Lillian Hellman’s provocative masterpiece continues to exert a captivating hold on American culture. Set in the Deep South of 1900, where women have scant options and men seem to hold all the power, Regina Giddens will stop at nothing — even blackmail — to wrest the family business away from her scheming brothers. Oct. 18-Dec. 10; $15-$35; Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale, CA 91205; (818) 506-1983 or www.antaeus.org.
The Little Foxes
Critics
LemonMeter
Reviews: 15
Reviews
Cameron Watson has directed the piece as if it were a malevolent concert with each actor getting at least one solo spot to shine, and these actors don't misplay a moment in the spotlight... Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes is a true American classic and Antaeus has given it a sterling revival to be remembered for years to come.
I was particularly struck by the detailed stage set (John Iacovelli) of the Regina and Horace Giddens living room, all plush curtains, heavy fabrics, thick carpets, red, green and brown earth colors—except for the bright blue Victorian-era divan in the middle, which doesn't match anything. I couldn't help thinking it's the designer's way of establishing that this family represents the South's nouveau riche, aping current styles but obviously lacking polish. No one is specifically credited in the program with responsibility for the music. The piano music played on stage by Birdie and Alexandra was well chosen (and apparently performed by the actors themselves), but the intro and outro music heard before and between the acts seemed inapt—European-sounding concert music of a genre that did not contribute to the portrayal of the Hubbard and Giddens families of 1900 in the Deep South. It's easy to see how composer Marc Blitzstein saw this play and in his mind heard it infused with all kinds of American music for his opera Regina. The performance is true and on point. Especially effective are the scheming brothers Oscar (Rob Nagle) and Ben Hubbard (Mike McShane), Oscar and Birdie's dopey, wastrel son Leo (Calvin Picou), and the dipsomaniac Birdie herself (Jocelyn Towne). The daughter Alexandra is sprightly (and spritely) played by Kristin Couture. Timothy Adam Venable plays the Chicago businessman William Marshall with debonair grace. Judy Louise Johnson makes an upstanding Black house servant Addie, and William L. Warren acts well the smaller role of manservant Cal.
Watson, one of L.A.'s busiest intimate-theater directors, has a particular skill for calibrating the emotional clockwork of a group scene. His actors know what to do, where to look, how to react at every moment, so they're just as entertaining in the background as they are at center stage. John Iacovelli's sets are almost always spectacular, but the perfection of this one — through a set of glass doors off to the right, he has placed an ingeniously foreshortened dining room, which somehow seats most of the cast — attests to how thoughtfully the Antaeus team conceived and realized this mesmerizing, subtly topical revival.
While the play is presented in three acts with two intermissions, every actor is so outstanding, it holds one's attention every minute from beginning to end... - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The current production by the Antaeus Theatre Company is superb, bringing the play to dark-humored, vitriolic life... Director Cameron Watson gets stellar performances across the board from his cast and paces the show with skill. John Iacovelli's set is a marvel, an exquisitely detailed living room filled with what seem to be actual antiques, adding enormously to the show... For those who want to see a top-notch production of a genuine classic, The Little Foxes is a must see.
The combination of mano versus wo-mano here by both Puette and duly surprising, Kristen Couture as daughter Alexandra Giddens, who deals the absolute check-mate finale to Regina in the throes of her triumph, brings about a stunning, on-stage, never-thought-THAT-could-happen spontaneity that makes this production as delicious at it is delicately ferocious... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Beyond all the world-class Antaeusian accoutrement delivered in this smart and sumptuous production, what lingers the most after the final curtain descends is the classic script by Lillian Hellman, who so clearly understood the Southern mentality and, despite the political incorrectness of exposing it, more importantly saw the dangers of not calling it out.
Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES receives a stunning, STUNNING mounting by the always dependable Antaeus Theatre Company. Helmed with much precision by director Cameron Watson, the two-and-a-half-hour, two-intermission, three-act simply whizzes by, packed with Hellman's wonderful words coming out of the most capable troupe of actors, all.
Watson has honed Hellman's characters to a razor's edge that is predictable from the first scene... Antaeus dedication to high quality productions of classic as well as classical theatre is at its pinnacle in this presentation. Direction, acting and tech meld to present a play worthy of high praise.
The acting on all sides is superb, and Watson's direction shows deep knowledge and reverence to Hellman's characters and her story. Anteaeus Theatre's production is designed and performed to perfection, an enchanting two-and-a-half hours that should not be missed.
This impressive production, which happens to be the first of the play in Los Angeles in fifteen years, draws obvious parallels to the state of the world today, and even offers surprising moments of female empowerment in the final act.
The drama is staged with a sure hand and great finesse by director Cameron Watson, who wisely allows Hellman's incisive scenario, dialogue, and fascinatingly malicious characters to confront the audience unvarnished. He choreographs the action seamlessly and elicits uniformly excellent performances from his cast. - RECOMMENDED
The Little Foxes is perfection. Every creative and technical choice made by this gifted creative and technical team pays off. The show washes over you effortlessly, swift in its pleasures, profound in its understanding of human greed and misery — but also of human love and loss. It is a monumental achievement.
In a superb display of theatrical art, keenly directed by Cameron Watson, a uniformly brilliant cast delivers an utterly absorbing, high-tension depiction of a family rife with greed, cruelty, mendacity, double-dealing, and, ultimately, criminality.
