Gil Kaan - Page 49

In IMPRO THEATRE'S JANE AUSTEN UNSCRIPTED; seven very talented, quick-thinking members of the Impro Theatre, with only two idea suggestions from the audience, act out (sans script) a hysterical complete beginning-middle-and-end of a tale based on Jane Austen's writings.

The West Coast Premiere of playwright Neil Haven's WHO KILLED SANTA? features wonderful puppet work and clever re-workings of classic holiday songs. Ronnie Marmo directs his cast of five puppet characters and Santa Claus. Haven wittily sends up some old Christmas chestnuts, like 'Silent Night,' 'Carol of the Bells,' 'Baby, It's Cold Outside.'

Playwright/actor David Trudell returns to the Skylight Theatre December 13 for a solo one-nighter with his holiday-themed SPIRITS, ANYONE?  Moon Mile Run's multi-hyphenate Michael Kearns identifies Trudell as an artist 'who aims to illuminate the zeitgeist of his generation through solo work that is identifiable, edgy, and humorous.'

If you go to MACK & POPPY: LET IT SNOW expecting just a cheesy lounge  act for fluffy amusement, you would be selling Mack & Poppy way short. Tod Macofsky and Christopher Graham have created a fine tuned act of calibrated cheese eliciting many hearty laughs accented with actual solid vocal chops presenting songs straight up for a most entertaining 70 minutes. Holiday tunes (Christmas, Jewish and Kwanzaa) get both sent up and sung straight.

In the world premiere of WOOD BOY DOG FISH, playwright Chelsea Sutton has intricately written a very dark re-telling of Pinocchio and his maker Geppetto, fully utilizing the perfect combination of ocean video projections, mood-enhancing  music, modular set pieces, fantastic costumes, and most every effective stagecraft trick in theatrical history (both high-tech and low).

The Stella Adler Theatre's west coast premiere of AY, CARMELA! boasts the great fortune to have the stellar contributions of renowned architect Frank Gehry (in his first foray into the Los Angeles theatre scene as set designer) and Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel as its score composer.

In his STREEP TEASE, Roy Cruz has created an entertaining, all-male revue of Meryl Streep interpretators using actual (or actual-esque) dialogue from Ms. Streep's many films. With minimal use of props and just a hint of costume enhancements, this talented nine-membered Streepers perform some side-splitting scenes with a few serious ones thrown into the mix. Some Meryl Streep roles just seem more than ripe for parody, er, homage.

With the impressive resumes and awards the REUNION team of writers and director/choreographer possesses, one would expect a first-rate show with dazzling choreography, wonderful songs and an involving plot. The world premiere of REUNION greatly benefits from the sensational, though sadly underused, vocal talents of their twelve-member cast. 

Dane Whitlock sharply directs his talented cast in his PRAIRIE-OKE! delivering a fast-paced, 100-minute, high-camp romp full of not-so-subtle double entendres via the not-so-pure underbelly of 'Little House on the Prairie' denizens.

The Celebration Theatre has picked a perfect production, the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Robert O'Hara's BOOTYCANDY, to inaugurate  their new home @ the Lex.  Entertaining, and with prominent reoccurring social themes of gay acceptance and upended racial stereotyping. 

The west coast premiere of THE SPARROW successfully intrigues as a stylistic performance art piece with some stunning visuals utilizing backlite scrims, clever choreography and inventive staging, with some haunting original music by Gregory Nabours. Kudos to Kristin Browning Campbell's scenic design and Tasheena Medina's choreography using school desks as percussive accents and balls and books as dancing props.

The West Coast premiere of Annie Baker's translation of Anton Chekhov's classic UNCLE VANYA receives a brilliant mounting from the Antaeus Theatre Company.  Robin Larsen directs her talented cast in a steady, flowing pace with just enough quiet moments to contrast the volatile, high emotional ones.

Groundlings' latest laugh-packed Friday & Saturday night show, GROUNDINGS STAKEOUT, keeps the audience in stitches in their ever new and original sketch ideas, providing each of the incredibly talented six-member cast their individual moments to shine.

An incredibly talented cast populate the West Coast premiere of Gretchen Cryer's I'M STILL GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER (AND TAKING IT ON THE ROAD). This production actually includes the original 1978 I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road as the first act with the newly written second act set 30 years later.

In the world premiere of his WATCHING O.J., playwright David McMillan deftly balances both sides of the black and white/innocent vs. guilty/jubilant and angry reactions of a multi-racial neighborhood in their varied responses to the infamous O.J. Simpson verdict in 1995. A cross-section of races and occupations make a volatile combustion fueled by the explosive portrayals of the stellar cast.

The West Coast premiere of playwright Martin Zimmerman's involving SEVEN SPOTS ON THE SUN receives a splendid, mesmerizing mounting with all the artistic elements artfully converging into one of the best and riveting theatrical experience I've seen in the Los Angeles theatre scene this year.

The 20th anniversary revival of the Odyssey production of Clifford Odets' classic AWAKE AND SING! receives a raw and reverential mounting. As directed by Elina de Santos, most characters in this two-hour-and-fifteen-minute three-act portray their roles in bold black-and-whites with little shades of grey in between.

What a witty script! What a fine cast! What an incredible first act! The world premiere of playwright Fielding Edlow's ICU immediately grabs your attention the moment you enter and take a seat in the waiting room of an unnamed New York hospital. With precision machine-gun delivery of Edlow's brutally frank and wickedly smart dialogue expertly directed by Brian Shnipper, the first act simply whizzes by before intermission hits.

The West Coast premiere of Ike Holter's HIT THE WALL vividly illustrates what might have happened that fateful night in 1969  when Stonewall became the flashpoint for what many consider the start of the gay liberation movement. With director Ken Sawyer's inventive staging, the audience becomes almost fully immersed in the play's actions. The stage seems to be every available space where an audience member's not physically sitting.

Jean Paul Sartre's 1944 NO EXIT receives a sturdy mounting by the InterAct Theatre Company. Kent Minault directs his gifted cast spouting out Sartre's lines ever so trippingly and sensibly on their respective tongues. Any faster readings would have been unintelligible. Bravo to the cast for their commitment, intensity and believability in this possibly realistic situation. Who really knows what it's like to be in Hell?