Monologue

The L.A. stage hit "Streep Tease: An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues Performed by an All-Male Cast" is as notable for what it is as for what it is not. "It's not a drag show," creator-producer-performer Roy Cruz said recently at the Fairfax District's Bang Comedy Theatre, where the 65-minute sensation is closing in on a yearlong run. "It's not an offensive show, it's not a showcase, and it's not in any way disrespectful or a parody," added...

Even though he spoke moments after Mitt Romney had promised a vigorous challenge against him in the fall, President Obama's message was little changed as he appeared at a Colorado university campus Tuesday night. Pressing Congress to act to extend lower rates for some student loan programs, Obama used the issue as another example of the competing visions that will be debated in the fall. "We need to send a message to folks who don't seem to get this, that setting your sights lower -- that's not an education plan.

While the editing of theatrical movies for television is a fact of life, I do wonder what is the point of televising "Scanners" without a single exploding body scene, or "Taxi Driver" with Robert De Niro's famous "Are you looking at me?" monologue deleted. Both of these movies were heavily promoted during the weeks they were screened on local stations. Matt Okada, Pasadena

Miguel Gutierrez has danced for 24 hours straight while blindfolded in response to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He invented his own existential workout form called DEEP (Death Electric Emo Protest) Aerobics. And he wrote a book of performance texts that include poems such as "The Problem With Dancing," which laments that the art form "doesn't sell, doesn't last [and] doesn't mean anything. " The 40-year-old choreographer has also created more than a dozen full-length live performances and a number of smaller works that incorporate dance, song, spoken word and bold visual imagery to tackle subject matter simultaneously personal and political, cerebral and emotional.

Add HBO's Bill Maher to the list of late-night comedians going back on the air this week. "Real Time with Bill Maher" will return from a planned hiatus and continue its fifth season Friday, HBO confirmed. But since the weekly show is coming back without its writers, Maher is scrapping his monologue and "New Rules" segment at the end of each program. Instead, the comedian will extend his guest roundtable and may field questions from his audience. He does not plan to write his material, a HBO spokesman said.

Dick Cheney jokes, George Bush jokes, Cheerios jokes and a "new bit" entitled "How Boring Is Alan Greenspan?": Jay Leno is back on late-night, looking happier and more self-confident than he has in months. (It takes a confident man to introduce the word "boring," not to mention Alan Greenspan, five minutes into an opening monologue.) And why not? As he has made clear through recent self-pitying interviews and the foot-dragging "The Jay Leno Show," he never wanted to leave "The Tonight Show" in the first place.

In reading Howard Rosenberg's article "Strength Down the Homestretch" (Feb. 27), I came to focus even more on what the Grammys represented to the music lovers of the world. The music has changed over the years, but our society hasn't. People need and love music. Whatever songs and performers make it to the Grammys each year is not the real issue here, nor is the quality of the emcee's monologue or the dance routines. What matters is the music that will move lives and live on long after the "show" went on. Quality and style of music changes; our need for it does not. JIM PETERSON Los Angeles

President Clinton was so excited about the Denver Broncos' winning touchdown in the Super Bowl that he jumped up and almost knocked the intern off his lap. So goes one of the myriad jokes "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno was contemplating for his monologue Monday, a monologue that Leno doesn't normally have this much fun working on. But then the scandal implicating President Clinton in an alleged affair with former White House intern Monica S.

Carrie Fisher takes on the scandalous breakup of her parents' marriage, when her father, Eddie Fisher, left her mother, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor; her erstwhile marriage to Paul Simon, her turn as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" and its continuing ripples and much more in her savagely witty one-woman Broadway play, "Wishful Drinking," which comes to HBO on Sunday at 9 p.m. The special includes archival footage from Fisher's colorful life....

For 20 minutes, slender, white-haired, hard-talking Ed Waite rolled out his tell-it-like-it-is monologue, the news from Atwater Village. He recited every zone change, every variance, every building permit, every demolition in the works since the last time his group got together. He added a word about crime and dispelled the inevitable rumors that pass through an aroused community. Last, he came to the rumor his followers were not prepared to deal with. "Yes, I am going to leave Atwater, leave Los Angeles," Waite said.

