Harker Jones
Harker Jones has worked in publishing as a writer, editor, and critic for 15 years. He was managing editor of Out magazine for seven years and has written two novels (including the #1 Amazon best-selling love story Until September) and nine screenplays. His short thrillers Cole & Colette and One-Hit Wonder have been accepted into more than 60 film festivals, winning several awards. He has a double-major in telecommunications and film and written communication and a minor in literature from Eastern Michigan University, is a member of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and is a card-carrying member of Mensa.
MOST POPULAR ARTICLES Review: MEAN GIRLS at Pantages TheatreJanuary 11, 2023  Review: 2:22 A GHOST STORY at Ahmanson TheatreNovember 7, 2022  BWW Review: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Geffen PlayhouseMay 3, 2022  Review: PRETTY WOMAN at Dolby TheatreJune 22, 2022  Review: ANNIE at Dolby TheatreDecember 2, 2022  BWW Review: AFTERGLOW at Hudson TheatreMay 23, 2022 |
Review: MEAN GIRLS at Pantages Theatre
January 11, 2023
Despite some deficiencies in the script, MEAN GIRLS still skyrockets in ways most large-scale musicals don’t these days. The young talent on the stage is astonishing and you’ll leave the show wanting to both download the original cast recording and stream the film.
Review: ANNIE at Dolby Theatre
December 2, 2022
With the state of the world these days, we need a heroine like Annie. With her positive outlook, her moxie, she should be a role model of hopefulness. We just need a better Annie. And Annie deserves a better vehicle.
Review: BROKEN STORY at The Sherry Theater
November 23, 2022
The set-up of BROKEN STORY is interesting, it just never catches fire in this lackluster production.
Review: 2:22 A GHOST STORY at Ahmanson Theatre
November 7, 2022
It doesn’t help that director Matthew Dunster plays much of Danny Robins’ script for laughs when it could have been amping up some suspense. It would have been more cohesive and had a bigger impact if it hadn’t played as a comedy for most of its 2-hour run time, though it wouldn’t have been enough to make the story land.
Review: FARRAGUT NORTH at Theatre 68 Arts Complex - The Rosalie
October 31, 2022
The show is a blistering expose of a political campaign and the tenuous loyalty, fierce ambition and blinding hubris that takes place every day in every office across the country.
Review: ACCORDING TO THE CHORUS at Road Theatre Company
October 25, 2022
The ’80s are remembered as the most fun decade in recent memory but they were rife with strife and upheaval that affected everyone, even if they were living in a Broadway bubble, and this show looks back with clear-eyed, unsentimental affection.
Review: EVERYBODY at Antaeus Theatre Company
October 6, 2022
EVERYBODY, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ contemporary riff on a 15th-century morality play, is a creative and chaotic allegory about Christian salvation which is, in the end, an uneven production for the usually consistent Antaeus Theatre Company.
Review: I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER at Two Roads Theatre
October 4, 2022
This is a sensitively crafted and introspective drama is. It isn’t easy to watch, but it can be cathartic.
Review: THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE at Mark Taper Forum
October 2, 2022
Bridging the 1985 original with the contemporary leaves one with a sense of disconnection
Review: CLOWNFISH at Theatre Of NOTE
August 2, 2022
In the end, the pathos that jut through the humor are jagged and piercing, leaving audiences with a lingering sense of both emptiness and hope, like a light flashed on and off in a dark room, the afterimage seared onto the memory.
Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Open Fist Theatre Company
July 12, 2022
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is given a fresh spin by the Open Fist Theatre Company, changing the setting from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Georgia, in the antebellum South to mixed results.
Review: PRETTY WOMAN at Dolby Theatre
June 22, 2022
What did our critic think? Audiences can’t help but compare and contrast, especially when the production is jumping through hoops to remind us of what made the film special. That becomes a bigger problem when the show itself fails on its own merits. While remaining faithful to its source material, PRETTY WOMAN lacks all of the fizz that made the film such a sensation.
