Around Town – Stage Raw Los Angeles Theater Column by Myron Meisel
"Greg Kalleres’ Honky shows little mercy in producing squirms of recognition and insecure identification for both white and black audiences, in illuminatingly different ways. Its satiric thrust can be uncannily accurate, and the genuine laughs tend to be accompanied by stinging pricks of bloodletting." -- by MYRON MEISEL
"For so steeped has our culture become in Beckett’s brand of nihilist vaudeville, that his once forbidding obscurity has flowered into ironic delight as we embrace the ironies of forlorn despair with enthused empathy." -- by MYRON MEISEL
"I found Dirt to be a moving contemplation of the intersections of science and philosophy, full of concrete human details that heighten one’s sense of our implication in the natural world beyond our own egocentrism." -- by MYRON MEISEL
"The world premiere of Fallujah, with libretto by Heather Raffo and music by Tobin Stokes, manifests such immediate urgency that I implore you to secure your tickets to the few remaining performances before finishing this review." -- by MYRON MEISEL
"Broken Fences, Steven Simoncic’s smart, entertaining and illuminating addition to the subgenre, receives a deft and sensitive production at the Road on Magnolia: it’s an exemplary social issue play that, while neither difficult nor complex, clearly evidences a deep appreciation for the difficulties of complex situations." -- by MYRON MEISEL
"Of course, while Bernstein was sympathetically attuned to the political ramifications of the themes, in the end Candide plays just as aptly as a critique of the persistent sunniness of the American musical (whether Broadway or Hollywood) ostensibly demanded by audiences. " -- by MYRON MEISEL
"One can tell that the new year is beginning for theater when encountering two solo performances in a single week, thereby already making a heavy dent in my allotment of the form. (Without some effort at resistance and selectivity, one can overreach the limits of tolerance well before summer.) Luckily, both these contrasting exemplars are exceptional entries, well worth redeeming your ration coupons for. " -- by MYRON MEISEL
"However, the secret weapon that truly elevates the Cirque beyond mere jaw-dropping extravaganza remains its resolutely ingenious showmanship, anchored by an unstinting commitment to create a meaningful context for all its dexterous derring-do through a fully realized and consistent theatrical vision." -- BY MYRON MEISEL
The perquisites of privilege are so inescapably fulsome and intrinsically unfair, and so inadequately copped to, that it may just be impossible for such men to behave well enough in a world that favors us so reflexively to the detriment of the validity and opportunity of everyone else. Lee milks the hapless absurdity of this existential quandary both for derisive laughs and a scintilla of poignant pathos. — BY MYRON MEISEL
In her own prolix and pixilated way, Churchill achieves a mastery of economic tone. By contrast, in his immensely satisfying latest play, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, Athol Fugard, perhaps our greatest living playwright, condenses his dramatic gestures beyond the merely epigrammatic into concentrated essences. -- BY MYRON MEISEL