Review: THE MOTHERFU**ER WITH THE HAT at Odyssey Theatre EnsembleAugust 15, 2025The revival of Guirgis’s 2010 play, directed by Jolie Oliver, is equal parts humor, romance and tequila-soaked despair. Led by a muscular trio of performances by Lodric D Collins, Jordan Marinov and Alex Desert, this agile MOTHERFU**KER is nothing short of compelling.
Review: YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE at East West PlayersJuly 21, 2025A tale of community and the frailty of Tinseltown dreams, YANKEE DAWG is given a full-throated production by actors Daniel J. Kim and Kelvin Han Yee under the direction of Jennifer Chang.
Review: THE JANEIAD at Old Globe TheatreJuly 8, 2025In the 100-minute, decades-spanning duration we spend with this woman who feels so very recognizable, Ziegler, director Maggie Burrows and actors Nadine Malouf, Ryan Vasquez and Michaela Watkins leave us affected, contemplative and more than a little bit heartbroken.
Review: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL at Old Globe TheatreJune 28, 2025For his production of ALL’S WELL, director Peter Francis James has much to work with including plenty of solid actors and an equally strong technical team, but the production’s frothy overlay often feels off key
Review: NETWORK at Group RepJune 20, 2025The knives are lethal and the cuts are man...With Bert Emmett fronting an equally enthusiastic and bloodthirsty cast, the Group Rep’s NETWORK is equal parts rollicking, disturbing and thought-provoking.
Review: HAMLET at Mark Taper ForumJune 12, 2025This production is erotic, evocative, lean as a bone and, at a certain point, leaves HAMLET behind entirely. Director Robert O'Hara (SLAVE PLAY, BARBECUE) cracks HAMLET open, exposes it to the sun and then keeps on probing.
Review: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE at A Noise WithinMay 23, 2025Featuring a cast who seamlessly transport us to a working-class Dublin community in 1964 – with music to match – ANW’s production spotlights not just its leading player, but pens a love letter to the lure of the stage
Review: JUST LIKE US at Los Angeles Theatre CenterMay 10, 2025Tenderly staged by director Fidel Gomez, the docudrama boils our stomach juices more over the circumstances of our country than over what we witness being played out among the central characters.
Review: FURLOUGH'S PARADISE at Geffen PlayhouseMay 1, 2025The clock is ticking, in the moment and in a greater sense, and a.k. payne’s characters can’t fully enjoy the luxury of a deep restorative breath. So neither, in this haunting but quite tender play, should we.
Review: THE LOST CELLPHONE WEEKEND at Brickhouse TheaterApril 24, 2025LOST CELLPHONE WEEKEND takes a clever premise – the reimagining of Billy Wilder’s 1945 film THE LOST WEEKEND, replacing it with cellphone/internet addiction and setting it to music – and has a lot of fun with the endeavor
Review: CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND at East West PlayersMarch 2, 2025Chay Yew’s production for East West Players - improbably the play’s L.A. premiere seven years after its debut at South Coast Repertory – is as raw and raucous as it is timely. Yee urges us to remember the past, be watchful of the future and enjoy the holy hell out of the process.
Review: OLD FRIENDS at Ahmanson TheatreFebruary 20, 2025To watch these singers perform these numbers is to dream about entire revivals of Sondheim shows built around some of these actors, maybe even productions that have their genesis at the Ahmanson.
Review: FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT at Mark Taper ForumFebruary 13, 2025With its gung-ho company of actors, clever construction, wicked cool set and general overall braininess, FAKE IT sails blithely along for 90 minutes, liberally trafficking in chuckles and cringes...FAKE IT’s physical and intellectual humor aren’t always completely in synch with each other, but the play is smart enough and directed with enough crispness to keep things entertaining.