A shocking shrinkage of stage reviews at LA Times. CTG's 'One'-size season.
'Body's Midnight,' 'Misalliance,' 'Hitler's Tasters,' 'Pang Spa,' LTC season, 'North Country,' 'Topsy Turvy'
From April 16 to May 17, the LA Times didn’t review any theatrical productions in southern California.
During that month (or just before it began), at least 36 professional productions opened in greater LA, most of which are still playing. That’s not counting the productions that lasted no longer than a week, that were primarily for young audiences, or that were from small companies with scant history of previous reviews in the Times.
Instead of writing about any of those 36+ shows, Times theater critic Charles McNulty spent much of that month in New York, where he reviewed four Broadway shows and a filmed “Macbeth” that, according to his review, had only three screenings in Santa Monica in early May. He also wrote a commentary on the Broadway-only Tony Award nominations (expect more Tony overkill next month, when the awards are presented).
I’m not begrudging McNulty his time in New York. I too spent a few days back East last month.
No, I’m asking why the Times — still the single media institution that is most likely to be consulted by the greater LA theater audience — would publish no informed opinions of what’s happening in our own theater scene for an entire month.
Sure, the Times is struggling, laying off staff, but couldn’t it find a few bucks to pay one or two of its previous free-lance theater reviewers to assess the two world premieres that opened at South Coast Repertory, the trio of plays (two of which are premieres) that opened in Latino Theater Company’s spring season at the LA city-owned LATC, or any of the several world premieres in prestigious small theaters?
Even the first production that McNulty reviewed in LA after his New York sojourn wasn’t an LA-based production — it was the Pantages Theatre presentation of the Broadway tour of the 2017-born musical “Girl From the North Country.”
Only yesterday, more than a week after his “North Country” review, did McNulty (and therefore the Times) finally return to reviewing an LA-developed production, Shaw’s “Misalliance” at A Noise Within (see my thoughts on the production, below).
Will CTG’s ‘One’ be a singular sensation?
At least the Times ran some some theater news (as opposed to reviews) while McNulty was gone. The biggest news is that Center Theatre Group, which last year canceled its entire 2023-2024 season at the Mark Taper Forum, is re-opening subscriptions at the Taper — but, at least for now, only as part of its new “One CTG” package. That offering buys three 2024-2025 productions at the Taper and four at the larger Ahmanson Theatre next door, plus free parking for subscribers, starting in October.
It’s the first CTG season programmed by new artistic director Snehal Desai. I don’t normally list previews of theater seasons (which can change), but I’ll make an exception here, because CTG skipped the last season and so much apparently hinges on whether CTG’s new “One” system works. Here it is, in chronological order of productions:
Desai’s staging of Green Day’s “American Idiot,” in collaboration with LA’s Deaf West Theatre, at the Taper
Amy Sherman-Palladino’s adaptation of the 1959 Mary Rodgers/Marshall Barer musical “Once Upon a Mattress,” which was inspired by “The Princess and the Pea,” with Sutton Foster, at the Ahmanson
Larissa FastHorse’s satirical comedy “Fake It Until You Make It,” the long-delayed premiere of CTG’s first play by a Native American, at the Taper
The US premiere of “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends,” a revue with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga (among others), staged by Matthew Bourne, at the Ahmanson
Lolita Chakrabarti’s puppetry-saturated adaptation of Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi,” at the Ahmanson
Robert O’Hara’s new “Hitchcockian” rendition of “Hamlet,” at the Taper
Michael Arden’s recent revival of the 1998 Jason Robert Brown/Alfred Uhry musical “Parade,” about the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, at the Ahmanson.
That’s an extremely eclectic list. I hope CTG finds enough customers who are eager to see a wide range of programming within “One” subscription. They could make their choices even wider with add-on offers of tickets to two shows with shorter runs at the Ahmanson and the Taper, as well as two young people’s productions at the smaller Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
Neither the official announcement of the season nor the Times article about it mentioned that CTG already presented “American Idiot,” in March 2012, at the Ahmanson, as part of a Broadway tour. Michael Mayer, who had great success staging an earlier troubled-youth musical, “Spring Awakening,” had been given a lot of latitude by Green Day in adapting and directing the somewhat similarly-themed “American Idiot” — first in Berkeley, then Broadway. Coincidentally, the “Idiot” tour arrived at the Ahmanson at just about the same time that the first LA small-theater revival of “Spring Awakening” also opened in Hollywood. I wrote about both productions in the same column for the then-online publication of the now defunct LA Stage Alliance. I preferred the small “Awakening” to the much bigger “Idiot.”
