BWW Reviews: L.A.'s Joyful 'HAIR'-Raising Is The Place To Be-In
Directed with great care and blissful appeal, this spiritually buoyant new touring production of the 2009 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical revival, HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical revels in its naughty, raucous fun and its sonically adventurous musical soundtrack. A delightful hybrid o...
BWW Reviews: SUTTON FOSTER Shines In OCPAC Cabaret
An accomplished comedienne, an emotionally powerful actress, and a gifted vocalist worthy of large marquees, Foster allowed all three to be fully experienced live in her exquisite showcase An Evening with Sutton Foster, a song collection of her Broadway hits, personal favorites, and selections from ...
BWW Reviews: The Best of O.C./L.A. Theater for 2010
Between the Southern California arrivals of Lincoln Center Theatre's impressive SOUTH PACIFIC revival and the Tony-winning NEXT TO NORMAL tour starring Alice Ripley, to the incredibly entertaining offerings from regional and smaller theaters in the area, 2010 was a banner year in musicals and plays....
BWW Reviews: Insanely Funny 'STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG' Puppets Up!
Those coming to see this 'new puppet show' expecting those delightful Jim Henson Muppets are in for a real surprise... but a really good one. Perhaps the funniest, most masterfully inappropriate use of puppets since Avenue Q, STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG is an uproariously gut-busting show that combines the...
BWW Reviews: OCPAC Cabaret Series Pays Tribute to CY COLEMAN
Despite being a lesser-known composer to the average joe than, say, Bacharach or Mancini, Cy Coleman irrefutably built a solid, prolific career in popular music, which later led to an even more successful string of hits on the Broadway stage. In what is essentially a biographical history lesson set ...
BWW Reviews: Energetic WEST SIDE STORY Revival Wows in L.A.
Armed with current sensibilities that earlier versions could only lightly tap, the latest Broadway stage revival of WEST SIDE STORY--its touring version is currently taking up residence at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for an extended engagement through January 2--truly excels with its fresh new...
BWW Reviews: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Resurfaces at OCPAC
Based on the 1991 hit movie musical masterpiece--the first animated feature film to ever score a Best Picture Oscar® nomination--Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST went on to become a hit stage musical as well, ushering a new, successful theatrical arm for the studio. That original 1994 Broadway product...
BWW Reviews: IDINA MENZEL Thrills in O.C. Concert Tour Stop
There was quite an electric, palpable excitement crackling in the huge 3,000-plus-seat Segerstrom Hall on this particular Sunday afternoon. The largest venue within the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, this stage is used to Broadway-caliber talent wowing its audience, since it usu...
BWW Reviews: McArdle Headlines MTW's Fun 'ANNIE' Revival
There's this old showbiz cliche that says one should never work with kids and/or animals. Well, either species probably never really scared producers from creating ANNIE, the much-beloved musical classic now in production for Musical Theatre West in Long Beach, California through November 14. Here, ...
BWW Reviews: SCR Presents Dagger-Sharp BECKY SHAW
A great many wrong things can happen on a blind date, especially one between a couple of people that are such complete polar opposites of each other. But what happens when said blind date is not just an awful one... but, really, the worst blind date ever? Such is the premise of Gina Gionfriddo's en...
BWW Reviews: Theatre Out's BOYS WILL BE BOYS, A New Musical
Theatre Out, Orange County's sole gay-and-lesbian theater company, has put on, in its short history of existence, a candy-colored selection of campy, outrageous productions through the years. Perhaps its most overtly homo-celebratory yet is its latest offering, the so-gay-it-bleeds-rainbows original...
BWW Reviews: Laguna Playhouse's I LOVED LUCY Shows Idol Worship
There was one memorably poignant line uttered towards the end of the new play I LOVED LUCY-now playing at the Laguna Playhouse through October 31-that sticks with you: 'Make someone laugh enough, and you will be loved forever.' Perhaps the line best explains why the opening night audience in attenda...
BWW Reviews: Beautiful SOUTH PACIFIC Revival Sails Into OCPAC
Though times certainly have changed from when the Greatest Generation showed true heroism in the battlefields of European and Tropical soil, it's staggering to realize that in 2010, racial issues still feel like a haphazardly patched wound reopened. Prejudice, no matter what the decade, still stings...
BWW Reviews: MEGAN MULLALLY & Supreme Music Program at OCPAC
'As you can tell, we're not really a cabaret. Surprise!' So begins Megan Mullally during the start of her series of concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Samueli Theater with her band Supreme Music Program. The mostly older crowd expecting jazz standards and showtunes on her return ...
