LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Although the details of your own personal experience will be different, almost everyone can identify with Lois Robbins' humorous story of her sexual awakening. An early starter, Robbins began at the age of 3 when she realized that rubbing up against the hard edges of furniture would provide a feelin...

JTK Productions mounts a strong, involving production of the west coast premiere of playwright Jeff Tabnick's THE INTIMACY EFFECT. Director Eric Hunicutt tightly reins his talented cast of five in a very quick-paced 75 minutes. Smart and timely dialogue flows out of the impassioned actors all.  The...

How do you "fix" the misogyny of Shakespeare's now antiquated THE TAMING OF THE SHREW? For playwright Amy Freed, it means injecting it with a noticeable dose of equality empowerment, and then shifting its characters' traits and motivations as if written from a female's perspective. That is the premi...

This adaptation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy has been reconceptualized to connect with the modern day #MeToo movement by offering an alternative explanation for one of its leading character's actions. It is built on the notion that all of the women are victims of sexual abuse - most specifically...

Anyone who has ever been involved in a volunteer theatrical production will certainly understand the craziness associated with amateurs attempting to put on a play due to both their lack of acting experience, taking direction, or the maddening interference from its meddling playwright who drops in a...

Neighborhood bars have always been a gathering place for locals to share drinks and camaraderie in a place far from the responsibilities of work and home life, or in spite of them. Fans of the popular TV show "Cheers" no doubt remember how hanging out in a place where "everyone knows your name" ofte...

As it did last year with its first Block Party, Center Theatre Group continues to strengthen its relationships within the Los Angeles theatre community by creating additional avenues for the organization to work with local playwrights, actors, directors and designers to gain more exposure for their ...

Long before Felix met Oscar, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were ill-fitting roommates in the south of France, which turned out to be a fateful co-habitation that changed the face of art - as well as Van Gogh's face! Playwright Brendan Hunt cleverly re-imagines these two art masters as the subje...

One thing is for certain about THE BOOK OF MORMON: this memorable, whip-smart, and downright gut-busting Broadway musical is still one of the funniest---if not the funniest---musical ever to exist in the 21st Century. The tour's return trip to Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa ...

What made the Hot List? THE ART COUPLE from Sacred Fools Theatre Company at The Broadwater, SELL/BUY/DATE at Geffen Playhouse, and ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL at Independent Shakespeare Co.'s new studio theater. Check out the latest recommendations below and go see a show! Reviews by BWW Sr. Editor...

In The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a young hotel manager optimistically states, in the face of every disaster: 'In India we have a saying, 'Everything will be alright in the end. So if it's not alright, it is not yet the end.' ' It's the same idea Shakespeare's heroine touts in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS ...

LITTLE WOMEN, THE MUSICAL with book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, is based on the beloved 1869 classic novel by Louisa May Alcott. It's a song-filled adaptation of the touching tale of young love, achieving dreams, and the power of family to overcome even the ...

Real Art Daily Productions (RADProd) is a new company that produces both film and theatre productions. With concentrated study and education in both classical music and theatre, Georginna Feyst, CEO and Executive Producer, whose reverence for fine art, cinema, theatre and other forms of storytelling...

ENGAGING SHAW begins in England in 1897 in a comfortable cottage in Stratford, England, where Shaw hopes to complete his new play. As he engages in conversation with his friends, the happily married cottage owners, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, we learn Shaw is a notorious flirt and heartbreaker who enj...

The tragic events surrounding the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime in mid-70's Cambodia serves as the overarching backdrop that links the past and the (near) present in Lauren Yee's stunning new play CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND---which continues its World Premiere production at Orange County's Tony Award-winn...

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA's world premiere of playwright Marek Glinski's PIGS AND CHICKENS presents a vivid send-up of exaggerated composites of co-workers Glinski at one time had to work with (as he writes in the program notes). Hard to imagine having to spend forty hours a week working with thes...

The world premiere of playwright Yusuf Toropov's AN UNDIVIDED HEART receives a stunning mounting by The Echo Theater Company and Circle X Theatre Co. Director Chris Fields sure-handedly guides his talented cast through the involving story of a passionate young priest striving to do the right thing. ...

A story relevant to generations past and present, Shakespeare's cautionary tale of love serves as a modern metaphor for the influence of society over individual freedom. For although the personal journeys of Romeo & Juliet are integral to the tale, this is a love story within a clear social and poli...

Playwright Wendy Graf is best known for her uniquely dramatic works such as PLEASE DON'T ASK ABOUT BECKET, ALL AMERICAN GIRL, and NO WORD IN GUYANESE FOR ME.  But, in her latest world premiere, UNEMPLOYED ELEPHANTS - A LOVE STORY, she takes a lighter - and more formulaic - approach to her subject....

Perhaps you are one of those people who cringe at opera's lengthy runtimes, rambling plot lines, and the need to read English subtitles rather than pay attention to the overall magnificent scenes being paraded before you. Then again, perhaps you are among the select group of aficionados who relish t...

Leonard Bernstein would have been 100 years old this year, on August 25th to be precise, and there are literally thousands of commemorative events around the globe including performances of symphonies, operas and ballets, lectures, exhibits, and film and music festivals. Last Friday I attended the ...

The Skylight Theatre Company's National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of THE MADRES most effectively succeeds in personalizing the plight of Argentinean mothers of 'disappeared' children during the height of La Guerra Sucia (The Dirty War) in 1978. Anchored by the two incredibly strong per...

On March 11, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented Christoph Willibald Gluck's ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE in conjunction with Joffrey Ballet Chicago at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Having previously presented the Italian version of the opera with a mezzo-soprano as Orfeo, L. A. Opera offered the 1774 French...

Have you ever wondered what the legal sex industry will look like in the future, given how rapidly our views on personal equality and freedom are changing? Certainly Tony Award-winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones has, given the subject matter of her new play SELL/BUY/DATE in which she take...

Perhaps the Ammunition Theatre Company has a built-in audience of millennials who enjoy their brand of silly and senseless humor in THE TRAGEDY: A COMEDY written by D.G. Watson and directed by Ahmed Best. Currently promoted as being 'back by popular demand,' all I can figure out is since marijuana i...