Of course the collaboration with Deaf West Theatre on the upcoming “Idiot” might make a big difference in how it plays here. I hope that someone paid attention to the 2012 critics (McNulty included) and strengthened the book. May I assume that the volume will be turned down in the smaller Taper, compared to the cacophony that prevailed at the Ahmanson, or will it remain ultra-loud so that deaf spectators can “feel the vibrations,” to use a phrase Desai mentioned in the Times article about the season?
Speaking of Deaf West and “Spring Awakening,” one of the most remarkable success stories of the past decade of LA theater was how Deaf West started its own revival of “Spring Awakening” in the small Inner-City Arts Theatre in 2014, then moved in 2015 to the larger Wallis in Beverly Hills, then on to Broadway later that year (here is the Tony-awards show excerpt of that production). The director of that entire odyssey, Michael Arden (not to be confused with Michael Mayer), staged the 2023 revival of “Parade” that’s scheduled to conclude this first “One CTG” season next year.
All aboard for ‘The Body’s Midnight’ at Boston Court
Let’s hear it for “The Body’s Midnight,” a world premiere at the Boston Court in Pasadena, co-produced by IAMA Theatre Company and Boston Court. It closes Sunday, so act fast if it’s of interest to you.
You might think that you’ve seen too many narratives about old people (in this case, a woman) whose minds are deteriorating — in fact, the current “American Mariachi” at LATC also features such a character, as does the recently opened “Pang Spa" (below).
But in “The Body’s Midnight,” playwright Tira Palmquist found a framework that literally keeps the play moving, instead of asking us to observe the decline of Anne (Kelaher Walsh) in her home — or in “a home”.
Anne and her husband (Jonathan Nichols-Navarro) apparently are from the LA area. An early scene is in Calico, just northeast of Barstow on the freeway to Las Vegas. They have embarked on a cross-country road trip to visit their pregnant daughter in Minnesota, hoping that they have timed it so that they can meet their new infant grandchild soon after the birth. The journey allows them to see new sights and meet new characters, as they cross the West and Midwest. It also allows metaphors for aging to arise somewhat organically — for example, they’re reminded how the glaciers of the famous Montana park will soon vanish because of climate change.
“The Body’s Midnight” is one of the liveliest plays about aging that I’ve seen — and of course if you live long enough, you’ll experience aging. Steve Lopez, the LA Times columnist who writes so skillfully about growing older, should see this play.
Director Jessica Kubzansky’s staging is gorgeous, especially David Murakami’s video/projections, Benedict Conran’s lighting and John Zalewski’s sound and composition. Sonal Shah and Ryan Garcia skillfully play all of the roles other than the two elders.
This alliance between Shaw and Cienfuegos doesn’t miss
Pasadena is also the home for an equally handsome production at A Noise Within — Guillermo Cienfuegos’ staging of George Bernard Shaw’s witty comedy “Misalliance,” which was first produced in 1910. Yes, you can expect to be at A Noise Within for three hours — and hear a lot of noise within. But most of that time is well spent, especially as the central character (Erika Soto) keeps expressing her own exasperation over how these characters just talk, talk, talk. She wants more action. Her wish is fulfilled when a small plane crashes on her wealthy father’s property, introducing two new, more glamorous characters.
Besides director Cienfuegos, I must mention Angela Balogh Calin’s stunning and sharply thrust set and the supporting performances of Josey Montana McCoy, Peter Van Norden, Deborah Strang, Trisha Miller and Joshua Bitton. In his aforementioned favorable review, McNulty (above) described some performances as exaggerated. Maybe, but any exaggerations help maintain visual interest through all that chat.
‘Hitler’s Tasters’ is a tiny hit
Speaking of Cienfuegos, he is also listed as one of two producers (the other is Lexi Sloan) of the audacious “Hitler’s Tasters,” staged by Sarah Norris in Rogue Machine’s tiny upstairs space on Melrose, produced in association with New Light Theater Project. (Cienfuegos is also the artistic director of Rogue Machine).
Michelle Kholos Brooks’ play is a laugh-out-loud comedy that is also somewhat chilling — it’s about a trio of young women who are employed by the Third Reich to taste Hitler’s meals before he dines, just to make sure that no one is trying to poison him. Their own lives are on the line, and suddenly disappearances could occur.
