Photos courtesy of Deb Robinsonk/SCR.

Wow.

Such is The Fantasticks, written by Tom Jones, with music by Harvey Schmidt, and directed by Amanda Dehnert for the Segerstrom Stage of South Coast Repertory. Wow for Dehnert's direction, Dennis Castellano's musical direction, and Eugene Lee's scenic design. Wow for the cast's ability...

The first story was set as a couple's visit gone awry. The second one was set at an unlikely character's declaration, to an equally unlikely audience, of the meaning of life. Eugene Ionesco's "The Bald Soprano" and "The Chairs," directed by Jamie Sweet for The Garage Theatre, in Collision with...

Photos courtesy of Joel Daavid.

Kerry Carney is currently onstage as Tanya, an inadvertent freedom fighter in Jason Wells' "The North Plan," directed by David Fofi and given its Los Angeles premiere at the Elephant Theatre Company. The production's backstory describes some unnamed national emergency that has occasioned the President,...

Photos courtesy of Mickey Elliot.

Fred Astaire once crooned about "the bumpy road to love" which, in relationship matters, is the alternate route to love-at-first-sight. It's not the way these things begin, it's not the day-by-day messes and misunderstandings that need to be cleaned up, it's the long-term result that...

Photos courtesy of the artist.

About eleven years ago I met J.W. Reeves (Man or woman? No clue) in the comments section of a lively but now defunct publication, New York Arts Magazine. I was bowled over by her lapidary wit, her cultural fluency, and, mostly, by her ornery, spot-on...

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Lewis.

With hard-to-believe panache, energy and coordination, the Playhouse nailed this production of Georges Feydeau's 1907 farce, "A Flea In Her Ear." Directed by James Rice, it's a hilarious and aerobic romp through a misunderstood cause for an embarrassing effect that threatens to derail the otherwise...

All photos courtesy of Henry DiRocco/SCR.

The world premiere of The Parisian Woman, written by Beau Willimon (inspired by Henri Becque's La Parisienne), directed by Pam MacKinnon for South Coast Rep, doesn't just enact the ambition, maneuvering, and dirty tricks you associate with political life in Washington, D.C. It takes...

JS: When and how did you decide you wanted to be an artist? What challenges did you face growing up as a female artist in Lahore? Why did you leave? Describe your immigrant experience in Australia as a woman, a Pakistani, and an artist. How is this expressed in your...

JS: When and how did you decide you wanted to be an artist? What was it like growing up in Lebanon, personally and artistically, and why did you leave?

PH: No decision in being an artist or not, simply doing what I felt the need to do.

And maybe...

JS: When you and your wife Priyanka began Experimenter in April 2009, what gap were you trying to fill? What inspired to open the gallery in the first place?

PR: We started Experimenter with a very clear focus. At the time we felt that contemporary practice was...

This third edition of Marker, curated by Lagos-based Bisi Silva for the seventh edition of Art Dubai, describes the societal changes sparked by the rapid development of West African cities. The founder and artistic director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, she chose five West African artspaces -- Centre...

Rare is the chance to see work that, piece by piece, so clearly merits a visual dialogue.

Such is the case here.

Greg Mocilnikar does to space what Juan Gris, with his Synthetic Cubism, does to form. He dissects relationships of interior and external spaces (not to mention relationships...

The Sharjah Biennial and Art Dubai are taking place this week and next. Showcasing the quality, relevance, and complexity of Middle Eastern art, it makes sense as well to investigate the achievement of contemporary Middle Eastern theatre. What follows is an interview with Lebanese Director Hadi Tabbal. Mr. Tabbal is...

In the context of Neil Simon's "Chapter Two," directed by Patrick Vest for Little Fish in its nicely remodeled Theatre, getting back in the saddle sounds like a crude way to describe the goal of newly widowed George Schneider (Richard Perloff), who's just lost what, by all accounts, was one...

Clocking in at a smidge under 90 spellbinding minutes, Gotta Gittit Done, written by Glen "Frosty" Little, directed by Achille Zavatta for The Bixby Park Community Players, presents a threnody for the passing of the father of two nameless characters played by Otto Griebling and Bev Bergeron.

It's the...

Proving that the idea of family is not simply the product of a marriage contract, Neil Simon's "Proposals," directed by Todd Nielsen for the Norris Center for the Performing Arts, shows how it's defined by the confiding, consoling, and sharing of people in close proximity.

Larger than life.

On the plus side, the phrase characterizes the personalities of the two protagonists in Jamrack Holobom's "The Apotheosis of Herman Rodman Guidry," directed by Jackson Timbers for The Theatre at the Pike. On the negative side, it describes this unwieldy albeit hot and holy mess of...

Photos courtesy of Henry DiRocco/SCR.

Throughout Stephen Adly Guirgis' gripping "The Motherf**ker With The Hat", directed by Michael John Garces for South Coast Repertory Theatre, the stage rotates to reveal cross-section views of several rooms, several lives. It's a perfect soap opera metaphor for the human condition of addiction: As...

Photos courtesy of Robert Craig

So engrossing is "Intimately Wilde" written by Terra Taylor Knudson, directed by Gigi Fusco Meese for the Long Beach Playhouse's Studio Theatre, that you forget that it's based on a true story, the events leading up to and the consequences of playwright/poet Oscar Wilde's obscenity...

An annual dream. The holiday season. Presents bought and wrapped, trees decorated, houses lit. Kids let (or about to be let) out of school, some of whom will dream of a visit from Father Christmas aboard a gift-laden sled pulled by flying reindeer. The giddiness, the anticipation, the hope-kept-alive. Nuclear...