Morna Murphy Martell

As someone who has never read Jane Austen’s ‘Northanger Abbey’ this updating the story to modern LA by Stina Pederson is silly but fun. Allison Powell is adorable as the naïf Catherine drawn into a Gothic Hollywood mad-for-success plot. She has the face of a porcelain doll and the eyes of a wondering deer in headlights. The entire cast perform with an energy and mad delight that is a relief from the too-often subtle murmurings in other shows. Jane Austen might not recognize her own work but if sh... full review

As a daughter whose mother had Alzheimer's, Eileen Weiner starts with wry complaints about adult diapers but soon shifts into portraying the mother who once was a young woman like herself, falling in love and marrying, then losing her beloved husband. It’s basically a familial remembrance and the witty songs lift it from being maudlin. I already had heard much of the material since Eileen was a co-writer in Jill Schary Robinson’s Blue Coyote Writers Workshop in Hollywood. Needs work, and a direct... full review

No one has written as eloquently about AIDS, and the confusion and heart-rending losses of so many, as Harvey Fierstein. Here a man has died and his former wife appears to be claiming him back from the lover who nursed him through his final desperate years. Yet the craftsmanship here does not allow for predictable conflicts, the two actors are well served by a playwright who knows that what is said is rarely as important as what is left unsaid. Kimberly Patterson is magnificent as the businesslik... full review

Ingrid Garner brilliantly creates history through a series of different characters, an 8 year old girl, her stern father, her courageous mother, her smart elder brother and the stern voices of the oppressive regime in Germany under Hitler. Its all true, based on her American grandmother’s memoir of being trapped in Germany throughout World War Two. This young girl’s view of the oppression of the average German people, and their eventual punishment from Allied bombings, creates a sad parallel to A... full review

This play was so spellbinding the audience did not want to leave and, even after the curtain calls, they all sat wanting more. Lead performer and playwright Elizabeth Rian has a knack for diva impersonations that fit her haughty protagonist, an actress forced to be helpful to a bunch of senile old folk. She is a beauty and surrounds herself with a terrific cast. The play delves into what defines true kindness and how even play-acting at caring can somehow transform one’s spirit. This one hour pre... full review

According to Simon, the world is divided into people who scoff at magic tricks, people who gasp in wonder, and people who just don’t care. My skeptical husband kept trying to tell me how this or that illusion was 'done' while credulous me just gasped at the magic of it all. What an affable chap Simon is, patiently explaining to his eager audience how he does each ‘trick’ then leaving us all baffled as he does it. Such fun. A $5 bill turns into a 50 in front of our eyes. His small Soy Sauce bottle... full review

Being British born I had heard of their 19th century Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge but knew little about him. Well, in this fascinating hour Ryan Vincent Anderson, as Aldridge, vividly enacts the history but also shows the soul of the man. A free black American, at age 18 Aldridge escaped from a country where his passion for acting was thwarted by the dangers of prejudice. What playwright Rick Creese shows in this biography is the personal life of an itinerant player in that era who became a s... full review

When she was 21, Ann Starbuck went to China and here she revisits that adventure and brings us along. It was 1988, the country was under Mao’s punitive Communist rule and this gal was alone, hardly spoke Chinese and, in spite of a number of panic attacks, loved being there and seeing the Great Wall and other famous sites. As a student she was protected from the harsher rules her new friends lived under yet, being an intrepid traveler, she managed to become part of the local people’s lives. A job ... full review

These 4 playlets, adapted and directed by Adam Scott Weissman from stories by the often cynical Dorothy Parker, show a deeply gentle side of her in the first play ‘The Lovely Leave.’ In fact, this beautifully realized tale of a young wife and her Air Force husband spending only minutes together before he is shipped overseas and into the black hole of World War II is a masterpiece of stagecraft. They look at each other with deep tenderness, even kiss once or twice, but mostly they squabble. Here a... full review

Ladies and gentlemen – she does Standup, she does Cabaret, but most of all she does Opera! Now there seems to be a rumor that people are fed up with opera, or they don’t like it, or they hold their ears when the fat lady sings, but don’t buy it. It’s delightful fun when stand-up Erin, in often vulgar language, tells us of the adventures (sexual and otherwise) that have brought her to this point. Everyone laughs when she equates high notes with farts. BUT. When she changes into a slinky grey silk ... full review