Craig Schwartz News

Ebony Repertory Theatre in Association with International City Theatre is presenting the Tony and Olivier Award-nominated musical BLUES IN THE NIGHT, conceived by Sheldon Epps, directed by ERT Producing Artistic Director Wren T. Brown, choreographed by Keith Young, and music directed by William Foster McDaniel.

Music and musicality run through the works of August Wilson like a sweet and impenetrable blues lick. There figures to be notes aplenty in any opus titled SEVEN GUITARS, the fifth play of Wilson’s cycle which is enjoying a muscular revival directed by Gregg T. Daniel at Pasadena’s A Noise Within.

During the opening number, the Troubadour Theatre Company, affectionately known to all as the Troubies, comment how thrilled the troupe, and the audience by extension, is to have returned to live theatre. The audience responded with glorious applause, and both the occasion and the Troubies deserve that adulation. The Troubies, who have rocked Los Angeles for the last 25 years, are one of the most creative teams in the city. Their imagination and gumption has entertained with parodies of classical works infused with a musical motif such as Alice In One-Hit Wonderland, Much ADoobie Brothers About Nothing, and A Charlie James Brown Christmas. Their latest, Lizastrata, based on both the Greek Aristophanes comedy Lysistrata and the songs made popular by Liza Minnelli, could have been a dazzler, but with a gossamer plot, too many recycled jokes, and a venue ill-equipped to allow the cast to sing with heft, the latest production is uninspired.

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the Arts alive in the City of the Angels. And just like all of us, I wondered how they are dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved. This Spotlight focuses on Robert Yacko, one of the busiest triple-threat performers in Los Angeles!

Five and a half years ago, the town of Ferguson, Missouri, became the focus of national attention following shooting of teenager Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. The unarmed, black 18-year-old was shot dead by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer, for allegedly robbing a convenience store on Canfield Drive, the same street on which Brown lived. Protests and media attention focused on the town for a year, while the community of Ferguson was left in turmoil.

The Tides have changed, not so much from Global Warning, but through Matthew Bourne's latest, revised version of his creation 'Swan Lake.' Thrilling, audacious, witty and emotive, this 'Swan Lake' is perhaps still best known for switching the female corps-de-ballet with a menacing male ensemble, which shattered conventions, turned tradition upside down and took the dance world by storm. Collecting over 30 international accolades including an Olivier Award in the UK and three Tony Awards on Broadway, Matthew Bourne's powerful interpretation of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece is a passionate and contemporary 'Swan Lake' for our times.

In training for the acting profession yours truly studied ballet, and I was always the first to throw the line off. I could not dance...ballet or any other form. I know so little about dance, then how can I write about it? Well, when Matthew Bourne is involved, I am envelopped in magic. What a treat to attend a Matthew Bourne event! Yes, his ballet productions are events ...  filled with magical storytelling without a word of dialogue. Like singers or actors, the ensemble tell the story through movement, with Tchaikovsky's gorgeous music to back it up. It's breathtakingly beautiful. Anger, violence and at the opposite extreme,  sensual appeal, blatant or subdued, and love are the most readily reognized emotions in this art form. Bourne divides his production into four acts with an intermission between Ac

The reviews are in for Ethan Coen's A Play Is a Poem, currently playing the Mark Taper Forum. Read what the critics had to say!

Lucas Hnath's DANA H., now in its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre, recounts a harrowing trauma experienced by the playwright's mother, Dana Higginbotham. In 1997, she was working as a hospice chaplain in Florida when a former patient, a mentally ill ex-convict, kidnapped her for five months. Hnath tells this deeply personal story through a riveting device: actress Deirdre O'Connell lip-syncs to recordings of interviews with the real Dana, conducted by Steve Cosson nearly two decades after the recalled events. Under the direction of Les Waters, this uniquely intimate encounter between audience and narrator offers a terrifying glimpse into the mental and emotional realities of being a survivor of abuse.

