Amanda Callas

The Sandwich Ministry is an intimate, small town story. It is about faith, smelly church centers, natural disasters, loss, sandwich fixings, and the struggle to find meaning and community.  Playwright Miranda Rose Hall celebrates the unassuming, rich beauty of female friendship and the things that keep us going when everything else falls apart. 

The Winter’s Tale at Will Geer Theatricum Botanical is a true joy of a production. There is a terrific cast of lively, powerhouse performers and many irresistible moments of magic, delight, drama, and fall-out-your-chair-laughing hilarity.  I absolutely loved it.

The Spy Who Went Into Rehab is a cheeky, high-spirited, brilliant new world premiere comedy at the Pacific Resident Theatre.  This sexy, adventurous, romp follows a simple and hilarious premise — what would happen if James Bond were court-ordered to rehab?

Lovers of Agatha Christie, Knives Out, Michael Connelly, and of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, will be absolutely delighted by this fiendish period mystery starring everyone’s favorite sleuth and cocaine addict.

Misalliance is a delight, a breezy, witty, carefree period romp and delectable social satire set on the sprawling Surrey estate of underwear tycoon John Tartleton.

The Body’s Midnight is a brilliant, meditative, fiercely funny and brutally heartrending world premiere drama at Boston Court Pasadena.  It is a hard play to capture its essence, both explosively hilarious and lyrical, surreal, and profoundly mournful, a ferocious elegy to all the things that are disappearing.

Twelfth Night is a glorious example of how to do Shakespeare right.  This production is full-bodied, fresh, cheeky, lighthearted, inventive, imaginative, and flat-out hilarious.

Stalin’s Master Class is enthralling, darkly funny, awkward, and thought-provoking about the eternal tension of politics vs art, censorship vs thought, modern art vs people’s tastes, groupthink vs ingenuity, and popularity vs quality. 

In its second hit run at the Whitefire Theatre with many sold out shows, this historical comedy-drama is unbelievable but true, laugh-out loud hilarious, and brilliantly thought-provoking.

This acclaimed play by Barbara Lebow is beautifully produced by the award-winning creative team at the Laguna Playhouse, with great sensitivity, rich texture, and mature brilliance in the direction by David Ellenstein.

5-Star Theatricals does superb work capturing the charisma and characters of these great rock and country legends, and the music and energy of the show is breathtaking, jubilant and infectious.  Million Dollar Quartet has one extraordinary songbook.  You don’t want to miss this show.

The marriage of ballet and Disney musical is a delightful one. Beauty and the Beast was a sold-out smash hit at the Lewis Family Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga March 2nd through 10th.  A joint production of the Candlelight Pavilion and the Inland Pacific Ballet, this Disney musical was lavish and entertaining.

You wouldn’t expect a bittersweet, haunting tale to be this laugh-out-loud funny, but it is.  There is so much charm and sensitivity in this Pacific Resident Theatre production.  The Bespoke Overcoat is almost unbearably poignant, a drama of humanity and rare tenderness. You don’t want to miss this exquisite gem.

Watching Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, I literally forgot I was watching a one person show.  Tony award winning, Broadway and Hollywood star John Rubinstein is a fascinating and charismatic actor, with uncannily perfect comedic timing.  Compelling, thought-provoking, moving, and surprisingly funny, you do not want to miss this one.

At its heart, Middle of the World is something of an unexpected love story between a fallen socialist leader from Ecuador and a young, driven Black finance executive. Middle of the World feels like an elegy, evoking the bittersweet, numbing ache of loss and betrayal. It invokes a sense of loss of an identity, a family, a country.

The award-winning Troubadour Theater Company has been doing their beloved annual Christmas mashup shows for decades, with loyal fans who return year after year. The closest thing I can compare it to is live performances I have seen of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Dog Man: The Musical is a fun, goofy musical romp running through January 7th at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. This bright, happy show is almost solely aimed at children, and what a wonderful thing that is.

The Queen’s Cartoonists execute jazz with exquisite polish, verve, cheeky humor, and manic energy, recalling the early days of hot jazz in the 1920s and 30s. Holiday Hurrah shines bright and merry with the most vivacious, high-energy of holiday tunes.

Fresh and glorious to behold, with bold, impressive stagecraft and truly innovative and imaginative costume design.  There are frequent moments of awe and breathtaking sprinkles of magic.  Although it feels off to me in some of its performance and art direction choices, this is a remarkable and stunningly visual production.

Santasia is a must-see sketch comedy take on the glory and insanity of the holidays at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, created by and starring Brandon and Shaun Loeser.  Ongoing for 24 years and frequently sold out at every show, with performances in Los Angeles and Off-Broadway in New York, Santasia is a phenomenon.