Ellen Dostal
Ellen Dostal is a Senior Editor and longtime writer for BroadwayWorld's Los Angeles region. A self-professed musical theatre geek, she also publishes two popular Southern California theatre blogs – Musicals in LA and Shakespeare in LA – and has covered jazz and classical events for the KJazz 88.1 FM and K-Mozart 1260 AM Arts and Music Blogs. She is also the LA Show writer for TheThreeTomatoes.com (The Insider's Guide for women who aren't kids). As a founding member of New Musicals Inc’s repertory company, she has developed roles in countless new works, many of which have been produced regionally and in New York. By day she works to raise money for children in need at Variety - the Children's Charity of Southern California.
A Shakespeare Gift for the Holidays: SHAKESPEARE HIS WIFE AND THE DOG at The Broad Stage
BWW Review: THE HOT LIST! What's Hot on Stage Now
Review: Kingsmen's TWO NOBLE KINSMEN Proves Chivalry isn't Dead
BWW Interview: Julie Makerov and the Fine Art of Balancing Music and LifeNovember 5, 2018
How does a busy soprano balance career, family, motherhood, and art? If that soprano is Julie Makerov, it's all about scheduling and planning ahead of time. Makerov, who will be appearing as one of four soloists with LA's Verdi Chorus this weekend at First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, says that's the key to managing all of her commitments.
BWW Review: SKYPILOT One-Acts Explore Contemporary Issues from a New PerspectiveNovember 4, 2018
New work is the lifeblood of the theatre and it is also the sole focus of LA-based SkyPilot Theatre Company. Going one step further, SkyPilot's niche is 'producing only original plays, created by LA playwrights,' which they have done consistently since 2010.
Theatre West and Artist Levi Ponce Celebrate Judy Garland in New MuralOctober 29, 2018
On Sunday, October 27th, Theatre West presented a beautiful new addition to the urban art landscape in Los Angeles with the unveiling of local artist Levi Ponce's latest mural featuring Judy Garland. Painted in full color and pictured with the Emerald City behind her, the portrait immortalizes one of the most beloved singers of all time in her signature role - Dorothy Gale from the classic 1939 MGM musical, THE WIZARD OF OZ.
BWW Review: THE WOMAN IN BLACK is Halloween Scare Fare at Pasadena PlayhouseOctober 21, 2018
One of the things theatre does extremely well is create something out of nothing. That's pretty much the key to Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's gothic ghost story THE WOMAN IN BLACK, which ushers in the Halloween season at Pasadena Playhouse.
BWW Review: Unbound Productions Rouses the Dead with WICKED LIT: THE CHIMES AND THE CORPSEOctober 15, 2018
For eight of the last ten years, Wicked Lit has created theatre among the dead - quite literally - at Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena. Three stories adapted from classic literature have been the norm most recently, with a fourth story functioning as a framing device to connect the pieces and bring a sense of camaraderie to the crowd. The result is an exceedingly entertaining evening of indoor-outdoor theatre in one of the spookiest venues in Southern California.
BWW Review: A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Captures a Chilling Lifetime of DecayOctober 5, 2018
They say a picture paints a thousand words. In director Michael Michetti's compelling stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, it does more than that. It captures a lifetime.
BWW Review: Ammo Theatre's FAIRY TALE THEATRE 18 & OVER: THE MUSICAL is Comedy with a KickSeptember 20, 2018
Ammunition Theatre Company ventures into the wacky world of fractured fairy tales for its latest production, FAIRY TALE THEATRE 18 & OVER: THE MUSICAL. Written and narrated by Michael J. Feldman, with original songs by Jason Currie, the show consists of four sketch comedy skits performed in 90 minutes, no intermission, by a group of energetic actors with mostly stand-up and television backgrounds.
BWW Review: Color and Light Theatre Ensemble's LIZZIE is Rage Rock at its FinestSeptember 18, 2018
How much rage would a person need to feel to kill two people with 29 whacks of an axe? The short answer is, a lot. That's the number Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby actually sustained in 1892 - not the 81 immortalized in this haunting nursery rhyme.
Theatre in Historic Places: NIGHTWALK IN THE CHINESE GARDEN at The HuntingtonSeptember 12, 2018
When writer/director Stan Lai has an idea for a new play, people take notice. He is the most celebrated Chinese language playwright and director in the world and his body of work - which to date includes 35 original plays - has redefined how we think about the art form itself. With such well-known works as Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, his epic, eight-hour A Dream Like a Dream, and That Evening, We Performed Crosstalk, he has continued to study the human condition with great thoughtfulness while inspiring countless theatremakers around the world to reach beyond the familiar.
