A Noise Within succeeding in its goal of building its own theatre in Pasadena is such an impressive achievement. Unfortunately, their first show in the new space, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, is a bit disappointing. It's not bad, and a couple of the performances are deft, but it rarely shows us what A Noise Within is truly capable of when the company is on its game. more ›

Beginning today, the animated character Mr Toast and his foodie friends invade Royal/T in Culver City for the next month. Mr Toast paintings, plush toys, pins, and books, will be for sale and there’s a surprise artwork installation by Mr Toast creator and Los Angeles native, Dan Goodsell. The opening party will be held on Wednesday from 6-8 pm with Mr Toast on hand to greet his fans. 
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Measure for Measure is currently running as part of A Noise Within's 19th season. Sex, politics, and sexual politics drive William Shakespeare's characters to coup and clique amid moody corruption and tender sympathy. Under the sleek and shadowy direction of Michael Murray, this postmodern-before-its-time classic is an urbane stew of contemporary flare thick with the harnessed energy of veteran company performers. more ›

Shakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus, doesn’t get a lot of respect. Mainly because it’s such a gory mess, an onslaught of war crimes, dismemberment, rape, cannibalism, infanticide, and…the like. In Titus Redux, a new adaptation of the Elizabethan off-classic which opened Sunday night, two collaborating L.A. theater companies harness the bloody raw material of the original and shift its milieu from the ancient Romans’ war against the Goths to the contemporary conflict in Afghanistan. Interspersing new dialogue with the Shakespearean text, moving the story forward in between live scenes with silent video vignettes featuring the characters in real-world settings, and enacting some of the play’s most violent moments in vivid choreography, director/adaptor John Farmanesh-Bocca’s reimagination of Titus is intermittently wacky and intermittently powerful. more ›

Alone, on a dark stage with just a symphony of crickets in support, Mike Peebler slowly intoned the most important soliloquy in the English language. "To be or not to be," he asked the audience, and, though most could recite the speech by heart, we waited breathlessly for the answer. So it went in Topanga Canyon one summer's eve, where Hamlet, a play performed so often it risks cliche, unfurled through two-plus hours on the strength of a splendid cast who played off each other to create a stirring quilt of a drama. And the good news? They're their all summer. more ›

King Lear, Shakespeare’s play about an old, unfortunately unwise monarch who learns to value the worthwhile people in his life too late, is generally performed as a simple tragedy, squeezing pathos from the disconcerting velocity of the high being brought low. There’s nothing wrong with that approach—it works and has worked for centuries—but the new production by the Antaeus Company offers something different... more ›

A Noise Within is hosting White Russians and Discussions tonight following the 8 pm performance of a new adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The Russian-themed reception features guest speaker Ed Bacon, Rector for All Saints Church in Pasadena, who will discuss the story of Lazarus, and the ways in which its tale of rebirth intersects with the central figure in the play. Tickets: $44. more ›

The art show Mobile Exhibits No. 3 opens tonight at the City of Long Beach Annex featuring four installations from Meeson Pae Yang, James Thegerstrom and Heather Scholl, Karen Reitzel and Elizabeth Wild. The opening reception is from 5-8 pm at the Annex, but Meeson’s installation Traverse is located at 5661 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach. The exhibit runs until Jan. 31. more ›

For over twenty years, when Culver City-based theatre collective The Actors’ Gang has spoken, Los Angeles theatergoers have listened, and with good reason. The shows that are produced in the tiny Ivy Substation are often on par or well above the other high-gloss production shows you can pay twice as much money for around town. Not that their works are expansive (or expensive) shows with all sorts of modern theatrical trickery; in fact, the Gang just lets their acting do all the talking for them. And, again, we listen. more ›

Okay, so these picks aren't related to Bastille Day...but if you must celebrate the storming of the Bastille, then we suggest grabbing a baguette and some fromage, and heading over to one of these events tonight: more ›

Now here's something you don't get a chance to see everyday: “Mild Light: An evening of Cantastoria from the Performance Department of the Museum of Everyday Life” comes to the Manual Archives tonight. "Cantastoria" involves the display of representational paintings accompanied by sung narration. Clare Dolan, Chief Operating Philosopher of the Museum of Everyday Life (Vermont), will demonstrate the "versatility and saucy immediacy of this performance form, with stories ranging from accounts of bloody crime in the 1930's written by Bertolt Brecht, to the dilemmas of a modern-day heroine trying to make a living and achieve total happiness." There are two shows tonight at 8 and 10 pm. Tickets are $12/$8. more ›

But Cymbeline gets points for amalgamating all genres and Theatricum for putting on one of Shakespeare’s lesser known works. The cast, led by Willow Geer as Imogen and Mike Peebler as Posthumus, struck all the right notes with a golden touch of brevity and soul. Thad Geer, as King Cymbeline, overcame a stiff first couple of scenes to assume a commanding and royal presence while Aaron Hendry’s spot-on portrayal of the sly and duplicitous Iachimo was near perfect. more ›

Let's brush up on our Shakespeare, shall we? The Taming of the Shrew is one of the Bard's earlier comedies. Basically, a young man falls in love with girl. The problem is that the girl's father won't allow her to get married until her "difficult" older sister gets hitched (aka the shrew in the play's title). To solve the problem, another guy rides into town, and says that he'll marry any rich woman sight unseen. Guess which woman? And, of course, the two clash and fight and argue...until she's tamed by her husband. more ›

