Theater Digest - October 29, 2019

Hi, I'm Katie! I see a lot of theater. And when I say "a lot," I mean a lot. In 2018, I saw 58 shows in L.A., 5 shows in New York, and 5 shows in London. I used to be a theater critic for LA Weekly, and I still write the occasional theater review for Stage Raw. 

These are my subjective opinions—there's a good chance you won't agree with what I think about any particular show, but if you don't think I've defended my stance on a show well enough, let me know, and I'll be happy to give more context. 

As a rule, I won't be talking about any Disney shows. Since this newsletter is geared towards people in the entertainment industry, there's a good chance I won't like a show that you or someone you know was involved in. I'm sure that you/your friend put a lot of effort into your/their work! I've been in a few shows, I know how much work goes into putting on a show. But just as you're entitled to dislike TV shows your friends worked on, I'm allowed to dislike theater you/your friends may have worked on. I try not to be vindictive, but I also do make it clear when I don't think a show is worth the price of a ticket or the time spent watching it. 

I won't be writing much/any synopsis in these blurbs, but feel free to check out other reviews for synopses! Or just check out other reviews in general! Keep theater journalism alive & well! 

Each week, I'll remove everything that’s closed, and put ** next to anything that’s new!

Worth Seeing:

We Are Proud to Present… at Art of Acting [LA]. I had heard great things about Jackie Sibblies Drury as a playwright (her play Fairview won the Pulitzer this year, but has yet to be produced in LA), but I hadn’t seen anything of hers; I missed this show when the Matrix staged it in 2013. Now that I’ve seen her words brought to life… wow! She’s a phenomenally talented playwright, disarming the audience with humor before showcasing a spectrum of the depravity white people show minority communities, especially black people. The play features deeply disturbing images and language, and as such, may be uncomfortable for some audiences, but it’s necessary viewing for white people who don’t want to make the same callous, vindictive, deadly mistakes their ancestors made (which should be all white people, but I digress). Tickets are $15, and there are only five performances left, with both shows today apparently sold out.
Closes Nov. 3 in LA.

Waitress on Broadway & the West End [NY/London]. I love this show! So much. I think it was really done a disservice by opening in the same theater season as Hamilton—any other year, it would have easily won Best Musical and plenty of other awards. This show is so good and so well done on every level! I think it’s the kind of show that will appeal to people who don’t love musicals, too. 
Based on a movie distributed by Fox Searchlight.
Closes Jan 5 in NY; open-ended run in London
My full review: http://stageraw.com/2018/08/07/waitress-theater-review/

School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play on PBS [NY] (it's online, but you can only watch it if the PBS website thinks you're in the New York City area). I reallllly liked this! I liked the script, and I liked seeing it staged even more. Sometimes Important plays are not good or enjoyable; this is an Important play that is also good and enjoyable. This is a filmed version of the off-Broadway production from last year, which should be identical to what I saw when it was in L.A. last fall.
Link to watch: https://www.thirteen.org/programs/theater-close-up/school-girls-or-the-african-mean-girls-play-ocalhd/
My full review: http://stageraw.com/2018/09/11/school-girls-or-the-african-mean-girls-play-theater-review/

Splurge:

**The New One at the Ahmanson [LA]. I really enjoyed this one! I definitely recommend it if you can get reasonably priced tickets, or if you can expense it. Mike Birbiglia is an engaging performer, and his material is really strong too. The show’s existence at the Ahmanson (and previously, on Broadway) raises an interesting question of what the delineation is between stand-up and theater, but Birbiglia melds the two gracefully. (I come out on the side that this is theater, not just stand-up.) If you can’t get a ticket, it’ll be on Netflix on November 26, and I’m sure, like Netflix’s other comedy specials, that will be good—but nothing quite replaces being in the room with a comedian and a live audience!
Closes Nov. 24 in LA.

