LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

On Friday evening July 6, 2018, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented Gioachino Rossini's little known opera LA GAZZETTA at the newly outfitted Ebell Club in Los Angeles. The area where patrons sat at tables was surrounded with a semi-circle of single seats. Every seat has been sold for the entire t...

It contains possibly the last words William Shakespeare ever wrote and chances are you've never seen a production of it. THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN was written around 1613 but not published until 1634, and is attributed to both Shakespeare and John Fletcher, the man who would succeed him as resident play...

A beloved entertainment icon borne from showbiz royalty, it was certainly no surprise that living legend Liza Minnelli-a past recipient of four Tony Awards, an Oscar, a special Grammy, two Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award-was greeted with thunderous cheers and ovations during her recent return...

What sounded like a gramophone played Christmas Island as the audience shuffled inside the second-story stage of the Lonny Chapman Theatre. Wind-blown debris and leaves adorned the entire stage and a tree snapped in half sat upstage. Patio furniture, newspapers and pipes helped set the scene of the ...

When Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre decided to present MARY POPPINS The Broadway Musical as the final production of their 2017-18 Mainstage season, the group had no idea how the old theater adage "The Show Must Go On" would prove the title character's belief that "anything can happen when you ...

Barak Ballet is a formidable dance company that was created and fleshed out by Artistic Director Melissa Barak, who is a native Californian, and who has performed with the New York City Ballet and the Los Angeles Ballet Companies before forming her own Company. She trained at the Westside School of...

Memory and Collective are the key words here. The performance is a collaboration, explored and presented from Memories of survival; old, new, brand new, collectively or individually. It is an evening of intertwining, sharing, searching, feeling, expressing and truth. It signifies also, to me, w...

Anyone following today's ever-present and socially-challenging political scene via news outlets will certainly appreciate the humor and biting commentary in Larry Shue's comedy THE FOREIGNER. From its setting in rural Georgia with individuals who appear to be living in a social world hundreds of ye...

This solo show, written and performed with amazing emotional insight by her mother Danna Schaeffer, begins with stories from her only child's childhood during which she worried if little Rebecca was out of her sight for a few minutes. So imagine how this proud mother, who spoke daily with her daught...

Amanda Peet may be best known as an actress, having appeared in films such as 'The Whole Nine Yards' and 'Syriana' and in TV shows, including the Duplass brothers' family dramedy, 'Togetherness.' But she's also a serious writer, with her second play, OUR VERY OWN CARLIN McCULLOUGH, now making its wo...

English playwright and screenwriter Frederick Knott, though a reluctant writer, is known for his ingeniously complex, crime-related plots even though he only completed three plays in his career. Two have become classics: the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, which was later filmed in Ho...

ALEICHEM SHOLOM! The Wit and Wisdom of Sholom Aleichem, a new musical written by the internationally acclaimed team of Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie with lilting songs by Ben Weisman, is now playing at the Santa Monica Playhouse. It follows the life of the beloved Yiddish story-teller and everyone ...

On Sunday June 24, 2018, Los Angeles Opera gave a matinee presentation of two one-act Gordon Getty operas, USHER HOUSE and THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, which LAO calls SCARE PAIR. USHER HOUSE is Getty's 2014 edgy, operatic version of of Edgar Allan Poe's story, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. THE CANTERVI...

Humans fear monsters, and monsters we are told are even more scared of humans. Monsters are not real but horror really does lie in the human experience. Ask the Blakes. Losing one's job, facing illness, the worst being dementia, is a part of their lives and many others in the decaying/disappearing A...

Directed and choreographed by musical theatre whiz Kathleen Marshall with Musical Direction by Gerald Sternbach who brilliantly directs a full orchestra seen onstage as part of the staircase set designed by Stephen Gillford, SWEET CHARITY stars Laura Bell Bundy who brings the joy and wonder of Chari...

As its inaugural production, new classical theatre company The 6th Act, led by co-artistic directors Matthew Leavitt and Liza Seneca, presents two playwrights united by a common theme in AN EVENING OF BETRAYAL. Act One is Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, which tells its story of marital infidelity from end...

North Hollywood's Lonny Chapman Theatre was packed Friday night for the opening of Neil Simon's RUMORS. This classic farce followed five couples that had all been invited to a dinner party to celebrate a sixth couple's 10th anniversary. However, everything changed when the couples discover the host ...

Motown legend Diana Ross kiiiiiicked off the Hollywood Bowl's 2018 summer season with polish, pizzazz, and professionalism. Performing for approximately an hour post-intermission, Ms. Ross had the Hollywood Bowl audience in her very capable hands; and, more frequently than not, dancing in their seat...

Directed by Patricia McGregor at the Geffen Playhouse, this emotionally-charged play looks deep into the hearts and souls of its four characters, with all four actors brilliantly commanding the stage from start to finish. Caroline Stefanie Clay portrays Faye, the factor's UAW union rep who finds her...

Lula Washington, an L. A. native from Watts, along with her husband Erwin Washington and daughter Tamica Washington Miller, have been the incumbent founders, creators, directors and choreographers of the LULA WASHINGTON DANCE THEATRE since 1980. They began with the goal to motivate, educate, inspire...

Halfway through Act I of Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at the Wallis, I was looking at Rob Howell's see-through set design when it dawned on me. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. If only the Tyrones had gotten the memo....

??As part of the Hollywood FRINGE Festival, this tango treat, with a minimum of props and scenery, not one word spoken and a whole lot of passion and technique, Tomas Galvan and Gimena Herrera, from Argentina, tango their way into your hearts. Both Creators and the Choreographers of this piece, they...

Director Daniel Sullivan's adaptation of HENRY IV, Parts 1 & 2 may only be playing in the Japanese Garden on the VA campus for another three weeks but it is bound to rank as one of the summer's most talked-about events. Why? Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has saved up a secret weapon for the prod...

John Farmanesh-Bocca directs the world premiere of a bracing new version of Eduardo Machado's LYSISTRATA UNBOUND, starring Brenda Strong (Supergirl, 13 Reasons Why) as Lysistrata, in a collaboration between Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Not Man Apart - Physical Theatre Ensemble. First presented at th...

Theatricum Botanicum takes on Shakespeare's stinging drama CORIOLANUS this summer on its outdoor stage in Topanga Canyon and offers an intriguing look at the cynicism of politics and power. The work includes a massive cast of 45. Some are seasoned veterans and many are young actors in the early stag...