LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Even before the performance began, I was hooked. I couldn’t stop smelling the spices. Two of the three ticket levels for Geffen Playhouse’s world premiere of BOLLYWOOD KITCHEN include a Bollywood Box sent to your home. This beautifully designed box – easily a keepsake in and of itself –  co...

Like most solo productions, Philicia Saunders’ BREATHE comes from her own experiences. Unique to her telling however is the method by which she relates that story. Necessitated by a global pandemic that has forced audiences to view theatrical productions from behind a computer screen, Saunders has...

You know you're in for a fun show when HOLIDAZE HARMONY starts off with the two performers singing 'The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late),' while breathing in helium balloons. HOLIDAZE HARMONY features the delightful song stylings of two charismatic Broadway performers Terron Brooks and Kamila...

On Sunday afternoon, December 12, 2020, well known operatic soprano Ana Maria Martinez hosted a concert of song from many parts of the world where Spanish is spoken. The singers, from Spanish speaking backgrounds, were at one time or are currently members of the young artist program at Lyric Opera o...

The Five Moons of Lorca is a combination ballet and choral work that tells of the life and death of early twentieth century Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. He called for a return to the origins of European Theatre and he questioned the social mores of contemporary theatrical pract...

THE FUTURE at The Geffen is a smart new production, once again written by Helder Guimarães and directed by Frank Marshall, that highlights Guimarães’ ability to weave illusion and storytelling into a satisfying theatrical crowd-pleaser. With the indisputable skill of a master illusionist and the...

On Sunday afternoon November 22, 2020, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented COVID Fan Tutte, an updated version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s Cosi Fan Tutte. The perfomance was presented drive-in style in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church on Anacapa Drive in Camar...

Figuring out whodunit feels like a bonus of this diverting if light slice of drama rather than its primary aim....

On Saturday evening November 21, 2020, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented two rare, one-act operas by Christof Willibald Gluck, La Corona and Il Parnaso Confuso to a drive-in audience of 90 cars in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church on Anacapa Drive in Camarillo, CA....

On Sunday November 15, Long Beach Opera (LBO) presented Songbook, an online  program of 20 new songs by relatively unknown composers. It was LBO board member, Raulee Marcus, who had the idea to commission songs rather than have a gala fundraiser. LBO created a list of established opera composers wh...

Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a Black man born in 1745 to a slave and a slaveholder on the island of Guadeloupe. Few know Bologne wrote operas and most of them have been lost. Only L’Amant Anonyme remains in its  entirety. You can hear some of the stylistic traits of both M...

The Geffen is hosting a game night and it's a goofy, geeky, glorious distraction from the gloom and doom of 2020. Created and led by puzzle enthusiast David Kwong, this latest version of the Geffen Stayhouse series, Inside The Box, is a perfect way to connect with others in these isolating times....

A tireless Elektra, Ricarda Merbeth paces herself well for this marathon role. She sang with polished solid mid-range tones and an easy top that could be heard through the waves of colorful Straussian sound emitted by Franz Welser-Mösta??s full orchestra. Her curse of Chrysothemis was not the most ...

Known in opera houses across the globe for his excellent comedic timing and first-rate singing, bass-baritone Philip Cokorinos won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1985 and went on to make his debut during that company's 1987-1988 season. In a new a?oeLiving Room Recitala?? on th...

LA Operaa??s 'Living Room Recital' by soprano Latonia Moore and pianist Roberto Berrocal is available for streaming on the operaa??s website. Wearing a long green gown with a draped skirt and sparkling jewels at her décolletage, Moore opened her program with Tatianaa??s Letter Scene from Pyotr Ily...

On May 29, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital premiere of Royce Vavrek and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, a story based on the 1996 international film of the same name directed by Lars von Trier. Winner of the Music Critics Association of North America 2017 award for Best New Opera,...

On the surface, NATHAN C. JONES appears to be an unassuming little show about a young man and his new romance. But, as the audience is drawn further and further into the story, it becomes clear that the writers are exploring much deeper questions about loneliness, the desire to be loved, and what ha...

On May 22, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital world premiere of composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch's opera Sky on Swings. The company gave the opera's world premiere on Sept. 20, 2018, during its Festival O....

This one-man show would work just as amazingly live and onstage as it does viewed online with the incredible, incredible Rob Nagle as Richard Nixon. Shot and staged in a small office (as a stand-in for Steve McQueen's beach house), Bree Pavey deftly directs Nagle as Nixon on the evening after he ann...

WOW! WOW! WOW! Just finished viewing master illusionist Helder Guimarães' THE PRESENT via Zoom. A.MA.ZING!!! Having actually seen and been wowed before by Helder Guimarães, up close and live, in person at the Geffen's Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre (back in May of 2019) in his INVISIBLE TANGO, I wa...

A most welcomed hour of laughs and guffaws during our current stay-at-home status, Kay Sedia premiered her A HOUSE PARTY OF JUAN streaming online at StageIt.com on, most appropriately, Cinco de Mayo. With only one techie Mike Pingel and her husband Daron to help her broadcast, the show fabulously we...

On Friday May 1, 2020, Florence Italy's Maggio Musicale presented a a?oeHome Galaa?? featuring artists singing at home accompanied by themselves, their housemates, or a pre-recorded track. In this year of pandemic, Opera Superintendent Alexander Pereira could not open his theater to its usual crowds...

In these days of social distancing, producer Kenneth Hughes has captured footage of playwright Ken Roht's VAMPIRE BURT'S SERENADE (shot at the Bootleg Theater, a Los Angeles theatre and rock club); and edited and re-formatted for your virtual theatrical experience. In the style of the low-budget cul...

And now, the Supermodel of the World, RuPaul Charles has transferred her fierce Drag Queens to the Flamingo Hotel to recreate her award-winning reality show RuPaul's Drag Race where the audience gets to be the judge....

BWW Review: LA BALLET 'BALANCHINE'S BLACK AND WHITE' AND 2020 GALA at The Broad Stage...