BWW Review: COME FROM AWAY dazzles with sheer exuberance, leading to a surprisingly moving conclusion.
June 9, 2022
The show couldn’t be more relevant today. The world feels like a hopeless place so much of the time that it’s difficult to remember that in the end, we’re all connected and need each other to get by. Perhaps that’s why COME FROM AWAY is so poignant. It reminds of us our own humanity and the need for that in others.
BWW Review: AFTERGLOW at Hudson Theatre
May 23, 2022
The absorbing script by S. Asher Gelman tries to take on the insensitivity and transitory nature of dating in the age of the internet and hook-up apps, though in the end, it’s really about the more organic and timeless issues of humans just trying to connect.
BWW Review: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Geffen Playhouse
May 3, 2022
Edward Albee’s Tony Award–winning play about discontent and despair in 1960s academia is brought to blazing, blistering life by director Gordon Greenberg at the Geffen Playhouse, its themes and anxieties as relevant as ever on its 60th anniversary. Read our critic's review.
BWW Review: TOOTSIE at Dolby Theatre
May 2, 2022
Read our critic's review. TOOTSIE is a contemporary take on an old trope: a man unconvincingly passes himself off as a woman, everyone in his world buys it, and hilarity tries to ensue. It's been done countless times, going back past Shakespeare to the ancient Greeks. That doesn't mean it always works, however, and TOOTSIE is a mixed bag.
BWW Review: BRIGHT HALF LIFE at The Road Theatre On Magnolia
April 14, 2022
Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield’s brilliant BRIGHT HALF LIFE is smartly and artfully realized by director Amy K. Harmon, adding up to another solid project from The Road Theatre, which consistently stages challenging and rewarding productions.
BWW Review: JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL at Atwater Village Theatre
March 21, 2022
Its warnings of the trappings of materialism and conformity are universal and timeless.
BWW Review: CELESTIAL EVENTS Lights Up IAMA Theatre Company
March 10, 2022
The script is amusing, moving with sparkling briskness. The characters are defined and distinct, and the performers bring them to life in energetic and well-modulated ways. And while the meaning of life isn’t necessarily unveiled, it is sought and the intertwining relationships do find both unique destinations and common ground.
BWW Review: LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE Sparkles Like a Tree Full of Ornaments on Christmas Eve
December 7, 2021
The smash hit LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE sparkles like a tree full of ornaments on Christmas Eve at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
January 11, 2023
Despite some deficiencies in the script, MEAN GIRLS still skyrockets in ways most large-scale musicals don’t these days. The young talent on the stage is astonishing and you’ll leave the show wanting to both download the original cast recording and stream the film.
Review: ANNIE at Dolby Theatre
December 2, 2022
With the state of the world these days, we need a heroine like Annie. With her positive outlook, her moxie, she should be a role model of hopefulness. We just need a better Annie. And Annie deserves a better vehicle.
Review: BROKEN STORY at The Sherry Theater
November 23, 2022
The set-up of BROKEN STORY is interesting, it just never catches fire in this lackluster production.
Review: 2:22 A GHOST STORY at Ahmanson Theatre
November 7, 2022
It doesn’t help that director Matthew Dunster plays much of Danny Robins’ script for laughs when it could have been amping up some suspense. It would have been more cohesive and had a bigger impact if it hadn’t played as a comedy for most of its 2-hour run time, though it wouldn’t have been enough to make the story land.
Review: FARRAGUT NORTH at Theatre 68 Arts Complex - The Rosalie
October 31, 2022
The show is a blistering expose of a political campaign and the tenuous loyalty, fierce ambition and blinding hubris that takes place every day in every office across the country.
Review: ACCORDING TO THE CHORUS at Road Theatre Company
October 25, 2022
The ’80s are remembered as the most fun decade in recent memory but they were rife with strife and upheaval that affected everyone, even if they were living in a Broadway bubble, and this show looks back with clear-eyed, unsentimental affection.
