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BWW Reviews: Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp Live in Irvine, CA
On the evening of Saturday, January 29, two of the original stars of Jonathan Larsen's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical RENT, Adam Pascal (Roger) and Anthony Rapp (Mark), shared a double-bill concert at the Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California. The concert was part of a concert tour which th...
BWW Reviews: 'CAUGHT' Stirs the Gay Marriage Debate
The debate over same-sex marriage is the overarching theme of David L. Ray's stirring new world premiere play 'CAUGHT,' now performing at the Zephyr Theatre in West Hollywood for an extended engagement through February 13. Set in the months before voting on Prop. 8 happened, this thoughtful, sometim...
BWW Reviews: L.A.'s Joyful 'HAIR'-Raising Is The Place To Be-In
Directed with great care and blissful appeal, this spiritually buoyant new touring production of the 2009 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical revival, HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical revels in its naughty, raucous fun and its sonically adventurous musical soundtrack. A delightful hybrid o...
BWW Reviews: SUTTON FOSTER Shines In OCPAC Cabaret
An accomplished comedienne, an emotionally powerful actress, and a gifted vocalist worthy of large marquees, Foster allowed all three to be fully experienced live in her exquisite showcase An Evening with Sutton Foster, a song collection of her Broadway hits, personal favorites, and selections from ...
BWW Reviews: The Best of O.C./L.A. Theater for 2010
Between the Southern California arrivals of Lincoln Center Theatre's impressive SOUTH PACIFIC revival and the Tony-winning NEXT TO NORMAL tour starring Alice Ripley, to the incredibly entertaining offerings from regional and smaller theaters in the area, 2010 was a banner year in musicals and plays....
BWW Reviews: Insanely Funny 'STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG' Puppets Up!
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...
BWW Reviews: Cabrillo Holiday Spectacular Is a Treat
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...
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BWW Reviews: GMCLA Scores With Innovative Holiday Concert
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....
BWW Reviews: ValLimar is Outstanding as Ethel Waters
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 ...
BWW Reviews: Rubicon's FASCINATING RHYTHMS Electrify
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...
BWW Reviews: Toni Morrell Sensational in REMEMBERING THE LADIES
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....
BWW Reviews: Energetic WEST SIDE STORY Revival Wows in L.A.
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...
BWW Reviews: WEST SIDE STORY Soars @ the Pantages
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...
BWW Reviews: Ahmanson Goes Next to Normal
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...
BWW Reviews: IDINA MENZEL Thrills in O.C. Concert Tour Stop
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...
BWW Reviews: Red Hot Mama Barbara Van Orden Returns to Cabaret @ Sterling's
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...
BWW Reviews: Elevator @ Macha Theatre Offers Stimulating Ride
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...
BWW Reviews: McArdle Headlines MTW's Fun 'ANNIE' Revival
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, ...
Jake Broder Is a Dizzying Lord Buckley @ Inner Circle of Magic Castle
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...
BWW Reviews: STILTZ! The Musical at Actor's Forum
'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....
BWW Reviews: Imaginative PETER PAN Flies High at OCPAC
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...
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BWW Reviews: Reprise Opens 14th Season with Vibrant SONG
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...
BWW Reviews: Lemack's New 'How To...Book' - A Must Read for Serious Actors
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,...
BWW Reviews: PHANTOM Enchants in Final Tour Stop in L.A.
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...
Videos
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The Most Happy Fella North Coast Repertory Theatre (6/03-6/28) |
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Millennials Are Killing Musicals Colony Theatre (4/30-5/17) |
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Melt : The Play The Marilyn Theatre at the Lee Strasberg Institute (6/11-6/13) |
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This Is Our Youth The Olive Branch (5/08-5/17) PHOTOS |
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Doja Cat at The Kia Forum The Kia Forum (10/22-10/22) |
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The Magic Flute Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (5/30-6/21) |
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Strange Beings The Broadwater Black Box (6/08-6/27) |
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Olivia Dean Crypto.com Arena (7/14-7/14) |
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Sierra Madre Playhouse Presents Short Comic Opera "The Maestro," a Hilarious Parody of the Music Business, 5/30 Sierra Madre Playhouse (5/30-5/30) |
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Kim's Convenience The Old Globe (5/15-6/14) |
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