Willy Russel's Blood Brothers at the Whitefire Theater

This is a review by guest critic, Jeremy Lake.

Willy Russell’s BLOOD BROTHERS, continues to live on despite the 25 year span from its London debut. Bryan Rasmussen, directs this version of the Olivier Award-winning and Tony-nominated musical, at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks.

Rasmussen, successfully integrates a complicated testimony of the battle between British social hierarchies while using a talented, multi-ethnic cast of Los Angelenos . It’s an eerie correlation between the economic clash in the play to our country’s current financial crisis with this American cast.

This is the story of a struggling lower class mother, Mrs. Johnstone (Pamela Taylor) who burdened by financial strains gives up her newborn twin boys, Mickey and Eddie, to her barren upper class employer, Mrs. Lyons (Judy Norton). The twins, played by Eduardo Enrikez and Ryan Nealy, are raised in separate social classes despite growing up in the same neigborhood but through fate, become best of friends. Over the years, their bond is tested by economic stresses and the rivalry over the love of a woman named Linda (Sita Young).

The era of the play is noticeable in dialogue and musical style. However, it’s a bit like drinking a fine wine with new grapes from an old vine. One must note its history to appreciate the flavor.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

“Arpsnarpflarpbarpgarpnarpdarpmarp means, ‘I love you.’” If you’re an alien in Jonas Oppenheim’s debut musical Earth Sucks.

This latest stage play, from the award winning playwright, is a fun trip back to teenage love and an adventure with people from “a galaxy far, far away”.

“The story was inspired by The Carpenter’s song ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’ and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust concert”, said Oppenheim, during an interview after Sunday night’s show.

A large cast, of over a dozen characters, are squeezed onto the cozy Art|Works theatre stage. Echo Bell, played by Emily Stern, is an all American teenage girl. She’s tired of her loser boyfriend, sick of home life and thinks everything on Earth basically sucks. With her head in the stars, she’s visited by a runaway rock band from space, the Citizens of Earth.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

“Ooooooooh….The Wizard will see you now!”

If that sound-bite from the commercials for Wicked does not ring any bells, then maybe it’s time to come out from under that rock and listen to the radio or watch a bit of television.

Wicked, the Broadway musical now in its second year at the Pantages Theater, depicts the story of the witches of Oz before they were…well, the witches of Oz. It plays as a both a prequel and a parallel story to the original The Wizard of Oz, with the main question posed by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North: Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?

Based on the popular novel by Gregory Maguire, the musical is reasonably paced with proper attention given to each major player. In addition to Glinda, there is Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West; Fiyero, the self-absorbed pretty boy; Nessarose, Elphaba’s handicapped sister; Doctor Dillamond, the talking goat professor; and, of course, the Wizard. Central to the story is Elphaba’s opposition to the gradual repression of animals and their ability to speak, as well as her developing relationship with Glinda, her college roommate. In retelling the story from the witches point of view, the audience sees what events led to Elphaba’s supposed demise. But was her demise warranted or was she the victim of series of tragic events?

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

Drew Larimore, a playwright from Kentucky, is bringing his EVVY Award winning “Best Dramatic Script,” TOUCH, to L.A this weekend. Larimore wrote his first play when he was in the 3rd grade and hasn’t stopped since.

His passion for writing and list of accomplishments is an inspiration for many of us. He is the creator of the Boston-based playwrights group The Red Hand Collective and a member of Circle East Theatre Company in New York. His ten-minute play THE QUINTESSENTIAL RAPPORT was a finalist in the 2002 National Ten-Minute Play Competition. He has three plays currently in production in Melbourne, Sydney, Boston, and Hollywood.

After traveling over much of the world and participating in many amazing productions, he had a chance to speak with LA.CityZine and tell us a little about himself and his play TOUCH.

This Saturday, Drew will be doing a reading of his new work TOUCH at WINTERFEST. There is detailed information on the event following the interview. [ Read The Full Story -> ]

Listening to a writer is a really cool experience. When you’re reading a book, it’s rare that you ask yourself, “Hey, I wonder what the guy looks like who just wrote that line?” Wonder what his voice sounds like? He might be totally boring. Or he may very well resemble a total non-writer, body-building jock. It’s so fun to me to see the face behind the words. Oh, and listen to them too.

We hear about concerts and movies all the time, but it’s rare that Friday night plans involve going out for dinner, a few drinks, and a literary session. But, from hearing writers speak before, I can say that it’s not a bore whatsoever.

Here are a few amazing speakers, I’ve found coming up in the next month, Steven Sondheim hosted by Frank Rich, and Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert. All at the beautiful Royce Hall, right off of Sunset Blvd. on the UCLA campus.

