LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The month marks the start of my 7th year as a reviewer for Broadway World Los Angeles. With awards season in full bloom each January, many people ask me what my favorite shows were for the previous year. Since I see 3-5 shows per week, that is a difficult and time-consuming task for me to accomplish...

The Long Beach Ballet's THE NUTCRACKER has been seen by millions of people worldwide, including live audiences totaling more than 400,000 in Long Beach, 70,000 in Pasadena, hundreds of thousands throughout Asia (as performed by the Chinese Guangzhou Ballet), and millions more on television. And now ...

As with each passing season, 2018 proved to be another exceptional year for theater not only in Souther California in general but also in Orange County---my home base. This year, the OC finally welcomed the debut of what has become this century's most awarded and most renowned stage musical ever abo...

The hilarious angel doo-wop quartet of Frankie, Sparky, Jinx and Smudge (Craig Sherman, Philip McBride, Augusto Guardado and Andrew Allen) again return to Earth to get a second chance at 'making it big' after missing out on the opportunity when a freak accident caused their demise on the night of Fe...

This Past Sunday, December 23rd, 2018 was the perfect Christmas entertainment for so many families, including me, that was filled with fun before, during and after this fabulous show. If you haven't gone to see it, you still have this next weekend to experience a fun-filled pre-show, star-studded fi...

What would Christmas in LA be without the Troubies? A lot less funny. Happily, artistic director, writer, and head jokester Matt "Mashup" Walker and his coterie of clowns aren't about to let anyone down. Not only are they back with their seventeenth annual holiday show, they're proving just how s...

While watching Chance Theater's brand new OC-premiere of EMMA: THE MUSICAL--Paul Gordon's charm-filled 2007 stage musical adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved 1815 novel--I noticed a welcome sensation that took over me throughout most of the production… I could not stop smiling. Delightfully appeal...

Lythgoe Family Panto and the Laguna Playhouse present a fun and enjoyable version of Beauty and the Beast for the holidays. The English tradition of Panto, meaning it is an interactive, audience-participating show, is written by Kris Lithgoe, Directed by Sheldon Epps, Choreographed by Mandy Moore, w...

The World Premiere comedy SPECIAL commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the worst variety show in television history with a behind-the-scenes imagined look of how The Star Wars Holiday Special came to be. And from the outrageous imagination of playwright Andrew Osborne and a hard-working multi-role ...

The countdown to Christmas begins and ends with an all-out love blitz this year in For the Record's latest world premiere, LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, a hybrid entertainment that blends scenes from Richard Curtis' 2003 film Love Actually with live performances of the movie's soundtrack. Co-produced by the W...

While Sandra Bernhard may not be the greatest singer to ever take the stage, her raw enthusiasm and oversized personality enveloped each of her songs, especially her opening revival-style meeting rendition of Neil Diamond's 'Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show' in which she celebrated spiritual ...

Rockwell Table & Stage currently houses The Fuse Project's stunning, STUNNING production of SCISSORHANDS - A MUSICAL. Co-written by Kate Pazakis and Bradley Bredeweg (who also directs), the 1990 hit film Edward Scissorhands receives the Pazakis/Bredeweg Midas touch, updating the movie with gender-be...

The cheeky PG-rated fun of British Panto, courtesy of Lythgoe Family Productions, returns for more holiday silliness at Orange County's Laguna Playhouse, this time with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A CHRISTMAS ROSE, which continues through December 30, 2018 in Laguna Beach under the direction of Sheldon Ep...

The head of the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills came to see DREAMGIRLS, produced by Michael Pettenato and directed/choreographed by Tor Campbell at the 180-seat Cupcake Theater in North Hollywood earlier this year, and believed they absolutely could not let the brilliant show end without giving peopl...

Playwright Neil Koenigsberg, a founder/partner of PMK PR, must have experienced some pretty outrageous incidents in his tenure at PMK, as well as, in his stints as talent manager and film producer. Koenigsberg has taken probably one of his most far-fetched scenarios to base WINK on. Andrik Ochoa, to...

Paul Rush sure-handedly directs his talented Sixty-six Theater Co. cast at a languid, very laid-back pacing, most appropriate for the Wisconsin town that playwright Rebecca Gilman set BLUE SURGE in. Eddie Alfano charismatically and most effectively heads the ensemble as Curt the constantly, down-on-...

Artistic Director Pat Taylor's JazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensemble is a beautiful jazz/dance and soulful enterprise that is so exuberant and exhilarating to watch, that, and this is also because the four jazz musicians who play throughout are just beyond brilliant, you forget every one of your trou...

Rogue Machine, known for its mission to present original and provocative programming, is now presenting the West Coast premiere production of FINKS, a New York Times Critic's Pick which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. The play brings together writer Joe Gilford and director Michael Pressman, ...

For those of us around in the days before the internet took over the shopping world, we can certainly remember the glorious gatherings we attended which were hosted by family or friends in order to sell the newly-invented hard plastic and practically indestructible storage items forever known as Tup...

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Natalia Hills, Artistic Director/Choreographer and Creator of Tangueros del Sur's "Romper el Piso," or "Break the Floor," is from a long line of generations of tango dancers. She was an original member of the phenomenal Broadway Show "Forever Tango," which garnered many accolades in the mid-nineties...

Middle8 proves to be a true original, of a musical....

Richard Kaufman Conducts New West Symphony featuring Dennis James on Pipe Organ and soprano Kristi Holden Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) Saturday, November 3 at 8:00pm What a Holiday treat! A wonderful combination of an authentic classic silent and grippi...

For playwright, director and El Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez, who was born in Delano, CA as the second of ten children born to migrant farm worker parents who made a living picking whatever crop was in season, Cupertino will always be known for the rich land that once grew an abundance of cr...

'Sutra' is Alonzo Kings' newest full length work, presented at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; three years after their last appearance in Los Angeles. Originating in San Francisco in 1982, LINES Ballet is at the forefront of artistic innovation and is well-respected and famous f...