LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Some New York critics panned Million Dollar Quartet for what they called a dearth of dramatic tension onstage, but it went on to receive a Tony nomination for Book of a Musical in 2010 anyway, and based on the overly passionate delivery of the sizzling tour artists, there's enough fire and fever to ...

I have seen the future. And it is ruled by cats. At least it is in Ellen Warkentine and Andrew Pedroza's LOLPERA, a fantastical absurdist opera that uses the internet phenomenon lolcats set to music to tell its story....

For religious fanatics & theologians The Savannah Disputation should hold plenty of interest, as Evan Smith has written a smart exploration of Catholic versus Fundamentalist beliefs. Do you really know your faith inside out? Can you interpret the Bible with intelligence, keeping an open mind? Or do ...

Somewhat reminiscent of Steel Magnolias and Same Time Next Year,Tony Abatemarco's Beautified has an undeniable charm peppered with unforgettable tinges of reality. Like Bernard Slade's STNY (Same Time Next Year) it takes us through several decades from the late 60s to the present, concentrating on t...

Something truly magical is happening right now in the city of La Mirada: almost 22 years after earning a Tony nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for playing this very same role, the ever-so vigorous Cathy Rigby looks about as spunky and acrobatic as she's ever been in this brand-new produ...

A well-thought out, carefully orchestrated Speed Merchant (of Venice), based on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, is playing at Artworks Theatre as part of this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival....

Now scaring up laughs at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood through June 17, THE ADDAMS FAMILY: THE MUSICAL is a charmingly corny, ghoulishly droll musical comedy that features hummable music and a made-for-TV-ready story that is genuinely hilarious from top to bottom. What a pleasant, wonderful surp...

This summer, Theatricum Botanicum examines the inequity of a rigid moralistic government and the effect upon its citizens in Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Director Ellen Geer maximizes the impact of the play's themes by moving the time period to the pressure cooker era of the late 1960s, a perf...

Vanessa Claire Stewart's world premiere homage to silent screen legend Buster Keaton Stoneface succeeds on many levels, first and foremost of which is its brilliant recreation of silent movies by cast and crew. The execution of gags and physical comedy is tough to pull off; here its click by click p...

On Monday June 11 there were enough sparks to set Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal on fire as Jason Graae and Tony Award winner Faith Prince seized the stage with the premiere of their new show The Prince and the Showboy to an adoring packed house....

The more I see Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, now Leading Ladies), the more I realize that he is one of a dying breed of American farceurs. How many presently exist? In the UK, yes, there are many. Farce is their specialty, but not in the US. So, that given, Leading Ladies is a uniq...

Sacred Fools' STONEFACE: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton has raced to the top of my list of most recommended shows to see in Los Angeles this summer....

It pleases me no end to learn how a show improves during the course of its Broadway to tour transfer. Such is the case with the musical The Addams Family, whose Broadway run was clouded with negative reviews and less than powerful performances from its two talented stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirt...

While watching the super-charged, though slightly frustrating Tony-nominated alt-rock musical AMERICAN IDIOT--whose national touring company recently spent a brief week at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, CA--one can't help but feel genuinely entertained by the spectacle of it al...

50s musicals were known for their levity and hit tunes, not for substance, so when a musical such as The Pajama Game had something to say to working class America about standing up and fighting for what they're due, it highly appealed to a middle-class audience... without really meaning to, it serve...

Scott Caan's No Way Around But Through, described as a dark romantic comedy, is indeed quirky. It exudes an affably offbeat humor while drumming a painstaking determination to get at the truth. One cannot deny its exceeding verbiage at questioning the point of living, as it becomes repetitious and w...

The time: 1661. The place: London, England. It was illegal for women to perform onstage in any capacity. Women's roles were played by male actors, and there was no one more illustrious than Edward Kynaston (Ben Rovner), whose atypical livelihood came to an abrupt standstill. This is told via a splen...

Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan. Yes, indeed! I have seen Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan as well, but Rigby adds so much more to the character simply because of her physicality. A gymnast can do physical feats and tricks that an ordinary actor cannot. So if Peter Pan can turn sommersaults in mid-air or literall...

Doug Haverty has a talent for creating good roles for women. There are no finer examples than in his current West coast premiere Aftershocks now playing at the Lyric Theatre. With fine direction from JC Gafford and a tight cast of three superlative actresses, Aftershocks reverberates with joyous aff...

Orange County, CA-based 3D Theatricals presents a fine, top-notch revival of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning A CHORUS LINE, now playing at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through May 27. Buoyed mostly by its National Tour-caliber staging, choreography, lighting and costumes, this production ...

On May 19, 2012 the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles hosted Elaine Stritch's hilarious, anecdote-heavy Stephen Sondheim tribute concert ELAINE STRITCH: SINGIN' SONDHEIM...ONE SONG AT A TIME. Met with boisterous, well-deserved standing ovations both at the start and at the end of the ...

After years of popularity with innovative 'realism-plus' theatre, Murray Mednick's work stands tall, and surprisingly this is my first taste of a Mednick play. I hope it's not my last! My first being The Fool and the Red Queen, now receiving its world premiere production at the Lounge Theatre in Hol...

The phenomenally successful 1977 Broadway musical Annie took America by storm and has been filmed twice. After 35 years, and especially now during our country's - what seems to be unending - economic slump, its Depression era optimism holds up better than ever, and in GCT's current well-staged prod...

By the time you leave Darrin Hagen's Bitchslap! you'll either hate or adore two of Hollywood's legendary divas, namely Bette Davis - the actress and Joan Crawford - the movie star. Both left a trail of indelible marks by which to be judged. They were bitchy, glamorous - well, at least Crawford - fie...

Judy and Company with Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Peggy Lee, Tallulah Bankhead and Katie Hepburn, ladies of screen, theatre and TV all sharing top billing, as usual is a joyous Peter Mac show. At the all new Peter Mac Supper Club in Hollywood, Garland opens and closes with a bevy of her hits includ...