Tuesday, February 16, 2010
David Arquette: The Females of My Life
By Naomi Pfefferman
At the Geffen Playhouse recently, David Arquette twisted off his gold wedding ring to reveal the inscription he shares with his wife, Courtney Cox: . . .
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Digging for Jewish Roots in ‘Palestine, New Mexico’
By Naomi Pfefferman
It seems out of character — to say the least — when Richard Montoya expresses concern about how his new play, “Palestine, New Mexico,” might . . .
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Outsiders
by Jeremy Dauber
A high school football player with a mohawk has a long, dark night of the soul. He dreams of an angelic visitation: a young woman in a nightgown, . . .
Monday, November 30, 2009
Convert Yisrael Campbell cuts up in one-man show ‘Circumcise Me’
By Gil Shefler, JTA
Did comedian Yisrael Campbell convert to Judaism for the jokes? If so, he might have tried to avoid the three circumcisions he had to endure to . . .
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Jews Dominate Auteur’s New Play
by Iris Mann, Contributing Writer
“I am intrigued with all things Jewish,” actor, author, director and filmmaker Henry Jaglom declared. “I must admit that I pick up a book in a . . .
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Leo Frank, Revisited
By Naomi Pfefferman
When T.R. Knight chants the Shema blindfolded and with a noose tightening around his neck in the role of Leo Frank, his character’s terror is . . .
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Jewish Theatre Mounts Ambitious Season
By Tom Tugend
It’s hard to be a Jew and even harder to be the artistic director of a Jewish theater in Los . . .
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Revived ‘Parade’ Marches Across L.A. Stage
By Naomi Pfefferman
Alfred Uhry swept though a corridor backstage at the Mark Taper Forum last week, greeting actors dressed in early 20th century garb with a robust . . .
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Cabaret for Cancer Cure
By Dikla Kadosh
Jo Levi DiSante, a Hollywood producer, was 28 when her sister’s breast cancer metastasized to her spine and bones and she was given three to five . . .
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Behind the Scenes With Hitler’s Elite
By Tom Tugend
Cornelius Schnauber’s father joined the Nazi Party early on, when it was still a fringe movement, and the son has been wrestling with this legacy . . .
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Not-Quite Farewell
By Tom Tugend
Way back in 1965, an actor named Chaim Topol, unknown in America, arrived in Los Angeles, staying at the cheapest possible hotel with fellow Israeli . . .
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Play Explores Different Holocaust Aspect — Effect on Son of Nazi War Criminal
by Iris Mann
The sins of the father are visited on the child in “East of Berlin,” a play about the emotional agony suffered by the son of a Nazi war criminal, . . .
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
‘Dirty Dancing’ Comes Alive on Stage
By Rick Schultz
Remember the classic line from the 1987 hit movie, “Dirty Dancing,” when the lower-class Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) walks up to the cosseted . . .
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Play Highlights Troubled Couple’s Attempt to Reconnect
By Naomi Pfefferman
Heads turn as Meital Dohan strolls into the café at the Viceroy Santa Monica hotel, wearing a miniskirt and high heels. . . .
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Enough Is Enough: Play About Mideast Conflict Is Timely
By Dikla Kadosh
Iris Bahr’s “Dai” (Hebrew for “Enough”), a one-woman play about 10 people at a Tel Aviv cafe moments before a suicide . . .
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Questions, Dilemmas Drive Geffen-Commissioned Play
By Rachel Heller
When the Geffen Playhouse commissioned a new piece from Donald Margulies five years ago, the award-winning playwright bided his . . .
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tovah Feldshuh immortalizes life of young Shoah heroine in ‘Irena’s Vow’
By David A. Lash
"Irena's Vow" is the story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a young Polish Catholic woman who took unimaginable risks and paid an unspeakable personal price to . . .
Thursday, October 9, 2008
‘Accidental Mexican’ Ilan Stavans probes cultural identity in first play
By Rachel Heller
As an "accidental Mexican" born to an Eastern European family, author and essayist Ilan Stavans has hurdled critics to become one of the nation's . . .
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Emily Stern—Howard Stern’s daughter—on stage and off
By Naomi Pfefferman
As a child, Emily first performed in the choir at her Reform temple in Roslyn, N.Y., where she sang at children's services and Jewish camp. She . . .
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Robert Schimmel: Cancer, through a lens comedic
By Naomi Pfefferman
He realized that even though he had just been told he had cancer, he hadn't been told he was going to die. To prove it, he was going to do the one . . .
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Women plot revenge against a sexist ‘70s boss in ‘9 to 5: The Musical’ (what a way to make a livin’)
By Shoshana Lewin Fischer
"It seems that in a musical you would get to know people less -- I actually think you get to know them more" -- Patricia Resnick, writer of "9 to . . .
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Even up close, Minkin’s illusions are magical
By Dikla Kadosh
"I want to make people think and feel a range of emotions —wonder, surprise, nostalgia, . . .
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Deferred dream comes true for actress Nan Tepper
By Tom Tugend
"I had been a student, wife, mother, news executive and caregiver, but I had always promised myself that one day I would be an . . .
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
‘Forgotten Hero’ of the Shoah Peter Bergson gets his due times two
By Tom Tugend
. . .