Cynthia Citron

By Cynthia Citron SANTA MONICA, California — Barbara Bain, who’s about to open in Why We Have a Body at the Edgemar Center, probably will never top the excitement of her first premiere — her own entry into the world. She made her debut on Friday the 13th in the back seat of her uncle’s

By Cynthia Citron VENTURA, California– It’s well worth the trip to the Rubicon Theatre, believe me. Tom Dugan is absolutely brilliant as the Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal. And completely Standing Ovation-worthy. Dugan’s one-man show is set in a replica of Wiesenthal’s office at the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna on the day of his retirement. As

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — A few days ago, the West Coast premiere of a play by David Ives demonstrated that that imposition of certain religious convictions on the differing beliefs of another person has been going on seemingly forever. Ives’ play is called New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah

By Cynthia Citron VENTURA, California –Playwright/director/actor Tom Dugan is in the process of writing his sixth one-man show, The Ghosts of Mary Lincoln. “I’m not playing Mary,” he says, “but I could.” In the meantime, Dugan is busy preparing his successful show Nazi Hunter — Simon Wiesenthal, which ran at Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40 last

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — To paraphrase a very old joke: seven Jews sat down at the table to express 14 different opinions… In fact, they were the opening panel convened by the 31st annual conference of the International Association for Jewish Theatre, beginning Sunday at UCLA Hillel’s Dortort Arts Center to discuss “Jewish

By Cynthia Citron SANTA MONICA, California — If there is a loaded shotgun hanging on the living room wall just below the crucifix, you sort of get a hint of the kind of household you’ve entered. In Martin McDonagh’s play The Lonesome West, currently onstage at the excellent Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, the

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — Quick! Who is Luiz Inacio da Silva? Or do you know him as “Lula”? Would it help if you were told that Time Magazine had named him one of the Most Influential People in the World in 2010? That Forbes ranked him One of the World’s Most Powerful People?

By Cynthia Citron NORTH HOLLYWOOD, California– As Winston Churchill might describe it, Theresa Rebeck’s play The Water’s Edge is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” There re more mixed emotions, contradictions, outright lies, duplicity, passion, and chills in this dramatic masterpiece than in any play you’re likely to see in this decade. The

By Cynthia Citron SANTA MONICA, California — There must be at least half a dozen people in L.A. who have never seen Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town. If you are one of them, you couldn’t do better than the production that opened this week at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Helmed by Helen Hunt

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES —  A Separation is probably one of the best films of the year. But it should come with a warning label, because it is not for the faint of heart. It is so intense that it can tie your stomach in knots, and you may have a hard time breathing.

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES– Many people judge Stephen Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List to be the definitive Holocaust movie. Until now. Giving Spielberg a run for his money is Agnieszka Holland’s latest film, In Darkness. Poland’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film in this year’s Oscar race, In Darkness is exactly what its title proclaims:

  By Cynthia Citron BEVERLY HILLS, California — For those of us who have lived much of our lives in the Kennedy Century, The Color of Rose is a poignant revisit with the fabled family that always seemed an extension of our own. Kathrine Bates’ fascinating play, told through the eyes of the matriarch, Rose, is

  By Cynthia Citron BEVERLY HILLS, California — In the hands of playwright Kathrine Bates, even history’s certified villains get a sympathetic hearing. Take, for example, Lucrezia Borgia. Bates penned (with Ted Lange) and starred in the one-woman Evil Legacy: The Story of Lucrezia Borgia, performing it first for a dozen friends in her own

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — It’s been a pretty good year for Irish plays. There was War and The Field, both set in an Irish pub, and Lucia Mad, a domestic drama about James Joyce’s family, Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, and the Druid Company of Ireland’s rendition of The Cripple of Inishman.