LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

By the time Shakespeare gets to the last of his history plays concerning the Wars of the Roses, HENRY V, the party boy who would be king has become a man. Gone are the indiscretions of youth seen in the earlier HENRY IV plays, which follow young Prince Hal on his escapades with Falstaff and the East...

A quieter, more down-to-earth musical-but done so with a bellowing musical prowess thanks to book writer and lyricist Brian Crawley and composer Jeanine Tesori-VIOLET explores the multiple layers of feelings associated with being and living life as an 'other' within an environment that promotes (and...

Quiara Alegria Hudes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote the book for the Broadway musical "In the Heights," which received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical and was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her Pulitzer-nominated and winning trilo...

Cole Porter's 'High Society' sparkles with wit, glamour, and music in Musical Theatre Guild's concert version of the 1998 Broadway musical....

Now playing at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, the 80-minute play IRONBOUND by award-winning playwright Martyna Majok recounts the hard luck life of Polish immigrant Darja and the men she chooses to have in it. Moving between 2014, 1992, and 2006 - but not necessarily in that order - this wry dra...

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...

When Danny, son of an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic rabbi, injures the more traditionally Orthodox Reuven during a baseball game between their rival yeshivas, their two universes collide and a unique friendship is born. "This powerful story shows how essential it is to consider the views of those who are ...

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...

Like Andy Warhol, another well-known, towheaded, Avant Garde artist who pushed the boundaries of his art form, Klaus Kinski was one of the most celebrated and controversial actors in the history of world cinema. The reckless abandon with which he approached both life and art left him tortured, demon...

THE PRICE by Arthur Miller premiered on Broadway in 1968 and was nominated for two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Scenic Design. It is a timeless piece regarding the choices we make and the consequences we eventually face. It is about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of o...

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...

Ken Ludwig is a two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright whose work is performed throughout the world in more than thirty countries and over twenty languages. He has written twenty-five plays and musicals, with six Broadway productions and seven in London's West End. I learned about his incredible ...

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...

Every January I look forward to attending THE MANOR by Katherine Bates, presented by Theatre 40 inside the historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills where the story upon which it is based actually took place. Now celebrating its 16th year, the annual production has become a Los Angeles/Beverly Hi...

INTO THE WOODS may be one of the most popular musicals for those skilled in the art of presenting musical theater comedy. So much so that when Cupcake Studios held auditions for the 17 character roles in the show, over 1,000 people submitted online and in person to be in the show at the North Hollyw...

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...

Have you and your partner ever thought how nice it would be to go back and have a conversation with your younger selves that might be able to change the course of your lives together? No doubt playwright Jerry Mayer, whose plays deal with the 'ups, downs and sideways' of male/female relationships, ...