In the program, the place and time of the play is noted as “A Bunker, Then/Now.” That “Now” translates to characters who behave as if they’re heedless young women in the 21st century. In fact, they’re addicted to cell phones, selfies, and choreographed poses that could easily appear on TikTok. These intentional anachronisms presumably make the setting a little less ancient for those who were born decades after Hitler’s defeat — and funnier for nearly anyone who sees the play in 2024. They also bring the play closer to current issues, as noted by Brooks in the program.
Some older spectators might be shocked by all of this. They probably remember “Springtime for Hitler,” the famous fictional musical from Mel Brooks’ satirical “The Producers” movie, which was judged distasteful by some spectators when it was introduced in 1967. But this shouldn’t surprise anyone who has heard that “Hitler’s Tasters” playwright Brooks is Mel Brooks’ daughter-in-law.
“Hitler’s Tasters” is scheduled to close on June 3, but the capacity is so small and the experience so intimate, that I’m hoping it could be extended.
Kim’s K-Town ‘Spa’ and ‘Stop’ — in Atwater
Atwater Village Theatre, that busy complex of several small stages, is currently the home of two plays by David Johann Kim, produced by different companies. Both scripts are set in LA’s Koreatown, and they recall the riots that followed the 1992 acquittal of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King — but from different vantage points. Both productions feature extraordinary physical designs.
“Pang Spa,” produced by Chalk Repertory Theatre, has the better script, with more time and space to breathe (and an intermission). Justin Huen designed a set that re-arranges the venue’s normal seating area so that the audience sits on two sides of what looks like a rundown apartment complex, 20 years after the riots.
Many of the aged residents’ lives are in turmoil, and a young woman who arrives and takes a job as a caretaker for one of them has an ulterior motive for finding this place. However, as we see in the second act, the residents occasionally refresh their spirits with homemade spa treatments they apply to each other in the center of the complex. Director Reena Dutt and sound designer Austin Quan manage the script’s silences as masterfully as its louder moments.
The same playwright’s “Two Stop,” produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, is in a much smaller space a few feet away from “Pang Spa,” but it’s set as the riots are starting, in 1992. Huen’s set, a convincing facsimile of a small grocery store, occupies half of the room while the audience is crammed into seating on the other half. The script also feels a little crowded, with fewer silences and more of a complicated backstory. Tracey A. Leigh directs.
LTC’s 2 music plays — and ‘Mix-Mix’ at LATC
I’ll discuss the Latino Theater Company spring season in the order in which the three productions opened — the same order in which they’ll close. Right now they’re all still running.
The premiere of Oliver Mayer’s “Ghost Waltz” opened first, in the too-sharply-raked Lupe Ontiveros Cinema Center, next to the LATC front entrance on Spring Street. Oliver Mayer’s play is about Juventino Rosas (1868-1894), a Mexican-Otomí composer who is best known for the song “Sobre las Olas” (“Over the Waves”), a familiar waltz that many people mistakenly attribute to Johann Strauss.
In an essay, Mayer wrote that “there is precious little historical information to be found on the man himself…all I had were the compositions and how they made me feel.” But we don’t hear enough of the compositions beyond the “Ghost Waltz.” A play is not a concert, but the familiar “Sobre las Olas” is the only Rosas composition that Mayer mentions in his essay.
Rosas and ragtime king Scott Joplin were at least once in close proximity in Chicago; from this known fact, Mayer (he acknowledged this in an email when I asked) extrapolated a fictitious romantic triangle involving the two of them with the same woman — something that we might expect from a mass-marketed Hollywood movie.
In his essay, Mayer mentions a libretto he wrote for an opera (“America Tropical”) about the Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, who had an immediate and dramatic connection to LA. Wouldn’t Siqueiros make a more apt subject for a play at Los Angeles Theatre Center?
“American Mariachi” occupies the Tom Bradley Theatre. It’s about young women in the 1970s trying to crack the all-male mariachi scene, by José Cruz González. I had seen two previous South Coast Repertory productions of it, and I described both in this earlier Angeles Stage from three years ago. But I noticed and confirmed that several changes were made in the script since then — and also that the novice musicians’ sudden ability to learn their instruments seemed more contrived than I recalled from the earlier versions. I must also note that I saw a very unusual performance — it was interrupted in mid-scene by a fire alarm that required everyone — including actors — to exit not only the Bradley but the entire building and then remain in the lobby a while longer. This unscheduled intermission more or less killed the momentum of the performance.