Lillian Hellman might have written The Little Foxes in post-Depression 1939, but her tale of the Alabama Hubbard clan's quest for even more filthy lucre hasn't aged a day, just one reason her three-act Southern-fried melodrama makes for an especially scrumptious Antaeus Theatre Company three-course meal.
Cameron Watson has directed the piece as if it were a malevolent concert with each actor getting at least one solo spot to shine, and these actors don't misplay a moment in the spotlight... Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes is a true American classic and Antaeus has given it a sterling revival to be remembered for years to come.
I was particularly struck by the detailed stage set (John Iacovelli) of the Regina and Horace Giddens living room, all plush curtains, heavy fabrics, thick carpets, red, green and brown earth colors—except for the bright blue Victorian-era divan in the middle, which doesn't match anything. I couldn't help thinking it's the designer's way of establishing that this family represents the South's nouveau riche, aping current styles but obviously lacking polish. No one is specifically credited in the program with responsibility for the music. The piano music played on stage by Birdie and Alexandra was well chosen (and apparently performed by the actors themselves), but the intro and outro music heard before and between the acts seemed inapt—European-sounding concert music of a genre that did not contribute to the portrayal of the Hubbard and Giddens families of 1900 in the Deep South. It's easy to see how composer Marc Blitzstein saw this play and in his mind heard it infused with all kinds of American music for his opera Regina. The performance is true and on point. Especially effective are the scheming brothers Oscar (Rob Nagle) and Ben Hubbard (Mike McShane), Oscar and Birdie's dopey, wastrel son Leo (Calvin Picou), and the dipsomaniac Birdie herself (Jocelyn Towne). The daughter Alexandra is sprightly (and spritely) played by Kristin Couture. Timothy Adam Venable plays the Chicago businessman William Marshall with debonair grace. Judy Louise Johnson makes an upstanding Black house servant Addie, and William L. Warren acts well the smaller role of manservant Cal.
Watson, one of L.A.'s busiest intimate-theater directors, has a particular skill for calibrating the emotional clockwork of a group scene. His actors know what to do, where to look, how to react at every moment, so they're just as entertaining in the background as they are at center stage. John Iacovelli's sets are almost always spectacular, but the perfection of this one — through a set of glass doors off to the right, he has placed an ingeniously foreshortened dining room, which somehow seats most of the cast — attests to how thoughtfully the Antaeus team conceived and realized this mesmerizing, subtly topical revival.
While the play is presented in three acts with two intermissions, every actor is so outstanding, it holds one's attention every minute from beginning to end... - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The current production by the Antaeus Theatre Company is superb, bringing the play to dark-humored, vitriolic life... Director Cameron Watson gets stellar performances across the board from his cast and paces the show with skill. John Iacovelli's set is a marvel, an exquisitely detailed living room filled with what seem to be actual antiques, adding enormously to the show... For those who want to see a top-notch production of a genuine classic, The Little Foxes is a must see.
The combination of mano versus wo-mano here by both Puette and duly surprising, Kristen Couture as daughter Alexandra Giddens, who deals the absolute check-mate finale to Regina in the throes of her triumph, brings about a stunning, on-stage, never-thought-THAT-could-happen spontaneity that makes this production as delicious at it is delicately ferocious... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Beyond all the world-class Antaeusian accoutrement delivered in this smart and sumptuous production, what lingers the most after the final curtain descends is the classic script by Lillian Hellman, who so clearly understood the Southern mentality and, despite the political incorrectness of exposing it, more importantly saw the dangers of not calling it out.
Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES receives a stunning, STUNNING mounting by the always dependable Antaeus Theatre Company. Helmed with much precision by director Cameron Watson, the two-and-a-half-hour, two-intermission, three-act simply whizzes by, packed with Hellman's wonderful words coming out of the most capable troupe of actors, all.
Watson has honed Hellman's characters to a razor's edge that is predictable from the first scene... Antaeus dedication to high quality productions of classic as well as classical theatre is at its pinnacle in this presentation. Direction, acting and tech meld to present a play worthy of high praise.
The acting on all sides is superb, and Watson's direction shows deep knowledge and reverence to Hellman's characters and her story. Anteaeus Theatre's production is designed and performed to perfection, an enchanting two-and-a-half hours that should not be missed.
This impressive production, which happens to be the first of the play in Los Angeles in fifteen years, draws obvious parallels to the state of the world today, and even offers surprising moments of female empowerment in the final act.
The drama is staged with a sure hand and great finesse by director Cameron Watson, who wisely allows Hellman's incisive scenario, dialogue, and fascinatingly malicious characters to confront the audience unvarnished. He choreographs the action seamlessly and elicits uniformly excellent performances from his cast. - RECOMMENDED
The Little Foxes is perfection. Every creative and technical choice made by this gifted creative and technical team pays off. The show washes over you effortlessly, swift in its pleasures, profound in its understanding of human greed and misery — but also of human love and loss. It is a monumental achievement.
In a superb display of theatrical art, keenly directed by Cameron Watson, a uniformly brilliant cast delivers an utterly absorbing, high-tension depiction of a family rife with greed, cruelty, mendacity, double-dealing, and, ultimately, criminality.
Lillian Hellman might have written The Little Foxes in post-Depression 1939, but her tale of the Alabama Hubbard clan's quest for even more filthy lucre hasn't aged a day, just one reason her three-act Southern-fried melodrama makes for an especially scrumptious Antaeus Theatre Company three-course meal.