The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Costa Mesa.
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
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.
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
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
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is sumptuous and fanciful and bursting with all of the ingredients necessary to make up the perfect family musical .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
In 1970, Maria Callas posed for Blackglama's iconic What Becomes a Legend Most ad campaign.
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
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.
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
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.
A cross between a murder mystery and a psychological drama told with a high-tech showmanship flair, the intriguing touring production of Simon Stephen's Tony Award-winning play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME now in Costa Mesa at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts throu
If you're looking to get a definitive Janis Joplin biography/musical (in the vein of the Carole King musical BEAUTIFUL), then you may be disappointed with A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN, the short-lived 2013 Broadway musical.
Riveting, powerful and beautifully poignant at every step, FUN HOME—the Tony Award-winning musical based on Alison Bechdel's 2006 autobiographical graphic memoir—is one of those rare, great stage musicals that represents an astonishingly unique point-of-view that is somehow miraculously universa
Every theatre production comes with its share of backstage drama.
Arguably one of musical theater's more enjoyable jukebox musicals, the crowd-pleasing, ABBA-centric musical MAMMA MIA! aims to entertain its audience, all while trying to provide a much more interesting way to experience the ubiquitous pop catalog of one of the most successful pop music groups of th
To open its historic 97th season, Orange County's Laguna Playhouse is presenting an admirable new production of the Tony Award-winning 2002 hit musical comedy HAIRSPRAY, which via popular demand has now been extended through August 5.
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Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors Paper Wing Theatre (8/28-9/20) |
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Segerstrom Center for the Arts (7/05-7/25) |
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The Book of Mormon (Non-Equity) Segerstrom Center for the Arts (12/29-1/03) |
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TLC, Salt-N-Pepa & En Vogue Toyota Pavilion at Concord (10/11-10/11) |
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Comedy Oakland at Quinn's Lighthouse Sat Aug 1 8pm Quinn's Lighthouse (8/01-8/01) |
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Back to the Future in Concert Great Park Live (8/01-8/01) |
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Little Shop of Horrors 40th Anniversary Tour with Ellen Greene (the Original Audrey) The Grove (10/18-10/18) |
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Comedy Oakland at Elbo Room Sat Aug 1 7pm Elbo Room Jack London (8/01-8/01) |
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Pokemon Night Out: Marshmello & Alison Wonderland Intuit Dome (10/24-10/24) |
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An Evening with Mike Masse: Epic Acoustic Classic Rock Almost Famous Wine (9/11-9/11) |
