Review: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Shares an Incredible Recording Session in Rock and Roll History
It ended too soon is all I can say.
Costa Mesa Theater Reviews
The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Costa Mesa.
BWW Review: OC's Chance Theater presents Touching Musical VIOLET
A quieter, more down-to-earth musical-but done so with a bellowing musical prowess thanks to book writer and lyricist Brian Crawley and composer Jeanine Tesori-VIOLET explores the multiple layers of feelings associated with being and living life as an 'other' within an environment that promotes (and
BWW Review: KINKY BOOTS Tour Struts Into Segerstrom Center for the Arts
For the most part, the brief Orange County return of the Tony Award-winning musical smash KINKY BOOTS---which continues its quick week-long stop at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through February 11---pretty much preserves its hard-to-escape fabulousness.
BWW Review: Tony-winning Superstar Kristin Chenoweth Triumphantly Returns to OC's Segerstrom Center
Luckily for some of us who don't have the luxury or the time to simply catch every show that Tony Award-winning musical superstar Kristin Chenoweth does in New York City, she is a prolific touring artist, opting often to bring her sweet and sassy singing self to audiences around the world via enjoya
BWW Review: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Stage Adaptation Romances at South Coast Repertory
Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspi
BWW Review: THE HOT LIST! What's Hot on Stage Now
So many productions are happening all over the city.
BWW Review: THE CAR PLAYS Makes Its Highly-Anticipated Return Trip to Segerstrom Center
Still one of the most the most unique and thrilling live theatrical offerings you will ever experience, THE CAR PLAYS has once again parked themselves at the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza at Segerstrom Center for the Arts for another highly-anticipated round of claustrophobic, stopped-in-traffic
BWW Review: Flashy New Production of CABARET High-Kicks Into La Mirada Theatre
Despite my well-earned affection for the Tony-winning 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company production of the classic Kander and Ebb Broadway classic CABARET, I still found myself vigorously entertained by McCoy Rigby Entertainment's flashy and buoyant new 2018 regional production of this theatrical stapl
BWW Review: Powerhouse Vocals Celebrate 100 Years of Leonard Bernstein at Segerstrom Center
Filled with one amazing powerhouse vocal performance after another, ONE HAND, ONE HEART: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF BERNSTEIN is a musical theater lover's treat of a concert, celebrating the legacy of one of music's most influential musicians and composers of the last century, Leonard Bernstein.
BWW Review: Laguna Playhouse Stages Gripping Pulitzer Prize winning I AM MY OWN WIFE
Featuring a remarkable, awards-worthy, tour-de-force performance by actor John Tufts that will easily win you over no matter what your personal tastes or beliefs or politics may be, this admirable new regional production of Doug Wright's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE---beauti
BWW Review: ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH Panto Makes Laguna Playhouse Merry
The silly, family-friendly fun of those British-borne Pantos are back for a third holiday season in row at Orange County's Laguna Playhouse, this time with a story wrapped around the infamous tale of a smart-aleck street urchin (Jason Gotay) who discovers a magic lamp hiding a genie that grants wish
BWW Review: A Lovely Night! Rodgers And Hammerstein's CINDERELLA Is Must-See Musical Magic At The McCallum!
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is sumptuous and fanciful and bursting with all of the ingredients necessary to make up the perfect family musical .
BWW Review: HAMILTON Who? SPAMILTON Reigns Supreme at the Kirk Douglas Theatre
For the last 25 years, Gerardo Alessandrini has paid homage to the Great American Musical in the best way he knows how, by skewering it relentlessly.
BWW Review: McClure & Pascal Bring the Hilarious High-Jinks of SOMETHING ROTTEN! to OC
In a rarity that doesn't happen too often here in Southern California, a brand new national tour of a recent hit Broadway musical has arrived first in Orange County in advance of a much longer sit-down engagement in Los Angeles.
