LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Admittedly, after experiencing South Coast Repertory's potent and captivating new production of SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, I'm hard pressed to remember the last time I was both this deeply moved and this excitedly riveted by Stephen Sondheim's macabre tale of a murderous barber ...

A LOVELY LINEAGE, based on an original concept by Michael Sterling, captures the historic Broadway and Hollywood lineage of Kristin Towers-Rowles starting with her grandmother, the legendary Kathryn Grayson who was an MGM darling and a Hollywood pioneer having starred in some of the most beloved mov...

A mysterious traveler, a horny barkeep, and a sensuous woman are trapped in a dive bar with an abundant supply of bourbon, yet all three are strangers in a place hundreds of miles from anywhere else during a windstorm that keeps them trapped together in the only shelter. Sure, anything could happen,...

Having seen the musical HAMILTON when it was in Los Angeles, like many others I learned more important details about the founding fathers while watching it than I felt I had ever learned in school. Lin-Manuel Miranda who created that uber-successful musical in 2015, has said that 1776 THE MUSICAL, ...

AN INSPECTOR CALLS has been described in the Washington Post as, 'an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' wrapped in an Agatha Christie mystery,' and after seeing the show at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, I must say that about sums up the play for me. Running at alm...

As most people know with live theater, there is an underlying risk in promoting that a specific star will be there at every single performance, as advertised in a specific project. Unfortunately, that's simply not realistic nor is it always going to be the case, due to a multitude of factors beyond ...

The west coast premiere of playwright Laura Maria Censabella's PARADISE receives a strong mounting at the Odyssey Theatre, blessed with the sturdy acting chops of Medalion Rahimi and Jeff Marlow in this singular two-hander. Vicangelo Bulluck ably directs this important, not-oft-told story of a Musli...

Add Martin McDonagh's THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN to the already lengthy resume of stellar productions that the always dependable Antaeus Theatre Company manages to assemble on their stage. Steven Robman sure-handedly directs his talented Irish-brogued ensemble of seven (The Fripple Frapples cast of th...

Every January I look forward to attending THE MANOR by Katherine Bates, presented by Theatre 40 inside the historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills where the story upon which it is based actually took place. Now celebrating its 17th year, the annual production has become a Los Angeles/Beverly Hi...

Rod Serling's television anthology series The Twilight Zone was a popular and critical success when it ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964, shot entirely in black and white. The series introduced many Americans to appreciate stories in various genres including fantasy, science fiction, sus...

'The Only Constant' is a very interesting, provocative dance piece. It is a 55-minute piece, and the stamina needed to perform this work is exceptional. The dancers are uniformly strong and have a full understanding of the intent. This has been in development for a few years and is the work of Genev...

The Ghost Road Company is one of Los Angeles' premiere theatre ensembles dedicated to the creation of new work for the stage. The company is unique in its approach, having developed its own methods of collaborative development over many years. So when I heard they were reimagining the story of Oedip...

Even though, we are just coming to the end of January, I can already nominate a prominent candidate for Most Horrid Theatrical Character of 2019 - Paige Connor, the matriarch in Taylor Mac's HIR. Paige condescends to her husband Arnold (long since stricken by a stroke) and orders him around like a ...

THE BLACK CAT is multimedia stage work that tells Edgar Allan Poe's gothic story with action, music, dance and projections. On January 19, 2019, Long Beach Opera presented its United States premiere at the Beverly O'Neill Theater....

Now being presented by Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Dexter Bullard who also helmed the Steppenwolf production, LINDA VISTA features actor Ian Barford who has originated four roles in Letts' canon of plays, and has remained friends with the playwright for 30 years. But no...

The west coast premiere of Brian Letscher's SMART LOVE rivetingly posits a truly sci-fi event as a real-life situation in which you're forced to come face-to-face with some serious moral dilemmas. Anchoring this strong cast of four, Melissa Weber Bales totally inhabits the fairly recently widowed ...

Hubbard Street, a well-established Contemporary Dance Company presents an interesting collage of dance pieces that are demanding technique-wise yet so fluid and rhythmic they make it look effortless and fresh. I say collage because the evening painted a bigger picture through each piece, making it c...

I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into Friday night when I went and saw the opening night of A PERMANENT IMAGE (written by Samuel D. Hunter) at Skiptown Playhouse in Hollywood. I read the small synopsis I found online where it said, 'A PERMANENT IMAGE is a darkly comedic look at fraught family...

Those of us old enough to remember the excitement of buying a new vinyl record album and devouring every song's liner notes shared on the back or inner sleeve will certainly understand the appeal of RITA WILSON'S LINER NOTES, which enjoyed its fourth tour at the Geffen's Audrey Skirball Kenis Theate...

The West Coast Premiere of playwright Bryony Lavery's two-hander STOCKHOLM pulses with the intense acting abilities of the totally-committed Jamie Wollrab and Kimberly Alexander as the two role-playing lovers Todd and Kali. Directed by Kim Rubenstein, this role-playing starts off as fun, flirtatious...

A powerful, emotionally-riveting, dynamically-staged original stage musical, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a truly incredible, phenomenal show that I happily admit-in just a few years of its existence-has quickly become one of my favorite Broadway musicals of all time. Not only does it feature gorgeous, memor...

The weekend before Christmas, The Los Angeles Youth Ballet presented a gorgeous, colorful and professional performance of The Nutcracker at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA. The production was very carefully constructed, with an emphasis on good technique, passion and commitment in performance an...

Born and raised in Suburban Philadelphia, playwright Mark Wesley Curran admits he has only been to Brooklyn once in his life while driving through the town to get somewhere else. And yet he chose to write the World Premiere play FOREVER BROOKLYN! about Melvin Kaplofkis, a young Jewish man growing up...

Aficionados of evolution theory debating will be mesmerized by the world premiere of playwright Matt Chait's A MISUNDERSTANDING. Others will be most appreciative of the four actors' deep commitments to their respective characters and very lengthy speeches....

On December 19th, 2018 a most extraordinary performance was witnessed at the Soraya Theatre of the Arts - the most traditional and established version, choreographically, even though it has been modified conceptwise, of the iconic ballet, The Nutcracker Suite, composed by Tchaikovsky, which is a tru...