LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Kate Pazakis, executive producer of the UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF... series ably does triple duty in her latest wildly entertaining, two-hour production of THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF JURASSIC PARK. For UMPO JURASSIC PARK, Pazakis not only produces and cleverly writes this enthralling, v...

For the most part, the brief Orange County return of the Tony Award-winning musical smash KINKY BOOTS---which continues its quick week-long stop at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through February 11---pretty much preserves its hard-to-escape fabulousness. Its current incarnation as a n...

Luckily for some of us who don't have the luxury or the time to simply catch every show that Tony Award-winning musical superstar Kristin Chenoweth does in New York City, she is a prolific touring artist, opting often to bring her sweet and sassy singing self to audiences around the world via enjoya...

In Bill Berry's solo show THE BRICK: A ONE MAN MUSICAL, Berry isn't addressing the audience in a theater. He's on a beach having a two-way conversation with his dead mother and we are the accidental eavesdroppers who witness their complicated relationship unfold piecemeal. The convention is more aki...

In their current side-splitting, pee-in-your-pants, Friday & Saturday night show SWEET VALLEY GROUNDLINGS, the very talented Groundlings troupe just keeps coming up with original, funny skits revolving around the foibles of flawed characters. Director Kevin Kirkpatrick has mined the very best out of...

Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspi...

So many productions are happening all over the city. Here's what made the Hot List: Bugaboo & the Silent One, The Hothouse, Cabaret, Pirates of Penzance, Shakespeare in Love, Disney's Aladdin. Go see a show!...

On January 27, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented the Bernstein work at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with a cast that included Emmy-winning television star Kelsey Grammer. He is best remembered for his two-decade-long portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the situation comedies Cheers, Wing...

The world premiere of ALRIGHT THEN presents a sweet stroll down memory lane of married actors Orson Bean and Alley Mills. The two separate childhood stories of Bean and Mills, through their life together to the present, make up the eighty-minute one-act. Quite a lot to cover in just eighty minutes, ...

Say what you will, The Hypocrites have found a way to transform traditional theatre into a form of entertainment that appeals to folks who'd rather go to a party than sit in a theater. And they've done it using Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. No joke....

From the moment the amazing James Conlon-conducted orchestra began their crisp, lively 'Overture' to 'Quartet Finale,' the close of Act One; this remarkable production of CANDIDE entranced the Dorothy Chandler audience. Then after a short intermission, these talented performers and musicians had the...

Still one of the most the most unique and thrilling live theatrical offerings you will ever experience, THE CAR PLAYS has once again parked themselves at the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza at Segerstrom Center for the Arts for another highly-anticipated round of claustrophobic, stopped-in-traffic...

Despite my well-earned affection for the Tony-winning 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company production of the classic Kander and Ebb Broadway classic CABARET, I still found myself vigorously entertained by McCoy Rigby Entertainment's flashy and buoyant new 2018 regional production of this theatrical stapl...

It takes an awfully long time to get to the point in Philip Whitchurch's original one act play directed by Julia St. John. Set during a fictional night in the lives of William Shakespeare (played by Whitchurch) and his wife Anne (Sally Edwards) at their home in Stratford-upon-Avon, the story reveals...

The west coast premiere of playwright Anna Ziegler's A DELICATE SHIP receives a sturdy launching by The Road Theatre Company. A DELICATE SHIP centers on a romantic Christmas Eve that Sam and Sarah anxiously plan to spend together alone. Right off the bat, Philip Orazio and Paris Perrault smoothly es...

Filled with one amazing powerhouse vocal performance after another, ONE HAND, ONE HEART: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF BERNSTEIN is a musical theater lover's treat of a concert, celebrating the legacy of one of music's most influential musicians and composers of the last century, Leonard Bernstein. Featuring...

Featuring a remarkable, awards-worthy, tour-de-force performance by actor John Tufts that will easily win you over no matter what your personal tastes or beliefs or politics may be, this admirable new regional production of Doug Wright's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE---beauti...

In FREUD'S LAST SESSION, playwright Mark St. Germain has written an intricate, very detailed script of what he imagines as a chance meeting between Dr. Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. Set in 1939 London the day England entered World War II, the two very well-read men debate on the existence of God. W...

The Garry Marshall Theatre (formerly the Falcon Theatre) is currently home to a new, hilarious revival of the Stephen Sondheim classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum....

Last year Casa 0101 produced a lovely dual language version of Disney's Aladdin, which was so popular it extended its run and eventually transferred to a larger venue. Hoping to repeat that success, they have set their sights on another Disney classic but, this time, the production proves too ambiti...

The silly, family-friendly fun of those British-borne Pantos are back for a third holiday season in row at Orange County's Laguna Playhouse, this time with a story wrapped around the infamous tale of a smart-aleck street urchin (Jason Gotay) who discovers a magic lamp hiding a genie that grants wish...

Of all the holiday stories written, it would be hard to find one more well-known or popular than Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The redemption of a miser named Scrooge whose heart has forgotten the meaning of charity has been adapted, musicalized, spoofed, and dramatized in every medium imagina...

A delightful abridged version of 'Scrooge,' the Leslie Bricusse musical adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol,' is now being staged at the rustic Big Oak Theatre in Chatsworth....

This year for the holidays, The Wallis has traded its typical musical theatre fare (Into the Woods/2014, Guys & Dolls/2015, Merrily We Roll Along/2016) for something a little less traditional but even more imaginative and fun Vesturport Theatre's THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD by playwright David Farr....

Kate Pazakis and her talented creative team once again incorporate their 'secret sauce' in concocting a most delicious holiday treat for Rockwell revelers - THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF HOME ALONE. The 1990 John Hughes classic Home Alone receives Pazakis' UMPO treatment, resulting in a most si...