LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

To watch these singers perform these numbers is to dream about entire revivals of Sondheim shows built around some of these actors, maybe even productions that have their genesis at the Ahmanson....

This is just another gem of a production that should not fly under the radar. The Theater 68 Arts Complex in North Hollywood is an unsung space that consistently offers up intimate and challenging material....

In approaching the play for a new production at A Noise Within, director Andi Chapman has grappled with these facets of the work and— aside from a few key missteps— has delivered a clever, if forgettable, production....

TARANTINO | PULP ROCK just opened at the brand-new CineVita venue at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles. The immersive concert/ musical theater experience will excite both Tarantino fans and Quentin newbies....

Bacon is the West Coast premiere of a simmering new drama at Rogue Machine on Melrose running through March 30th.  Brawny, raw, savagely intimate, Bacon is a spare two-person play by Sophie Swithinbank that grabs us hard and never lets us go, even for a second....

With its gung-ho company of actors, clever construction, wicked cool set and general overall braininess, FAKE IT sails blithely along for 90 minutes, liberally trafficking in chuckles and cringes...FAKE IT’s physical and intellectual humor aren’t always completely in synch with each other, but t...

The classic show is revived to hysterical effect with excellent directing, staging and acting...

TICK TICK...BOOM! is an inspiring hit musical at the award-winning Chance Theater in Anaheim through February 23rd.  Set in New York City in 1990, this is a poignant love letter to Jonathan Larson, composer of the Broadway mega-hit musical Rent. Surprisingly for something that is grounded in real l...

For his production of THE SEAGULL at the Odyssey Theatre, Katzman deploys a mostly solid cast (two of whom are also producers), a talented technical team and a vision. The results are plenty engaging....

The current tour of the hit musical The Book Of Mormon solidly preserves everything that makes the show an audience pleaser. A talented cast delights Ventura audiences at Broadway In Thousand Oaks....

For two weekends in a row in January 2025, Segerstrom Center for the Arts presented some powerhouse talents from the world of Broadway to their enjoyable Cabaret Series. First up was the returning Jason Robert Brown, the Tony Award-winning composer of musicals such as PARADE and THE LAST FIVE YEARS ...

A smash hit at Rogue Machine already, many performances are already sold out.  Evanston Salt Costs Climbing is a strange, satirical, darkly funny meditation on loss, anxiety, and depression.  Among other things, it touches on our universal creeping feeling of dread, the vastness of the problems fa...

O’Hara has approached the entire evening with such severe gravitas and humble respect that familiar messages seem to land fresh on even jaded ears. How else are we meant to keep singing right now?...

Overall, the show is an expertly-crafted piece of unapologetically silly live comedic theatre that demonstrates the power of precision in the guise of 'random' chaos. By blending slapstick humor, meta-theatrical elements, and sheer physical comedy-laced energy, this theatrical enterpris creates an u...

Winner of 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical, this quirky musical comedy with an intentionally-diffused serious undertone continues performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through February 2, 2025. A generally entertaining show with lots of laughs in spite of its title charact...

In SLEEPING GIANT, it was clear I was witnessing more than a metaphor about the continuing evolution of MAGA. And it was all too frightening....

The production’s thrifty staging directed by Judith Hendra for Topanga Actors Company feels stagnant instead of urgent, indifferent where it could have been thought-provoking....

Directed by Mina Morita, the play—an emotionally-absorbing drama with sprinkled bits of comedy—is, at its core, a poignant exploration of deep friendships, colored by a devotion to cultural and religious identity and the fears of displacement and upheaval set against the backdrop of Iran's polit...

The themes in DEATH OF A SALESMAN are universal and timeless, though that doesn’t mean they always resonate. Firmer direction and better sound would have elevated this production so that it landed with more heft....

This deceptively dark world premiere, co-produced by People with Plays Productions and the Road Theatre Company at the Broadwater Studio Theatre, is not one for those looking to 2025 with visions of sunny skies ahead....

A riotous, mostly silly, but also sometimes laughably odd theatrical entity, this touring production of this enjoyable, endearingly-familiar stage musical adaptation of the hit 1985 sci-fi comedy is definitely a fun time—but mostly due to its visual wow factor. For those who cherish the original f...

Lear deBessonet’s rollicking production of Once Upon A Mattress brings festive glee to the Southland....

The mixture this time around is entertaining if not the company’s A-game. HOME ALONE-LY HEARTS CLUB, while providing plenty of laughs, feels thin…thin on merriment, thin on satirical edge and certainly thin on script....

Little Women Ballet is the world premiere of a charming new ballet at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Mid-Wilshire.  This is a lavish, romantic, nostalgic, family-friendly night of dance that is not to be missed....

If you have yet to see the work of Handspring Puppet Company, hurry to get tickets for Life & Times of Michael K in its limited run. No one to my knowledge is maneuvering puppets quite like these masters....