LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Now after more than a year, NEWSIES' North American First National Tour is nearing its conclusion, finally stopping at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 29 (the musical will motor down to San Diego the following week). After seeing the original Broadway product...

Loesser Known: The Stories and Songs of Frank Loesser premiered at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal Sunday May 22 with lovely singer Heather Lundstedt O'Neill doing the honors. Lundstedt O'Neill has a beautiful, classically trained soprano voice that she utilizes supremely, lending her an aweso...

To close out its current season, Orange County's Tony-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory has chosen to mount an opulent, high-caliber revival of Peter Shaffer's 1979 play AMADEUS, which continues performances in Costa Mesa through June 5, 2016. The recipient of the 1981 Tony Award for Be...

How often have you disagreed with your parents or siblings about their political views? Certainly in this election year with such polarized candidates running for the highest office, it does not take much to understand how political beliefs can split families and friends apart. The divisive world o...

On Thursday May 19 consummate singer Pat Whiteman presented An Evening of Pat Whiteman & Grammy nominated songwriter Harriet Schock at the E Spot Lounge at Vitello's in Studio City to a sold-out house of arduous music lovers. Although not as well known as the others, Harriet Schock has been co...

Rajiv Joseph's very tricky to pull off GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES lands at the Hudson Backstage as a stunning success! Considering the main conceit of GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES requires two actors playing a 30-year age range from 8 to 38; in less capable hands, this seventy-minute one-act woul...

Clever workshop presentation of the world premiere of playwrights Victor Bardack & Edward Michael Bell's HILLARY & MONICA. Though HILLARY & MONICA contains lots of witty elements still to be tweaked and fleshed out, the winning and steady component that needs no changing or improving's the central, ...

The East West Players' latest, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, most successfully communicates the heart and humor of Tony Award-winners Harvey Fierstein & Jerry Herman, injecting an Asian flavor as only East West can do. E/W's outgoing Producing Artistic Director Tim Dang deftly directs his very talented cast ...

Geoffrey Nauftts' witty and provocative NEXT FALL takes a hard look at faith, commitment and unconditional love. Set in a hospital waiting room following a life-threatening traffic accident, we meet an assortment of people linked to the patient Luke (Tom Berklund), a handsome young gay man still clo...

Lovers of the era of Busby Berkeley movie musicals are getting a double whammy of Golden Age goodness this month with a pair of musicals playing only two blocks from each other in Hollywood. I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU is already running at the mid-sized Ricardo Montalban Theatre on Vine and, very shor...

In our modern online age where effective marketing can boost sales in designated markets, what is the difference between racial marketing and targeted marketing? Is an effective marketer really a racist in disguise or just a clever strategist who knows how to make the most money for his company's p...

Sometimes last minute changes of director can raise a struggling play into a masterful team effort showing the brilliant humor meant to be mined from an award-winning script. Such was the case for co-director/actor David Graham when two previous directors had to step aside and he was asked to take ...

What a lovely surprise! I know that Bruce Kimmel is quite the clever gentleman and would not expect anything less than superlative work from his camp, but stepping down to the college campus level to review is not something that I particularly savor. These actors, with the exception of Robert Yacko ...

The Southern California premiere of playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig's THE GOLDEN DRAGON  benefits from the sturdy, first-rate technical production values The Theatre @ Boston Court has earned their deserved reputation for. Kudos to GOLDEN DRAGON's color-blind, gender-blind, ageist-blind casting. ...

Attempting to produce all of Shakespeare's plays would be daunting task for any theatre company but one young group of actors has continued to stay the course. Over a ten-year period, the Porters of Hellsgate have produced twenty of the playwright's thirty-eight plays, steadily working toward their ...

Much like the much-loved musical "Fiddler on the Roof," IN THE HEIGHTS focuses on family love and traditions being challenged by the beliefs of the next generation. In our modern world where a good education can make all the difference, what does it take for a poor family to put a cherished only ch...

If you ever wondered what the kids on Glee did during their summer vacation, the answer might be Disney's Camp Rock, The Musical. With space unavailable at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, Panic! Productions booked a road trip featuring its cast of chiefly Ventura County teens, staging the show at...

To be completely honest, my first exposure to the mostly sung-through, modern rock musical AMERICAN IDIOT (during its initial national tour stops in Southern California) was, at best, like seeing a really cool rock concert performed by some incredibly talented musical theater actors, surrounded by s...

For many, Tennessee Williams' first play The Glass Menagerie remains his finest. Semi-autobiographical, the play takes place in St. Louis during the Depression and depicts the relationships between a restless alcoholic/shoe factory worker/wannabe writer, his overbearing mother and his psychologicall...

When I heard the Morgan-Wixson Theatre was presenting THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue, I was hesitant to review the show, wondering why anyone would want to produce a show I had found offensive and not at all funny the first time I saw it elsewhere. But I am happy to report director Michael Rothhaar ha...

Fugitive Kind Theater is the presenting company, which for eleven years has engaged in creating boundary-breaking shows. This production takes the group to new heights, setting the story in what appears to be a fantasy circus world on the island of Illyria where anything goes and people are allowed...

My association with Scott Dreier dates back to a cabaret for his first album named aptly Scott Dreier.  I was exceedingly impressed with his fine voice, boyish charm and affability.Then followed his show Doris and Me, which I reviewed once in Escondido and later in Los Angeles. The show about Do...

The Coachella Valley is quickly becoming a mecca for exceptional theatre. And Dezart Performs' THE OUTGOING TIDE is no exception. Under Michael Shaw's skilled and measured direction the three actors bring tremendous honesty and poignancy to dialogue that could have easily waded into "made for televi...

Playwright John Pielmeier's Agnes of God, written in 1982, was based upon a real life police case of a novice nun in Boston, accused of murdering her baby. Coyote StageWorks just closed a stellar 10 performance only run of the play at the Annenberg Theatre in Palm Springs. Under the direction of ve...

Based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem, Fiddler on the Roof is one of the most beloved stage musicals of all time which so magically weaves music, dance, poignancy and laughter into such an electrifying and unforgettable historical experience. The Tony Award-winning musical has captured the hearts ...