Posts by Martin Jones Westlin
Lamb’s’ ‘Miracle Worker’ Is Good, But Story Is Better Suited to Film
There are some things and people whose global esteem competes with live theater for proper attentions — and Helen Keller’s life is one of those. As good as Lamb’s Players Theatre’s live ‘The Miracle Worker’ may be, the cinema is by definition the better medium for such a play.
Read MoreHistorical Subtext Is Nearly Absent in ion’s Unfinished ‘The Jacksonian’
Racism is and has been here to stay, but even in our lifetimes, it’s been worse. Playwright Beth Henley seeks to illustrate this in her play ‘The Jacksonian,’ currently in its regional premiere at ion theatre — but everything considered, her theories fall woefully short.
Read MoreBroadway/SD’s ‘Book of Mormon’ Is Funny, But It Misses the Point
Mormonism, for better or worse, has a place in American consciousness, and it always will. Americans don’t know much about it — and amid Broadway/San Diego’s ‘The Book of Mormon,’ they’ll learn even less.
Read MoreVantage Makes Itself at Home with Good ‘Rasheeda Speaking’
Race has been an issue in the social consciousness since almost before, like, God. Although there aren’t many ways left to articulate its cost, Vantage Theatre (fueled by the prospects for a new venue in La Jolla, its home) gives it a good shot with its current ‘Rasheeda Speaking.’
Read MoreIt’s All About Her in NVA’s Pretty and Decent Biographical ‘Emilie’
In an especially good-looking show, New Village Arts wonders if the head or the heart rules the day in fueling human enterprise. A relatively obscure figure from history does the asking in ‘Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight,’ with topheavy but very interesting results.
Read MoreHighly physical performances fuel MOXIE’s good ‘brownsville song’
It’s pointless to recount the events that frame today’s urban life, primarily because everybody already has. MOXIE Theatre’s current “brownsville song (b-side for Tray),” however, looks close at the cause of such tragedies and at the lives of those touched accordingly, and it does it very well.
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