LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The Addams Family, whose Broadway run was clouded with negative reviews and less than powerful performances from its two  talented stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, is receiving a handsome revival at Candlelight Pavilion.. Director Chuck Ketter puts the kooky Addams Family through their diliri...

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE The Los Angeles Memorial/Tribute for Alan Johnson at The Performing Arts Center October 14, 2018 Alan Johnson was truly a man of many talents. On Sunday, October 14th, 2018, friends, all of whom are either dancers, choreographers, directors or actors, or all combined, tha...

Kate Pazakis, executive producer of the UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF series, continues her successful streak of hysterical musical parodies of cinematic pop favorites with THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF STRANGER THINGS. Pazakis' most witty script cleverly utilizes pop songs to advance the narr...

Carl Theodore Dreyer and Christian Jul wrote VAMPYR, basing it on aspects of Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 publication, IN A GLASS DARKLY, a collection of five short stories of mystery and the supernatural. Subtitled THE DREAM OF ALAN GREY, the movie tells of a young man's strange experiences in the Nort...

Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES receives a stunning, STUNNING mounting by the always dependable Antaeus Theatre Company. Helmed with much precision by director Cameron Watson, the two-and-a-half-hour, two-intermission, three-act simply whizzes by, packed with Hellman's wonderful words coming out ...

East West Players solidly mounts the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Qui Nguyen's VIETGONE. With a sturdy cast of five talented performers, complemented greatly by the vividly vibrant projection designs of Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson; many individual moments of heart-string tugging path...

In UK UNDERDOG, Steve Spiro tells his autobiographical story as a young Jewish boy in London who transforms himself, through sheer force of will (and plenty of chutzpah) from a bullied underdog to martial artist, boxer, community leader and animal rights activist. Along the way, he portrays not only...

In this new era of storytelling, the annual DELUSION series remains one of the most popular interactive events given its absolute commitment to quality and originality. Beginning in 2011 as the passion project for creator Jon Braver, a film and theatre director, action coordinator, and Disney Imagi...

Directed by Howard Teichman for the West Coast Jewish Theatre at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica on a beautifully detailed split-level set designed by Kurtis Bedford and lit by Ellen Monocroussos, Neil Simon's classic took on a more emotional dedication from the cast with Simon's passin...

Door Number 3's world premiere of Philip Ridley's RADIANT VERMIN receives a strong mounting with Tim True expertly directing his very talented cast in a quick-paced tale of greed and its consequences. Britt Harris and Kapil Talwalkar bring their all in virtuoso performances as Jill and Ollie, breaki...

One of the things theatre does extremely well is create something out of nothing. That's pretty much the key to Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's gothic ghost story THE WOMAN IN BLACK, which ushers in the Halloween season at Pasadena Playhouse....

On October 20, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA which tells of Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa. SATYAGRAHA means truth, the real, the good combined with force or insistence. It is most often associated with Gandhi's nonviolent protests and resistance to racist...

IN ANOTHER ROOM is a site-specific immersive play in which guests will wander the rooms of a purportedly haunted house in Culver City, coming face to face with various souls that have lived and died and suffered tragedy within its walls. After meeting with two hosts, one of whom will take your photo...

OMG!! Raunchy, Irreverent, full of belly-laughs, snorts, insane giggling and possibly peeing your pants, this Musical stars Jesse Merlin and Amanda Conlon as Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling in SILENCE! THE MUSICAL, a satirized tribute, fully choreographed and revisited, to the iconic movie 'The...

Thank goodness my lack of knowledge of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's library of theatrical plays and fictional stories didn't prevent me from enjoying Christopher Durang's wildly hilarious, Chekhov-inspired VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, a modern-set play that won the Tony Award for Best ...

Those who lived through the World War II years will certainly recognize the name of ambitious and charismatic J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Berkeley-trained scientist who found himself called upon to spearhead the largest scientific undertaking in all of human history: the Manhattan Project and the cre...

For eight of the last ten years, Wicked Lit has created theatre among the dead - quite literally - at Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena. Three stories adapted from classic literature have been the norm most recently, with a fourth story functioning as a framing device to connect the pieces and bri...

The Playwrights' Arena's world premiere of playwright Donald Jolly's BABY EYES presents a volatile, in-your-face telling of Gio, a diminutive teenage boy surviving bullies and homophobia in 1950's Baltimore. Jon Lawrence Rivera expertly directs his talented cast at a fast, smooth pace. Rudy Martinez...

The story bridges the dichotomy between the civilian perception of war and the conditions experienced by soldiers. It shows the reason why veterans often choose not to tell their war stories to anyone who has never been to war. As The Soldier says repeatedly: "I never talk about this." Bill Morrison...

The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company is presenting a limited engagement of Henry James' classic horror tale THE TURN OF THE SCREW in an adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher under the direction of Don K. Williams, featuring Sean Spann and Emily Sulzberger playing a total of 10 roles between them. I...

Skateboarding has been around a long time. When I was a teenager, living in Miami, besides attending school, tons of dance and other training, I was a surfer, and, out of necessity (there aren't really many rideable waves on Miami Beach) also a skateboarder and skiff or skim boarder. It has evolved...

Space Oddity - The Ultimate David Bowie Experience is a live, multi-media spectacle that takes you on a musical journey through the constantly metamorphosing career of Rock and Roll's most celebrated innovator, starring David Brighton who inhabits the mind, body and soul of David Bowie and his amazi...

The Groundlings kill it again with their current laugh-packed Friday & Saturday night show GROUNDLINGS HALLOWEEN SHOW, mining chuckles and guffaws with their seriously funny (and sometimes funny serious) sketches written and performed by a cast at the top of their comedy game. Deanna Oliver most def...

They say a picture paints a thousand words. In director Michael Michetti's compelling stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, it does more than that. It captures a lifetime....

In award-winning playwright Sharr White's intriguing 2011 psychological drama THE OTHER PLACE, the play's compelling central figure, 52-year-old laboratory scientist turned drug company marketing exec Juliana Smithton, narrates her own fascinating story directly for the audience. For its stirring Or...