Live from Los Angeles!
it's a Los Angeles live theater/performance roundup. But first, an apology.
I am sorry.
I forgot about Challengers.
Challengers is one of, if not THE best movie of the year. But much like the voters of the Academy, I suffer from recency bias and including it in my post last week about the best award-season films completely slipped my mind! Do not sleep on Challengers - I promise, if you want to fall in love with movies again rent it TONIGHT. Before I saw it back in May, I assumed it was a sexy-romdrama, with the tennis of it all a mere afterthought to the sizzling romance(s) between Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. But Challengers is actually a TENNIS FILM. Yes, the central relationship triangle takes center stage, but the game of tennis isn’t just a vessel for their story: it’s the language of the story itself. This elevates it from a ‘fun time at the movies’ movie to a visceral, pulse-pounding, and truly great Film with a capital F. It’s one of the greatest sports movies I’ve ever seen, and it’s a crime it wasn’t nominated for screenplay, editing, and my GOD I’ll never understand how it didn’t get an original score nomination.
But seeing as I myself completely forgot about it last week, I guess I can’t really throw stones.
SHOWS TO SEE (and not see) IN L.A.
I mostly talk movies on here, but I’ve gotten to see and partake in some wonderful theater and live performance recently which I am so grateful for (it’s LA after all!😀)
And it randomly just so happens that all of these are still underway, premiering this weekend, or coming up soon so check them out if you can! Well, not all of them - don’t check all of them out - just keep reading, you’ll see. Not everything can be a hit! (It’s LA after all 😟)
I’M A GOOD PERSON!
Elysian Theater. March 11th, 7:30pm
Comedy Queens Cecily Breaux and Lindsey Mallard killed it in their debut sketch show, I’M A GOOD PERSON, which I had the honor of directing at UCB. It was so well received that we’re TAKING IT OUT ON THE TOWN! Seriously, you do not want to miss these two in this unhinged, silly yet searching sketch show. If you couldn’t make the UCB show, don’t fret! We have another performance at the Elysian on March 11th, and then say tuned for more exciting updates about the show’s future.
BETTY
The Reef LA. February 21 + 22nd, 7pm.
Dancer/Choreographer Taylor Donofrio will present her beautiful piece Betty this Friday and Saturday at 7pm at the REEF space in DTLA as part of the CalArts Reef Residency for developmental works in progress. “Conjuring the ideals, experiences, and struggles of the second wave feminist movement, Betty reflects on reproductive rights, female representation in the media, and gender equality in 2025.”
Taylor is also a dear friend and collaborator - I documented her thesis, I N T E R I O R (below) when we were both students at Calarts and deeply treasure how her work both embodies and challenges ideas of modern femininity.
EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING
Rogue Machine Theater. Performances thru March 9th.
We saw this Will Arbery play a few weeks ago at the Rogue Machine Theater, where just last year our minds were totally blown out by the same playwright’s subsequent, Pulitzer-nominated drama Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Evanston (featuring supermodel Kaia Gerber!?) however, was… honestly a total miss for me! Some of the performances were fine, others not so fine (“You’re acting so loud I can’t hear you,” as my college theater director used to deride us.) Overall, I just couldn’t really figure out what this play was about. Like, I could tell what it wanted to be about, but there were far too many threads hurled up in the air to understand which we were meant to grasp onto. The magical realist elements [similarly used very sparing and deliberately in Heroes] felt way too heavy handed and clumsily inserted here. Because of those frenetic moments of surrealism plopped into an otherwise grounded, kitchen-table style drama, it felt very much like an MFA play, which it probably was but I don’t really care enough to investigate.
NOISES OFF
Geffen Playhouse. Performances thru March 9th.
My god this show is the definition of FUN. Like, good old-fashioned, night-out at the theater farcical, ridiculous fun. It’s about a somewhat inept, yet totally charming amateur British theater troupe whose final rehearsals for their play ‘Nothing On’ are going, well… not quite according to plan. Any plan. In fact, Noises Off asks the question, “what happens when the plot is already lost from the very first moments of onstage action?” And trust me, you will want to see how that question is answered. Staged in three acts, Noises Off’s construction is also simply brilliant: the first act drops us right into the rehearsal process for the play, then the second takes us (literally) backstage to reveal that ‘Nothing On’ has well, nothing on the drama taking place behind the scenes. The third act finally sees the culmination of the ‘play’, but not in a way that anyone, the directors and actors especially, might have anticipated. The actors, many hailing from Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theater Company, are absolute masters of the comedic craft: special shoutout to David Lind (Gary) whose physical prowess is straight up olympian. Noises Off made the hour long trek to the Westside during rush hour after an exhausting weekday completely worth it, or in non-LA-Speak: I highly, highly recommend this show.
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Ahh! So envious you get to see Noises off at Geffen. My dream to do this play. Also thank you for reminding me of the challengers SCORE. Sending to my DJ friends now cause I want to hear this on the dance floor asap haha