LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is an improv comedy extravaganza, with all kinds of madcap silliness on display....

Standout moments include “Lonely Jew”  by a brilliant Rena Strober, which made the entire evening for me.  This hilarious and wildly irreverent ode to the holiday season includes Strober belting “Oy Vey Maria” and pulling missing Hanukkah candles out of her lady bits to add to her menorah....

Backed by powerhouse vocals, infectious energy and a tent dripping with Old-Hollywood glamour, TINSELCOLOR makes even the most familiar Christmas tunes feel freshly magical....

With its stirring original music, vivid storytelling and exuberant cast, A Christmas Carol at A Noise Within continues to capture the timeless magic of Dickens’ classic - and the enduring hope that kindness can redeem us all....

Herbert Ross’ production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème currently being presented by LA Opera has everything an audience venturing to the opera could hope for. When the curtain rises on Gerard Howland’s beautifully-textured scenery, one is instantly transported to a brutally cold winter scene...

Award-winning director Cameron Watson invites us to watch the story of two lost souls looking for human connection who bloom and blossom after randomly meeting in a world that seems to consistently separate them from others into perpetual loneliness....

All four actors as well as director Mirai are to be commended for keeping the action moving and characters deeply present in their own truths. Given the small and up-close staging in the black box theatre, every audience member will feel like a fly on the fence in Jessie’s backyard while seated on...

If you don’t already know them, you’ll likely want to look up the names of Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ida B. Wells and Ruza Wenclawska…after you’re done applauding until your palms are raw, that is....

WORKING GIRL ultimately soars and plummets based on the root-ability quotient of its title character. Singer and author Joanna “JoJo” Levesque can’t really be classified as a discovery. She’s as good as her material, which is solid, tuneful and plenty enjoyable....

Employing a 12-person cast who are largely at ease with difficult music, Esposito and company deliver a rare opportunity to commune with this difficult play....

Chris Fisher’s illusions are the ace in the hole for this production. It’s astonishing what can be done live on stage these days, but the effects in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY will blow your mind....

Directed with pinpoint focus and lots of movement by Cate Caplin to keep the play from becoming a typical “talking heads” production, I guarantee An Inspector Calls will keep you captivated until its startling conclusion....

The fervor of a given audience – kind of its own character in this play - probably helps distract from the fact that, its sweet vibes aside, there’s not a lot of there in Lyons’ play. It’s a good time, but it’s light as a spritz of air freshener....

While there are ample charms on display in this Pacific Opera Project production of Fra Diavolo, director Josh Shaw seems to lack the right kind of touch for this light-hearted, confectionary romp....

Filled with a seemingly non-stop parade of awww-shucks delivered puns—of both super naughty and super corny varieties—the show, for lack of a more eloquent description, is so frikkin silly and stupid in the best possible ways a comedy can get. Mind you, this isn't an insult at all—the show is ...

Moulin Rouge! is an immersive, kinetic wild ride, lavishly sexy, unabashedly romantic, and breathtaking to look at. There is a determined garishness, a gaudy and deliberate trashiness, an extravagance to Moulin Rogue! that feels triumphantly tasteless and rather wonderfully liberating....

Director Thomas and choreographer Gary Roberts have designed some creative staging, but it never quite takes off...

Produced by Liviera Lim and Michael DiNardo and directed by Ashley Busenlener for Last Call Theatre, The Butterfly Effect is not to be missed by fans of true immersive/interactive theatre or those curious to experience being involved in a show rather than just watching it....

Now presenting an even more over-the-top follow up compared to their first go-round in THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG staged here last February, the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment revisit the earnestly bumbling folks at the fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Socie...

Co-produced by Independent Shakespeare Company and Coin & Ghost, THE AARON PLAY will engage theater-goers and Bard-hounds as well as those who embrace stories with ideas....

An intermission-less, two-character, conversational-centric play that focuses on a pair of women's specific immigrant experiences—marked with loneliness, hopes, fears, and puzzlements big and small—Pulitzer Prize finalist Lloyd Suh's absorbing, touching, and occasionally (thankfully) very funny ...

After making a splash when it first visited the OC back in 2022, MOULIN ROUGE! - THE MUSICAL—the dazzling, Tony Award-winning 2019 Broadway stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's groundbreaking 2001 movie musical—is back full throttle at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa for a limited wee...

What makes this production so enthralling along with Donovan’s tight direction is the immersive effect of feeling involved in the lives of these two lonely people as they openly reveal their fears and feelings as the 90-minute play unfolds....

That a show as powerful as Parade can soar in a small theater is a testament to both the talent of its director and the strength of its cast, of which there isn’t a weak link in the bunch....

Co-written by Oliver and James Clements and directed by Michael Cotey, GUAC embraces its rough-around-the-edges persona without laboring to break new ground.  The 100-minute evening has a narrative sequence and certainly an agenda....