LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Talk about quirkiness and how it can be used to its best advantage in a musical! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is terribly funny in a rather intelligent and offbeat manner with prize worthy characterizations of lively eclectic people. It may be a tad too long like the actual spelling ou...

When I first saw Souvenir 3 years ago in Brentwood with its Broadway star Judy Kaye, I marveled at her Tony nominated performance, but did not like the play. I took a look at it again Friday at the Falcon Theatre, enjoyed the performances, but have not changed my mind. The production is first rate, ...

In 1978, Thomas Babe's A Prayer for My Daughter impacted audiences who were living through the post-Vietnam syndrome. Casual use of drugs, crime and police brutality were rampant. We were in a state of moral decay. In retrospect, it has all gotten progressively worse. So, the intense drama is like h...

Even if we've seen and heard it a million times over, the old show biz debate about devotion to stage versus film is a treat as served up in Kaufman and Ferber's Stage Door, being given a red carpet production at the Open Fist Theatre....

This is my first cabaret review for 2010, not counting the finale for LA's Next Great Stage Star 2010 held at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's earlier this month on January 3. I must admit, I have yet to be disappointed @ Sterling's with the service or with the cabaret artist being showcased. Proving...

Orpheus Descending, one of Tennessee Williams' earlier, lesser-known plays, is a retelling of this classical Greek myth, set in Williams' trademark version of the underworld…the deep South. However, the latest revival of Orpheus, playing at Los Angeles' Theatre/Theater through Feb. 21 reminds us ...

Carousel/music by Richard Rodgers/book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II/directed by Michael Michetti/choreographed by Lee Martino/Reprise Theatre Company @ Freud Playhouse, UCLA/through February 7....

Ray Bradbury's Wisdom 2116/ conceived, directed & choreographed by Steve Josephson/ Fremont Centre Theatre/ through February 27....

Almost eight years after the tragic events of September 11th, the phrase "9/11" has adopted a rather sarcastic tone. It has become a running joke, a phrase tossed around ad nauseum whenever a speaker needs to add gravity or significance to whatever he or she is pronouncing. Wanna sound important? Ju...

Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker played La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts on December 23, 2009....

White Christmas played the Cabrillo Music Theatre @ Thousand Oaks. The show features a book by David Ives & Paul Blake, music & lyrics by Irving Berlin and direction by Todd Nielsen. The production ran December 26-29 only....

House of Besarab is conceived and written by Terance Duddy & Theodore Ott produced and directed by Terance Duddy The Hollywood American Legion Theater through January 17, 2010 (possibly beyond)....

The unequalled Julia Migenes brought her holiday show Julia Migenes' Holiday Magic from Bach to Pop! to the Upright Cabaret on Vermont St in Hollywood Sunday December 20; this diva could sing the phone book and I'd show up. Dressed in black velvet and quoting from Stephen Nissenbaum's book The Battl...

Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's is presenting its annual LA's Next Great Stage STAR! What a terrific event! Not unlike TV's American Idol, talented artists compete before judges and a live audience. At Sterling's they go head to head for 6 Sundays: the first was November 29 with the finale to take ...

James Barbour brought his holiday concert straight from New York to the Colony Theatre in Burbank for one performance only Monday December 21 at 7pm. The benefit for the Colony co-starred rock/jazz singer Michelle Wolf with husband, brilliant musician Peter Wolf accompanying. Barbour referred to him...

LONG BEACH, CA-Just a little over two months after RENT's current Broadway National Tour made a tour stop in nearby Costa Mesa, Musical Theater West debuts the first L.A.-area professional regional production of RENT at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts. Their production...

What follows in Gabe McKinley's EXTINCTION, presented by Red Dog Squadron, is a dissection of life's changes and the ability to evolve, where the two characters bounce back and forth between the lure of maturity and reckless abandonment. The show offers riotous laughs, hard-hitting truths, and a bru...

A Johnny Cash prison tribute cooking show concert? The concept alone should be enough to intrigue audiences into checking out All Cake, No File; the latest theatrical concoction from Los Angeles' prestigious The Actors' Gang. Set as part of the troupe's WTF?! Festival, all proceeds from the show are...

ECLIPSED, presented by the Center Theatre Group and opened at Los Angeles' Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sept. 20th, narrates the daily routine of a group of "wives" (women who are raped and held captive as servants) of a rebel commanding officer in 2003 war-torn Liberia. There isn't much of a storyline....

This last in the series of Wicked Summer Nights concerts from Upright Cabaret @ the Ford Amphitheatre Sunday evening August 23 was undoubtedly the best. It boasted the introduction on the West Coast of Stephen Schwartz's new opera Seance on a Wet Afternoon, narrated by Schwartz and sung magnificentl...

Kara Stephens made her cabaret debut From the Soul Sunday, August 9 at 7pm at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. The wholesome blonde has a lovely, versatile instrument that she used to great effect in the one-hour set, which included multiple guest stars....

Roger Bean's current off-Broadway nostalgic musical hit The Marvelous Wonderettes with 60s female rock group classics performed in the style of an intimate concert could very easily be considered the female counterpart of the long-running all-male musical giant Forever Plaid....

Opera diva Julia Migenes performs Franz Schubert: His Letters and Music @ The Odyssey Theatre 2 through August 23....

In Cy Coleman's Seesaw, Gittel Mosca bemoans screwing up her chances for happiness. Coleman cherished the female underdog. Gittel. Charity in Sweet Charity and Sonja in The Life are three examples of ordinary hard-working gals who helped elevate Coleman's upbeat songs to majestic heights...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I meets Mel Brooks' The Producers. Find the Holy Grail! No, find Jews to produce a Broadway show! ...