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Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland - Los Angeles - Arts - Public Spectacle
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Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland - Los Angeles - Arts - Public Spectacle
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Slideshows
Craig Schwartz
Tracie Bennett stars as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow
Tracie Bennett knocked the socks off our critic Tom Provenzano with
her impersonation of Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow at the
Ahmanson, which he made this week's Pick of the Week. Also Bill Raden
had good things to say about S.O.E. -- Jami Brandli's clever, threecharacter riff on the venerable West End murder mystery The
Mousetrap at Atwater Village Theatre -- and Lovell Estell praised Roger
Matthew's revival of Trainspotting at the Elephant Theatre. For all the latest New Theater
Reviews, see below.
In this week's Theater Feature, Zachary Pincus-Roth gives kudos to Center Theatre Group
for premiering a new play by a local scribe, Jennifer Haley's The Nether, though he has
mixed feelings about the play itself.
It's L.A. Weekly Theater Awards time: Monday evening, April 8, at Avalon
Hollywood. Doors open 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7:30 p.m., hosted by Lost Moon Radio.
Theme: Theater's survival post-apocalypse -- dress accordingly. Post-show reception is
hosted by Shamshiri Grill. Nominees please RSVP at (310) 574-7208 before Friday, April 5.
Friends, family and others, book tickets here.
CuriousJosh: L.A. Burning
Man Regional Camp Out
Lina In L.A.- Dirty Disco
Alkaline Trio @ Hollywood
Tower
More Slideshows >>
NEW THEATER REVIEWS, scheduled for pubication March 27, 2013
PICK OF THE WEEK END OF THE RAINBOWJudy Garland's legendary triumphs
and tragedies, dish and dirt have been chronicled so often and in so many forms, it would
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Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland - Los Angeles - Arts - Public Spectacle
seem no nuance is left to be unearthed. Then there is Tracie Bennett, a performer whose
colossal vocal and emotional power in End of the Rainbow pull us eagerly into a known
quantity of expected bathos, then without warning sheds sentiment in favor of caustic
reality, portraying Garland as less a victim than vicious miscreant. In the last year of her
life, broke and desperate, the star leans on her new young fiancé,Mickey Deans (a perfectly
tacky Erik Heger), to whom she is simultaneously delightfully brittle, cruel and irresistible
as he arranges her last-chance gig -- a five-week concert run in London. At her side also is
accompanist Anthony (smartly played by Michael Cumpsty), who represents her enormous
gay following. The two men alternately join forces and skirmish, attempting to keep
Garland clean, sober and stage-ready. Peter Quilter's lean and piercing script leaves little
room for the maudlin, focusing instead on Garland's extremely sharp wit and lifelong
addict's tricks to stay one step ahead of her keepers at all times. Masterful director Terry
Johnson keeps the cast tightly connected to the material while allowing his star to soar in
her myriad musical numbers, both in messy rehearsals with Anthony and during her bright
moments in front of packed houses. Music director Jeffrey Saver and his band
consummately create those moments through Chris Egan's classic orchestrations and the
simple brilliance of Bennett's performance. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave.,
Dwntwn: Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; through April 21. (213)
628-2772, centertheatregroup.org (Tom Provenzno)
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST While the latest offering from the
Banshees is surely earnest, director Sean Branney and the ensemble don't quite capture
the delicate rhythms of Oscar Wilde's language nor the precise comic timing necessary to
properly realize Earnest. The conflict between Jack (Cameron J. Oro) and Algernon (Kevin
Stidham) initially misses the mark, as Oro is too congenial to delineate the contrast
between the bachelors, leading Stidham to overdo the cheek a bit. Their dynamic soon
recovers but it never finds Jack's stringent propriety, which provides the necessary foil to
Algernon's antics. Andrew Leman's Lady Bracknell, while quite different from Dame Edith
Evans' classic portrayal, comes into her own and continues the tradition of male casting for
the role. Gwendolen (Sarah van der Pol) and Cecily (Erin Barnes) are pleasant and perky,
but their claws aren't razor sharp in their classic tête-à-tête over tea, though Barnes' energy
gives Cecily a youthful exuberance. There is brilliance in Branney's "set-change ballet"
between Acts II and III, showcasing Arthur MacBride's artfully crafted set, but it's not
enough to elevate a merely competent take on the classic. Theatre Banshee, 3435 W.
Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through May 5. (818) 846-5323,
theatrebanshee.org. (Mayank Keshaviah)
4/6/13 1:26 AM
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MAD FOREST
When Eastern European
Communism collapsed, only
Romania spilled a lot of blood
-- from soldiers firing on
citizens to the Christmas Day
execution of its husband-andwife dictators, Nicolae and
Elena Ceausescu. When
familiar faces quickly
regained power, Romanians
wondered if the events of late
1989 should have been
labeled a revolution at all.
Mad Forest delves directly
into that abyss, spinning
history into parable via
playwright Caryl Churchill's
canny postmodern aesthetic.
Part 1 sets the stage with
tableaux of Romanian life
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under the secret police. Part 2
becomes an oral history of the
violence, and Part 3
dramatizes the unraveling of
hope, goodwill -- and, to some
extent, sanity -- in the messy
aftermath. Mad Forest, with
its heavily expository nature,
may not have stood the test of
time as well as some of
Churchill's other works, but
its engagement with the
impotent rage of those whom
history treats as pawns
remains on point. Director
Marya Mazor stylishly
wrangles her large cast and
multimedia staging. Open Fist
Theatre Company, 6209
Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.;
through May 4. (323) 8826912, openfist.org. (Mindy
Farabee)
MINDSPIN
Ehrin Marlow
Alec, Jessica Noboa and Ryan Mulkay
Payne
Lauren Swann and Tanya Zoeller
"Meta" might be a bit of an
overused critical term these
days, but it's an apt
description of this intriguing
if ultimately flimsy
performance art piece about
performance art pieces, from
New York City's Ugly Rhino
Theater Company. Director
Nicole Rosner's site-specific
narrative unfolds at a redpainted cinderblock
downtown loft, full of edgy art
works, where audience
members mingle with actors
who are portraying artists,
bartenders and other guests.
Before long, we find ourselves
drawn into the story of the
party's hostesses, Auden
(Lauren Swann) and Tahnee
(Tanya Zoeller), who develop
a bizarre love triangle with a
handsome but mysterious
party guest (Zachary Puchtel).
It's undeniably charming to
wander around the loft during
the party scenes, luxuriating
in the fact that (for one night
only) you are "hipper than
thou," while interacting with
folks who might be either
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Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland - Los Angeles - Arts - Public Spectacle
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random audience members or disguised actors. It's unfortunate, though, that the show's
"plot" is slight to the point of being utterly inconsequential -- divorce it from the
engagingly ambiguous context and the play itself is almost nonexistent. The Red Loft, 605
E. Fourth St., dwntwn.; schedule varies, through April 6. uglyrhino.com. (Paul Birchall)
GO THE NETHER Jennifer Haley's new virtual reality play at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.
See Thater Feature.
