LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

If Dorothy in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ had run away from home and found this traveling circus instead of Professor Marvel and his crystal ball, she might never have gotten swept up in a twister and landed in Munchkinland. Instead, she might have become part of a new family, the kind that travele...

East West Players' new Artistic Director Snehal Desai ambitiously tackles the US premiere of playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar's FREE OUTGOING as his directorial debut. FREE OUTGOING centers on a single mother and her two teenagers living in a very conservative Chennai, India. Strong performances fro...

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica recently presented the one and only spectacular Broadway legend Chita Rivera in a unique, one-night solo concert event - CHITA: A LEGENDARY CELEBRATION, and I can honestly tell you the girl's still got it and knows exactly how to use it to bring Broadwa...

Hands down, this incredibly absorbing stage adaptation of MOBY DICK is one of the most stunning and enthralling pieces of theater I have had the privilege of experiencing from a Southern California stage. Continuing through February 19 at Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater in Costa ...

946 offers two and a half hours of eye-candy and magic....

Pulling double duty as both playwright and star, Dan Castellaneta portrays Oscar Levant in his latest new work, FOR PIANO AND HARPO. Levant was a concert pianist, and contemporary of George Gershwin, whose genius gave him entree into the glittering worlds of classical music, Broadway, and Hollywood ...

The Actors' Gang is presenting the groundbreaking multimedia production LYRICS FROM LOCKDOWN, a solo show written and performed by Bryonn Bain and directed by Gina Belafonte, which tells Bryonn Bain's true story of racial profiling and wrongful incarceration at the hands of New York City police and ...

Los Angeles audiences now have the chance to see brilliant performances as The Geffen Playhouse is presenting O'Neill's masterpiece featuring Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek and Tony nominee Alfred Molina as leads Mary Cavan Tyrone and James Tyrone, along with Angela Goethals as Cathleen, Stephen Louis ...

The story of FUGU, a world premiere play written by Howard Teichman and Steven G. Simon which Teichman also directs and produces, takes place at a time just prior to the United States' entry into World War II. Suggested by true events, it recounts the efforts of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara wh...

When we entered The Edye at The Broad Stage to see Jonny Donahoe's solo show EVERY BRIILIANT THING, we were handed pieces of paper with a number and a phrase after being asked if we would be willing to participate when called upon to read the contents when our number was called. Of course, we agree...

In JACKSON-LAFITTE: A VAUDEVILLE, Four Clowns cleverly re-envisions a probable pre-war encounter leading up to the historical 1814 Battle of New Orleans as a vaudeville skit, possibly and unintentionally drawing parallels to today's political climate. Funt as General Andrew Jackson and Carroll as Ca...

The Groundlings' current laugh-packed Friday & Saturday night show WOLFGANG AMADEUS GROUNDLING had their sold-out house howling at their collective expertise in mining comedy gold from the most un-amusing of situations - divorce, alcoholism, being laid off, impotence, embarrassing parents. The talen...

I first heard about Kurt Weill's final musical masterpiece, LOST IN THE STARS, when I was studying his body of work during my senior year at CSUN. It was at a time, such as now, when society was being torn apart by opposing political forces, protests filled the streets, and racial inequality was bei...

The world premiere of PLASTICITY, a one-man show featuring Alex Lyras as an entire cast of characters, has the great fortune of a multi-talented performer in Lyras interpreting a very detailed script written by Lyras and Robert McCaskill. McCaskill ably directs his sole actor at a quick pace, with L...

This repulsive piece of filth has cult following written all over it....

A little bit of King Hedley's ambition might have rubbed off on television actress turned theatrical producer Sophina Brown. Better known as Nikki Betancourt from CBS's hit NUMB3RS, Brown has delved into the Los Angeles 99-seat theatre scene with the goal of producing all ten of August Wilson's pla...

MATILDA - THE MUSICAL, overall, is genuinely a fun time. It's a cheeky, kid-friendly (and, really, kid-catering) stage musical that has plenty for both kids and their parents to enjoy together. Featuring lively songs by Tim Michin and a witty, yet easily digestible book by Dennis Kelly, MATILDA - TH...

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is widely recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, and is best known for his play Waiting for Godot which launched his career in theater. He then went on to write numerous successful full-lengt...

Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre is sharing the comedy so prevalent in Florence Foster Jenkins performances by presenting "GLORIOUS! the True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in The World" written by Peter Quilter through February 5, 2017. It is a hilarious and heart-warming c...

Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS is the kind of musical you often find produced in small theaters and black boxes. Written for a cast of two, it can be done very simply without much in the way of a set or props making it a popular choice for those with a limited budget or other technical con...

The Echo Theatre Company's world premiere of playwright Dominic Finocchiaro's THE FOUND DOG RIBBON DANCE succeeds in all its combined creative elements - clever, thought-provoking dialogue from Finocchiaro, emoted via a uniformly talented cast, and directed in a quick and smooth pace by Alana Dietze...

Love transcends the limitations of language in Casa 0101's charming production of Disney's ALADDIN Dual Language Edition/Edicion De Lenguaje Dual and that uplifting message is a takeaway that never loses its luster. The simple story of Aladdin (Daniel Martinez) and his magic lamp overcoming the vill...

Quirky and surprisingly unexpected, playwright Jen Silverman explores a delightfully fresh and edgy new take on the formulaic 'opposite personalities that live together' paradigm in the new dark comedy THE ROOMMATE, now continuing its West Coast premiere performances at Orange County's Tony Award-wi...

Composer Christopher Reiner serves up a sixty-minute set of original songs and prose selections at ZJU Theatre Group that demonstrates the unique range of programming found at Zombie Joe's North Hollywood establishment. The company's niche is live horror and they have gained tremendous popularity wi...

Almost fifteen years ago, Ronnie Marmo pulled together a group of his most talented friends in Los Angeles and created The 68 Cent Crew Company, after having arrived here with 68 cents in his pocket and a head full of dreams. So, when a company member recently asked him what they could do about ter...