by Jordan R. Young | Oct 9, 2016 | Uncategorized
Karen Jean Olds and Ned Liebl in “Seminar.” What does a writer do when she has something outrageous to say? If she’s Theresa Rebeck, she might put it in somebody else’s mouth and put that somebody center stage. As in “Seminar,” now careening across the Cripe Stage of...
by Jordan R. Young | Sep 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
Charles Busch’s “Red Scare on Sunset” (at the Costa Mesa Playhouse through Oct. 2) tackles what seems like a odd subject for a comedy—the “gray, horrifying period” in Hollywood history known as the blacklist era. The playwright no doubt figured if Mel Brooks could use...
by Jordan R. Young | Sep 23, 2016 | Uncategorized
The cast of Ma Rainey; photo by Craig Schwartz. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson (at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. through Oct. 16) is ostensibly about the titular personality known as “the mother of the blues” and the small group of jazz musicians who...
by Jordan R. Young | Aug 17, 2016 | Uncategorized
No bald sopranos or rhinoceroses in sight, but “As You Like It” is evidence the Bard indulged in theatre of the absurd long before Ionesco. This just might be the most convoluted, improbable rom-com ever written, but New Swan Shakespeare Festival makes sense of the...
by Jordan R. Young | Aug 13, 2016 | Uncategorized
It should come as no surprise that the guy who wrote The Great American Novel, “The Grapes of Wrath” (at least in my opinion), also wrote a play that ranks alongside Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in its merit and timelessness. The guy is John Steinbeck, of...
by Jordan R. Young | Jul 9, 2016 | Uncategorized
Shakespeare/Summerfest Orange County’s “The Tragedy of Hamlet” (through Jul. 23 in Garden Grove) has its strengths and weaknesses, not unlike the play itself. David Denman anchors the play with a strong performance in the lead, though he seems physically wrong for the...
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