BWW Review: August Wilson's GEM OF THE OCEAN Gets Exquisite New Staging at South Coast Repertory
Riding the wave of renewed interest in August Wilson's 10 play, American Century Cycle, South Coast Repertory has one particular Wilson drama on their sonar at the moment: GEM OF THE OCEAN, the riveting, epic-sized 2003 drama now continuing at the Costa Mesa theater through November 11.
BWW Review: Powerful Lead Performance Elevates END OF THE RAINBOW at La Mirada Theatre
Peter Quilter's unfiltered, devastatingly intense play, END OF THE RAINBOW, recounts the final months leading up to the death of one of the world's most iconic, treasured stars, Judy Garland, in her lowest depths of despair as she attempts a 'comeback' on the London stage.
BWW Review: Musical Theatre West Presents Vibrant New Production of IN THE HEIGHTS
Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, IN THE HEIGHTS is now on stage in a brand new Broadway-caliber regional production presented by Musical Theatre West at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through November 5.
BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Presents Engaging World Premiere Play CURVE OF DEPARTURE
In Rachel Bonds' beautifully-acted and cleverly written new play CURVE OF DEPARTURE---now finishing up its too-brief World Premiere run at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 15---characters are confronted with unexpected events that forces them to make such choices f
BWW Review: OC's Chance Theater presents Thought-Provoking Play TRIBES
In its admirable Orange County premiere production directed by Marya Mazor, Chance Theater presents an intimately-staged version of Nina Raine's thoughtful, award-winning 2010 play TRIBES, now playing through October 22, 2017.
Theatre in Historic Places: No Rest for the Wicked in WICKED LIT at Mountain View Mausoleum
Thousands of souls have their final resting place in Altadena's Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery but, once a year in the fall, the living invade the domain of the dead.
BWW Review: MASTER CLASS at Garry Marshall Theatre, or What Becomes a Legend Most?
In 1970, Maria Callas posed for Blackglama's iconic What Becomes a Legend Most ad campaign.
BWW Review: Rousing Revival of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' Roars at La Mirada
In a new, incredibly enjoyable regional revival of the Tony Award-winning AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - THE FATS WALLER MUSICAL SHOW, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is presenting one of the most rousing, rip-roaring iterations of this musical treat, under the informed direction of one of the show's
BWW Review: BENNY AND JOON, A Breath of Fresh Air for your Musical Senses
The Old Globe has opened a window and let in a beautiful breath of fresh air in its latest world premiere musical, BENNY AND JOON, by bookwriter Kirsten Guenther, composer Nolan Gasser, and lyricist Mindi Dickstein.
BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Raises Hopeful, Exquisite New Production of ONCE
Though the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of writer/director John Carney's well-liked indie film ONCE is a musical that this reviewer has liked quite a bit from past productions, it took seeing South Coast Repertory's brand new regional production---now on stage in Costa Mesa through Septembe
BWW Review: Recontextualizing Architecture as Art in Pacific Standard Time LA/LA's CONDEMNED TO BE MODERN
While watching Crystal Sep lveda perform during the opening of Pacific Standard LA/LA's Condemned To Be Modern exhibit, I couldn't help but think of a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright: 'Space is the breath of art.
|
Elton Dom: The Young Elton Experience Rose Center Theater (10/16-10/18) |
|
Yang Plays Sibelius Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (3/18-3/20) |
|
Gorillaz Oakland Arena (10/28-10/28) |
|
The 39 Steps The Laguna Playhouse (10/27-11/22) |
|
A Charlie Brown Christmas The Phantom Projects Theatre at La Habra Depot (12/04-12/20) |
|
Chicago: The Musical — in Concert Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (6/04-6/05) |
|
Shelley Conducts Nixon in China Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (4/08-4/13) |
|
Cody Fry Christmas Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (12/18-12/19) |
|
Holiday Classics: Grieg’s Piano Concerto Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (12/03-12/05) |
|
National Philanthropy Day 2026 | Presented by AFP Orange County Soka Performing Arts Center (11/12-11/12) |
