LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Like The King and I, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific is a heartbreaking, yet uplifting story told across racial borders ... with an elegant score. The look in its rich set design with an incredible, dreamlike Bali Ha'i in the background, setting the romantic tone for the entire show, adds lo...

Back in the early 70s I was enthralled by the majestic overture of Jesus Christ Superstar and by the gripping power of the lyrics.This is operetta at its best, where the entire story must come to fruition through the singing. When done well, these Bibilical characters come off the pages as real huma...

As my eyes panned across the Geffen Playhouse stage before the opening of Conor McPherson's The Night Alive, I could not help but notice the large poster of the film The Great Escape on the wall of Takeshi Kata's set of the dingy Edwardian house in Phoenix Park, Dublin that is the home of Maurice, n...

The national tour of MEMPHIS features superb choreography and musical direction, as well as top-notch singing, dancing, and acting by the supporting case. However, despite the show's considerable strengths, the lead actors turn in mediocre performances, reducing the touring version's overall appeal...

Anderson Davis directs his kick-ass cast of triple-threats like a racing car pro on a NASCAR speedway allowing the audience no time to breathe between all the applauding, the laughing, and the singing along....

Aficionados of epic scenery chewing could find much to enjoy in this over-acting, diva spewing, high camp ninety minutes. Audiences looking for laughs and more conventional entertainment may possibly need to find another destination....

Groundlings Dead or Alive, Groundling's latest Friday & Saturday night show makes you howl in their successful mix of improv and scripted skits of their snapshots of some absurd and some very real life situations....

For John Lloyd Young's special Valentine's weekend cabaret concert titled 'My Turn'---which continues at the Samueli Theater on the campus of Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 14---the Tony Award-winning star of JERSEY BOYS presented an hour-long set of love songs, both...

Enter Laughing - The Musical/book by Joseph Stein/music & lyrics by Stan Daniels/directed by Stuart Ross/Lovelace Studio Theater of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills/through March 1...

A charming, fun-filled musical comedy performed with cheery, infectious gusto, 3-D Theatricals' top-notch regional production of SEUSSICAL - THE MUSICAL is a laugh-out-loud, smile-a-minute spectacular for all ages! Featuring Cathy Rigby reprising her Broadway/National Tour role as The Cat In The Hat...

Whereas contemporary parents struggle to keep their children away from drugs and alcohol, Kelly Carlin spent her girlhood trying to keep her parents clean and sober, Growing up with George Carlin and his wife Brenda was not the easiest task, as young Kelly figuratively spent many useless years on a ...

On Sunday, February 8 LA's Next Great Stage Star 2015 came to an exciting conclusion at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. After an amazing 90-minute program in which the 20 contestants gave 150% to their uptempo songs from Broadway shows, fourteen contestants were eliminated and the top six* final...

Of the multitude of recent film-to-stage adaptations that have risen from the video dust bin to breathe new life in a different guise, the stage version of DIRTY DANCING---whose first national tour is now gyrating inside Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 15---is by far one...

There was a moment in Chance Theater's LOCH NESS, a new musical, when I realized I had fallen completely in love with it; when everything suddenly came together in the most wonderful of ways - the glow of the lighting on a handful of heart wide open actors, the lyrical swell of their singing voices ...

It all started simply enough when Dick Cavett invited author/critic Mary McCarthy on his PBS talk show on January 25, 1980. What resulted from a completely unplanned remark was one of the biggest literary feuds in history. McCarthy, when asked by Cavett to mention questionable authors at the time, i...

Steve Kazee is best known for his Tony award-winning role as Guy in the musical Once. He has since been seen as Gus on the Showtime show, Shameless. On February 6th, patrons at Rockwell had the pleasure of experiencing his very first Los Angeles show....

The luminous Karen Landry dominates (when she can) as Jacob's wife Mary - still feisty, still vibrant, financially savvy, ultimate protector of their two sons and keeper of peace in the Mercer household. Brava, Landry!...

The second you take your seat to experience Kneehigh's dazzlingly unorthodox adaptation of the classic doomed romance TRISTAN AND YSEULT at South Coast Repertory, you know for sure you're in for---well, as the folks in Monty Python would say---something completely different. From the get-go, there's...

This two-man tour de force musical comedy mystery is killing it on stage at The Old Globe in San Diego - or, rather, it's killing someone - and that someone is none other than Great American Novelist, Arthur Whitney. Unfortunately, this is one birthday party the much-hated author will never get to e...

On February 2, the 54th version of Kritzerland At Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal delighted its packed house with songs (some memorable, some lesser known) of American Songbook composer Jerome Kern. Hosted, as always, by the personable and very knowledgeable Bruce Kimmel; each song had elaborate ...

Playwright Lily Blau receives a strong mounting of her world premiere The Missing Pages of Lewis Carroll at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Director Abigail Deser glides her able cast through what Blau has imagined would be in the missing pages of author Lewis Carroll's actual diaries....

Playwright Zayd Dohrn dazzlingly attacks, dissects and vividly presents the unusual concept of reborn dolls in the Fountain Theatre's powerfully, intriguing Los Angeles premiere of his Reborning....

The Coachella Valley Reportory Theatre has scored a coup with HAVING OUR SAY. The top-notch acting of H. Chris Brown and Regina Randolph, the brilliant set design by Jimmy Cuomo, the imaginative props by Doug Morris, and the professionalism of the entire crew make Emily Mann's script sparkle....

There is a very good possibility that many of you have seen or heard of the terrific musical collective known as Postmodern Jukebox across one or more of your preferred social media platforms. This group of clever and talented viral-video/YouTube sensations is the brainchild of arranger/pianist/musi...

The Ahmanson Theatre welcomes back Dame Edna for the third time with Dame Edna's Glorious Goodbye The Farewell Tour. Things will never be quite the same thanks to Barry Humphries. He's Edna's manager and has exploited the lady's mind, body and spirit so much through the years that they are practical...