LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Arguably one of musical theater's more enjoyable jukebox musicals, the crowd-pleasing, ABBA-centric musical MAMMA MIA! aims to entertain its audience, all while trying to provide a much more interesting way to experience the ubiquitous pop catalog of one of the most successful pop music groups of th...

It is nearly impossible not to be emotionally affected by the events depicted in PARADE, the stirring, Tony Award-winning 1998 musical inspired by shocking actual events surrounding the trial of a man accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl. It's certainly a heavy, morose subject to wrap ...

In Ruskin Group Theatre's world premiere of Ron Nelson's THE RAINBOW BRIDGE, Michael Myers briskly directs a concise 75 minutes of snappy dialogue led by the high-energy, powerhouse performance of Paul Schackman as the conflicted, haunted lawyer Jerry. Schackman nails Nelson's machine gun-spouting d...

Director Guillermo Cienfuegos expertly guides his talented RHINOCEROS cast with tight, sturdy reins in a truly full-length play (three acts, spanning close to three hours) now at the Pacific Resident Theatre. Eugene Ionesco originally wrote RHINOCEROS in 1959 as his commentary on the state of the po...

Worst First Kiss Productions Present DOG SEES GOOD at The Blank Theater in Hollywood, CA. Directed by Jonah Platt, the production is fresh off its run from the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Their Encore performance takes place this upcoming weekend at The Blank Theater....

Disney/Cameron Mackintosh's stage adaptation of MARY POPPINS, the closing production of Musical Theatre West's 64th season is mostly jolly good fun. Full of palpable joy, wonderfully-performed songs, and smile-inducing moments, MTW's buoyant, crowd-pleasing production of the London-set musical conti...

The Skylight Theatre Company's world premiere of THE DEVIL'S WIFE scores high on all fronts - Tom Jacobson's witty script (with a message), spot-on delivery by its talented cast of four, smooth direction by Eric Hoff, all complemented by Skylight Theatre team's first-rate technical elements. THE DE...

JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS receives a first-rate mounting with a cast of powerful singer/actors, backed by a nimble four-piece musical ensemble, and directed and staged with ingenuity of movement that complement the Jacques Brel tales being performed. These Jacques Brel song...

The Echo Theater Company's world premiere of playwright Bekah Brunstetter's THE CAKE brilliantly demonstrates the success of following a winning recipe for a memorable theatre production. Start with Brunstetter's witty, relationship-focused script on very timely, hot-button issues of today; generous...

Fittingly, as most of the world celebrates Gay Pride month, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills is presenting an absorbing, beautifully-poetic production of playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell's drama THE PRIDE, which continues its Los Angeles-area premiere through July 9...

The expert artistry of words, direction, acting and tech marvelously converge into the current Pasadena Playhouse production of HOLD THESE TRUTHS. Ryun Yu, alone on stage, stunningly and authentically pulls off Jeanne Sakata's detailed depiction of American-born Japanese Gordon Hirabayashi's real-li...

London Calling, The Clash's third album, is considered by many to be one of the band's greatest achievements. It is also the title of a musical that has been knocking around for the last decade, now being presented at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Using songs by The Clash, it is the story of four b...

What a difference one decision makes. Turn a corner, say hello, say nothing, leave - even the smallest of choices has the power to alter our future. In CONSTELLATIONS, Nick Payne's exquisite play for two, now on stage at Geffen Playhouse, we watch the various stages of a couple's relationship play o...

I'm sorry if you missed Art-In-Relation's production of IT'S ONLY LIFE this past weekend because you missed hearing a remarkable musician play his own magnificent songs in a tiny 50-seat theater. To have that luxury is a rare occurrence, even for a city like Los Angeles. It was a breathtaking evenin...

Set to an upbeat '80s-style pop rock score, TURBULENCE! is a screwball mash-up of Friday night SyFy comedy classics and Saturday morning cartoons with colorful characters and bright, energetic choreography. Two musical departures - a hokey country 'Hoedown Throwdown' style number (priceless) and a b...

Above the Curve Theatre mounts a sturdy workshop production of VOTE! THE MUSICAL with loads of potential. Anthony Marquez (nicely underplaying laid-back skater/skier dude Mike) and Angela Cole (fetchingly limning a flirty Muffin) run away with the show's best scenes. Their seduction duet 'D Gates' r...

Up until the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida a year ago, the deadliest known attack on a gay club in U.S. history happened more than 40 years before at the Up Stairs Lounge in New Orleans, Louisiana. The events prior to and following that deadly, still unsolved 1973 blaze make up t...

Unbound Productions producers Jonathan Josephson, Paul Millet and Jeff G. Rack have already proven they can create smart theatre based on classical literature. Their wildly popular Wicked Lit horror series at Mountain View Mausoleum has developed a loyal legion of fans who keep coming back year afte...

In her 'TIL SUNDAY, writer/performer Nairoby Otero grabs you the very first moment she hits the stage and then, after 75 minutes, ends her solo show with a wrenching punch in the gut. Otero portrays a number of characters in this one-woman tour de force revealing the story of the real-life struggles...

Los Angeles Drama Club jumps into the controversy about rewriting Shakespeare for modern audiences in UNSPOKEN: SHAKESPEARE'S PERSONAE IN PERIL. Part II of a trilogy exploring what has become a sore subject among Shakespeare circles, it takes a strong stand and presents persuasive food for thought i...

Kate Pazakis just keeps topping herself with her musical parodies! This time she teams up with Bradley Bredeweg and his Fuse Project for a wildly entertaining THE LAST BREAKFAST CLUB. Bredeweg and Pazakis ingeniously take the 'Musical Parody of' concept and 'fuse' a mash-up of John Hughes' classic f...

Panic! Productions staged the darkest rendition of Little Shop of Horrors I have ever seen....

With the names of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul  (Oscar winners for La La Land and Tony Award frontrunners for this year's DEAR EVAN HANSEN) attached to DOGFIGHT, one might have high expectations while awaiting the opening notes to sound at The Hudson Mainstage. DOGFIGHT consistently scores with topnotc...

Shakespeare by way of Gilligan's Island with a cast of hammy knuckleheads is what you'll get in Fiona Austin's TITUS SHARKDRONICUS. There isn't a serious bone in this fish tale's body so leave your sophistication at the door and prepare for an hour of melodrama loosely based on the plot of Titus And...

There has been much revealed in legal proceedings relating to what actually constitutes consent when it comes to physical entanglements that somehow go incredibly wrong, thus resulting in a rape charge. Lives can be sidetracked and careers often destroyed upon a court or jurors ruling on who was at...