BOOKS Well, here's one way to get around reading the book: Go see monologues performed from "The Pale King," David Foster Wallace's posthumous release about IRS agents. Hosted by Los Angeles Times book critic David Ulin, passages of the tome concerning the bleakest corners of bureaucracy and boredom will be illuminated by Henry Rollins, Josh Radnor ("How I Met Your Mother"), Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation") and Megan Mullally ("Will & Grace"). Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd.

Did Medea's sons have play dates? Did Gertrude call out, "Use your words, Hamlet!" when her toddler got grabby in the sandbox? What was Amanda Wingfield's rapport with her obstetrician like? At what age did Mother Courage start her daughter Kattrin on solids? Such questions apparently didn't interest Sophocles, Shakespeare, Williams or Brecht. More recently, writers have noticed that the ordinary joys, disappointments, doubts, grief, heroism and self-sacrifice that are part of every mother's everyday experience make pretty good stories.

Carrie Fisher takes on the scandalous breakup of her parents' marriage, when her father, Eddie Fisher, left her mother, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor; her erstwhile marriage to Paul Simon, her turn as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" and its continuing ripples and much more in her savagely witty one-woman Broadway play, "Wishful Drinking," which comes to HBO on Sunday at 9 p.m. The special includes archival footage from Fisher's colorful life....

"... I can't shop there I'm overweight, have to say it like it's a curse word. Only the skinny can joke about how fat they are because they know how much they aren't; all they want are the compliments. I know I won't get compliments... " ? Amy Hunt, 16 Teenage girls used to keep their secrets ? those they dared to record ? locked away in diaries. These days, many express their most intimate thoughts on paper or in cyberspace, often rendered in language surprisingly (to adults, at least)

The L.A. stage hit "Streep Tease: An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues Performed by an All-Male Cast" is as notable for what it is as for what it is not. "It's not a drag show," creator-producer-performer Roy Cruz said recently at the Fairfax District's Bang Comedy Theatre, where the 65-minute sensation is closing in on a yearlong run. "It's not an offensive show, it's not a showcase, and it's not in any way disrespectful or a parody," added...

The cellphone conversations going on around us — in the grocery store, mall, airport, elevator, on the bus, etc. — are by now ubiquitous. But they still feel intrusive. A new study suggests our brains simply don't like these one-sided chats. Researchers at Cornell University conducted a series of tests to gauge people's reactions when exposed to four background noise settings: silence, a monologue, a conversation between two people and half a conversation (called a halfalogue)

Paula Weston Solano is a special combination--a lively performer with solid writing ability. Those twin talents are on ample display in "Appearances," Solano's well-crafted solo show at the Met. Largely a series of interlocking monologues, the play is an eclectic sampling from the lives of a half-dozen or so Asian women characters. Some, such as first-generation Chinese immigrant Mabel and daughter Joann, are related by blood.

In "Three Viewings," Jeffrey Hatcher's new play at South Coast Repertory, three unrelated characters deliver monologues in a funeral parlor. If this sounds like an exercise in Playwriting 101, you're not far off the mark. The plots of each of these three playlets are as neatly wrapped up as a gift package prepared by an anal-compulsive. That's the bad news. There's plenty of good news in this sprightly 90-minute evening as well. In writing character, Hatcher is well into the advanced seminar.

Dick Cheney jokes, George Bush jokes, Cheerios jokes and a "new bit" entitled "How Boring Is Alan Greenspan?": Jay Leno is back on late-night, looking happier and more self-confident than he has in months. (It takes a confident man to introduce the word "boring," not to mention Alan Greenspan, five minutes into an opening monologue.) And why not? As he has made clear through recent self-pitying interviews and the foot-dragging "The Jay Leno Show," he never wanted to leave "The Tonight Show" in the first place.