COSTA MESA THEATER REVIEWS

The prolific eight-time Academy Award-winning composer---perhaps best known for his decades of unforgettable work in several landmark Disney animated musicals---was on hand to unveil a world premiere concert entitled 'A WHOLE NEW WORLD WITH ALAN MENKEN' on September 30, 2016 at Orange County's Seger...

Even without eye-popping special effects, a gimmicky storyline, or those oft-used literary or cinematic source materials, some stage musicals just manage to entertain by sheer likability alone. A big warm hug of a show that's brimming with lots of surprisingly snappy wit and, arguably, some of the p...

Frances Seymour Fonda, actor Henry Fonda's second wife, was only 32 years old when the theater she commissioned architect Arthur W. Hawes to build opened in December of 1940. Originally known as the Westwood Theater, it was designed to be a performance space for live productions and for a short time...

When October hits and Halloween horror movies begin to flood late night TV, you can always count on at least one station somewhere airing Mel Brooks' 1974 classic comedy YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. But this year, the situation is a little different. With the recent passing of Gene Wilder, who stars in the t...

Right at the start of Robert Schenkkan's mesmerizing Tony Award-winning play ALL THE WAY---now playing in an outstanding new production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 2---actor Hugo Armstrong is introduced in what would become one of the most powerful, fiery a...

The very second that Tony Award-winning Broadway Legend Patti LuPone sings---heck, even when she walks out before she belts a single note---you know you're in the presence of someone that deserves the mountains of accolades she has continuously enjoyed through a very long, illustrious career on the ...

Troubadour Theatre Company's classless clowns of classical comedy go rogue in their latest adaptation at the Getty Villa. Taking generous liberties with the source material (Plautus's Mostellaria) they reinvent the over-2000-year-old play as HAUNTED HOUSE PARTY, A Roman Comedy in their own unique st...

CABARET's Tony Award-winning 1998 Broadway revival co-directed by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, still stands, arguably, as the show's definitive stage iteration. That same vibrant Roundabout Theatre Company production rightly serves as the basis for the newer 2014 revival that is now in the midst of ...

Perhaps Kander and Ebb's best musical, apart from Chicago, Cabaret has it all: a fine book, deliciously diverse characters, dynamite music and a subtext that will not quit. The subtext being: either compromise or get out if you value your life, the latter, to be sure, the wiser. This is Berlin, c...

Engaging, well-paced, aurally pleasing, and exceedingly entertaining from start to finish, the Hollywood Bowl's A CHORUS LINE is an exceptional presentation of this iconic show which celebrates those hard-working, ultra-talented, under-paid men and women who willingly choose a volatile career in whi...

A surprisingly well-done, beautifully-paced production that feels like a truly fresh revival of something many of us have forever seared in our brains, this brand new, Jack O'Brien-helmed national tour of THE SOUND OF MUSIC---now on stage at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Me...

This past week I saw two different musicals that have taken their inspiration from classic Jane Austen novels and, while completely different in size and scale, both have considerable merits. The first is in San Diego where Paul Gordon's to-die-for new musical SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is gracing the st...

The con is on! With plenty of wit, charm, and double entendres galore, Musical Theatre West's new regional production of the 2004 Broadway musical comedy 'DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS' is one enjoyably silly romp. The show which features a book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbeck contin...

If there was ever one musical that, on the surface, can translate well as an intimately-staged production in a black box theater space, then A CHORUS LINE---the classic 1975 Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning backstage musical---should certainly qualify as a strong contender. This still dazzling...

Besides the Hollywood Bowl's all-star concert event, THE LITTLE MERMAID also made a splash at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. This visually-gorgeous, fully-staged new production of the film's Broadway stage adaptation---produced locally by McCoy Rigby Entertainment with new staging an...

It's clear that the smart and savvy architects behind Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID Live In Concert To Film, the sold out presentation of Disney's 1989 animated classic THE LITTLE MERMAID at the 17,000-seat Hollywood Bowl have indeed created a wholly wonderful experience. But it owes much of its must-...

Frozen fans will be ecstatic with the way Disney has re-imagined its much-loved blockbuster film for the stage, now that the doors to FROZEN - LIVE AT THE HYPERION are open on the Hollywood backlot of Disney California Adventure. And with its stunning state-of-the-art visual technology and heart-ope...

Now after more than a year, NEWSIES' North American First National Tour is nearing its conclusion, finally stopping at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 29 (the musical will motor down to San Diego the following week). After seeing the original Broadway product...

To close out its current season, Orange County's Tony-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory has chosen to mount an opulent, high-caliber revival of Peter Shaffer's 1979 play AMADEUS, which continues performances in Costa Mesa through June 5, 2016. The recipient of the 1981 Tony Award for Be...

Lovers of the era of Busby Berkeley movie musicals are getting a double whammy of Golden Age goodness this month with a pair of musicals playing only two blocks from each other in Hollywood. I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU is already running at the mid-sized Ricardo Montalban Theatre on Vine and, very shor...

To be completely honest, my first exposure to the mostly sung-through, modern rock musical AMERICAN IDIOT (during its initial national tour stops in Southern California) was, at best, like seeing a really cool rock concert performed by some incredibly talented musical theater actors, surrounded by s...

The Coachella Valley is quickly becoming a mecca for exceptional theatre. And Dezart Performs' THE OUTGOING TIDE is no exception. Under Michael Shaw's skilled and measured direction the three actors bring tremendous honesty and poignancy to dialogue that could have easily waded into "made for televi...

Adorable, utterly romantic, and thoroughly winsome, this stage adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA is, admittedly, a wonderful surprise---filled with dazzling stage ingenuity; a dreamy, sweeping classic score by two legendary titans of musical theater; a revised, 21st-Century-tinged n...

AGNES OF GOD is challenging theatre at every level. It demands a lot of its audience. It demands its audience be engaged and active at every turn. It is both emotionally and intellectually stimulating and provocative. It is ninety-plus minutes of thought provoking dialogue with minimal action. One m...

More than ever, Americans are living in a state of fear. Such is the subject searingly explored in playwright Julia Cho's intensely jarring new play OFFICE HOUR which continues its exceptional world premiere performances at Orange County's Tony Award winning regional theater South Coast Repertory in...