Review: EVERYBODY at Antaeus Theatre Company
October 6, 2022
EVERYBODY, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ contemporary riff on a 15th-century morality play, is a creative and chaotic allegory about Christian salvation which is, in the end, an uneven production for the usually consistent Antaeus Theatre Company.
Review: I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER at Two Roads Theatre
October 4, 2022
This is a sensitively crafted and introspective drama is. It isn’t easy to watch, but it can be cathartic.
Review: THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE at Mark Taper Forum
October 2, 2022
Bridging the 1985 original with the contemporary leaves one with a sense of disconnection
Review: CLOWNFISH at Theatre Of NOTE
August 2, 2022
In the end, the pathos that jut through the humor are jagged and piercing, leaving audiences with a lingering sense of both emptiness and hope, like a light flashed on and off in a dark room, the afterimage seared onto the memory.
Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Open Fist Theatre Company
July 12, 2022
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is given a fresh spin by the Open Fist Theatre Company, changing the setting from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Georgia, in the antebellum South to mixed results.
Review: PRETTY WOMAN at Dolby Theatre
June 22, 2022
What did our critic think? Audiences can’t help but compare and contrast, especially when the production is jumping through hoops to remind us of what made the film special. That becomes a bigger problem when the show itself fails on its own merits. While remaining faithful to its source material, PRETTY WOMAN lacks all of the fizz that made the film such a sensation.
BWW Review: COME FROM AWAY dazzles with sheer exuberance, leading to a surprisingly moving conclusion.
June 9, 2022
The show couldn’t be more relevant today. The world feels like a hopeless place so much of the time that it’s difficult to remember that in the end, we’re all connected and need each other to get by. Perhaps that’s why COME FROM AWAY is so poignant. It reminds of us our own humanity and the need for that in others.
BWW Review: AFTERGLOW at Hudson Theatre
May 23, 2022
The absorbing script by S. Asher Gelman tries to take on the insensitivity and transitory nature of dating in the age of the internet and hook-up apps, though in the end, it’s really about the more organic and timeless issues of humans just trying to connect.
BWW Review: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Geffen Playhouse
May 3, 2022
Edward Albee’s Tony Award–winning play about discontent and despair in 1960s academia is brought to blazing, blistering life by director Gordon Greenberg at the Geffen Playhouse, its themes and anxieties as relevant as ever on its 60th anniversary. Read our critic's review.
BWW Review: TOOTSIE at Dolby Theatre
May 2, 2022
Read our critic's review. TOOTSIE is a contemporary take on an old trope: a man unconvincingly passes himself off as a woman, everyone in his world buys it, and hilarity tries to ensue. It's been done countless times, going back past Shakespeare to the ancient Greeks. That doesn't mean it always works, however, and TOOTSIE is a mixed bag.
BWW Review: BRIGHT HALF LIFE at The Road Theatre On Magnolia
April 14, 2022
Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield’s brilliant BRIGHT HALF LIFE is smartly and artfully realized by director Amy K. Harmon, adding up to another solid project from The Road Theatre, which consistently stages challenging and rewarding productions.
BWW Review: JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL at Atwater Village Theatre
March 21, 2022
Its warnings of the trappings of materialism and conformity are universal and timeless.
BWW Review: CELESTIAL EVENTS Lights Up IAMA Theatre Company
March 10, 2022
The script is amusing, moving with sparkling briskness. The characters are defined and distinct, and the performers bring them to life in energetic and well-modulated ways. And while the meaning of life isn’t necessarily unveiled, it is sought and the intertwining relationships do find both unique destinations and common ground.
BWW Review: LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE Sparkles Like a Tree Full of Ornaments on Christmas Eve
December 7, 2021
The smash hit LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE sparkles like a tree full of ornaments on Christmas Eve at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
