LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

To those newer generation theatre and movie fans who do not remember 1952's blockbuster hit film Singin' in the Rain, directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green and costars Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds all contributed to making it the smash tha...

Adam & Eve and Steve/written by Chandler Warren/musical composer: Wayne Moore/directed by Ronnie MarmoTheatre 68 at/NoHo Arts Center/through August 30 A humorous take on the biblical version of creation as told through the rantings of dueling Beelzebug and God is the award-winning world premier...

The west coast premiere of Aditi Brennan Kapil's Shiv receives a simply gorgeous mounting at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Amazing just how far, with the proper elements, your imagination will allow you to go....

Sandra Tsing Loh grabs her predominantly female audience by the hair (and their accompanying males by their balls) as she commandeers all in her hilarious 70-minute non-stop, continuous stream of consciousness on menopause, better known as The Bitch is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation....

All creative components align perfectly in Mike Kindle's Stanley Ann with the primary ingredient of this engrossing one-woman show - the luminous Ann Noble! Using her expressive face, her excellent line readings and her naturalistic miming; Noble allows the audience to actually see all the other cha...

Seeing a play where Shakespeare's unfortunate characters escape the city and seek refuge in the Forest of Arden is even more enjoyable when experienced in the idyllic setting of Theatricum Botanicum's natural outdoor theater. Every time I go, I am reminded what an oasis it is in a city overwhelmed w...

VITAMIN Q, a revue comprised of musical numbers by Eric Lane Barnes, now appearing at Desert Rose Playhouse, is hilariously funny and appropriate for gay-friendly audiences from teenagers on up....

Playwright Wendy Graf totally deceives in naming her world premiere All American Girl. A much more appropriate and honest title would have been Anti-American Girl. All should run from this as fast as the main character did after she planted both bombs....

Oscar Quintero 'nails it' again with his alter ego Kay Sedia in his non-stop, laugh-inducing, thigh-slapping seventy minutes, Kay Sedia in Her Juan Woman Cho: Taco Kisses. Your laugh muscles, whistling lips and clapping palms will definitely get quite a workout experiencing Kay Sedia's Taco Kisses....

On Sunday June 28, actress/singer Candi Milo brought her one.of.a.kind comedic cabaret to Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal and boy, oh boy, is she funny. 'How funny?' you may query. This little lady grew up in a mental institution - well, her father ran one in their home, so she was exposed to cra...

Neil Koenigsberg' Off the King's Road vividly illustrates the need for patience in dealing with your elders. The talented Tom Bower tackles the challenge of embodying a now single, unapologetic man going through his mundane everyday routines while grappling with continuing life alone without Betty, ...

William Inge's Pulitzer-Prize-winning Picnic depicting a small Kansas town in 1952, its strict code of morality and the inner longings of its people to break away, is perhaps his finest. Now in a stunning production at Antaeus directed ever so lovingly by Cameron Watson and boasting a superlative ...

William Inge's 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner Picnic certainly holds up quite well in Antaeus Theatre Company's expert and streamlined production. Cameron Watson directs his talented cast without any extraneous beats, moments, or gestures. Every little detail quite essential and integral to Inge's tale ...

As part of season 36, GMCLA (Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles) outdid themselves in the presentation of their summer show Vegas, Baby! the weekend of June 20-21 at the Alex Theatre, Glendale. It was a fun, fun production like those of yesteryear, which featured much more than just the group's sin...

Spectacle wins out in Cameron Mackintosh's latest tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. Less reinvented than it is repackaged, the crowning glory of this production is its lavish costumes and sets (by Paul Brown and Maria Bjornson respectively), an...

During the crazy broohaha of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, there are plenty of loud, over.the.top noisy shows, if that suits your pleasure. Sondheim's Marry Me a Little is a quiet, gentle little 60-minute musical revue that just doesn't fit that bill. And that's totally fine by me! I prefer Sondhei...

For nearly three vigorous hours, MOTOWN - THE MUSICAL provides one helluva show. More like a CONCERT rather than your typical book musical, this dazzling, high-octane extravaganza of music and dance is a visual and aural feast that gamely crams in more than 60 hits from the groundbreaking record com...

BRIGHT SWORDS has three essential elements that make it one of the most polished, intelligent, and satisfying productions at Fringe: an elegant performance by Ryan Vincent Anderson, a beautifully written, smart, funny, human script by playwright Rick Creese, and stylish, impeccably focused direction...

Excessively harsh reality is at the core of most current popular dramedies as it is on television. A character cannot be rude or abrasive enough to arouse a viewer's attention or glean laughs. It's particularly characteristic of the irritating females who talk too fast, too loud and scream their shr...

Desert Theatreworks presents the California premiere of the new romantic comedy FUNNY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE, at the Arthur Newman Theatre, in Palm Desert, beginning June 19, 2015....

In its series Broadway @ the Broad, which began in October 2013 with Patti Lupone, Sutton Foster was the latest star to grace the stage, featuring Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host. The event took place Sunday June 14 at 5pm and 8pm, and Foster proved a real trouper. On her recent honeymoon in It...

Paul Sand's Kurt Weill at the Cuttlefish Hotel wows and astonishes with musical performances from two incredibly talented women Shay Astar and Kalean Ung. Sands has chosen various Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht compositions from their various hit shows and strung them together for a wonderful musical sho...

Timeheart 's 'Let's put on a show' vibe succeeds primarily due to the talents and stage presence of Dave Reynolds as Bruce Greenstreet, the inventor of the time machine/capsule.  Reynolds' strong and pleasant vocals coupled with his sharp physical comedy antics and timing propel this story of how G...

Scott Caan has written a very witty and smart script in his world premiere of The Trouble We Come From. Charlie, oh-so-comfortably inhabited by Michael Weston, has invited his leading man and best friend Vince home for some mano-to-mano advice to help him out of his relationship dilemma.  Caan's Vi...

If you have a hankering for romance and you love the old-fashioned musicals of a by-gone era, Waterfall is a perfect fit. Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire have created a beautiful glimpse of passionate love that develops amidst the turmoil of divergent cultures, east and west before WWII. Curre...