NUTTIN' BUT HUTTON Betty Hutton was known in her heyday as the Blonde
Bombshell. After a brief Broadway career, and a stint as a band singer, she made her name
in Hollywood in screwball comedies like The Miracle at Morgan's Creek and became
famous for her manic, zany, over- the-top performances of comic novelty songs such as
"I'm Just a Square in the Social Circle," "Murder, He Says" and "His Rocking Horse Ran
Away." She went on to triumph in the film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun
and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, only to abandon her Hollywood career
and wind up as a dishwasher in a Catholic convent. Writer-performer Diane Vincent
clearly idolizes Hutton and set out to celebrate her. But instead of relying on Hutton's own
potent story, Vincent has chosen to tell the hackneyed tale of a singer trying to mount a
show about Hutton, featuring a large array of Hutton's signature numbers, with snippets of
information of her life and career shoehorned in. Vincent is an able performer, and her
show is a labor of love, but Hutton would have been better served by a more
straightforward treatment of her life and talent. Noho Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd.,
N. Hlywd.; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through April 28. (800) 5954849, ​nuttinbuthutton.com. (Neal Weaver)
GO S.O.E. Build a better mousetrap, it is said, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Or at least to Atwater Village, where playwright Jami Brandli's clever, three-character riff
on the venerable West End murder mystery The Mousetrap is attempting to give Agatha
Christie a run for her money. Call it a hipster whodunit. Actually, "who-maybe-dunit"
might be the better descriptive, because in Brandli's ironic puzzler of red herrings and
drifting ambiguities, the ostensible murder ratcheting its mystery-plot mechanics might
not have even occurred. Brandli's recipe is deceptively familiar: Take a connivingly
ambitious, aspiring-writer grad student (Diana Wyenn); place her in the blizzard-isolated
Boston apartment (by set and lighting designer Aaron Francis) of an absent breakout
novelist; mix in an achingly needy and sexually insecure roommate (Michael Kass);
introduce a chronically possessive editor-lover with a bad disposition and a tripwire
temper (Jessica Hanna); season to taste with betrayal, double dealing and buried family
secrets. Then bring to a rapid boil and stand back. Director Darin Anthony stirs Brandli's
irresistible, toxic stew of psychological grotesques with a sure hand and a comic touch,
while Joseph "Sloe" Slawinski's sound helps crank the mounting paranoia and uncertainty
all the way up to 11. Atwater Village Speakeasy Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater; Sat. &
Mon., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through April 15. (323) 644-1929, soetheplay.com. (Bill Raden)
GO TRAINSPOTTING
Director Roger Mathey and
Seat of the Pants Productions
return with a solid revival of
their 2002 production about
four lower-class Edinburgh
youths prematurely entombed
in a hellish world of sex,
heroin addiction and violence.
The story is based on the 1993
novel by Irvine Welsh (the
source material for Danny
Boyle's 1996 film) and
adapted for the stage by Harry
Gibson. Mathey sacrifices
nothing in the way of raw,
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Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Triumphant Return of a Latter-Day Judy Garland - Los Angeles - Arts - Public Spectacle
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nausea-inducing moments in
this outing (shit really does
fly, and there is full nudity),
and this time he efficiently
uses a larger cast, with some
Tyson Wade Johnston actors taking on multiple
Alison Walter and Jonathan Roumie
roles. Justin Zachary returns
as narrator-protagonist Mark
Renton, who in spite of numerous attempts at rehab can't kick the habit. Also returning are
David Agranov as Mark's close friend Tommy, who eventually succumbs to heroin's lethal
allure; Matt Tully as Begbie; and Jonathan Roumie as Sick Boy. In spite of the dismal
subject matter, Mathey unearths some necessary humor, a lot of it coming from Mark's
often ironic, understated commentary. Still, at times the Scottish accents make it near
impossible to understand the dialogue (Tully often sounds like he's chewing a mouthful of
oatmeal). Jason Rupert's scenic design consisting of a platform that doubles as a home
interior, bracketed by two graffiti-pocked walls, is suitably raunchy. Elephant Theatre,
6322 Santa Monica Blvd; Hlywd., Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through April 13. (323)
960-7785, plays411.com/trainspotting. (Lovell Estell III)
WOLVES For a few minutes Steve Yockey's horror spoof -- pretentiously billed as a
psychological drama -- shows literary promise. A narrator (Katherine Skelton) with an air
of foreboding tells us about Ben (Nathan Mohebbi), a nebbishy guy from a small town who
salves his loneliness with casual lovers, then freaks when they don't want to commit. When
his ex, Jack (Matt Magnusson), now a platonic roommate, brings home a handsome "wolf"
(Andrew Crabtree), Ben loses it big-time and the blood flows. Hinting at deep truths and
dark revelations, the piece then segues into banal dialogue among three guys in a sex
triangle. Anyone who's ever been caught up in a dating scene, gay or straight, could
improvise this drivel. None of the performers rises above the material, including Skelton,
whose storyteller assumes a grating simper. Designer Tim Swiss' lighting displays
accomplished talent and Cricket S. Myers' sound is effectual. Michael Matthews directs.
Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.;
through May 5. (323) 957-1884, ​celebrationtheatre.com. (Deborah Klugman)
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