LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

For those too young to remember the vaudevillian style lounge shows popular in the 50s and 60s in Las Vegas, where an iconic and often talented performer in their own right hosted other acts to keep gamblers entertained as they visited the lounge bar for a drink, looked for a companion for the night...

Spring Awakening opened to a sold-out crowd last night in West Hollywood's The Lounge Theatre, this being the premiere project for Me + You Productions. The rock musical, known for being groundbreaking on Broadway in 2006, is looked at through a new lens in this production: Gun Saftey. With 100% of ...

Subtitled 'A Light Comedy About Dark Jews,' we meet Bubby as she prepares a much-too-salty matzo ball soup for Rosh Hashana dinner in a period-perfect kitchen as the center piece of a realistic two-story set designed by Joel Daavid in anticipation of her entire family gathering to celebrate the holi...

LYMAN, The Musical, is about, centrally, a person named Lyman Liri. We are first introduced to him as an adult when a lady stops to talk to him while he is selling Valencia oranges on the streets of Redlands, California. We begin to learn about both of them, and how they might even be connected, as ...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to re-invent yourself and completely start over as someone else? Perhaps, like me, you spent a lot of time in another country, speaking another language and watching yourself become more like the citizens who live there, totally comfortable in your new s...

He's out there on stage, on a raised dance platform at The Hollywood Bowl, center, downstage, in a simple T-shirt and pants, into himself, making sounds like a woodpecker, a train; a horse trotting,... maybe there are fireworks going off? Maybe gunshots, or a rapid -fire AK-47, even. The sounds are ...

'Razzle Dazzle 'Em' is what Ben does, innately; it's in his blood, it's in his soul. 'Steppin' Out' signifies going beyond what you have achieved thus far. Ben Vereen is an Evolved Entity that shares his evolutional journey with us, delightedly so... on both sides!! This past Saturday evening, I ...

This satirical musical hoedown about living the American Dream tells the tale of what happens when the town gets convinced by the new Preacher as their "For Profit Prophet" and the son of a reality TV producer from Hollywood, Peter Martinez (Jamie Daniels), that the way to its salvation, fame and fo...

In the wake of recent #MeToo headline events redefining gender roles (particularly for women) and issues of consent, PIZZA MAN by Darlene Craviotto, which debuted in 1982, seems timelier than ever. While statistics are only quoted once in the play with Newsweek saying 'a rape is committed every 7 se...

This musical is one that everyone loves, but it is not an easy one to put together and do right. Tor Campbell, the Director and Choreographer, has accomplished that with an abundance of clever ideas, high energy, style, conviction and talent. The entire Cast is on top of it, feeling and selling this...

Playwright Peter Quilter's END OF THE RAINBOW packs a powerful punch in the gut under director Michael Matthews sure-handed guidance of his talented cast. Two moments of RAINBOW rate as the must, MUST-see moments for any Judy Garland aficionados - when the astonishing Angela Ingersoll totally morphs...

Climbing the corporate ladder has always been easy for some and difficult for others. This somewhat-dated story, given how the 'Me Too' movement has changed the male-female office environment these days, follows the rise of J. Pierrepont Finch, who uses a little handbook called 'How To Succeed In Bu...

Playwright David Henry Hwang's YELLOW FACE receives a most sturdy mounting from co-producers Firescape Theatre and Yolk Productions in association with the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Director Robert Zimmerman guides his talented cast of seven with a sure hand, mining the maximum laughs and feels from ...

Playwright Henry Ong admits that when he stumbled upon Tirso de Molina's "La celosa de si misma" (Jealous of Herself) during the Playwrights' Arena (PA) for the Golden Tongues series to introduce audiences to the treasures of the Golden Age of Spanish theater between 1590 to 1681, a PA-partnership w...

August 5th, 2018 During the summer months at the Hollywood Bowl, it is still light out when the evening's program begins, which afforded me the chance to take a look around and peruse the patrons. It seemed a bit atypical as far as age range of most Bowl goers; a rather young and hip group. It wa...

In the minds of many people, the name Hells Angels brings up images of outlaws in black leather, riding on loud motorcycles and always being up to no good just like Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." Never having met any members of that "social club" before, when I heard former Hells Angels leader Geo...

TITUS ANDRONICUS is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedies. Characters are stabbed, beheaded, mutilated, raped, baked in a pie, and one is even buried up to his neck and left to die. At first glance it may not sound like an obvious choice for families who attend the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare ...

Now an award-winning writer and director, Barra Grant has created one of the most entertaining, informative, and hysterically funny solo shows I have ever seen. With her marvelous writing style and self-effacing humor, along with the brilliant direction of Eve Brandstein (who worked with Barra for 1...

Can eating a pie be a religious experience? It can if it was made by Jenna, the diner waitress in the Broadway musical WAITRESS, who turns ordinary ingredients like butter, sugar, and flour into mouthwatering slices of life in a pie tin....

Somewhere in the world tonight there are 7 performances of the hit musical MAMMA MIA! onstage entertaining audiences. In fact, the show based on the music by Swedish pop group ABBA, has become so popular that the only continent where a regional or touring production has not occurred is Antarctica, ...

With Frank Fetta conducting the Marina del Rey Symphony and Nancy Dobbs Owen's Portrayal thru Dance of Leonard Bernstein's and Jerome Robbins' famed works, in celebration of his 100th Birthday, this marvelous concert took place at Marina del Rey's Burton Chase Park, where the ocean meets the land. T...

Gloria Gifford is a stage-trained actress from New York City, giving her the necessary background to understand the intricacies of people caught up in a place where the traffic is loud and people live in close proximity to each other, yet still think it's necessary to always be screaming at one anot...

There are plays that tell a story and there are plays that ponder ideas. Murray Mednick's latest world premiere MAYAKOVSKY AND STALIN is the latter, an intellectual dissection of two Russian revolutionaries who were as integral to Eastern European history as beets are to borscht. But in Mednick's dr...

On a warm summer evening, a full moon highlights and envelops the outdoor three-piece dance concert at the intriguing and wondrous Walt Disney Concert Hall. Unlike the musical concerts and programs that are normally held there, these three dance pieces were choreographed, each in a different area ou...

For the past several summers, I have attended the Festival of Arts and The Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. But this year, I also decided to also visit two other art festivals along Laguna Canyon Road rather than spend any time cruising the town as I had done before. The full-day of explorin...