LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Harvey Fierstein's Casa Valentina won a deserved four Tony nominations in 2014 when it played on Broadway. This is a fine example of an unusual play, one of surprising depth, that goes out of its way to hit a nerve or two. Although comical, Casa Valentina is a drama at the core, with some shades...

Musical geniuses of yesteryear like Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart or Bach ... ah, a chosen few who left an unparalleled legacy...but not without bitter resentment and treachery from rivals, some talented, some not... Remember Amadeus by Peter Schaeffer? Salieri stopped at nothing to thwart Mozart's succ...

The Rogue Machine Theatre's West Coast premiere of Bryony Lavery's DIRT, a precautionary dissertation of the lethal hazards of commonplace chemicals humans come in contact with, benefits from its strong talented cast. Bravo to all the actors for their commitment to their respective roles, some requi...

It was indeed an auspicious occasion at Chapman University on Saturday night where over a thousand guests gathered for the much-anticipated official opening of the Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts. The black tie event featured a concert performance by luminaries of the opera worl...

Orange County was once again gifted a compact, intermission-free version of Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth's 'Coming Home' concert on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts (she performed a version of this concert last year at the Walt Disney Concert Hall). As ...

How often do you see an American western onstage? Especially one that was a famous John Ford film in 1952 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Both the film and the stage play are adapted from a short story by Dorothy Johnson about the American west in 1890-1910. The names of the characters in the fi...

On Friday March 11 Kirk Frederick's new book Write That Down! The Comedy of Male Actress Charles Pierce was launched at ONE the Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries on North Adams in downtown Los Angeles. The sellout event was a benefit for ONE Archives. There were scrumptious hors d'o...

Playwright Theresa Rebeck's smart and witty THE UNDERSTUDY provides an intriguing vehicle for a most unsympathetic barely working actor to vent. Fortunately, two other much more congenial characters interrupt his incessant kvetching. Laura Henry ably directs her talented cast at a fast clip making t...

Caryl Churchill's 1982 Obie Award-winning CLOUD 9 receives a hilarious, yet heartstring-tugging revitalization from the always reliable Antaeus Theatre Company. Casey Stangl expertly directs her very talented cast as they skillfully navigate the complexities of each undertaking dual roles. What an i...

The world premiere of Robert Allan Ackerman's BLOOD receives a sturdy full-on, large theatre mounting by The Garage in the tiny space of The Complex. Ackerman's smart, in-depth script has adapted the actual 1980s events of a government conspiracy to sell HIV-contaminated blood products into an invol...

Tennessee Williams published Summer and Smoke in 1948 and revised and rewrote it in 1964 as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Summer and Smoke is the popular, much revived version despite the fact Tennessee himself among many critics considered the second version to be the most lyrical rep...

Ruskin Group Theatre's Los Angeles premiere of Gary McNair's A GAMBLER'S GUIDE TO DYING winningly delivers a mesmerizing, quick-paced 65-minutes of vividly descriptive storytelling. The combination of McNair's extremely illustrative narrative, directed quite proficiently by Paul Linke, and totally e...

When it comes down to it, trying to convince rabid or even casual fans of the hit Broadway blockbuster WICKED into seeing the show again (and again… and again) when it comes to their town really doesn't take much of a struggle. No matter how many times over the years that the Broadway blockbuster ...

No one writes a story song like composer Ryan Scott Oliver. Known for his clever lyrics and the ability to create in a wide variety of musical styles, his is an exciting voice in the current musical theatre landscape. Broadway insiders marvel at the way he plays with musical language and captures a ...

'Tale as old as time' nails the complex simplicity of Beauty and the Beast the quintessential story of true love, the most difficult to obtain and sustain.  Disney's adaptation of the fairy tale with its sweepingly imaginative spectacle won over even the hardest of hearts. The animated film was...

While she may not be as recognizable as Beatrice, Viola, Lady Macbeth or many of his more popular leading ladies, Margaret of Anjou is nonetheless a significant presence in Shakespeare's history plays - specifically the first tetralogy of the War of the Roses. In this 4-part series (Henry VI Parts 1...

Dan Frischman quite ably directs his witty script of SEX, FAITH AND JASON WEXLER keeping his likeable cast and plot moving at a snappy pace. Robert Werner and Lira Kellerman have cute, flirty, credible chemistry as Jason and Faith....

Unquestionably one of musical theater's most beloved, iconic classics, WEST SIDE STORY---the stirring Broadway musical that features a book by theater titan Arthur Laurents, music by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by living legend Stephen Sondheim---remains a still-resonant masterpie...

Dazzling originality and elegant artistry blend together in the spectacular show, THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY, now playing at the Hollywood Pantages. Much more than a magic show, the artists who make up this 'Magnificent Seven' exhibit a stunning array of feats that will constantly leave y...

In director Damaso Rodriguez's version of ROMEO AND JULIET, a group of actors gathers to put on the play in a graffiti-covered alley. A pair of dumpsters, two wooden pallets, and a movable iron ladder makes up the bulk of the set pieces. Everything is covered in spray paint and decay....

It is refreshing to watch family dysfunction where family members, striving to make thing better, do honestly care about one another. In Bathsheba Doran's The Mystery of Love & Sex we are presented with quite a divergent platter at first glance, but as time progresses and with so many transformation...

After a series of breakthrough plays such as Stoneface and Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, which went on to larger venues and are still waiting in the wings for Broadway, the  brilliantly innovative Sacred Fools Theatre has moved into the remodeled Lillian Theatre on Santa Monica Boulevard. Wi...

America has had a long tragic history of sending brave young people off to foreign lands to fight in life-endangering wars, only to see those who have survived come home forever changed. This idea lingers over the new engaging musical DOGFIGHT, now having its Los Angeles/Orange County-area premiere ...

TEMPEST REDUX's certainly an welcomed addition to John Farmanesh-Bocca's resume of his visceral, modern re-workings of Shakespeare classics. Farmanesh-Bocca's trademark physicality shines in the inspired pairing of Dash Pepin and Willem Long, both portraying Prospero's slave Caliban in tandem. Their...

The world premiere of playwright Stefanie Zadravec's entrancing COLONY COLLAPSE receives an ingenious audience-immersive staging as the 50th mainstage production of The Theatre @ Boston Court. Jessica Kubzansky firm-handedly directs her cast of ten stellar acting talents in the hold-your-breath in...