COSTA MESA THEATER REVIEWS

What do you do for an updated stage adaptation of arguably one of cinema's much-beloved motion pictures of all time? Well for theater impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Jeremy Sams, you populate the show with over-the-top, more cartoonish characters and snarky, audience-winking dialogue. Oh...

Woo-Hoo! Thanks to OC's 3-D Theatricals, Southern California wasn't deprived of a revival of FUNNY GIRL after all. And, gosh, to top it off, they've even managed to find a Fanny Brice audiences can genuinely admire: Broadway and MAD TV alum Nicole Parker. This admirable new production of the classic...

After almost a year of touring North America, the Roundabout Theatre Company's buoyant Tony Award-winning revival of ANYTHING GOES has finally docked its madcap ship of lunatics at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa for a shamefully-short one-week engagement through September 29. Featu...

To kickstart its 50th Season, Orange County's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory is presenting a newly-envisioned local revival of the classic 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning play DEATH OF A SALESMAN, featuring an outstanding performance by veteran stage and screen actor Charlie Robinson in the ti...

Broadway, Film and TV phenomenon Kristin Chenoweth's first solo concerts at the Hollywood Bowl was, as expected, nothing short of spectacular. Delivering a highly-entertaining, must-see event filled with plenty of laughs, many touching moments, and lots of opportunities to showcase her unique talent...

It's a wonder that any modern relationships can survive the two-dimensional world of online dating. We have all known people who declared in all seriousness that they were in love with someone they met online but never in person. Such is the initial premise of WOMEN ARE CRAZY BECAUSE MEN ARE A**HO...

Leave it to the ultra-talented, uber-enthusiastic folks at 3-D Theatricals to take an okay-ha-ha show into an OMFG-that-was-super-hella-funny triumph of whimsy and heart. In its glorious, colorful presentation of the first Southern California regional production of SHREK - THE MUSICAL, 3-D Theatrica...

The world-famous Hollywood Bowl's annual concert presentation of a Broadway musical is CHICAGO this year, directed by actress Brook Shields and features an all-star cast that includes Samantha Barks, Ashlee Simpson, Stephen Moyer, and Lucy Lawless. The show which opened July 27, is a valiant, admira...

To close out its 60th Season in grand fashion, Musical Theatre West has commissioned a lush new revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical SUNSET BOULEVARD on its home stage at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. Directed by Larry Raben and featuring musical directio...

One of the most exciting, edgy, in-your-face new musicals to have popped up in recent years, the electrically-transfused angst-rock musical BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON is making quite a splashy, enjoyable Orange County debut at The Chance Theater. Filled with clever barbs and super-silly gags, this...

Delightful and down-right hilarious, SISTER ACT - THE MUSICAL---the nun-tastic stage adaptation of the hit 1992 motion picture of the same name---is, frankly, to my pleasant surprise, an unexpected gem of a show. Heavily retooled from its 2006 Out-of-Town premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse and its e...

Heartbreaking. Gutsy. Intensely riveting. These are some of the words I jotted down in the dark---while simultaneously wiping tears streaming down my face---during the Southern California Regional Premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL, now playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the...

Hilarious, visually arresting, and surprisingly heart-warming, PRISCILLA - QUEEN OF THE DESERT---the rousing stage musical adaptation of the 1994 Oscar-winning indie film of the same name---is an outlandishly silly show from start to finish, filled with non-stop eye-popping visuals, out-of-this-worl...

Now performing at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through June 9, Director Amanda Dehnert's beguiling new revival of THE FANTASTICKS comes to vibrant life as an old-timey vaudevillian review that just happens to have a love story woven into it. This clever, magical makeover, setting the piece in...

What happens when you cram together the star quality of Barbra, the riffs of Beyonce, Whitney, and Mariah, the sass of Stevie, and the deep, emotional soul of Aretha? You get Broadway star and old-school soul revivalist Shoshana Bean. A gifted powerhouse vocalist, Ms. Bean is one of those entertaine...

One of the most stunning, brilliantly-staged productions I've seen in the past few years, Orange County's 3D Theatricals has, once again, outdone itself with its moving, epic-sized revival of Jason Robert Brown's Tony Award-winning musical PARADE. Now playing a limited engagement through May 26 at t...

Despite having a cast of incredible triple threats, overall, FLASHDANCE: THE MUSICAL---the new, Broadway-bound stage musical based on the popular 80's-era movie of the same name---seems like a well-meant endeavor that needs a serious overhaul in its disjointed execution. The national tour company co...

It is easy to understand why Betty Buckley has been called the 'Voice of Broadway'. To begin, she has an astounding instrument with an incredible range. She can belt out the lyrics from 'Come Back to Me' from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and then in the next breath bring her voice down to almo...

In South Coast Repertory's amusingly naughty World Premiere production of Beau Willimon's THE PARISIAN WOMAN (now playing through May 5), 'Body of Proof' star Dana Delany plays Chloe, a morally ambiguous but undeniably tenacious Washington DC housewife with high political aspirations, especially for...

This year's main-stage attraction of SCR's annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, SMOKEFALL---a co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre directed by Anne Kauffman---starts off initially intriguing, as if first unveiling itself as a dark dramedy that follows three generations of an eccentric family...

I first reviewed the national tour of BILLY ELLIOT - THE MUSICAL during its triumphant five-week stop at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre a year ago (which you can read HERE) and found it to be quite an entertaining, well-executed show. Now an entire year has passed and the show has finally returned to ...

Billed as Barbara Cook's Special 85th Birthday Concert, the Tony Award-winning soprano's one-woman concert of musical theatre songs, rare selections, and jazz standards at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa was met with well-earned---and well-deserved---adoring cheers througho...