Drama Mama and Drama Papa

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Mamma Mia; Mama Meryl!

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That's the title song from the ABBA musical, Mamma Mia! Tonight, it will be performed live on stage in at least seven different cities around the world. It's been estimated that 30 million people have seen Mamma Mia!, but up until last night, I had not been one of them...

Jumping Ship

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One of the unwritten laws of journalism is that once something happens three times, it officially becomes a trend. Already twice this year, major Los Angeles theaters had to cancel world premieres of new plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights. In January, Center Theatre Group announced that David Mamet's first musical, A Waitress in Yellowstone, was indefinitely postponed; and then in April, The Geffen Playhouse announced that it was postponing the world premiere of Donald Margulies' new play, The Elephant in the Room, about a photojournalist returning home after covering a war...

'Spring'ing without Singing

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During his life and in the time since his death 90 years ago, Franz Wedekind was widely known in the German-speaking world. Both famous—and infamous—for his plays, his acting, plus his songs and light verse, Wedekind was actually conceived in here in America. His parents met and lived in San Francisco, but moved to Germany just before he was born...

One Enchanted Revival

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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

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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

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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

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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 performance of Kathleen Chalfant...

A David Mamet Comedy

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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..."

Songs from San Diego

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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...

LA Theatre Awards Promote 'Trying' Times

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It's awards season in the theater world, so it's time for a Theatre Talk pop quiz...

The Time of His Life

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If life was as generous to William Saroyan as Saroyan was generous to life, the author would be turning 100 this year. Instead, the Fresno-born writer died 27 years ago this Sunday...

Playwrights' Verizons

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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

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In some ways, Los Angeles can be thankful that theater here never saw a "Golden Age." This came to mind on the opening night of The Actors' Gang's current revival of Klüb—a backstage farce about a seriously dysfunctional troupe of performers. Written by Mitch Watson and Directed by Michael Schlitt, Klüb is a wicked Valentine to show biz, a sort of Chorus Line of the Damned...

Fair Enough

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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...