Theatre Talk
Theatre Talk
In-depth, provocative reviews and commentary on theatre in Southern California and beyond from James C. Taylor. He is an in-demand film/TV editor with a passion for theatre and opera who flies all over the world to see what's happening on stage.
Photo credit: Marc Goldstein
RECENT SHOWS
Our Towns
Fourth of July is usually not a good weekend for on stage drama — bright beaches, warm sun and evening fireworks generally trump dark theaters; but if the weather is bad and one had to spend part of the weekend inside, there’s no better way to do it than watching Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
Pullman Two-Hander
Bill Pullman's handsome, neighborly features continue to earn him starring and supporting roles in countless feature films, but they also give him the perfect façade for playing Edward Albee's darkly repressed Manhanttanites. Pullman has only two major stage roles in his recent bio, but both were Albee's and both were subtle but startlingly deep performances. The first was the part of Martin in Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goat, the second was the role Peter in Albee's 2007 double-bill titled Peter and Jerry...
The Next British Invasion
This summer in London, some of the world's most well-known English actors are performing some of the world's most well-known stage dramas. These shows sold out almost immediately, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're worth seeing. The Waiting for Godot starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart is fitfully enjoyable but uninspired. The two actors look like they're having fun, but director Sean Mathias (who was responsible for that dreary Cherry Orchard at the Taper a few years back) is unable to elicit enough comedy or depth to make the show feel like more than a crowd-drawing star vehicle...
Leading Ladies
Lillian Hellman's tart, southern shocker The Little Foxes first appeared in Los Angeles in January of 1941. It ran for a week at the now demolished Biltmore Theater starring Tallulah Bankhead, who created the leading role of Regina Hubbard on Broadway. Bankhead toured with The Little Foxes for over a year, touring 125 cities in the US and Canada. The newspapers treated her appearance like a state visit, counting down to her arrival in LA. Bankhead was already notorious actress, but Regina was the part that finally merged her celebrity with her talent. The Los Angeles Times critic wrote that it was a “masterful” performance, but seven months later, when the Samuel Goldwyn film version opened, Regina was played by Bette Davis...
August Summer
On Saturday night, Barack Obama flew up to New York with Michelle Obama for a night out, and the first couple went to the theater district. They saw August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, fulfilling a promise Obama made to his wife during the campaign: if he won the election, he would take her to a Broadway show. Since Saturday, tickets sales for Joe Turner's Come and Gone have tripled...
Numbers
The British playwright Caryl Churchill has been writing acclaimed dramatic work since the 1970’s, but with her last three plays, Far Away, A Number and Drunk Enough To Say I Love You all written this decade, she has done the impossible. Not only has she managed to get all three of these serious-themed, short plays produced by major theaters in both London and New York, but with these three works, she has also somehow managed to stop time. Each of these plays runs only about 60 minutes, and yet the act of watching them seems to take forever...
Cat's Cradle
A dead tiger with an existential crisis who meets some haunted shrubbery? It sounds like the setup for a Monty Python sketch, not a serious drama about the Iraq War, and yet Rajiv Joseph's new play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, at times feels like a little of both. Combining absurdism, comedy and Greek Tragedy, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is a work that is seriously funny...
Trying to Remember
Two very successful show-biz brand names were re-launched in Los Angeles last week. Both titles, in their original incarnations, were simple stories, told with a little song and dance that evoked the early 1960’s. Incidentally, both also starred the late, great Jerry Orbach....
Dealing with Devils
Legacy Player:
As anyone who's spent any time appreciating books, plays or movies can tell you, it's rarely a good idea to make a deal with the devil. The Faustian pact is generally a losing proposition, which is one of the things that makes Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, a shambling, whiskey-soaked Christmas card to Goethe so hard to resist...
Brief Encounters
Legacy Player:
After so many diverting, well-written, but not quite satisfying works (not to mention a few bona fide clunkers) I've stopped anticipating new Richard Greenberg plays and I no longer wait for him to finally pen the "Great American Drama." Greenberg has written some lovely minor plays, like Three Days of Rain and Take Me Out, but the big, defining work eludes him. Despite the grand ambitions of his characters and the big themes that his plays address, Greenberg remains a miniaturist...
Local Tetrologies
Legacy Player:
In our era of movie sequels and multi-season story lines on television, the notion of spending a long time with one set of characters and their drawn out dilemmas is not foreign to contemporary American audiences. But there is a difference between something that is serialized (sit-coms, daytime dramas, Friday the 13th movies) and epic works that require a large canvas...
Crowning Achievements
Legacy Player:
In the next few days, two of the biggest cultural events of the year will be taking place. One will happen here in LA, with the eyes and ears of the world watching; the other is simply an announcement, but it is a historic one: on Monday in New York City, one lucky playwright will be awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama...
Lion's Din
Legacy Player:
Last week we talked about a musical titled Working; this week we’re going to talk about a play that could be titled Not Working. Take a guess where the play is set -- Detroit, Michigan...
Work Songs
Legacy Player:
That's "Brother Trucker," a song written by that other James Taylor, for the Broadway musical, Working. Based on a collection of interviews by Studs Terkel, Working is best described by the book's subtitle, People Talk About What They Do All Day And How They Feel About What They Do. So "Brother Trucker" tells us what it really feels like to be a truck driver, just as songs like "Just a Housewife" or "Cleanin' Women" describe the inner thoughts of stay-at-home-moms and janitors...
Why L.A. Needs to Be Connected to The Bridge
Legacy Player:
Over the past few months I've noticed a general worry among people in the arts that the current financial crisis is going to bring about the demise of many of our finest cultural institutions. In Los Angeles, we've already watched one opera company go bust, Orange County's Opera Pacific, and have seen many other theaters, museums and other arts organization pare back schedules or openly ask for help...
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Host
James C. Taylor
James C. Taylor reviews theatre, large and small.
Schedule
Live
Tapes & Transcripts
Click the Full Details link to view the complete transcript. Tapes are not available.
THEATRE TALK CALENDAR
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