LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Fathers and sons, whether a fit or a mismatch, forever struggle in some manner, opening up endless dramatic possibilities. Robert Anderson's memorable play I Never Sang For My Father (1968) depicts an iron-willed, unyielding patriarch in his declining years. Tom Garrison (Philip Baker Hall), a forme...

There is perhaps a certain truth in the adage that we as adults are simply the end product of a combined cocktail of biologically-inherited traits, as well as the many environmental factors that invade our lives as young children that are carried into maturity. By this logic, is it fair to ask... if...

If you enjoy the flavor of an intelligently written literary work translated skillfully into a stage musical, like The Secret Garden or more recently The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, iGhost will simultaneously stimulate your mind and tug at your heart, especially if you're a hopeless romantic.This productio...

On Sunday May 22 Irish tenor Dennis McNeil made a spectacular debut into the world of cabaret @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. A former opera singer, McNeil has sung for Presidents and in concert venues, including stadiums, around the world, but never in an intimate setting. With the unfailing con...

Writer Elliot Shoenman's book Nobody's Business depicts the pain felt by a family whose father committed suicide. It was his very own father. Now in his stage play entitled AfterMath in a return engagement at the Matrix Theatre, Shoenman returns to the topic of suicide showing in great emotional det...

Using almost all of the same cast and elements from their initial 2010 production of the Elvis musical ALL SHOOK UP (at its former home in the OC Pavilion in Santa Ana), the Orange County-based 3D Theatricals is once again mounting a newer, more rousingly-amplified revival in their new home at the P...

Hardly a heavyweight, fascinatingly exotic drama as was the case with Odalys Nanin's Garbo's Cuban Lover, the one-act Lavendar Love, now on stage @ the Macha Theatre, still has enough Hollywood nostalgia, sensuality and camp going for it to call it enjoyable. ...

UK playwright Alan Ayckbourn is revered internationally as a virtuoso at penning highly comedic plays. Ayckbourn, like Neil Simon, writes funny one-liners and creates very humorous characters, but uniquely manages to surprise his fans each and every time with a new and compelling artifice. In his br...

On Sunday, May 15 comic actor Dan Frischman debuted a cabaret act @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to a very enthusiastic crowd. Distinctly different from the normal fare @ Sterling's, which is usually a program of Broadway pop singing, Frischman's eclectic gig included magic, comedy and playing th...

Revered as one of the greatest book musicals ever written Gypsy, based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, and with collaborators Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim is rarely performed except on Broadway due to the demands of the role of Mama Rose, which has been played first by Ethel Me...

First introduced to locals here in Southern California back in 2008 during its pre-Broadway tryouts at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, the 1st National Tour of the retooled 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL has arrived in Orange County for a week of shows ending May 10 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. ...

Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate is a delightful musical romp that can be seen again and again. It's timeless and an overblown, yet joyous account of two egotistical actors, once married to each other, who adore one another but just cannot be around each other very long without catastrophic, calamitous re...

World class magician, comedian and illusionist Ivan Amodei is settling into an extended engagement at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with his hit show The Magic of Ivan Amodei, Intimate Illusions. Accompanied by virtuoso cellist Irina Chirkova, who musically underscores everything Amodei says and the ap...

In Jon Marans' thought-provoking bio-play THE TEMPERAMENTALS--now playing its West Coast Premiere at the Blank Theatre Company's 2nd Stage Theater in Los Angeles through May 22--a little-known bit of history is unearthed: More than a decade before the infamous Stonewall Riots marked the defacto star...

Internationally famous for their fantastical, imaginative circus shows, the Montréal-based troupe's brand of whimsy and jaw-dropping acts are in full display in QUIDAM, one of several Cirque du Soleil shows now touring the globe. First produced in 1996, QUIDAM's Southern California stops continue a...

1948's Summer and Smoke was rewritten in the 60s by Tennessee Williams and what resulted was a more clearly structured/themed play with the same central characters entitled The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Music teacher Miss Alma, daughter of an Episcopalean minister, was passionately in love wi...

Actor/singer/musician/author Hershey Felder's multi Award winning depiction of composer George Gershwin in George Gershwin Alone is now on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse for a limited run through May 8 celebrating a ten year anniversary. Felder fills the space with his virtuoso musicianship and cre...

As I watched Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, some painful recollections surfaced from my childhood about Ireland and its people. My mother was second generation Irish, her parents Irish immigrants who declared quite emphatically that they were happy in America and never wanted to return ...

Roger Bean has delighted audiences cross country with The Marvelous Wonderettes, Winter Wonderettes and Life Could Be a Dream. Weaving the 50s, 60s and 70s hits together into a playful scenario is his specialty, and if only Hair had never existed! For, his latest endeavor Summer of Love, now onstage...

Three things may be said quite frankly about Jane Anderson's plays. First of all, the subject matter is never boring. In fact, what you see is bound to create controversy especially amongst those possessing middle class values. Secondly, the protagonist is a mixed bag of strength and insecurity, but...

Allan Manings' world premiere play about two aging stand up comedians starts off with a couple of jokes from Louis Berns (Alan Freeman) and Benjy Gordon (Steve Franken) but the tired old jokes turn sour when a deep dark secret is revealed in Goodbye, Louie ... Hello! now onstage @ Theatre West. With...

On Sunday, April 10 to celebrate her new CD Once Upon a Time, Stephanie Burkett Gerson performed a CD release party concert @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to an exceedingly enthusiastic packed house. No stranger to musical theatre in LA or anywhere for that matter, as she has sailed across Europe...

Eugene Ionesco's classic absurdist play The Chairs (1952) has had many interpretations through the years including political and religious, from soup to nuts. Now onstage at A Noise Within in a marvelously crafted production, The Chairs boasts a tremendous trio of actors under the expert direction o...

When it comes to taking a catalog of familiar, era-specific songs, tossing them together with colorful costumes and sets, then weaving an easily digestible story to tie them all together, jukebox musical aficionado Roger Bean has his formula down pat. The man behind The Marvelous Wonderettes, it's h...

'I'd Rather Be Blue...thinking of you, I'd rather be blue over you ...than be happy with somebody else.' The lyrics of this famous old standard seem to sum up the deep yet peculiar attraction of Anna (Zabryna Guevara) for Pale (Adam Rothenberg) in Lanford Wilson's mysteriously unpredictable story of...