BWW Review: THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND Kander and Ebb Style for Reprise 2.0September 7, 2018
Somewhere between its opening of SWEET CHARITY in late June and the end of July, Reprise 2.0 postponed its second scheduled production of its inaugural season, VICTOR/VICTORIA. In its place, the company has mounted a revival of Kander & Ebb's musical revue, THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND, and, while it isn't a rarely revived book musical, which has always been Reprise's focus in the past, it does contain a score derived from some of the best songs in the classic Kander & Ebb catalogue (think CHICAGO and CABARET).
BWW Review: Revenge is Never Sweet in Independent Shakespeare Co.'s TITUS ANDRONICUSAugust 8, 2018
TITUS ANDRONICUS is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedies. Characters are stabbed, beheaded, mutilated, raped, baked in a pie, and one is even buried up to his neck and left to die. At first glance it may not sound like an obvious choice for families who attend the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, and it definitely isn't one for 'the youngest audience members' as the website says. But the play's extreme violence does present a unique opportunity for parents to talk to their teens about revenge and the futility of starting down its destructive path.
BWW Review: WAITRESS Bakes Up Slices of Life in a Pie Tin and Changes Lives in the ProcessAugust 6, 2018
Can eating a pie be a religious experience? It can if it was made by Jenna, the diner waitress in the Broadway musical WAITRESS, who turns ordinary ingredients like butter, sugar, and flour into mouthwatering slices of life in a pie tin.
BWW Review: Murray Mednick Probes History in MAYAKOVSKY AND STALINAugust 1, 2018
There are plays that tell a story and there are plays that ponder ideas. Murray Mednick's latest world premiere MAYAKOVSKY AND STALIN is the latter, an intellectual dissection of two Russian revolutionaries who were as integral to Eastern European history as beets are to borscht. But in Mednick's drama it is their thoughts that are under the microscope, or what he imagines their thoughts to be, rather than their actions. For, as his Chorus (Max Faugno) reminds us, "We know next to nothing of the past."
BWW Review: PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES Will Win You Over Hook, Line, and SinkerJuly 25, 2018
One thing's for sure - country musicals are an awful lot of fun. There aren't very many of them and, if you can name one at all, it's most likely THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS or THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. But there is another rarely produced gem that is just as enjoyable - PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES - the fun-loving retro revue written by its original cast (John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann).
BWW Review: Hopeful Hearts Take a Complicated Journey in ARRIVAL & DEPARTUREJuly 22, 2018
For Laura, in Noel Coward's beautiful pre-World War II black & white film, Brief Encounter, it is an unexpected meeting at a train station that leads to a secret romance with a friendly stranger named Alec. In ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE, the stage play inspired by Coward's film, written and directed by Stephen Sachs, it is a moment in a modern day New York subway station that thrusts Emily (Deanne Bray) into a similar romantic conundrum with another stranger, Sam (Troy Kotsur).
BWW Review: Kingsmen's TWO NOBLE KINSMEN Proves Honor Has Value and Chivalry isn't DeadJuly 6, 2018
It contains possibly the last words William Shakespeare ever wrote and chances are you've never seen a production of it. THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN was written around 1613 but not published until 1634, and is attributed to both Shakespeare and John Fletcher, the man who would succeed him as resident playwright for the King's Men (named for the company's benefactor, King James I). Kingsmen Shakespeare Company's production is the perfect opportunity to see it for the first time.
BWW Review: Pinter Plus Shakespeare Equals AN EVENING OF BETRAYALJune 19, 2018
As its inaugural production, new classical theatre company The 6th Act, led by co-artistic directors Matthew Leavitt and Liza Seneca, presents two playwrights united by a common theme in AN EVENING OF BETRAYAL. Act One is Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, which tells its story of marital infidelity from end to beginning, and a condensed version of William Shakespeare's OTHELLO, also told in reverse, makes up Act Two
BWW Review: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT - The Tragedy of a Family's Downward SpiralJune 12, 2018
Halfway through Act I of Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at the Wallis, I was looking at Rob Howell's see-through set design when it dawned on me. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. If only the Tyrones had gotten the memo.
BWW Review: An Irresistible Tom Hanks Goes for the Gusto as Falstaff in HENRY IVJune 11, 2018
Director Daniel Sullivan's adaptation of HENRY IV, Parts 1 & 2 may only be playing in the Japanese Garden on the VA campus for another three weeks but it is bound to rank as one of the summer's most talked-about events. Why? Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has saved up a secret weapon for the production, one few can resist.
BWW Review: Brenda Strong Stands Tall in LYSISTRATA UNBOUNDJune 11, 2018
John Farmanesh-Bocca directs the world premiere of a bracing new version of Eduardo Machado's LYSISTRATA UNBOUND, starring Brenda Strong (Supergirl, 13 Reasons Why) as Lysistrata, in a collaboration between Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Not Man Apart - Physical Theatre Ensemble. First presented at the Getty Villa as part of its 2013 Lab Series, it was inspired by American anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's efforts for peace following the death of her son in Iraq. With unflinching intensity, it examines the insurmountable cost of war and one woman's epiphany in the face of personal tragedy.
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