Theatre Talk (Entertainment)
- Next available on KCRW 89.9 Santa Monica, CA in 16 hours 22 minutes
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- Host: James C. Taylor, Sarah Spitz
- Provocative reviews and commentary on theatre in Southern California.
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- Genres: Entertainment, Art
- Location: Santa Monica, CA
- Language: English
Last updated 707 days ago
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Mamma Mia; Mama Meryl!
Thu, Aug 7
Jumping Ship
Thu, Jul 24
'Spring'ing without Singing
Thu, Jul 17
One Enchanted Revival
Thu, Jul 3
That's a wonderful tune titled, "A Wonderful Guy," from the 1949 Rodgers Hammerstein musical South Pacific. Broadway musicals, like Nellie Forbush, the character who sings that number, can be as corny as Kansas; but on some occasions they can be as expressive as any art form: as subtle as poetry, as expansive as a Cinerama motion picture and as simple or profound as a black-and-white photo...
Dogpile
Thu, Jun 26
Morlan Higgins is one of those actors whose name you won’t recognize from Broadway, television, or the movies. If you’ve heard of Morlan Higgins, its because you follow what goes on at small, Los Angeles theaters; and if you’ve seen Morlan Higgins at one of those theaters, you’ve probably gone back to see him again...
Reality Tights
Thu, Jun 19
That’s the famous and ubiquitous vamp from A Chorus Line, the 1975 musical that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and run for 15 years on Broadway. In 2006, A Chorus Line returned to Broadway in a new revival, which coincided with the rising popularity of dance reality shows like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance...
A Piercing Howl
Tue, Jun 10
With a title like Red Dog Howls, you know Alexander Dinelaris' new drama is not going to be a light piece of entertainment. The austere, simple three-person play is unflinching, even if at first it seems decidedly ordinary. The plot involves a long, lost relative, a marriage on the rocks and deep family secrets revealed. What else is new? What elevates Red Dog Howls (currently receiving its world premiere at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood) is a deceptively nuanced script and the...
Songs from San Diego
Mon, Jun 9
It's been a rough season for Los Angeles musicals. Ray Charles: Live, Atlanta, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Mask: The Musical, all of four of these shows had high profiles and higher expectations, but each got mixed to savage reviews. These musicals represent L.A.'s three biggest theaters yet none of them look like they're heading to Broadway anytime soon...
A David Mamet Comedy
Thu, Jun 5
It was only a few months ago when it happened. A friend at a dinner party was talking about some absurd situation involving inappropriate behavior and dramatic twists of fate. He summed it up by saying, "You'd think it was a Mamet comedy..."
The Time of His Life
Thu, May 15
Playwrights' Verizons
Thu, May 8
No single playwright or actor has affected theatergoing in America over the last ten years as much as the cellular phone. Stage plays have been performed in this country for centuries with the rituals observed between audience and actors remaining pretty much the same; but in the last decade, barely any play or musical can start without a brief prologue or overture reminding people to shut off their cell phones...
NewKlub
Thu, May 1
Fair Enough
Fri, Apr 25
The 20th Century saw the birth of a number of enduring man-made marvels: the jet engine, the microchip, the artificial heart, and My Fair Lady. There may have been musicals more sophisticated or succinct; but few are as durable and delightful as the Lerner-and-Lowe adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion...
An e-Mask-ulated Musical
Fri, Apr 18
The stage has a long tradition of disfigured protagonists. Shakespeare---s Richard III is the embodiment of a character whose hunchback is a metaphor for internal wickedness, whereas Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac is the model for characters whose unnatural face betrays a heroic soul. This tradition also extends to musical drama (from Rigoletto to Phantom of the Opera) which would seem to suggest that there is historical precedent and even potential for a Broadway-style adaptation of the 1985...
Osage: Can You See.
Fri, Apr 11
On Monday, it was announced: Tracy Letts' August: Osage County won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. August: Osage County is Letts' fourth play after The Man from Nebraska, Killer Joe and Bug. (Letts also wrote the screenplay to the film adaptation of Bug, which starred Ashley Judd.) These three early plays (but especially Killer Joe and Bug) have been widely produced in large part because they offer juicy, even showy, roles for actors...
The Ladies Who Munch Scenery
Fri, Mar 28
The Ladies Who Munch Scenery
Role Reversals
Fri, Mar 21
In the year 2008, how important is race and gender. Two new revivals of classic plays both indicate a frustrating answer: absolutely and not so much...
Come Back, William Inge.
Fri, Mar 14
Come Back, William Inge.
Rockin' Operas
Fri, Mar 7
Othello has long been a great vehicle for actors (Emil Jannings, Paul Robeson, Orson Welles, and Lawrence Olivier are just a few of the great actors to play the part) but Shakespeare's tragedy has also inspired a fair number of musicians...
Some Word(s), Some Action(s)
Fri, Feb 29
Some Word(s), Some Action(s)
Young Blood
Fri, Feb 22
Last year it was Ian McKellen's King Lear. Next year it will be Jude Law's Hamlet. But this year, it's Patrick Stewart's Macbeth...
Defeatist Victory
Fri, Feb 15
It's such a good story it's surprising someone hasn't made a short play out of it. A famous, foreign dramatist living in exile in San Diego hears good things about a small production of one of his old plays. He and a friend drive up to Hollywood and duck into the tiny theater. The playwright, who never watches his own plays -- unless he's the director -- loves the staging and agrees to one day give the theater a brand new play. Five years later, the script arrives -- and it's a smash, running...
A Bloody Mess...but a Bloody Good Shot
Fri, Feb 8
A Bloody Mess...but a Bloody Good Shot
Reeling Broadway Behemoths
Fri, Jan 25
Movies adapted into musicals have been Broadway's lifeblood this decade, with shows like The Producers, Hairspray and The Lion King keeping theaters filled year-round. But this season, Broadway's two biggest movie-based musicals have been savaged by critics and haven't lived up to their box office expectations...
Hamlets: Past, Prologue and Post-Modern
Fri, Jan 18
Last fall, I saw a Barcelona theater company perform a riff on Shakespeare's Hamlet titled European House. About an hour long---with no dialogue---it took place in the home of a wealthy, continental family. As the language-free action unfolded, it became clear that this unspoken drama was a modern-day prologue to Shakespeare's classic tragedy...
An Oprah-atic Musical
Fri, Jan 11
During the last 25 years, The Color Purple --- once an eloquent story about a woman named Miss Celie --- has become a full-blown, American institution...
Look Away, Look Away: The Roasting of 'Atlanta'
Fri, Jan 4
Look Away, Look Away: The Roasting of 'Atlanta'
Hard Hearts, but a New Year Ahead
Fri, Dec 28
"Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts." This line from Act III of Shakespeare's King Lear best sums up 2007 from the perspective of a theater-goer...
Ray, Remixed
Fri, Dec 21
Ray, Remixed
Gilman's Glory, Everyone Else's Misery
Fri, Dec 14
Rebecca Gilman is an American playwright we should be proud of.-- Gilman writes plays about regular people faced with serous issues---and what's more, after receiving a good deal of attention (not to mention a few awards) she hasn't bailed on the theater yet.-- Her most well known play, Spinning into Butter, has just been turned into a film starring Sarah Jessica Parker; but Gilman's latest works (a new play opening last week and a musical that opens next summer) are not for Hollywood, but...
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