Posts by Martin Jones Westlin
NCR’s ‘Chapter Two’: For Once, Neil Simon (Horrors!) Isn’t All That Bad
Neil Simon sucks, God bless him, except when he doesn’t. North Coast Repertory Theatre is mounting a very good ‘Chapter Two,’ Simon’s tribute to his second wife Marsha Mason and a nod to the pain of widowerhood — for once, this criminally overrated playwright is on to something.
Read MoreOut of Chaos Comes Order in Lamb’s’ ‘You Can’t Take It with You’
We’re dependent on only ourselves, in good times and bad, for our happiness. Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s ‘You Can’t Take It with You’ is a big-time reminder of all that — and Lamb’s Players Theatre mounts the lesson with its usual expertise.
Read MoreMoonlight’s Good ‘Sondheim’: It’s the Thought
Stephen Sondheim is 84 now, exploding with human insight in Moonlight Stage Productions’ good ‘Sondheim on Sondheim,’ a multi-media entry with decent singing and some fascinating interview footage to boot.
Read MoreNVA’s Fair ‘Stage Kiss’ Has a Hard Time Coming Up for Air
Farce is pretty cool when it doesn’t look like farce, and that’s pretty much the case in the first act of New Village Arts’ West Coast premiere of ‘Stage Kiss.’ The mystery is that there’s not much play to illuminate it.
Read MoreLamb’s’ Fair ‘Joseph’ Forgets Its Roots
Lamb’s Players Theatre is back at what it does best, branding an acclaimed stage piece with its own tight-knit look and feel. The problem is that the story behind ‘Joseph And the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ falls short of the company’s renowned potential.
Read More‘Gunmetal Blues’: Film Noir Is Alive and (Fairly) Well
You’ve seen Sam Galahad hundreds of times before, even if you’re not a big film noir fan. North Coast Repertory Theatre’s ‘Gunmetal Blues,’ in fact, is betting on that amid its decent effort at mounting a funny live look at the staple genre.
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