e28 Blog

• And Another Thing: Theater Joke Countdown #5-3 June 22, 2011
  The end is near: Here are three more installment in the seemingly neverending series. Enjoy. 5. Q: How many non-union stagehands does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: Two. One to hold it and the other to hammer it in. 4. A theatrical agent is walking down Broadway late one night when he […]
  Lou Harry
• After a Fringe binge, the postmortem begins June 20, 2011
  Overheard Sunday night at the Hollywood Fringe: “We had about 12 (in the audience). Not bad!” And everything being relative, it wasn’t bad. An even dozen was my count at Theatre Asylum earlier in the evening when I started my Fringe binge with Sam Shepard’s Cowboy Mouth – although three of us were from Engine28.com. […]
  Kerry Lengel
• Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing June 20, 2011
  They don’t call them “fringe” festivals for nothing. With titles like I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You, the 2011 Hollywood Fringe looks packed with theatrical land mines. One misstep and…kabloowie! Take the LA-based comedy trio Sound & Fury’s Spaceship Man, a simply ghastly 70 minutes of self-indulgence that makes water-boarding [.. […]
  Martin Brady
• Earnest rock & roll Jesus with a cowboy mouth wants more in the rock dept June 20, 2011
    Cowboy Mouth, written by Sam Shepard with assistance from Patti Smith at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC in 1971, presents their love affair writ in metaphor in a one-act play that rocks, or in this case, should rock. Slim (Shepard character) is obsessively drawn to Cavale (Smith character), who hijacks his secret fantasy of […]
  Kathryn Osenlund
• Twist: A review–and a musical–in progress June 20, 2011
  Pasadena Playhouse calls Twist a new musical. But the Prohibition era, New Orleans-set permutation of Oliver Twist actually has been in development since the ‘90s. Back then, I caught a promising fully staged version at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and was intrigued to see how it has evolved, now under the directorial/choreographic supervision [ […]
  Lou Harry
• Let’s Put On A Show: ‘Re-Animator’ and DIY Theater June 20, 2011
  Last night, I witnessed a beheading, a few murders and a couple of accidental deaths.  Bloody entrails, too, including an unraveled intestine that squirted blood all over me. I never believed these gory acts were real (though I do hope the fake blood will come out of my clothes).  Still, I won’t soon forget seeing […]
  Rebecca Milzoff
• Oh, and there’s another show in town… June 20, 2011
  There are several popular mythologies about theater audiences. Some people say that big splashy tours build general excitement for in theater, theoretically increasing interest in events like RADAR L.A. and Hollywood Fringe. But a quick poll of people attending “Les Miserables” at the Ahmanson Theater on Sunday paints a different picture. Or maybe it’s just […]
  David Timberline
• Podcast debate: ‘The Last Five Years’ June 20, 2011
  It’s the battle of the sexes, waged over the Jason Robert Brown musical The Last Five Years. Cathy and Jamie meet cute, fall in love, get married and then fall apart. But who is to blame for their unhappily-ever-after? Help Engine 28 decide. [soundcloud width="100%" height="81" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color […]
  Maura Judkis
• Is There Life After the Fringe? (Video Interview) June 19, 2011
  In Summer “Rain” Sinclair’s Born Again Bohemian, a personal story of shedding parental baggage, the playwright’s mom dismisses the absence of Sinclair’s hippie-dippie dad, saying, “We have plans for our life, Summer, and they don’t include him.” Eventually, the plans of a grown-up Sinclair do include the man she calls Dadio. And after her Hollywood […]
  Nancy Fowler
• Riveting Talk Breaks the Locks in La Razón Blindada June 19, 2011
  Inspired by the experience of playwright/director Aristides Vargas’ brother, a political prisoner of the Argentine dictatorship, La Razon Blindada (“Armored Reason”) is an extraordinary meditation on the endurance of human creativity in the face of hopelessness. In Rawson prison, a desolate Patagonian pen where the government stashed anyone who dared questio […]
  Ben Waterhouse