For details click below the jump:

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

For those of you inclined to the arts and for those of you who have never seen anything with”dance” and “theater” in the same sentence, here is an interesting and innovative show for all walks of life. Invertigo Dance Theatre will be bringing you three new works by choreographer Laura Karlin, with twisted narratives, playful imagery, and intense physicality.

Seven artists from divers backgrounds come together to form these amazing pieces of work. The first work, Leap Year Waltzes, consists of (you guessed it) leaps and waltzes like you’ve never seen before. Then there is in(di)visible which deals with ideas of gender identity, internal struggle through the use of characters performing in tromp l’oeil (trick on the eye) costumes. The last work is, Interior Design, where a man and a woman, move together, to create a new living space with their own internal design.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

I recently had the opportunity to take in some theatre right here in Los Angeles. My destination was the Attic Theater in West LA. Say You Love Satan is the story of Andrew, a personable and effervescent gay man living in Baltimore who falls for the son of the Devil, who calls himself Jack. At first glance, the concept is interesting but the problem with this play is the earnest way it attempts to blend camp with the horrific reality of having an affair with the spawn of Satan. But that’s not where I had the most trouble.

Andrew narrates throughout; commenting on everything from the difficulty of writing his Dostoevsky dissertation to how unbelievable it is that the handsome, sculpted (and very often shirtless) Jack would fall for Everyman Andrew. The asides prove troublesome a third of the way through as they stunt the growth of any possibility of the scenes fully developing. But that’s not where I had the most trouble either.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

This week we have a few musicals that have enjoyed some Broadway buzz in the past. I highly recommend Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (this one is not a musical), although I’ll have to wait and see how this production fares, but with a Charles Busch play—the campier the better!

All Shook Up -

Musical Theatre West presets the rock ‘n’ roll musical peppered with Elvis classics. Derek Keeling heads the cast. Standard jukebox musical. Good, if you like Elvis music. Not so good if you like a good story.

Carpenter Performing Arts Center
6200 Atherton St., Long Beach (Map)
More info at: musical.org

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The Walken’s are back, and they’ve brought their dysfunctional little family to a new home!Fresh off of VH1’s “Free Radio”, the hilarious comedy group is back in Hollywood for 6 shows ONLY! The comedy group whose purpose is to make you laugh by taking the piss out of the notorious Christopher Walken will be performing in the beautiful THEATRE 68 on Thursdays from February 28th to April 3rd.For more information on how to RSVP read on. [ Read The Full Story -> ]

After the opening night performance of Bryony Lavery’s news Tony nominated play Frozen, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to the director, Billy Hayes. We were able to discuss his role as director in the play and why Frozen was the perfect choice for him. The main theme of the play is forgiveness, which Hayes knows quite a bit about from his time spent in a Turkish prison. He documented his ordeal in his book, Midnight Express (later made into an Academy Award winning film by the same name directed by Alan Parker and with a screenplay by Oliver Stone.) But it is theatre that ultimately saved his life.

OM: How did you become involved with this production?

BH: One of the actors was doing a tap and dance class and my lawyer was in there and she mentioned to him that they were looking for a director and she calls me and I read the play and immediately was hooked. It’s such a wonderful play.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

The notorious case of “thrill” killers Leopold and Loeb has been fodder for books, plays, and movies that have taken creative liberties with the story. But Daniel Henning, the writer and director of Dickie and Babe: The Truth About Leopold and Loeb makes it plain that he considers his production quite unlike the others. The Blank Theater’s press release for the production refers to the piece as a “documentary play” and insists that what happens on stage “all happened” in real life.

What happened in Chicago in 1924 was this: Richard “Dickie” Loeb and Nathan “Babe” Leopold, two privileged and accomplished 18 and 19-year-olds, were charged with the kidnapping and murder of 14-year old Bobby Franks. The subsequent trial was what we today would call a media circus, and the boys were represented by Clarence Darrow, who would become famous with this case and even more famous a year later for his part in the Scopes “Monkey” trial.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

Some subjects can strike a nerve—taboo subjects that no one wants to talk about. Watching a dramatization of it on stage can further push people beyond their comfort level. Yet, theatre pushes forward and forces the audience to face these taboos. Bryony Lavery’s 2004 Tony nominated play, Frozen, directed by award-winning director/actor Billy Hayes playing at the Lillian Theatre, focuses on the lives of three people who are connected by one thing: the abduction and murder of a young girl by a pedophile and how it those three people for the next twenty years.

A young girl is sent on an errand to her grandmother’s house but she never makes it there and she never returns home. Her mother, Nancy (Jennete Goldstein), is left without resolution and uncertainty of her daughter’s condition. Over the course of twenty years, she becomes a spokesperson for an organization that helps unite parents with children that have disappeared from their lives—she still has hope that her own daughter will one day walk through her door and tell her she is finally home. It is not until years later that she learns the tragic outcome of her young child. [ Read The Full Story -> ]