07/25/2026
Clowning around: Something is in the wind: the sense that we're living in a clown show. Three local productions employ what, in Shakespeare's day, would have been called "the fool," a prankster living on the margins yet exposing the craziness of those living within the margins: "The Great Bank Clown Show" at Open Fist Theatre Company; Ann Noble's "Dead Man," - a noir clown mystery at Echo Theater"; and, reviewed this week, "Clown Sh*t (Easy Rhino Productions at the Eastwood Performing Arts Center), Hope Lauren's study of two strangers sharing a liminal space with no idea of how they got there. Reviewed by Julia Stier.
https://stageraw.com/stage-raw-review-clown-sht/
Also recommended (Musicals have not lot any of their appeal):
"Footloose" (Inland Valley Repertory Theatre at the University of La Verne). “Footloose is actually the story of a man who’s lost his son, a boy who’s lost his father, and how those two help each other to heal,” Reviewed by Asa Fris.
https://stageraw.com/stage-raw-review-footloose-2/
"Jagged Little Pill" (Chance Theatre) The 2019 Tony nominated musical (shut down on Broadway by Covid) centers on an apparently perfect family in an affluent Connecticut community, tackling opioid addiction, sexual assault, racial identity, gender identity, infidelity, mental illness, family dysfunction, privilege and the painful disconnect between the lives people project and the ones they actually live. Reviewed by Joel Beers
https://stageraw.com/stage-raw-review-jagged-little-pill/
And from the Department of Non-Musicals:
"F**king Strangers" (Echo Theater Company) Erik Patterson's new play about "four intriguingly conflicted characters circling around the story of a married man who loves his wife, but also desires other men. Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
https://stageraw.com/stage-raw-review-fking-strangers/
"Waiting in the Wings" (Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum) "Noël Coward’s late-career comedy-drama profiles nine retired stage divas gathered under one charity-home roof, and makes each of them a character worth our acquaintance. That opportunity is rare enough on the scripted page — it’s rarer still to find a theatre company positioned to seize and run with it." Reviewed by Philip Brandes
https://stageraw.com/stage-raw-review-waiting-in-the-wings/
All the latest new reviews:
https://stageraw.com/new-reviews/
Deborah Klugman compiled this week's stage listings.
https://stageraw.com/stage-listings/
Thank you for supporting local theater!
Image: Hope Lauren and Samuel Garnett in "Clown Sh*t" (Photo by Jonny Marlow)
