LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

With Jon Engstrom's super direction and choreography and this cast's nonstop excellent tapping, cavorting, and devilishly fine chemistry, this production of 42nd Street dazzles from top to bottom....

Proving that class is indeed a rare commodity these days, this lady, who co-starred on Broadway with Sergio Franchi in Nine, presented a marvelously varied bill of fare which highlighted songs from Amanda McBroom, Randy Newman, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jacques Brel and by the evening's musical ...

Opening a new theater, like Griot Theatre Company, and mounting a first production - Shakespeare no less - is an undertaking that requires unwavering commitment to one's goals, fierce dedication to quality, and an abundance of positive energy to carry you through the bumps in the road....

In its latest production, Circle X Theatre Co. examines the question of how such abuse could occur with a fictionalized look at the motivations of three soldiers based on those who were at the center of the real life Abu Ghraib scandal....

The McCallum Theatre played host to the irreverent funny man Howie Mandell last Saturday night and he did not disappoint....

'Finnegan's Wake', a popular Irish ballad, from the music hall tradition, and made famous by The Clancy Brothers, invokes the joy of living among the rowdy Irish, telling how, through the perils of liquor, a man falls and then rises to live again....

Singing actresses Sarah Orr and Valerie Rachelle sure know how to take real life experiences and weave them into an extraordinary musical show! On Sunday October 21 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal the two Sirens put on a slicker than slick presentation, glossier and more fine-tuned than most c...

Theatre in the Dark/Evening One: DARK/conceived by Ron Sossi and Sally Essex-Lopresti/with mini plays, some parables and others, original work by members of the company/directed by Sossi, Jeremy Aluma, Denise Blasor, David Bridel, Susan Heldfond/Odyssey Theatre/October 20 through December 16...

Playwrights Kaufman and Hart saw the vitality and urgency of comedy within drama when they penned You Can't Take It With You in 1936. It won a Pulitzer for Drama in 1937 and then a Best Picture Oscar for the film version in 1938. Their other big hit The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1939 has a similar ...

Upon its premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 1979, I Ought To Be in Pictures was clearly Neil Simon in a new light. There were less laugh-out-loud one-liners and more meaningful dialogue dealing with tattered relationships in a realistic, true-to-life manner. Mind you, he had not yet reached the lev...

Orange County, CA- based 3D Theatricals presents an eye-popping, high-energy production of eight-time Tony Award-winner HAIRSPRAY at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through October 28 before transferring to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, November 2-4. This truly impressive revival is ...

I've said it before, but it is hard to find a more perfect venue than The McCallum Theatre for just about any theatrical production of any genre. And it was great to be back, as The McCallum kicks off it's 25th Anniversary Season - a season that promises to feature something for everyone - from Howi...

Broadway is alive and well and living in Las Vegas. The influence of the Great White Way on the Las Vegas Strip is more evident than ever and the word of the day is "QUALITY!" For theatre goers visiting Las Vegas who have digested just about "one Cirque too many" - Caesars Entertainment offers the a...

The fourth show from Jackie Goldberg and Rockin' with the Ages The Beat Goes On! is by far their BEST, most slick and vibrant and totally indicative of Goldberg's great philosophy for all seniors to 'Get Up, Get Out and Get a Life!' It really MOVES! But you don't have to be a senior to enjoy the sho...

There have been many dramatized stories about the relationship between teacher/student, mentor/artist. Eve Harrington in All About Eve is the first to come to mind and her infatuation with Margo Channing's every move. She adored her and stole from her. She recreated and used her for her own success,...

Adorned in period black cocktail dresses imprinted with cherries, a rose in their shiny red hair and with that fresh scrubbed look not seen since the 40s/50s, the two gals demanded attention like a hurricane ripping though town....

The fairy tale journey that occurs between 'Once upon a time' and 'they all lived happily ever after' has never been as circuitous as in Shakespeare's CYMBELINE, now playing at A Noise Within....

It seems an easy acting assignment; sit at a table in the dark, wait for the lights to come up full, gather your thoughts, eat a banana or two, explore the limits of your playing area, bring out a few properties from the wings, including an old tape recorder, and then sit, listen, react and comment ...

You know that saying that 'two is better than one?' Well it couldn't have been a more enjoyably appropriate description than the swingin'-est concert to hit Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in some time: the double-bill of jazz powerhouses Jane Monheit and John Pizzarelli. The two talente...

It takes a master playwright - who better than David Mamet? - to put an audience smack dab in the middle of the political arena, in the Oval Office no less, where slings and arrows of undeniable speed fly, attack and injure. Yet, victims rise, valiantly or not, to face a continuous onslaught of gree...

Is it possible to define a nation by the dinnerware it uses? Playwright Steven Tomlinson clearly thinks so, as in his American Fiesta, a one-man play now on stage at the Colony Theatre through October 21, dishware, piece by piece, passes through the hands of young and old, of every race and religio...

Fans of improv and the ever popular The Twilight Zone series may exult in the opportunity to witness and contribute to an engaging theatre presentation by Impro called Twilight Zone Unscripted, playing in repertory with Chekhov Unscripted, at the Odyssey through November 4. Impro are a quite brillia...

The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham is a comedy of manners… a story with 2 triangles, one an elderly couple, and the second, youthful. In the first, the woman, Lady Kitty (played rightfully 'over the top' by a very funny but full of heart Rhonda Lord) has left her first husband, Clive Champion-Chen...

Simply to recite a list of the recently deceased Marvin Hamlisch's awards--three Oscars in 1973 for The Way We Were and The Sting; a Tony and Pulitzer Prize for A Chorus Line; three Emmys, two Golden Globes, four ASCAP awards, and a Grammy is enough the inspire awe. But as host Bruce Kimmel reminds...

To quote Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez - "There's A Fine, Fine Line". Between what's funny and what's not. Between what's tasteful and what's not. Let's just say that DIRTY LITTLE SHOWTUNES crossed the line on both accounts on multiple occasions throughout the evening. The premise - the Broadway "show ...