LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Fans of sketch comedy TV shows such as The Red Skeleton Show, the Jackie Gleason Show and the Carol Burnett show will certainly recognize the many farcical vaudeville comedy bits in MAMA WON'T FLY, written by three of the most produced playwrights in America, Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wo...

In Theatricum Botanicum's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, the action begins and ends with a song. At rise it is the somber lamentation that accompanies a funeral procession and at the play's conclusion, an uplifting madrigal 'Sing We Enchant It.'...

It never ceases to amaze me how effectively the members of Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group can create an atmosphere in their incredibly intimate - make that tiny - black box. You would think a small space might limit their options but they have proven, over and over again, their innate abilit...

A short and sweet informative narrative directly from the mouths of earthquake survivors comes to fruition in Munted (A New Zealand slang for 'busted, destroyed, ruined')....

Bialystock and Bloom! Those names should strike terror and hysteria in anyone familiar with Mel Brooks' classic cult comedy film. Now as a big Broadway musical, THE PRODUCERS once again sets the standard for modern, outrageous, in-your-face humor. The 2001 Tony Award Winning Best Musical based on Br...

Chekhov aficionados open to the humanizing of his high-brow archetypes will delight in playwright Aaron Posner's smartly written and irreverent take on Anton Chekhov's classic The Seagull....

Christina Bianco is best known for her cover of 'Let It Go' that went viral at the height of Frozen frenzy. In the video, she impersonates everyone from Barbra to Celine from Bernadette to Alanis and at her show titled 'Diva Moments' at Rockwell on Sunday, June 29th , she brought those divas and mor...

Ghost the Musical/book & lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin/music & lyrics by Dave Stewart & Glen Ballard/directed by Matthew Warchus/Pantages Theatre/through July 13...

Wilson Milam directs the West Coast premiere of DATES AND NUTS, a romantic comedy by Gary Lennon ("Orange is the New Black" and "Justified"), about Brooklyn animal rights activist Eve who has just been dumped by her fiance - for a man. Angry at the male species, she becomes increasingly frantic as s...

I have to say...I really loved this crazy new rock musical. In my book, it's the kind of show that embodies all that is best about the Fringe, with its unconventional characters, sly direction (by Aaron Lyons), pert choreography (by Michelle LaVon), and wicked twist on a relevant message....

Highlighted with brilliant acting, writing and directing, the world premiere comedy MEET & GREET is bound to be one of the biggest hits at this year's Fringe. The premise is we are in a casting office in the San Fernando Valley, present day. Four actresses have been called in for one part during pil...

Your GPS tells you how to get where you're going, but what if it could tell you more? Such is the inventive premise of THE NAVIGATOR, enjoying its West Coast premiere during Fringe. Written by Eddie Antar and directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby for Burning Clown Productions, this show was nominated for...

Playwright Kenneth Cavander's found the ideal collaborator in The Antaeus Company for finessing his original two night's worth of performances into its current smartly-written, easily comprehensible, two-and-a-half hour narrative....

'S Wonderful/Sandy Sings Ira Gershwin/Sandy Bainum at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal/musical director: Lanny Meyers/director: Bruce Kimmel/Sunday June 22...

'...He Wrote Good Songs'/Littlechap. A Life of Anthony Newley./written & performed by Jon Peterson/directed by Gwen Hillier/musical direction by Joshua Eli Kranz/Asylum Lab Theatre/selected performance as part of Hollywood Fringe 2014/remaining performance: Saturday June 28 at 5:30 pm...

As a huge fan of The Twilight Zone TV show, I enjoyed seeing the different mash-ups of episodes as well as being able to catch references to many other episodes (ie: Willoughby, Hitchhiker, To Serve Man Diner). It was also fun to see clips from many original episodes played on a large TV monitor on ...

AFTERLOVE: LOVE LIFE IN THE AFTERLIFE, written by and performed by Ron Hanks and Betsy Reisz is one of the most brilliant and inventive shows I have seen at this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival. In the dating pool of the afterlife, there are a LOT of choices, and this show presents 8 couples of pub...

Can just imagine the excitement going through the minds of the four actors when they realized they would get the chance to work with a Tony Award winner's script and be directed by a multi-award winning director in its Los Angeles premiere ....

The Los Angeles premiere of THE BROTHERS SIZE at the Fountain Theatre, directed by Shirley Jo Finney, is an exuberantly theatrical drama that weaves together the pulsing rhythms of the bayou with African Yoruba mythology to create a stylized story of love and heartache. What makes the play even more...

The title of Jacob Sidney's futuristic Hamlet refers to the Dane's dead father Maximus, a character who never appears live on stage but only materializes as part of Hillary Bauman's black & white anime projections on a screen behind the actors. The audience sees the ghost fade in and out behind them...

As part of their new Writers in Rep play series, Theatre West presents Kres Mersky's Flag Day, a totally irreverent look at a dysfunctional family celebrating Christmas in June. With an eleven-member solid cast and excellent staging from director Paul Gersten, Flag Day is best appreciated if you jus...

After a particularly long laundry list of names in which Helen of Troy jumps out as the only familiar one, Chorus Leader Rob Nagle says in a completely deadpan voice, 'Don't worry... that's the last name you'll recognize tonight,' and everyone bursts into laughter....

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF was always the playwright's favorite among all his plays. Theatre Palisades is presenting the original version of the script as written by Tennessee Williams before Eli Kazan, who was already hired to direct both Broadway and the film version, forced him to re-write the script ...

This original one-act pop musical aims high and often hits its mark although it may not be the musical you think it's going to be. While it contains a fair amount of wry humor, don't expect the kind of silliness you found in The Pokemusical, the team's entry into last year's Fringe Festival. This tw...

Chalk Repertory Theatre has created a very intimate way to experience the show, setting it in the backhouse of a Beverlywood area home transforming it into May's 1980s hotel room as she attempts to untangle herself from Eddie on the night their hearts reach their breaking points. With only 20 audien...