LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

According to Wikipedia, the Rashomon effect occurs when an event is given contradictory interpretations by the individuals involved. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses. Such is the case in Irish p...

They are a formidable dance company, albeit a young one.  Their repertoire is varied and ambitious and exudes an energetic force guiding their growth and depth that seems destined to succeed.  The Malpaso Cuban Dance Company performed March 28 - 30, 2019 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis...

To hear Renee Taylor tell it, her life has been a series of unplanned and often surprisingly rewarding experiences, mostly centered around her struggle to lose weight to fulfill her dream of being a sexy starlet, calling herself a Diet Tramp, meaning she "eats around." Thankfully, the lessons she sh...

'All My Sons' is the story of Joe Keller (played by the engaging Mark Belnick), a successful, middle-aged, self-made man who has done a terrible and tragic thing, by framing his business partner for a crime that caused the death of hundreds of servicemen from World War II, and engineering his own ex...

Albie Selznick, life-time member of the Magic Castle and creator/performer of the hit theatrical magic show Smoke and Mirrors, returns to the Santa Monica Playhouse with his trademark MAGIC MONDAY show, every Monday evening through the end of August. Each week will feature a new and different lineup...

In this two-person character study, Joey Brant (R. Emmett Lee, who more than adequately took on the challenge of learning to speak Hebrew for the part) is a Jewish divorce lawyer in his 60s who never had a bar mitzvah ceremony. For reasons which become clear in the story, Joey's bar mitzvah ceremony...

#1. The wit of Kate Pazakis (executive producer of the UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF... series) - writes some of the sharpest and laugh-inducing dialogue while name-dropping and parodying the 1999 cult classic, Heath Ledger/Julia Stiles-starrer 10 Things I Hate About You. (No need to have already s...

Musical Theatre West's entertaining, high-energy new production of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN---which continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through April 14, 2019---is, for the most part, a sleek, stylish, and abundantly entertaining piece of theater, filled w...

As I walked into the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City to see ROTTERDAM, the second play of Center Theatre Group's 2019 Block Party, I was drawn to a display asking audience members questions about relationship deal breakers. A few of the questions about relationship deal breakers included if one ...

When the initial cast announcement was made for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at the Morgan Wixson in Santa Monica, controversy erupted on social media about the miscasting of the trio of Skid Row urchins as the scripts calls for the roles to be played by African-Americans. Certainly the names of the chara...

Similar to David Bowie's awe-inspiring physical transformation in the title role on Broadway, the current production of Bernard Pomerance's THE ELEPHANT MAN, a classic true-life tale and heart-wrenching story that depicts the best and the worst of humanity, presented by Thursday Night Theatre Club a...

Lukas McFarlane is a very diversely talented dancer and choreographer. On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2019 at The Montalban Theatre, MacFarlane and Company presented a dazzling display of artistry and expression, as part of MOVES, a three-day Dance Festival held at the Montalban Theatre in Holl...

Perhaps one of the most influential artistic figures of the 20th century, Yoko Ono's work as a performance artist and musician is conceptually bold and politically confrontational. In fact, her career can broadly be understood as a lifelong performance poem, with her early art and music pieces creat...

History comes alive at Woodlawn Cemetery, Mausoleum & Mortuary in Santa Monica during their Living History Tour in which costumed actors portraying noted personalities interred there share their stories and contributions to history and society. And although I had heard about the tours in previous ye...

Playwright Robert Harling's sharp, snappy, heart-wrenching, Louisiana-favored dialogue receives its most worthy due in this Actors Co-op production; cast with a spot-on ensemble of six amazing actresses, smoothly and expertly helmed by director Cameron Watson....

THE SOUND OF MURDER by William Fairchild premiered in London in 1959, making the plot somewhat predictable now, given the abundance of murder mysteries written and being produced on local stages. But this one set play is exactly the kind of British murder mystery that Theatre 40 audiences enjoy, esp...

Kimberly Hebert Gregory literally shines as bright as the Sun as she battles to find the Entity to show her the way to find inner peace, as her comic book battle as superhero Maasai Angel is child's play compared to the heartbreaking emotional pain in her real life. And her journey contains some of ...

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The Battle of the Sexes rages on during the Los Angeles premiere of FIFTY: WORDS by Michael Weller at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood, featuring the remarkable actors Olga Konstantulakis and Eric Larson, directed to perfection by Shane Stevens. Perhaps because the two characters' verbal and emotiona...

There is something special about the magic which is created during a live theater performance that cannot be duplicated on television or film as the interaction with an audience allows well-written and directed stories, starring incredibly talented actors, to soar into the history books as an event ...

Remarkably glitzy and broadly amusing, the delightful stage version of Disney's ALADDIN is a fun, lively, and entertaining repackaging of the originally fun, lively, and entertaining animated film classic, which will please both fans of the original and those in the mood for a great big dazzling (an...

Theatre of NOTE's production of 'For The Love Of (or, the roller derby play)' written by Gina Femia, which Center Theatre Group has remounted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of their third annual Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre, blasted into Culver City with a barrage of brilliant d...

Gianfranco Terrin, a native of Naples who trained in Los Angeles at the Lee Strasberg Institute, is the director of the new Hollywood production. and is probably best known for his work on The Disney Channel's 'Movie Surfers' as well as in other Italian and American films. But his decision to presen...

Last year when I attended a show at Three Clubs in Hollywood, I was seated next to a young man who was dressed as if he was the Mad Hatter. My curiosity led me to ask him about his costume, and he then introduced himself as designer Bobby Love and shared some photos of his various fantasy designs wi...

At the elegant Soroya Theatre in Northridge, CA, Martha Graham's Dance Company, under Artistic Director Janet Eilber's seasoned guidance, performed a most incredible group of works.  Some were originally created approximately 80 years ago, by Martha Graham, a true icon in the Dance world.  The E...