Evan Henerson

Gunderson’s storytelling and her love of Shakespeare is another. It’s also icing on a most tasty cake that may not be for all palates. If you get the running gag of a character’s passion for PERICLES, this one’s for you.

The tour of SIX at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, is 90 minutes of partying with performers Khaila Wilcoxon, Storm Lever, Natalie Paris, Olivia Donalson, Courtney Mack and Gabriela Carrillo as killer – or maybe make that killed? - MCs.

WWhat seems like a deceptively simple premise develops several intriguing layers in Alessandro Camon’s SCINTILLA, enjoying its world premiere at the Road Theatre. Equal parts domestic drama and a harrowing investigation into the results of climate change, SCINTILLA is as impactful as it is unrelenting.

Carryl’s play is as tight as it is immediate, an inspired-by-the-headlines jolt of storytelling that cuts across racial unrest, the psyches of our men in blue and even the January 6 insurrection.

What did our critic think of 1776 at Ahmanson Theatre? In contemporary theater - as in life - optics matter. A lot. Given current trends in theatrical programing, the musical 1776 would probably never get staged. Granted, Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's 1969 take on the sturm and drang surrounding the Second Continental Congress's decision to form a new nation may be a patriotic Tony Award-winner.

This production of Inge’s play (also a 1955 movie) has its moments while consistently delivering the longing, the dissatisfaction and, yes, also the sensuality that PICNIC offers up. ur critic think of PICNIC at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble?

As solidly staged and forcefully acted as this TWILIGHT is, the production is both problematic and comes across feeling like something is missing.

Simon Levy’s production at the Fountain Theatre is a smartly-acted brain-tickler that makes its points and lands its blows with humor and intellect

The Pasadena Playhouse has drawn the curtain on its 2023 Sondheim Celebration with a lush and poignant rendering of SUNDAY. Directed by Sarna Lapine, the production is a west coast remount of her 2017 Broadway revival with an entirely new cast, but with the same technical team.

Huzzahs, most certainly, to New Village Arts Executive Artistic Director Kristianne Kurner not only for having the moxie to program Butterworth’s play in the first place, but also for directing it with the passion, fire and insight that the play deserves.

BASEBALL SKY, directed by James Vasquez, is a message-heavy, odd coupl-y tale that feels like a Latinx mash-up of THE KARATE KID and FIELD OF DREAMS.

Where the classics are concerned, L.A. doesn’t have any institution stronger than A Noise Within and if director Guillermo Cienfuegos, his wonderful actors and designers are working hard, they sure make it looks easy. From the first glimpse of that rampaged stage to the final dance, this MUCH ADO is an end-to-end delight.

Given the heightened emotions and nuclear climaxes of Colston’s play, there is something almost operatic in scope about THE FIRST DEEP BREATH.

Alessandra Assaf, who enacts the Hollywood icon in 12 O’CLOCK TALES WITH AVA GARDNER, the play she has written with Michael Lorre, brings out all of the actress’s fire, charisma and messiness.

After spending 90 minutes with the O’Shea family, we can thank whatever gods we pray to that we A. did not grow up in the early 1970s, B. that we do have the Internet and C. that this loving but dysfunctional family is not our own.

“On a night like this, anything can happen,” says Lt. James Walker, “The world is never going to be the way it was.” In a strong West Coast premiere at the Victory Theatre directed by Maria Gobetti, Warren Leight’s gut punch of a play, HOME FRONT, proceeds to prove Lt. Walker both correct and devastatingly wrong.

Skillfully melding elements of traditional strip tease with a knowledge and deep affection of the STAR WARS franchise, THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK figures to attract both leering dude bros and sci-fi obsessed geeks, to say nothing of the curious.

Watching the mega-blast that is AIN’T TOO PROUD, the musical written by Dominick Morisseau based on the group’s history, this critic wanted nothing more than to be able to move like the members of Des McAnuff’s cast even for five minutes.

Serving up a stage adaptation of DIE HARD featuring the music of Heart, the Troubies have once again given L.A. theatergoers a plum of a yuletide gift to unwrap and savor.

Misfiring on a lot of levels though it does, the production’s world premiere, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, has no shortage of electricity. Greene’s young and spirited ensemble pumps away to some quite familiar songs and to others that are less well-known.