Writer: Ernest Kearney
LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE
I have to admit that when reading in the program I was in store for a show lasting 2 hours and 40 minutes did have me somewhat apprehensive, but once Davis and cast set to work a faster two hours plus I’ve never known.
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Our Man in Santiago
Now when sitting through plays by successful television writers I generally find myself trying to figure out which of my many past sins karma is forcing me to atone for. Happily, this is not the case with Our Man in Santiago.
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Dirty chai
You can call it fate, you can call it serendipity, you can call it karma; I’m calling it incredibly derivative and formulaic writing.
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Samson and the Burning Bush
In reacting to Ralph Brunson’ s crucifixion of musical theatre (Samson and the Burning Bush currently playing the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood) I could fill about ten pages just restating the same question – why?
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TOSHANISHA - The New Normals
Founded by Aroji Otieno at the onset of the Covid crisis, Bold Theatre Kenya undertook to maintain a creative connection to their community through workshops and performances.
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Sugar and Sh*t
Sugar and Sh*t , at the Hollywood Fringe Festival ’21, is full of moments that clash and tumble and deprive both the actresses and their audience of the show that could have been.
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(It’s Been 76 Years and We’re) Still Waiting for Lefty
It is admirable of Crafts, seeking to fan the flame for social justice that once burned like a conflagration in this nation and is now barely a spark from an over-flicked Bic.
However this effort should have begun and ended as a writer’s exercise.
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Welcome to the Neighborhood
A time warped backyard BBQ where the hot dogs and burgers come with extra strangeness and squirt of inanity to go along with the mustard and pickles.
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Lies, Anger and Forgiveness
Saba takes us down the rabbit hole of the American dream in her HFF21 presentation of Lies, Anger and Forgiveness, and it is a thoroughly enjoyable trip.
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Vice
Vice is a futuristic, dystopian drama, chock full of revolution, the dominance of virtual reality to keep populations docile, a matriarchal dictatorship, families torn apart, techno-enforced totalitarianism, and an ever-present “Big Sister” to assure compliance.
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Son of a Bitch
Playwright Lucy Gillespie’s play, Son Of A Bitch while insightful, is also great fun throughout. There are consistent laughs punctuated with the hardness of Atwater.
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La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas
Contributing to Cooper being able to pull off her vocal homage to Callas is the fact that she has a pretty impressive set of pipes herself and manages to quiver the walls of the Hudson Theatre, and probably a good portion of Santa Monica Boulevard, quite nicely with her singing.
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DISROBED - The Virtual Event
The cast gives their all to this undertaking with Peterson as the “clothed-minded” Boston-bound boyfriend meeting the liberated and very nude family (Ian Hayes, Shaley Gunther, Dave McClain and Karen Lasater) of his beloved, (played by the show’s highpoint Eloise Gordon). Unfortunately the power conveyed by a live stage is not there on the Zoom screen: Has anyone ever been transformed by a Tweet?
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Squeeze My Cans
I highly recommend you catch her straight show, Squeeze My Cans, which is a disturbing recounting of how she was seduced into a cult that consumed twenty years of her life, nearly a million dollars of her earnings and was reaching out towards her young daughter with its tentacles before she finally broke free. For honesty and drama it beats out Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath hands down.
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Klingon Tamburlaine
For this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival that is currently on stage at The Complex in Hollywood, the School has taken on another piece adapted from the pen of Marlow. And it needs to be stated at the outset of this review, most of the faults of Klingon Tamburlaine, lie with the original play.
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FIVE PIECES OF PAPER: STORIES MY HUNGARIAN GRANDMOTHER REFUSED TO TELL ME AND OTHER FAMILY TALES
Buchboot has a lovely voice, and his singing of some seldom heard Yiddish classics was a joy, but he has buried both his talents and his grandmother’s poignant tale in a tomb of the unessential.
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Black Woman in Deep Water
Black Woman in Deep Water written and performed by Makena Hammond, under Jane Fleiss Brogger’s, direction is a pearl whose value is reflected not in its size but in its perfection.
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GATSBY an Immersive Illumination
I don’t know if my experience of The Great Gatsby’s first chapter was any deeper or more profound due to its configuration as an immersive production, but the time I spent as a guest of the Buchanan’s was hands down the classiest forty-five minutes I’ve enjoyed at the Fringe and among the most fun.
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Authenticity: The Musical
But if Authenticity: The Musical lacks clarification and a capable cast, what it doesn’t lack is a bounty of promise.
John Cassidy’s script, while in need of work, is strong and scattered with insights. The score by Michael Vanbodegom-Smith (with contributions by Garritano and Jimena Ochoa), is impressive in addressing the crucial demands of any musical.
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Japanese Love Story - Shizuka - 静
Regrettably, I feel this show was strangled by a ligature woven from Tomoko Karina’s hyphens, the writer-director-lead actress of the play. Now whether Ms. Karina is a master of all these skills, one or none, I cannot determine and will not guess. However, I can state that in attempting to exercise this trio of disciplines simultaneously she has defeated herself.
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