gia On The Transfer
ZOMBIE JOE’S, A CHRISTMAS CAROL
ZJU hadn’t introduced this manufacturing again for a minimum of a decade. And it was as macabre recent as one would think about it to have been in its premiere. Collaborating with Pressure of Nature Productions, they took the newest Instagram HO-HO-NO vacation meme about scaring wealthy individuals into generosity deadly-serious. Definitively one in every of ZJU’s greatest productions this 12 months. It’s all the pieces Fa-la-la-la-la combined with vacation guilt scare ways minus the malevolence. Joe himself makes an look as Jacob Marley’s ghost with the very best writing within the script (in fact!). Nevertheless it’s the ensemble work that retains the flavour on this celebratory creepy comedy.
BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY on the Beverly Hills Playhouse
Can a man get a break? Apparently not devoted insurance coverage salesman Bob, who desires of quitting his household’s E-Z Insurance coverage Company in Neuterberg, IOWA, and leaving city to turn out to be an inventor of…one thing!
Devoted to its 26-year theater custom, BOB’S OFFICE HOLIDAY PARTY, delivered unyielding hilarity, hysteria, and all-out zaniness to audiences on the Beverly Hills Playhouse this season. Rob Elk (co-writer and Bob Finhead), Joe Keyes (co-writer and Sheriff Joe Walker), Pat Towne (Mayor Roy Mincer), Peter Breitmayer (Elwin Bewee), Judy Heneghan (LaDonna Johnson), Johanna McKay (LaVoris Johnson), Mark Fite (Marty), Andrea Hutchman (Margie Mincer) and Sirena Irwin’s antics for the Dec fifteenth efficiency (Carol/Brandy) have been like promenade evening gone unsuitable besides at Christmas with high-school stage (literal) rest room humor, drunken stupor brawling, and probably the most large breakout session of repressed sexuality on public show. In a phrase…epic. Small-town QAnon-inspired conservatism at its greatest! Directed by Matt Roth. And keep tuned Bobophiles. There shall be a BOB’S SUMMER BASH the place Joe’s spouse Dotty wants a toe eliminated however has no medical insurance. Be part of the mailing record for the replace.
TROUBADOR THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS WHITE (ALBUM) CHRISTMAS on the Colony
Celebrating 20+ years of Troubie Holidaze, Saturday, December seventeenth’s efficiency was nothing lower than SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR! And we’re, “merely having a beautiful Christmas time.” The Troubies mixed basic White Christmas film melodrama with the Beatles’ White Album and a smidge of Addam’s Household Values on the facet. Audiences took a pleasant stroll again in time to post-WWII America. You realize the story. A profitable two-guy song-and-dance staff turns into romantically concerned with a sister act and groups as much as save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding normal. However, in fact, that’s not all. In true Troubie fashion, all bets are off on all the pieces story. However in the event you’re in search of the definitive various uber vacation particular, the WHITE (ALBUM) CHRISTMAS will fulfill even your most fantastical theater leisure needs.
A CHRISTMAS STORY THE MUSICAL on the Ahmanson Theatre
Typically the film actually is best. Dorky Nineteen Forties Ralphie Parker charmed us along with his 9-year-old escapades within the 1983 Christmas comedy movie based mostly on Jean Shepherd’s semi-fictional anecdotes in his 1966 e book, In God We Belief: All Others Pay Money. However this new musical model of a timeless story a couple of boy whose Christmas fantasy is a Pink Ryder Carbine Motion 200-shot Vary Mannequin Air Rifle is only a bit outdated.
It might be that trying a full-length musical a couple of brief account of a humorous incident actually isn’t sufficient to go on. A minimum of on the Ahmanson stage. The forged was nothing in need of marvelous. However the songs fell flat. It’s a feminist mother nightmare (thanks for placing us again within the 40s – um) and the gun materials, weirdly feels misplaced in 2023, even in a cheery vacation story. Contemplating that the e book is by playwright, Tony-award nominee, and Drama Desk nominee Joseph Robinette who has authored or co-authored 55 revealed performs and musicals, it’s a wash. As a play for youngsters – candy.
LINES IN THE DUST on the Matrix Theatre
Regardless of her Pulitzer nomination and her present as a creator, Black playwright Nikkole Salter’s solo work has by no means graced her hometown’s phases in Los Angeles – till now. This reality alone epitomizes the struggles confronted by Black artists in our neighborhood, exacerbated by the pandemic’s far-reaching impacts, leaving many establishments in disaster. But, inside this disaster, a chance emerges—an opportunity to rebuild, re-imagine, and refocus our collective consideration on the voices which have lengthy been marginalized.
And with that…Salter’s, LINES IN THE DUST, a West Coast Premiere presentation by Collaborative Artists Bloc, on the Matrix Theatre has promptly edited that pandemic with a sensible new play that not solely options two sensible, feminine, African-American actors however exceptionally written and choreographed characters. And, experiencing multi-dimensional girls who give bad-ass a brand new identify in one of the simplest ways is refreshing. It’s a stunner.
When Denitra loses the constitution faculty lottery for her daughter, she should discover one other method to escape from their underperforming neighborhood faculty. The reply looks like a danger effectively value taking, however it might find yourself requiring an even bigger sacrifice than she ever might have imagined. Set over a half-century after Brown vs. Board of Training, Traces within the Mud explores how far we’ve come, and extra importantly, the place we go from right here.
MJ THE MUSICAL on the Hollywood Pantages
One of the vital intimate musical narrative biopics of 2023, MJ THE MUSICAL is a triumph for playwright Lynn Nottage and a celebratory homage to the King of Pop. Learn the total assessment.
