LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The show is a celebration of the life of Maurice Hines, his brother Gregory, and their parents who Maurice fondly remembers throughout the show. Adding to emotional content, moveable screens that divide the orchestra from the performing area were often used to display photographs of the Hines famil...

Stephen Sondheim's lyrics and James Lapine's book are so brilliantly profound in INTO THE WOODS that, when in doubt, the best thing an actor can do is simply make sure the audience can hear the words. 3-D Theatricals struggles with this basic tenet in its gorgeously appointed though unmanageably lar...

Bursting with magic, wit and whimsy, INTO THE WOODS---the sprightly Tony Award-winning musical that features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine---is currently on stage at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through May 18. Produced by OC's Ovation Award-winning 3-D Theat...

Two character plays about love and friendship over time like Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade and Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry are A-list treasures. Their lack of pretension and real humanity make them linger quite joyously in the mind. In spite of some wonderful moments, Six Dance Lessons...

In her world premiere comedy COMING OUT KINKY: A GROWN-UP STORY, Jean Franzblau portrays some 20 characters in her sexual memoir adventure story for curious and open-minded adults to enjoy. She began writing the play in 2009, not knowing how she would ever be able to share it. Thanks to her collab...

First produced in 1939, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by American playwright Joseph Kesselring is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the 'Mayflower,' but now composed of insane homicidal maniacs. This classic play has been produced around the world and will continue ...

Fraggled Productions has put together a respectable production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Cupcake Theater in Hollywood with a delightfully oddball cast and the requisite fun audience participation. The Tony Award-winning musical, featuring music & lyrics by William Finn, bo...

FAT PIG tells the story of Tom (Jonathan Bray), a young career guy who hits it off with Helen (Deidra Edwards), a bright, sexy woman who happens to be plus-sized. As he reluctantly finds himself falling in love, Tom's colleagues (Kirsten Kollender and Nick Stabile) are brutal in their assessment of ...

In the new play FIVE MILE LAKE---currently in the midst of its World Premiere at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory through May 4---author Rachel Bonds populates her quiet, snail-paced drama with characters that speak in hushed tones and coded exchanges that seem to mask a lifetime's supply of jealo...

Everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves artistically. Theatre, music, dance, poetry - all forms of art stimulate growth and nurture our intuitive connection to the world around us. CRE Outreach (which stands for Create, Reflect, Empower) uses theatre as a means of artistic explora...

Adapted from two Anton Chekhov short stories, Man in a Case and About Love, MAN IN A CASE is a pair of haunting love stories - one of an officious, anti-social man and his involvement with an extroverted woman. The second, a tale of moral ambiguity in which the protagonist forgoes his love for a mar...

Cheyenne Jackson won the hearts of a sold-out crowd by completely opening his own in his debut performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night. The self-professed goal of the tall, dark and handsome singer was simply 'to blanket the audience with love,' which he did repeatedly in a program...

Wake/by Carey Crim/directed by Matt Kirkwood/SeaGlass Theatre at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Pasadena/through May 25...

Tarzan The Stage Musical/book by David Henry Hwang/based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' story 'Tarzan of the Apes' and the Disney film/music and lyrics by Phil Collins/directed by Erik Austin/El Portal, Monroe Forum Theatre/through May 18...

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE offers audiences a toe-tapping trip back to the golden age of musicals, and took Broadway by storm, winning five Tony Awards. It spoofs musical-comedy fanatics and the genre itself, as well as the extravagant musicals of the 1920s. Critics have called 'The Drowsy Chaperone' one ...

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In FALSE SOLUTION, Anton Seligman (Daniel J. Travanti) is a renowned architect, working on his designs for a new Holocaust museum to be built in Poland. He encounters Linda Johansson (Amanda Saunders), a beautiful young intern and first-year architecture grad student, who challenges his conceptions....

The Tallest Tree in the Forest/written & performed by Daniel Beaty/directed by Moises Kaufman/Mark Taper Forum/through May 25...

Ruth Draper's Monologues/written by Ruth Draper/directed & performed by Annette Bening/Geffen Playhouse/through May 18...

The production is visually stunning, blending live actors, puppets and keenly choreographed movement that breathe life into everyday inanimate objects. The puppetry involves a huge range of ground-breaking techniques and variety of creations - from the smallest mechanical creatures to the huge god-...

Touching, richly-staged and beautifully-acted, REST---Samuel D. Hunter's oh-so-engrossing and oh-so-funny new play now having its world premiere at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory through April 27---presents a disheartening reality of life we all must face sooner or later: that getting older is, ...

Come Back, Little Sheba/by William Inge/directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott/a Noise Within, Pasadena/through May 17...

Independent Shakespeare Co. once again showcases its intuitive ability to re-imagine Shakespeare for a modern-day audience with an intimate production of his classic romance, Independent Shakespeare Co. ROMEO AND JULIET...

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Set in Poland circa 1890, WHITE MARRIAGE is a surreal and erotic coming-of-age fairytale that follows a young girl's poignant emergence into womanhood and frightened resistance to her impending marriage. Two sisters, sensitive Bianca (Kate Dalton) and precocious Pauline (Emily Goss), are on the verg...