While I find Beckett's plays often too intensely intellectual for my comprehension, this was not the case with Irwin's seemingly effortless way of donning a bowler hat (or 2 or 3), juggling them until the perfect one is atop his head, and then going on to flop around the stage in his baggy pants and oversize shoes as a quintessential clown while explaining his interpretation of passages reflecting a?oethe noise of lifea?? in Beckett's a?oeText for Noting,a?? a?oeWatt,a?? a?oeWaiting for Godot,a?? a?oeEndgame,a?? and a?oeThe Unnamable.a?? It was an extraordinary evening of watching a master of the stage interpret the life and brilliance of a theatre legend.

a?oeOn Becketta?? will open at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Wednesday, September 18 at 8 p.m. Conceived and performed by Bill Irwin, a?oeOn Becketta?? is currently in previews and continues through October 27, 2019.

Performances have begun for the world premiere of Ethan Coen's “A Play Is a Poem” at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Neil Pepe and presented in association with Atlantic Theater Company, “A Play Is a Poem” is currently in previews with the opening set for September 21 at 8 p.m. Performances will continue through October 13.

The California Premiere of Nick Dear's adaptation of Frankenstein features a heartbreaking performance by Michael Manuel as a creature born innocent but ugly, taught to hate and rebel against humanity. Manuel carries the production on his hulking shoulders, which becomes crippling due to a confounding script and unusually lifeless direction from Los Angeles star director Michael Michetti.

Theater Close-Up, a unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and New York City-area Off-Broadway and regional theaters, returns with three new episodes Fridays, August 16 and 23 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN and thirteen.org/theatercloseup, featuring a diverse selection of groundbreaking, entertaining plays recorded live on stage, including the broadcast premieres of Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (August 16 at 9 p.m.) from MCC Theater, Martín Zimmerman's On the Exhale(August 16 at 10:15 p.m.) from Roundabout Theatre Company, and Anton Chekhov'sUncle Vanya (August 23 at 9 p.m.) from Hunter Theater Project.

INDECENT now onstage at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre in a co-production with Huntington Theatre Company, magnificently directed by Rebecca Taichman, is as close to a Broadway-quality production as you will ever see in the City of Angels, with incredibly entertaining, stylized movement performed by triple-threat performers, guaranteed to draw you into not only the story but the necessity of its truth being brought to the stage now.

The World Premiere of Lucas Hnath's DANA H. at the Kirk Douglas Theatre recounts the real-life story of the playwright's own mother, adapted from interviews with Dana Higginbotham which were conducted by Steve Cosson. Directed by Les Waters, the entire play is told in voiceovers from the real-life interviews, perfectly mimicked and emotionally heartfelt by Deirdre O'Connell in the title role. But be forewarned: this insider's look at a kidnapping and its repercussions is not for the faint of heart.

Theatre of the Absurd is offbeat and terribly entertaining, but you must have the right actors and skilled direction. Fine director James Bundy has dynamic actress Dianne Wiest in the role of Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. With her consistently optimistic outlook crashing up against a cloudy world, laughs are guaranteed. Currently onstage at the MTF through June 30, the play will have audiences mesmerized by the dandy work of Miss Wiest and her partner Michael Rudko playing her husband Willie.

The Yale Repertory Theatre production of Samuel Beckett's classic 'Happy Days' has begun performances at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by James Bundy, the production features Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest('Hannah and Her Sisters,' 'Bullets Over Broadway') as Winnie and Michael Rudko as Willie. Currently in previews, 'Happy Days' will play at the Mark Taper Forum through June 30, 2019, with the opening set for May 22 at 8 p.m.

NATIVE SON, a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright, tells the story of 20-year of Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in 1939. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic inevitability behind them, making the case that there is no escape from his destiny since he is the inevitable product of the society in which he has lived since birth, faced by expectations imposed upon him by others tasked to teach him the proper way for a Black man to live in society. It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly the case in Wright's original story which could have been written today, given the similar news stories filling the airwaves right now involving police beatings of Black men and gun violence leading to senseless murders.

Antaeus Theatre Company's production of "Native Son," which Center Theatre Group is remounting at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of the third annual Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre, will open Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. Written by Nambi E. Kelley, based on the novel by Richard Wright and directed by Andi Chapman, "Native Son" is currently in previews and will close April 28.