The Elephant Man at El Centro Theatre

The Elephant Man

El Centro Theatre
804 N. El Centro Hollywood

For the first time in the play's 30 year history, John Merrick is historically recreated for the stage by Oscar-Winning Special FX Make-Up Artist, Barney Burman, in Bernard Pomerance's award winning drama, The Elephant Man. The play is based on the life of Joseph "John" Merrick, an Englishman born with an extremely rare disorder causing severe deformities. Exhibited in the freak shows of Victorian England, John sparked the interest of Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, who takes him into his care.

Presented by Lascaux Entertainment

Thru - Apr 24, 2011

Thursdays: 8:00pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 8:00pm

Sundays: 2:00pm & 7:00pm

Price: $25

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 323-960-5081

www.theelephantmanplay.com

The Elephant Man Reviews

Average Rating based on 3 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

LA Weekly - Recommended

"...Hoagland is impressive as Merrick, and Hillary Herbert does a wonderful turn as Mrs. Kendall, the actress and caretaker who provides Merrick with genuine tenderness. The complex relationship between Merrick and Treves is the soul of this play, but Fox is convincing only in patches, and seems completely out of his depth for this enormously critical role. Vali Tirsoaga has designed a simple yet effective set, and Pheobe H. Boynton's costumes are equally well crafted."

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- Lovell Estell III

Backstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...This production's ambitious visual reinvention of Bernard Pomerance's 1977 masterpiece, though captivating in its ingenuity and incredibly successful in its application, is also its undoing. Throughout the history of this play, John Merrick, a real person who suffered from a rare physical disorder, has been played by perfect male specimens twisting their body to limn Merrick's deformity."

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- Travis Michael Holder

Talkin Broadway - Not Recommended

"...Drouillard's direction has little sense of pace or intensity. For the bulk of the play, it's just each scene (usually joining characters mid-conversation) played until the final emotional or humorous "button," and a blackout in which the next such scene is set up. It isn't so much the set changes themselves that are problematic-not everyone has automated turntables-but there's a definite lack of dramatic flow, both between the individual scenes and within the scenes themselves, which each just start in the middle and run inevitably to the poignant moment, before they give way to the setup for the next one. Perhaps this is in Pomerance's writing itself, but more inventive productions have gotten much more out of the play."

- Sharon Perlmutter