Last month, San Diego-based singer-songwriter Anya Marina (MySpace) headlined at the Hotel Cafe (MySpace) in Hollywood, with support from Molly Jenson (MySpace) and New Jersey-based Laura Warshauer (MySpace). more ›

On Tuesday the Tiny Ninja Theater company performed William Shakespeare’s Macbeth before a standing-room-only audience in the tiny Fake Gallery on Melrose. The evening capped the New York-based company’s four performances—two at the Fake and two others at a little larger venue called Walt Disney Concert Hall. more ›

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Apparently one step closer to becoming a sovereign nation, the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council discovered that the Bureau of Street Services has officially recognized the intersection of Hollywood/Sunset/Hillhurst/Virgil as an East Hollywood Neighborhood Council border. more ›

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We all know that in five days Californians go to the polls to decide the fate of this state, this country and the world. That gross overstatement seems fitting given the coverage and verbage some are using to describe the upcoming Primary. more ›

This morning on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson played a game called "You're a Blond Bombshell Who'll Do Anything For Attention." The focus of the three questions was LA's own billboard celebrity, Angelyne. Wilson failed miserably, as a CIA agent probably should, but how will you do? Answers after the jump... more ›

Remember when Charlie Brown had a bad case of S.A.D. and after he gave Lucy a nickle, she tells him that he needs more "involvement." Then they put on a nativity play and well, you know the rest. It's December and Los Angeles is rife with holiday plays and musicals. Just because you're too old to land the starring role in the Christmas pageant, or don't happen to have kids who are performing in one, don't think you get to skip your seasonal dose of fabricated sentiment. Afterall, when it's 80 degrees outside, we Angelinos can use all the holiday cheer (or parodies there of) we can possibly stand. more ›

BOO-ya! There's still time to check out some Halloween events, including the Hollywood Hell House and Bordello's Voodoo Vixens Burlesque show tonight at 10p. This accident on the 5 may tie up traffic until tomorrow: authorities are still counting only 3 casualties, but who knows how drivers will react to the construction and clean-up now taking place. First the water, then the power, now the phones? Mayor Villaraigosa is proposing a 9-percent phone tax.... more ›

I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper ~ Earl of Kent in King Lear Last week, news broke over the consumer controversy of secondary sellers like Stubhub.com and TicketsNow being investigated by a few states about music fans not being able to purchase tickets to shows on Ticketmaster, even at the minute and second they go on sale. The problem came up with popular concerts like The Disney... more ›

One part Greek tragedy, one part Shakespeare's Henry IV, one part hip-hop concert Clay, a one man show written and performed by Matt Sax and directed by Eric Rosen, rocks the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Chronicling the life of a young man who "comes of age through the theatricality of hip hop", Clay has an unexpectedly moving quality about it. Raised in what can only be described as suburban hell, Clay's lead character, Clifford, is... more ›

The one and only Puck (1991-2007). You may think your family dog was the most badass ever, but no, mine was. In fifth grade, I returned home from a sleepover to find an absolutely psychotic bundle of black fur in our kitchen, barricaded in by a row of tall, heavy objects, such as hampers and unused nightstands, ripped-up and peed-on newspaper shreds at his feet and an old stuffed toy duck of my brother's... more ›

Throughout this next month, start your Hollywood weekend night with this overly silly, but laugh-out-loud production of three short plays about two genres so lovable that Kenneth Branagh recently shot Shakespeare's As You Like It ninja style and it's inevitable a fourth in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is to come. Pirates and Ninjas, a production by this year's L.A. Weekly Award winner for Production of the Year (Marat/Sade), Blue House Theatre/Big Mama... more ›

I know this is hardly a controversial opinion. A few years ago, I had the “pleasure” of seeing Ted Nugent open for Kiss. The show was raw, sweaty, and blissfully loud. As the Motor City Madman powered through hit after hit, I was amazed at how much I was enjoying his brand of gloriously primitive bonehead rock. The massive crowd cheered, pumped their fists, and banged their collective heads to the seemingly endless stream... more ›

We know that almost everybody’s going to Sunset Junction this weekend, so if you want to do something a little different (or add it to your agenda), why not check out LA’s great theatre scene? Some of these alternatives are perfect for those watching their budget (i.e., they’re free!) Here are LAist’s picks for the week: Heads Four American and British civilians are kidnapped off the streets of Iraq. After reading that description, the... more ›

Someone very dear to me has recently developed the theory that the music we listened to at 17 is the music that stays with us all our lives, and has the most profound influence on us. When I was 17 I listened to 10,000 Maniacs virtually without pause; this was when their MTV Unplugged album was released, which, as part of the popular televised series, features live acoustic renditions of many of their most popular songs, including "Hey Jack Kerouac" from their 1987 release In My Tribe. As many adolescents are inclined to do, I was eager to latch on to any offered strand of cultural definition in the hopes of locating the essence of identity (read: "find myself") I took Natalie Merchant's eloquent bait and purchased a copy of On the Road. more ›

The Jazz Tap Ensemble will play at Santa Monica City Hall's front lawn tomorrow. It's always a good weekend to go enjoy free... Did you say puppets? We like puppets. "Titus the Clownicus" - In the hands of The Actors' Gang, Shakespeare's bloodiest and most macabre drama (Titus Andronicus) becomes rip-roaring family fare. Titus the Clownicus is leader of the Red Nose Army. He returns home with his entourage of clowns and puppets victorious... more ›