LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

In the fifth incarnation of POP's trademark production, a new batch of hand-crafted, vegan, organically-sourced hipsters take the stage for what is quickly becoming an annual Los Angeles holiday tradition. In it, Puccini's 19th Century Parisian garret becomes a present-day Highland Park loft apartme...

From Coco Chanel's 1926 Ford dress, Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lady Di's revenge dress to Liz Hurley's jaw dropping, safety-pinned Versace, the little black dress' silhouette has changed over the years. And given how often and in so many difference circumstances a LITTLE BLACK DRESS can be wor...

We all know how unintentionally funny nuns can be as they go about their daily lessons, ruler in hand, trying to get children to behave or do their lessons. Or perhaps not. But just imagine if you could be a fly on the wall in the early morning hours, listening in as they get together over coffee or...

'Tis the season for the popular Christmas-themed ballet THE NUTCRACKER to fill stages around the world offering families the chance to experience the emotionally engaging story of Clara and the dreamlike journey she takes to the Land of Sweets with the Nutcracker as her guide. During the December 7 ...

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...

The musical Bandstand, which is now part of the American Theater Guild tour across the country, thrives when Andy Blankenbuehler's Tony-winning choreography is front and center. Restaged for this production by Marc Heitzman, who was Dance Captain in the Broadway production, the dances display vitali...

The dynamic story shared through comedy skits and songs deals with the journeys many women face from admiring their mother's chests (a?oeOne day I'll be like Mommy or Barbie!a??), to training bras and cup sizes, dating while dealing with wandering eyes (a?oeCleavage'), to pumping at work and breastf...

This brilliantly written romantic farce takes place in an upscale Manhattan penthouse owned by the Maestro Vito De Angelis and his wife, the opera diva Raquel De Angelis, each convinced they are the best in the world at what they do. And pity the fool who attempts to convince either one otherwise! C...

Beginning at a rather leisurely pace, JITNEY takes its time introducing us to the cast of characters working and hanging out together in the one-room gypsy cab business office run by Becker (Steven Anthony Jones), a former mill worker who prides himself on owning his own business. His employees, who...

From the moment you enter the theater, it's obvious something dramatic is about to take place during BEFORE with its black walls and set pieces begging for lights and color to awaken the spirit and envelop the misty atmosphere within its walls. And following the initial blackout, Pat Kinevane explod...

Open Fist's clever, hilarious World Premiere musical adaptation of Neil Simon's MUSICAL FOOLS is a hilarious musical adaptation of his play, Fools, with book and lyrics by Simon, and music and lyrics by Phil Swann and Ron West, a veteran comedy genius from Chicago's Second City, who has directed the...

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On Saturday evening, November 16, 2019, Los Angeles Opera presented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schickaneder's 1791 singspiel, The Magic Flute. The unusual production, which involved the appearance of screens reminiscent of 1920s silent films, was originally devised by Barry Kosky, Suzanne A...

The play adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and Andy Garcia, produced in association with Frank Mancuso and Andy Garcia, and directed by Doug Hughes, honors the original story in which disillusioned World War II veteran Frank McCloud (Danny Pino) travels to a hotel in Key Largo to pay his respects to Nora (...

Here's my understatement of the year so far: Broadway star Megan Hilty is one of the most delightful creatures that has ever graced a stage. This was wonderfully confirmed all throughout the Tony Award nominee's Segerstrom Center for the Arts Cabaret series solo debut, which recently opened to an en...

Food has many uses, one of which is communicating an emotion. It can even hold a memory. These themes surrounding the emotional resonance of food is the overarching raison d'être for playwright Julia Cho's 2016 play AUBERGINE, which continues performances at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in...

Taking place exactly five years after the events of last year's production, the site-specific thriller SAFEHOUSE '82 once again immerses audiences in the culture and atmosphere of its particular era, right down to the 1982 copies of Playboy Magazine sitting on the living room table. This time, howev...

Combining a sad Irish mythological tale of four sisters doomed to live together silently as swans on a lake with a modern tale of a modern man suffering in silence from debilitating depression while living alone in a house soon to be lost after the death of his beloved mother on the shore of that sa...

This story takes place within a few weeks' time, about an affable guy who happens to be grieving a devastating loss. a?oeChamp,a?? a nickname Richard's beloved wife dubbed him, is all stressed out.  It has been a year since his wife has passed away, and he has settled into his lonely but nonethele...

Antaeus Theatre Company's stunning world premiere of Jennifer Maisel's EIGHT NIGHTS vividly details the life of Holocaust survivor Rebecca Blum from the day she arrives to New York City at age 19, through significant life milestones, to becoming a great-grandmother at age 86. And all this accomplish...

Before getting to the review, allow me to write in full disclosure: Approximately a?' of my viewing enjoyment of this production was usurped due to the fact that there was an elderly gentleman having issues with his hearing devices and the one-act that developed in trying to assist him. The billowin...

Making its debut as The Wallis' first foray into contemporary circus, Australian company Circa brought HUMANS, its tribute to what it means to be fiercely human, offering a thrilling and heart-stopping performance by ten acrobats from this award-winning contemporary circus ensemble who pushed the bo...

Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN originally written in 1960 (and updated in 1976) about two presidential candidates vying for their party's nomination could have seem much more relevant to present day politics if the set and costumes didn't so vividly remind of the 1970s. Gary Lee Reed directs a committed,...

RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL originally opened Off-Broadway in 1992, created as an over-the-top dark comedy spoof of the films The Bad Seed and All About Eve, and well-known Broadway musicals Gypsy and Annie. Similar to the dark comedy in musicals such as Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd where chara...

HAIR was written more than 50 years ago by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot and broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of 'rock musical' as well as using a racially integrated cast and inviting the audience onstage to join in the a?oeBe-Ina?? finale. But at the time it ...