Red Thread at Pskaufman Gallery [LA]. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket to Siegfried Tieber’s show Magic as Medium at the Hollywood Fringe Festival this summer, you can skip this show, since it’s pretty much the same, albeit a bit longer in its current incarnation. But if you haven’t seen that show, or haven’t seen Tieber do magic before, this one is definitely worth checking out! The ticket price is high ($74), so I have to qualify my recommendation, but Siegfried is a great magician, with fantastic presence and mind-blowing skill.
Closes Nov. 10 in LA.
My review of Magic as Medium: http://stageraw.com/2019/06/14/magic-as-medium-theater-review/
I profiled Tieber a few years ago for LA Weekly: https://www.laweekly.com/siegfried-tiebers-close-up-magic-fooled-penn-now-its-your-turn/

A mixed bag:

The Inheritance on Broadway [NY] (reviewed in London in November). This is an extremely ambitious work—a sprawling adaptation of Howard’s End, set across six acts, seven hours, and two plays. This telling of E.M. Forster’s book, which was published in 1910, is set in the present day, and (almost) all of the characters are gay men. A recurring theme is the lost generation of gay men who died in the AIDS epidemic, and the way the play portrays this is beautiful and haunting—in particular, the last scene of the first play is one of the most stunning moments I’ve ever seen on stage. And indeed, the first four hours of this play are quite good! And I commend the writer, Matthew Lopez, and director, Stephen Daldry, for keeping things interesting for four hours, that’s no easy task. But there are still three more hours after those first four, and those become less enjoyable as the play becomes more recursive and less grounded. Overall, the work is quite good, there’s just too much of it. I would honestly say that you could probably get away with seeing just Part 1, and skip Part 2.
Open-ended run in NY.

Come From Away on Broadway [NY]. My expectations going into this were pretty low, and the show exceeded them, but it didn’t win me over. The story is good, but because 9/11 plays such an important role in it, it’s at odds with the musical form. Also, the songs weren’t that good. The music was passable, but the lyrics were poor, over-relying on rhyming couplets, and, failing that, leaving lone lines to land with a thud. The book (the scenes between songs) was charming enough, and the whole thing was well-directed and -acted, but I couldn’t get into it. The book, music, and lyrics are all credited to the same two writers, so it’s hard to separate out individual elements.
This is set up at eOne.
Open-ended run in NY.

Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway [NY]. I originally saw this right after it opened on Broadway, and loved it then, loved it much less the second time, but I think it’s still worth seeing once, if you can afford the ticket price. If you can’t, don’t fret too much.
This is set up at Universal.
Closed in LA (back next season); open-ended run in NY
My original review of the Broadway production: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/01/review-dear-evan-hansen.html
My full review of the production at the Ahmanson: http://stageraw.com/2018/10/24/dear-evan-hansen-theater-review/

Ain’t Too Proud on Broadway [NY] (reviewed at the Ahmanson in August). I wanted to like this. I mean, it’s a musical based on the Temptations! Great songs. And the musical performances are realllllly good! But the show as a whole is uneven, thanks to a lackluster book. The director, Des McAnuff, who also directed Jersey Boys and Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, seems to be falling into a visual shtick, but it didn’t bother me too much here. 
Note: this may have undergone development between the LA and New York runs, but I still wouldn't be inclined to see it a second time.
Open-ended run in NY. 
My full review: http://stageraw.com/2018/08/28/aint-too-proud-theater-review/

Not worth it:

**Aubergine at South Coast Rep [LA]. This is one of those shows that’s hard to engage with critically, because while there was nothing that was really bad about the show, there also wasn’t much that was good. It’s alright. I didn’t love the lead actor’s performance, and the structure of the play was a little odd. It’s also far away (Costa Mesa) and tickets are expensive.
Closes Nov. 16 in Costa Mesa.

Linda Vista on Broadway [NY] (reviewed in LA in January). I get annoyed when people overuse the word "provocative" to describe a show, but it's an apt word to describe this one—I heard more audible reactions to this show than I have to any show I've seen in a while. But just because it elicited a reaction from me and people around me doesn't mean I think it was a good story, or one that's worth telling. Tracy Letts is undeniably a skilled playwright, but it's another play about a shitty man. There used to be plays about shitty men who weren't called out on their behavior, and now we've moved into a play about shitty men who are called out on their behavior, but I'd rather watch a play that's about someone other than a shitty man. It's also about three hours long. I suppose it's worth seeing for the experience of it if you can get a cheap ticket, but it's not a can't-miss show for me. 
Closes Nov. 10 in NY.

On my radar:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London/NY/San Francisco. The time commitment and ticket cost have kept me from seeing this one so far. 
Hadestown on Broadway 
Oklahoma! on Broadway 
Moulin Rouge! on Broadway
Slave Play on Broadway

Upcoming shows I'm seeing: 

Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at the Pantages
The Thanksgiving Play at the Geffen
The Great Leap at the Pasadena Playhouse
Key Largo at the Geffen
& Juliet on the West End

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