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In alphabetical
order:
The
Adding Machine
Sacred
Fools Theater Company.
Roaring '20s parable about a zero named Zero added up nicely in Lauren
Hollingsworth's staging.
Aliens
in America
Tiffany Theater.
Sandra Tsing Loh talks about her father, and other beloved conundrums,
in lovely, funny solo polished to a sheen by director David Schweizer.
Collected
Stories
Geffen Playhouse.
Juicy two-hander from one of America's best, Donald Margulies, staged
(by Gil Cates) and acted (by Linda Lavin and Samantha Mathis) like they
knew what they wanted.
Harry
Thaw Hates Everybody
Indecent Exposure Theatre Company.
Writer-director Laural Meade's inspired explosion of history, the underside
of "Ragtime." If I really had to pick a '99 favorite . . . well, this
one and "Arturo Ui" (see below).
Hedwig
and the Angry Inch
Henry Fonda Theatre.
Big flop, fun show. Wrong venue? Too loud for the 'burb crowd? Where were
you?
Light
Up the Sky
Pasadena Playhouse.
If only all chestnuts came roasted so beautifully.
The
Philanderer
South Coast Repertory.
Rarely seen Shaw comedy played right into SCR's sweet spots. Solidly acted,
freshly felt, handsome design work up and down.
Reefer
Madness
Hudson Backstage Theatre.
Act 2 wobbles, but man, if they revise it, this musical tear through the
1936 agitprop yuk-fest could get this entire nation high. Legally, of
course.
The
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Berliner Ensemble at UCLA.
Martin Wuttke delivered the performance of the year, inverting and refracting
the dictator of the century.
Straight
as a Line
Playwrights' Arena.
Luis Alfaro's bittersweet gem unfolded like a troubling, edgy dream, as
dreamt by a casino-worker mother and her AIDS-stricken son.
Nos. 11-20:
Art Doolittle Theatre; Bells Are Ringing Reprise!
at UCLA; Broadway Actors Gang; Cymbeline Old
Globe Theatre; Dennis Cleveland Eclectic Orange Fest; Floyd
Collins Old Globe Theatre; Measure for Measure Ahmanson
Theatre; The Merry Wives of Windsor Will Geer Theatricum
Botanicum; The Piano Lesson South Coast Repertory; St.
Nicholas Matrix Theatre Company.
Copyright
1999 Los Angeles Times
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