LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

On Saturday evening February 22, 2020, Los Angeles Opera presented a vocally glorious rendition of Gaetano Donizetti's Bel Canto opera Roberto Devereux. Roberto was one of the loves of England's Elizabeth I, so the opera is centered around their relationship and Roberto's forbidden love for Sara, th...

After three successful runs in Los Angeles in 2012, 2014, and 2017 at the Pantages, that smut-mouthed, but endearing musical comedy The Book Of Mormon has squatted downtown at the Ahmanson, and third time around, it has lost none of its luster, or its smut....

A typical mismatched wedding between a Jewish bride and a Catholic groom gets turned on its ear when a shocking revelation stuns the wedding party. This unfairly neglected 2015 musical gets new life with a winning performance (in a staged reading) by Musical Theatre Guild at the Alex Theater in Glen...

There are certainly plenty of movie-to-stage adaptations that have appeared (and continue to pop up) on Broadway, but few can boast being one of the most jubilant and unabashedly open-minded as the gloriously glam 2012 hit KINKY BOOTS, the Tony Award-winning stage musical adaptation of Geoff Deane a...

A deeply complex father-daughter dynamic is the central narrative that drives the searingly poignant and emotionally absorbing musical FUN HOME, the Tony Award-winning stage adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 autobiographical graphic memoir now appearing in an admirable new intimate theater product...

Florian Zeller's brilliant play THE FATHER plumbs the ideas of memory and self, starting off light-hearted and slowly, piece by piece, descending into a harrowing and devastating freefall....

Fifteen years after its first production of the musical, Musical Theatre West revisits the Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME for only its second time---smartly reviving the musical in a similarly lavish production that beautifully converges the show's classic staging and vibe with wonderfully integ...

Though SCR's admirable new production of the 1963 Broadway musical SHE LOVES ME, for the most part, still has many charming, beautifully-staged, and well-sung moments, it also somehow feels like it is slightly reigned in, as if there was a purposeful attempt to downscale some of its built-in whimsy ...

Penelope Lowder's WEST ADAMS is a keenly observed look at race, class, and privilege seen through a magnifying glass that elevates it to an over-the-top state, for both better and worse. The timely show focuses on two interracial married couples: pregnant Caucasian Sarah (Allison Blaize) and Latin E...

On February 2, 2020, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented Giacomo Puccini and Giovacchino Forzano's 1918 Gianni Schicchi with Maurice Ravel and Colette's 1925 L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Magic Spells), a pair of lesser known operas, to a most receptive audience at Occidental...

The musical parodies hits just keep coming at Rockwell Table & Stage! Popular (sometimes cult) flicks get infused with pop songs resulting in a new twist on the film, and sometimes on the songs. With NEVER BEEN KISSED - THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL, cleverly written by Jordan Ross Schindler, the vocally...

On February 1, 2020, Los Angeles Opera presented the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's third opera, Euridice. He composed it together with Sarah Ruhl who wrote the original 2003 play. Aucoin, Ruhl, and this presentation's stage director, Mary Zimmerman, have been the recipients of the MacArthur Fel...

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, it's time to get your date night plans in order. BroadwayWorld is ready to help with our top recommendations for a theatre night out on the town. It doesn't matter if you're looking to impress your sweetie, meet up with friends, or escape the daily grind...

During the opening night performance of her fun return engagement at Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Cabaret Series at the Samueli Theatre, Tony Award winner Lillias White felt strongly about putting on a a?oehappy show,a?? as a way to combat all the sadness and fear that have overtaken our world. J...

In their continued and laudable feat of presenting diverse voices in theater, Orange County's South Coast Repertory is currently staging another stirring new drama, this time from playwright Donja R. Love entitled FIREFLIES, which continues performances through January 26, 2020 in Costa Mesa under t...

On January 17, 2020, Los Angeles Opera presented Stefano Landi's 1619 opera, The Death of Orpheus, (La Morte d'Orfeo) at El Cid, a performance space usually known for dinner theater. Landi may have written his own libretto. In any case, the story of the five-act opera was inspired by Angelo Polizian...

BWW Review: @ROCKOFAGESHollywood Tries to Rock Hollywood at the Bourbon Room...

On Sunday afternoon, Long Beach Opera (LBO) presented the world premiere of its adaptation of Henry Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur at the Beverly O'Neill Theater. A semi-opera refers to a Restoration entertainment that combines a spoken play with musical episodes that involvolomot, Darryl Taylor, ...

On Saturday afternoon January 11, 2020, Pittance Chamber Music presented a concert of infrequently heard music at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. Pittance is made up of members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Soloists included soprano Liv Redpath, pianist Paul Floyd, and Principal Clarinetis...

A frequently consistent scene-stealer on The Groundlings stage, Michael Churven takes the directorial reins offstage to deftly guide his amazingly funny cast of six (Samantha DeSurra, Chris Guerra, Ariane Price, Mary Scheer, Annie Sertich and Alex Staggs) to an evening of hilarity in GROUNDLINGS MIX...

A riotous script and a veteran cast who know their way around comedy highlight a bravura production of 'The Man Who Came To Dinner,' Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's classic 1939 play about a sidelined theater critic, forced to be wheelchair bound in a house in small town Ohio. Jim Beaver, Barry Pe...

Country music is known (and often ridiculed) for its soap opera-like lyrics. Its storytelling often takes listeners on journeys of sadness and despair, and redemption. Tim Alderson's SALVAGE, playing at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood through January 19, follows those tropes with mostly effective re...

The family-friendly fun of Lythgoe Family Productions' annual holiday British Panto returns to the Laguna Playhouse, this time with the reimagined Yuletide re-telling of PETER PAN & TINKER BELL: A PIRATE'S CHRISTMAS, which continues through December 29, 2019 in the city of Laguna Beach. Overall, the...

The Fuse Project and Rockwell Table & Stage most successfully reprises their hit holiday show of last year - SCISSORHANDS - A MUSICAL. With most of the very talented cast returning from last year's production, SCISSORHANDS hits all the high, as well as, all the hilarious notes with astounding vocals...

A fan of the romantic but put-upon-by-tradition women in Jane Austen novels and the witty men created by Oscar Wilde, Kathryn Farren has successfully woven those elements together in Victorian-era England with a modern perspective on female equality, the importance of family, standing in one's own t...