LATC’s downstairs theater hosts the premiere of Boni B. Alvarez’s “Mix-Mix, the Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy.” It’s a potentially stirring story about how German Jews who had escaped from Europe in the late ‘30s found refuge in the Philippines but then had to escape the invading Japanese armies, along with some of their Filipino friends, into mountainous terrain on foot.
Yet the play, in a co-production of Playwrights’ Arena and LTC, is somewhat confusing. It’s rife with too many flashbacks, and seven of the nine actors play multiple roles. The performance that I saw started 25 minutes late because of problems with the projections — which were quite effective once they were in working order. In Jon Lawrence Rivera’s staging, Reggie Lee’s choreography adds rhythmic and visual interest.
Still, I wondered if this story might work better on a screen instead of a stage. Beyond a movie’s ability to shoot on a realistic location and assign each actor to only one role, a movie director probably wouldn’t cast adult actors as minors. Here, I kept noticing that the actors in three principal roles looked maybe a decade older than the characters’ ages of 10, 12 and 16, as identified in the script.
Unexpected musicals: ‘North Country’ and ‘Topsy Turvy’
A Bob Dylan musical? A Tim Robbins musical?
The aforementioned “Girl From the North Country” (see the seventh paragraph, above), uses Bob Dylan songs to punctuate and inflate a story that’s set in Duluth, Minnesota — where Dylan was born. But writer/director Conor McPherson’s story isn’t Dylan’s. The musical currently at Hollywood’s Pantages is set in the grim early ‘30s, before the arrival of Robert Zimmerman (aka Dylan) in 1941.
It’s a Depression-hard-luck story, about the proprietor and the residents of a scruffy boarding house. Jennifer Blood, as the halfway-demented wife of the owner, does an electrifying turn in “Like a Rolling Stone.” She embodies how it feels to be “on your own, with no direction home.” But many of the Dylan songs lack a direct connection to what’s happening in the narrative.
Still, that narrative would be lost without those songs in a theater as big as the Pantages. I had an excellent seat near the front-center of the house, but I suspect that the production would play better for most of the audience in a much smaller theater. I’m not sure that all of the actors (and characters, and songs) are necessary.
Writer/composer/director Robbins’ “Topsy Turvy” is in a much smaller theater, the Actors’ Gang home in Culver City. It grabs our attention immediately with its music and the movements of a contemporary “Greek chorus” who find themselves separated by a COVID-like condition, each of them holding a glowing faux-screen. Their condition is temporarily interrupted by appearances of vaudevillian acts by ancient Greek-attired figures.
But my interest began to flag about halfway through the performance, as the script became more and more dominated by strident, often predictable speeches from characters we barely know. “Topsy Turvy” needs a rewrite in which the second half becomes even more gripping than the first half.
A recusal from judging the Geffen’s ‘Hope Theory’
Geffen Playhouse has extended Portuguese immigrant and sleight-of-hand magician Helder Guimarães’ “The Hope Theory” through the end of June. Unfortunately, Guimarães, who was probably unaware that I was there as a critic, drafted me involuntarily into the action to an extent that distracted me. Indeed, each individual show depends somewhat on the cooperation of different audience members. So I don’t feel comfortable offering any critical judgments beyond noting that most of that night’s audience seemed to lap it up.
SCR’s premieres of ‘Prelude’ and ‘Galilee’
South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa produced two premieres in coordination with its annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, but their runs were too short and they closed earlier in May.
I liked the new musical based on Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss,” with music by Daniel Messé and lyrics by Sean Hartley and Messé. The more I think about it, the inherent stylization of musicals is a good fit for the fairy-tale elements of Lucas’ original non-musical — which also premiered at SCR, in 1988, and which then became a 1992 non-musical movie.
Eleanor Burgess’ “Galilee, 34” depicted Jesus’ mother (Amy Brenneman), brother, Mary Magdalene and other followers after his crucifixion. We also saw how Paul, who never knew Jesus, begin editing his story and gradually turning Christianity into a religion separate from Judaism. Interesting subject matter, yes, but perhaps it’s more appropriate for a scholar than for a playwright. Although the characters spoke modern English (including profanity), the storytelling didn’t flow very easily.
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