LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Cirque du Soleil's Iris written & directed by Philippe Decoufle Kodak Theatre until 2021...

I usually choose not to review workshop productions, but, in regard to Deborah Johnson's Tsarina, breaking the rule proved worthwhile. The show has such great potential. It's incredible to think that other composers have not seized the opportunity to write a musical play about this most vibrant time...

Judging by opening night at the Old Globe, San Diego, fan reaction to Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show is every bit as over-the-top silly as the attention paid to the 1975 cult film retitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Rocky Horror is a 1973(London)/74(LA)/75(Broadway) sendup of early sci ...

Celebrating its 10th anniversary Odalys Nanin's Garbo's Cuban Lover, in its third revival, currently at the Macha Theatre in WeHo, still copiously exudes the passion of Cuban writer Mercedes de Acosta (in Hollywood from 1931 until her tragic illness & death in 1968) for her art and the supposed love...

Winner of the1992 Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score of a Musical, Falsettos should also have walked away with honors as Best Musical. The show has it all: beautiful music by William Finn, great storytelling by Finn and James Lapine and a message for the ages about love, in all of its forms. Is...

Like God of Carnage before it, ever ready to expose raw emotions to the very core, Poor Behavior, a world premiere by Theresa Rebeck is a starkly real, sometimes funny and thought-provoking play bound to create controversy. Morality, now there's the rub. Whether 'tis better to live one's life compla...

Perhaps Kander and Ebb's best musical, apart from Chicago, Cabaret has it all: a finely detailed book, deliciously diverse characters, dynamite music and a subtext that will not quit. The subtext being: either compromise or get out if you value your life, the latter, to be sure, the wiser. This is B...

Edward Albee won a Pulitzer for Seascape in 1975, and it is no surprise. Concerned with uneven communication in relationships - like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance before it - Seascape shows a married couple at odds on how to spend their retirement. Not nearly as dysfunctiona...

Vaudeville is a bygone era. Much of its music is forgotten. Seems a pity, since it provided the roots of musical theatre as we know it. Bill Castellino and Mike Burstyn have created Al Jolson at the Winter Garden not only to pay homage to the great entertainer but to keep the memory of this time per...

Female impersonators dress in drag and sing or tell jokes, and that's the show. Jim Bailey sings. Charles Pierce was funny in a dress with a joke or anecdote. Peter Mac is much more. His impersonation becomes theatre with a mission. Becoming Judy allows him to portray Judy Garland and also to sing a...

On Wednesday September 7 Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland at the Gardenia celebrated its first anniversary honoring the work of Frank Loesser. Loesser, if you recall, wrote Guys and Dolls, considered by many to be one of the most perfect musicals of all time. He also wrote music and lyrics for 1962's Puli...

A near-perfect blend of story, lyrics, score and movement, the terrific 2009 Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY--now playing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County through September 18--bursts forth with a kind of style and intelligence that arguably reiterates its place as one of t...

There have been many theatrical re-imaginings of fairy tales, but hardly a more enchanting one than Stephen Schwartz's new musical My Fairytale now receiving its US premiere in Solvang. A PCPA production which first previewed in Santa Maria, My Fairytale is charming, brilliantly creative fare brough...

Let me say right up front that I am a teacher, have been for thirty+ years, and so any play having to do with education definitely strikes my fancy. Such was the case with Sex and Education. Biology, however, was never my strong point, but I can certainly appreciate the efforts of a new science teac...

After three decades, Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias remains a treasure, a cherished tale of the endurance of female friendship. Now on stage at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, Magnolias has slick and sturdy direction from Jenny Sullivan and a magnanimous cast, and above all, it stands the test of ...

Witnessing a Justin Tanner play is kind of like watching a soap opera; at one moment you cannot believe what you are hearing and seeing and in the next you'll exclaim, 'I know them!' Whereas Del Shores gives us Southern white trash, Tanner keeps his trash more local; both playwrights have somethin...

On Sunday August 28, actor/singer David Fairchild debuted his show Heart of a Man @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. Cabaret is a first for him. It is admirable to make a new start at any age, especially in show biz in LA, so I give Fairchild a hearty round of applause. 'It's never too late' is a mo...

On Wednesday August 10 thirteen year-old triple threat performer Melody Hollis debuted her one-woman show Melodyland @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to a packed house of enthusiastic fans. Produced and directed by Bruce Kimmel, Melodyland is perhaps the only cabaret show for a talented young lady ...

The Hollywood Bowl's gigantic, often star-studded outdoor summer musical has through the years been one of the most anticipated annual concert events in Southern California. And this year, with their rousing revival of HAIRSPRAY, the hype actually delivered on its promise--for the most part. Genuine...

Long before the stage saw puppets having sex and Ugandans confronting Mormons, there was JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA, a joyously foul-mouthed stage musical that's as much of a hilarious guilty pleasure as its title suggests. The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills is the latest American regional theater t...

Another wonderful evening of song from Kritzerland, Bruce Kimmel's production label, at the Gardenia on Wednesday August 3, this time saluting the music of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, and congrats are in as this show marks Kritzerland's 12th consecutive show in its series at the Gardenia! Schmidt ...

Ann Hampton Callaway jokes about her Diva of America status in the music world, but it is a well known fact that this lady is a singer's singer. Like Barbara Cook in the world of theatre, although many, many years her junior, Callaway is the top in the world of jazz/pop and all singers flock to hear...

Lovers of mystery find magic in the works of Agatha Christie, who not only knows how to weave together detailed clues to a juicy crime but more importantly how to make it into a sophisticated, classy entertainment. Like The Mousetrap, one of the longest running plays in UK theatre history and last s...

Hardly an easy task to successfully mount Ernest Thompson's heartwarming and funny On Golden Pond with the 1980 film starring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda still so vivid in the mind! Well, I'm here to say that the current mounting at the Colony Theatre is of 5 star calibre all the w...

Perhaps the best known musical of all time - and perhaps the best - Rodgers' and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music has remained a family favorite since the 50s. Number one, the score is to die for; secondly, the book is dramatically fulfilling with a real life family being torn asunder by the ravages...