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    IF YOU DON'T KNOW, I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU

    Theater of NOTE's late-night show consists of 10 one-act plays, each no longer than five minutes. You'd think five minutes is not nearly long enough to say anything interesting or meaningful. Yet each of the 10 writers packs an amazing amount of dynamic theatricality into a comparatively small ...

  • Review

    HONKIES WITH ATTITUDE

    While playwright Matt Pelfrey's work, including his fine one-act, Monkey, never shirks from controversial social topics, it usually comes with a heavy dose of irony, which mitigates the author's earnestness. Unfortunately, Pelfrey's latest play, under the direction of Darrell Kunitomi, loses much of this ironic tone. The ...

  • Review

    Critic's Picks

    SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA• Big River, presented by and at Deaf West Theatre, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Sun.

  • Review

    DOREEN GRAY— A HOLLYWOOD STORY

    This may be one of the most deliciously embarrassing things I've witnessed for quite some time, mortifying in both the watching and the perpetration. The script, by Brad Kahn and Jacqueline Stewart, purports to be an admittedly loose spin on the Oscar Wilde tale of the debaucher who remains ...

  • Review

    Brian Stokes Mitchell: Songs... I Like To Sing

    Shortly after gleefully handling Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin" at his just-concluded Feinstein's at Loews Regency gig, Brian Stokes Mitchell referred to the post-election euphoria sweeping the globe.

  • Review

    Seattle Shakes

    There is so much of the Bard on the boards—and more to come—that you'd think the companies in the Puget Sound region had planned a season saluting Shakespeare. At the moment, there are two productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor afoot—one in Seattle, the other ...

  • Review

    Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights

    Presented as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Paradise Theater, 64 E. Fourth St., NYC, Aug. 10-26.

  • Review

    LENNY'S BACK

    Lenny Bruce was not only one of the great standup storytellers, he was also one of the first to take the stage without a planned routine and push the boundaries of comedy as far as he could take them. Charged with the energy of the unfamiliar audience and the performance ...

  • Review

    THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER and THE SANTALAND DIARIES

    The Sacred Fools' Christmas double-bill offers something sort of foolish and something sort of sacred. In the end, sacred wins out. The foolish is David Sedaris' sardonic solo radio play, The SantaLand Diaries, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello into what is essentially an overlong, mean-spirited standup routine. The ...

  • Review

    THE FAIRY TALE ENGINEERS

    Be careful what you wish for, goes the old saying; you just might get it. But then again, maybe you'll get something entirely different. In Brian Howrey's surrealistic comedy, it's often unclear what sphere we're in—reality vs. fantasy, past vs. present, conscious vs. subconscious, death ...