COSTA MESA THEATER REVIEWS

It's amazing to think that it has only been just six weeks since Tony Award winning stage and screen actress Betty Buckley ended her much-lauded 13-month-long engagement starring as the title role in the recent Broadway national tour production of HELLO DOLLY. During that brief stretch of time post-...

For playwright Adam Bock's endearing new gay romantic comedy THE CANADIANS---now having its infectiously giddy World Premiere production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 20, 2019---the typical blueprint for the usual girl-meets-boy trope gets a fresh, heady spin and an inspired...

30 years after its stage debut, experiencing MISS SAIGON nowadays exposes just how outdated and out-of-touch it is with our increasingly diverse world view. The musical's original production---which first debuted in the West End in 1989 before transferring to Broadway in 1991---became a global hit d...

At its core, the original production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (and the movie adaptation it spawned) unabashedly celebrated its campy outlandishness. But unlike the original source material which was filled to the brim with sassy sight gags, cartoonish mannerisms, and pulp thrills, this new, gloriou...

Serving as the gloriously buoyant 56th season-opening production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, AMERICAN MARIACHI---which continues performances through October 5, 2019---is a wonderful play about the love of family and the love for achieving personal dreams. Playwright Jos�...

Michael Feinstein, once again, brought MGM Movie Classics to life last Saturday with his rare finds and classic orchestrations. The popular Pasadena Pops offering is the last show of the summer season and it ended well, the sound of the symphony invoking the same feeling Judy Garland has when she wa...

As the final show of its 10th Anniversary Season, 3-D Theatricals is revisiting the hilarious SHREK - THE MUSICAL, the stage musical adaptation of the hit 2001 Dreamworks animated film, itself an adaptation of William Steig's 1990 novel. Witty, silly, and, at times, surprisingly full of heart, SHREK...

An inspired choice of a show, the Hollywood Bowl has decided to present an effervescently buoyant new production of the Tony Award-winning 1986 musical INTO THE WOODS, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's much beloved twisted take on traditional fairy tale stories mashed together with witty charm, to...

Currently docked at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through July 28 is Musical Theater West's wonderfully vibrant new regional production of THE LITTLE MERMAID, Disney's Broadway stage adaptation of their hit 1989 animated classic, which itself was adapted from the Hans Ch...

A sweeping, grandiose, and emotionally-searing stage musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's expansive 1975 novel, RAGTIME is a gripping, multi-character, and multi-story theatrical experience that uses era-authentic specificity to depict America's past during a time when its increasingly diverse popu...

It is no surprise that Scott Bradlee's inspired and wonderfully genre-crossing creation, Postmodern Jukebox---which recently just finished up its third wildly-received appearance at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa---still garners near sold-out concerts attended by rabid,...

Despite its general pleasant nature, many cute moments, and a plethora of genuine talent on stage, this stage musical adaptation of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY---Roald Dahl's beloved 1964 children's novel about a sweet, affable kid who wins a meet-and-greet (and more!) with an eccentric Candy ...

To close out its 55th season, Orange County's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory is mounting David Henry Hwang's intriguing and mysterious play M. BUTTERFLY, using the playwright's much more layered and riveting 2017 Broadway revival as its source material. Marked assuredly by powerful, grippi...

In the latest North American touring production of what continues to be one of Broadway's laudable theatrical staples, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF's amiable patriarch Tevye is now being played by Israeli-born actor Yehezkel Lazarov, who gives the iconic role a fresh, less geriatric delivery that still shine...

The specific highs and lows---and all the cloudy, uneasy details in between---of a failed relationship are all picked apart and analyzed by a pair of distressed former lovers in British playwright David Hare's absorbing 1995 play SKYLIGHT, currently on stage at Anaheim's Chance Theater through May 1...

In playwright Kevin Artigue's riveting and thought-provoking new two-person play SHEEPDOG---which finishes up its World Premiere run at Orange County's South Coast Repertory through May 5, 2019 as part of the theater's annual Pacific Playwrights Festival---the ripped-from-the-headlines plot point th...

If you are wondering whether it's necessary for you to have seen Qui Nguyen's critically-acclaimed 2015 play VIETGONE in order to enjoy its superior new sequel POOR YELLA REDNECKS, then don't worry too much about it. This incredibly funny, incredibly innovative, and incredibly well-acted follow-up i...

If you were fortunate enough to be one of the many who caught the touring production of the Tony Award-winning musical DEAR EVAN HANSEN during its Southern California stops at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre or, more recently, at O.C.'s Segerstrom Center of the Arts this past January, then you, no doubt, wo...

Musical Theatre West's entertaining, high-energy new production of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN---which continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through April 14, 2019---is, for the most part, a sleek, stylish, and abundantly entertaining piece of theater, filled w...

Remarkably glitzy and broadly amusing, the delightful stage version of Disney's ALADDIN is a fun, lively, and entertaining repackaging of the originally fun, lively, and entertaining animated film classic, which will please both fans of the original and those in the mood for a great big dazzling (an...

Many have, of course, heard of the infamous Lizzie Borden, a young woman, who was charged with---but later acquitted of---the brutal axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. Strong curiosity and speculation remain til this day about the tragic events that took place more than a century ago,...

Currently a welcome, much-lauded presence in each city it visits, the top-notch first national tour of the multi-award-winning 2017 Broadway musical COME FROM AWAY---currently enchanting audiences at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through February 17---is just the kind of timely s...

Admittedly, after experiencing South Coast Repertory's potent and captivating new production of SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, I'm hard pressed to remember the last time I was both this deeply moved and this excitedly riveted by Stephen Sondheim's macabre tale of a murderous barber ...

As most people know with live theater, there is an underlying risk in promoting that a specific star will be there at every single performance, as advertised in a specific project. Unfortunately, that's simply not realistic nor is it always going to be the case, due to a multitude of factors beyond ...

A powerful, emotionally-riveting, dynamically-staged original stage musical, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a truly incredible, phenomenal show that I happily admit-in just a few years of its existence-has quickly become one of my favorite Broadway musicals of all time. Not only does it feature gorgeous, memor...