BWW Reviews: SCR's IN THE NEXT ROOM Is a Stimulating Jolt of Laughter
Summary: Hands down one of the funniest new plays I've seen this year, IN THE NEXT ROOM, or THE VIBRATOR PLAY--with performances continuing through October 17 at the Julianne Argyros Stage--is a giddy, poignant, and often witty modern comedy that was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize. Fresh ...
BWW Reviews: Imaginative PETER PAN Flies High at OCPAC
A charming hit direct from London (which later debuted in the U.S. for our neighbors up north in San Francisco over the summer), PETER PAN--now performing its only Los Angeles- and Orange County-area engagements at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through November 21--uses advanced projectio...
BWW Reviews: PHANTOM Enchants in Final Tour Stop in L.A.
Currently the record-holder for being the longest-running show in Broadway history (and still counting), Andrew Lloyd Webber's most widely-seen masterwork THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has now taken up residence at Los Angeles' historic Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for the national tour's final engageme...
BWW Reviews: SCR's MISALLIANCE is a Sophisticated Delight
With its hilarious exchanges, high-brow pedigree, brisk direction, and impressively gorgeous set, South Coast Repertory's new revival of George Bernard Shaw's classic comedy MISALLIANCE-with performances continuing through October 10-is one sophisticated delight, a witty set of back-and-forth argume...
BWW Reviews: Rita McKenzie Sings 'ETHEL MERMAN'S BROADWAY'
There is no mistaking what Ethel Merman brought to Broadway. A gifted comedienne, an accomplished actress, and a hurricane of a personality, Merman commanded attention from every stage she stood on with pure gumption and that incredibly booming voice. You may say the same thing about Rita McKenzie, ...
BWW Reviews: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Gets Re-Animated at OCPAC
A wandering hump. Hyper-active hay rides. A tap-dancing, zipper-necked monster. One thing is clear: Mel Brooks is one silly man. In the world of comedy, silliness is definitely a positive trait. You certainly get a fair dose of his madcap genius in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, the stage musical adaptation of...
BWW Reviews: Theatre Out Spotlights 'Southern Baptist Sissies'
Recent events in the American political arena have certainly illustrated that, even to this day, there is--and perhaps, always will be--a conflict between the strict doctrine of most factions of organized religion and the equal-rights-seeking gay community. This heated, often deeply painful struggle...
BWW Reviews: Harris Scales Up 'RENT' for The Hollywood Bowl
On the weekend of August 6-8, the infamous 17,000-seat Hollywood Bowl plays host to a forcibly-scaled-up version of Jonathan Larson's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical RENT, directed by none other than Neil Patrick Harris. Harris' challenge-besides honoring a beloved show as well as living up ...
BWW Reviews: IN THE HEIGHTS Tour Flies Into The O.C.
Is it actually possible to like something more on repeat viewings? In the case of the traveling national tour production of IN THE HEIGHTS--now performing for a limited engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through August 15--the answer is a very qualified 'yes.' That's quite a feat...
BWW Reviews: Chance Theater Rocks Out With 'TOMMY'
The latest to produce a full production of the rock opera THE WHO'S TOMMY is The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, the little store-front black box theater that, over the years, have managed to do quite a lot with its small space. In this fast-paced, tightly-directed new revival, THE WHO'S TOMMY-with...
BWW Reviews: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Is Alive! at L.A.'s Pantages Theatre
There is no denying that Mel Brooks is a comedy legend. Brooks' oeuvre--particularly his hilarious film work--harkens back to a time when getting laughs meant less cynical snark but, rather, more outlandish farce and the endless use of double-entendres and wordplay. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Brooks' stage...
Videos
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Hershey Felder: The Piano & Me South Coast Repertory (6/10-6/21) |
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Segerstrom Center for the Arts (7/11-7/25) |
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Fremont Ave. South Coast Repertory (4/25-5/23) |
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UB40 Fred Kavli Theatre (10/25-10/25) |
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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 Will Curtis Theatre (6/12-6/21) |
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C.S. Lewis On Stage: Further Up & Further In Irvine Barclay Theatre (7/09-7/10) |
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Ah Ha! Bluebird Park (6/06-6/06) PHOTOS VIDEOS |
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Alison Krauss and Union Station Pacific Amphitheatre (8/29-8/29) |
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Jekyll & Hyde the Musical Rose Center Theater (6/12-6/28) |
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