LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Those coming to see this 'new puppet show' expecting those delightful Jim Henson Muppets are in for a real surprise... but a really good one. Perhaps the funniest, most masterfully inappropriate use of puppets since Avenue Q, STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG is an uproariously gut-busting show that combines the...

Cabrillo Music Theatre have done themselves proud these past couple of seasons with stellar productions of great Broadway shows. Their 2010 Holiday Spectacular is indeed just that. There's something for everyone in the family: Broadway show tunes, Christmas carols and a delightful sing-a-long, and s...

GMCLA's annual holiday concert, this year entitled Comfort & Joy, was presented Saturday, December 18 and Sunday, December 19 to sold out houses at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, and proved once again to be one of the most innovative and enjoyable holiday concerts around town. With guest director Dr....

Actress/singer ValLimar Jansen beautifully becomes Ethel Waters, body and soul, in Sweet Mama String Bean. The story concerns the first half of Waters' life, which may be little known to many: how she rose from illegitimacy to radio, club and Broadway super-stardom by the 1940s, before becoming the ...

One of the most uniquely thrilling musical experiences to be found in the theatre right now is at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura. There's a glorious production there called Fascinating Rhythms, an ode to ballroom dancing told through the music of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of our time Me...

Spending an evening with Toni Morrell and her Legendary Ladies is one to treasure. This lady, as I've reviewed her in My American Dream, is one hell of a singer and actress who embodies a star, and underneath possesses the warmth and radiance of a genuine human being....

Armed with current sensibilities that earlier versions could only lightly tap, the latest Broadway stage revival of WEST SIDE STORY--its touring version is currently taking up residence at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for an extended engagement through January 2--truly excels with its fresh new...

Ask musical actors/actresses for their choice of favorite Broadway musical of all time and they most often concur, West Side Story. Why? It has phenomenal music by Leonard Bernstein, with concise poetic lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a tight and gripping book by Arthur Laurents, who directed two yea...

To keep up with the ultra-fast pace of the modern age is difficult for most 'normal' people. Dealing with emotional pain or loss on top of average daily strife can be overwhelming. It may easily destroy a life and those connected to it as well. In the Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal, the probl...

There was quite an electric, palpable excitement crackling in the huge 3,000-plus-seat Segerstrom Hall on this particular Sunday afternoon. The largest venue within the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, this stage is used to Broadway-caliber talent wowing its audience, since it usu...

On Sunday November 7 Barbara Van Orden made a splashy return to the world of cabaret @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's after a three year absence in a new show directed by the ever resourceful Joe Giamalva. Van Orden belongs to the cabaret world of days gone by, when Sinatra was king and when tastef...

It amazes me that a play has not been written before about a cross section of people getting trapped in an elevator, as the potential for drama is limitless. People have a tendency to open up as never before when they face calamity, and, with this in mind, Michael Leoni goes the distance theatricall...

There's this old showbiz cliche that says one should never work with kids and/or animals. Well, either species probably never really scared producers from creating ANNIE, the much-beloved musical classic now in production for Musical Theatre West in Long Beach, California through November 14. Here, ...

Richard Myrle Buckley, aka Lord Buckley, was an American lounge comic (1906-1960), who had a cult following in the 50s; he went in for hip semantic and scat, associated with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey and Ella Fitzgerald. His word play was delivered with a coo...

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'Gimme, gimme now!' perfectly describes Stiltz!, a comic musical fable showing the negativity of greed, power and fame. Though flawed the show has some terrific tunes from Deborah Johnson and a fine cast under Wayland Pickard and Doug Engalla's steadily fast-paced direction....

A charming hit direct from London (which later debuted in the U.S. for our neighbors up north in San Francisco over the summer), PETER PAN--now performing its only Los Angeles- and Orange County-area engagements at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through November 21--uses advanced projectio...

It's the late 70s. Oversized mockup stereo speakers adorn both sides of the Freud stage as part of the set for They're Playing Our Song. At opening curtain Jason Alexander enters, not to start the scene, but to give the downbeat as conductor of the overture. The back part of the set that serves as a...

This is first and foremost not a sequel to Brad Lemack's 2002 book. The new book concentrates on the changing landscape, the tremendous changes in technology that have opened up and are now available to today's blossoming actor. Divided into 15 chapters, there is a foreward by Lemack's first client,...

Currently the record-holder for being the longest-running show in Broadway history (and still counting), Andrew Lloyd Webber's most widely-seen masterwork THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has now taken up residence at Los Angeles' historic Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for the national tour's final engageme...

When it first premiered on the West End in 1989 and then on Broadway in 1991, Miss Saigon won over critics and public alike with its bold operatic score and absorbing story of the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Almost twenty years later it is as relevant as ever and Moonlight's stunning production ...

Legendary Mitzi Gaynor is currently on a limited tour of the latest incarnation of her Mitzi Gaynor Razzle Dazzle and now in her 70s, Gaynor continues to spread love, warmth and happpiness wherever she appears. Such was the case in Escondido Labor Day weekend, where she gave five sold out performanc...

Actor/singer Blake McIver Ewing, well known for his big screen remake of The Little Rascals, his amazing 1992 Junior Vocalist Champion status on TV's Star Search and his stint on TV's Full House, among many others, has undeniably left his mark as an immensely talented child star. With his stage appe...

Christopher M. Allport's Cabaret Collective played Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's Sunday evening August 29. Collective most likely referring to the collection of Broadway pop tunes presented and also to the fact that Chris was joined by friends soprano Sarah Block and fellow 'Disney kid' Donny B. L...

Beth_Malone_Readies_So_Far_for_New_York_Showing_20010101 On Saturday August 28 actress/singer Beth Malone returned to Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to try out a newer installment of her cabaret show 'in progress' So Far to an enthusiastic SRO audience. Malone is a lesbian and is totally open ab...