LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The amazingly talented performers of THE BLACK VERSION - HOLIDAY SPECIAL rocked the audience at Largo @ The Coronet with their lightning quick improv wit, some incredible vocals and ridiculously sharp rapping. Karen Maruyama directed her six-member cast in a racehorse pacing with just enough tim...

Ed and his three adult sons have gotten together to celebrate Christmas. They enjoy cheerful trash-talking, brotherly pranks and takeout Chinese, but find themselves confronting a problem that even being a happy family can't solve when youngest brother Matt seems upset about something he cannot shar...

In IMPRO THEATRE'S JANE AUSTEN UNSCRIPTED; seven very talented, quick-thinking members of the Impro Theatre, with only two idea suggestions from the audience, act out (sans script) a hysterical complete beginning-middle-and-end of a tale based on Jane Austen's writings....

There's no finer Christmas entertainment than an original story about home and family that has lots of humor, music and more than enough touches of magic...and of course, several kids and, to top it all off, Santa and Mrs. Claus. That's pretty much it in a nutshell with Home For Christmas, 2015's ho...

Like many Angelenos, I spent several evenings sitting back in wonder at the Planetarium shows, especially during the rock music themed productions. I recall waiting in long lines for hours in order to attend late night 'Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon' Laserium shows. Take a step back in time and ...

1996's mega hit British farce Cash on Delivery is an exceedingly hilarious romp through an unemployed man's out-of-control experiences with social security fraud. Written by Michael Cooney, son of well-known British actor/playwright Ray Cooney, the play builds an affecting series of misunderstandi...

The West Coast Premiere of playwright Neil Haven's WHO KILLED SANTA? features wonderful puppet work and clever re-workings of classic holiday songs. Ronnie Marmo directs his cast of five puppet characters and Santa Claus. Haven wittily sends up some old Christmas chestnuts, like 'Silent Night,' 'Car...

Even if you have never seen the movie before (could that be possible?), you can spend your holidays in Bedford Falls with George Bailey (Nathan Ondracek, who is a natural sound-alike and physically resembles Jimmy Stewart) and his loved ones as they take you through the heartwarming tale of his life...

If you go to MACK & POPPY: LET IT SNOW expecting just a cheesy lounge  act for fluffy amusement, you would be selling Mack & Poppy way short. Tod Macofsky and Christopher Graham have created a fine tuned act of calibrated cheese eliciting many hearty laughs accented with actual solid vocal chops ...

The 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life was based on the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern, published in 1945. Now there is a stage adaptation, a solo show in which actor/co-writer Jason Lott portrays George Bailey and all the characters who surround him in Bedford ...

One of my very favorite Christmas stories of all time is A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote about his boyhood growing up with his eccentric cousin Sook Faulk. Geraldine Page played Sook in a 1966 telefilm, and it was later remade for television in the 80s with Patty Duke. It is the Page version tha...

Migenes' performance was like taking a step back to the 1930s, watching the remarkable Lotte Lenya performing her husband's songs during the time he collaborated with Bertolt Brecht to create atonal melodies meant to shock audiences into realizing the masses were, like today, being controlled by the...

For one 'wonderfully entertaining' night only, Coyote Stageworks brought to the stage an all-star cast in a tremendously engaging staged-reading of Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST -- with a twist! Helmed, and created, by Tony Winner David Zippel, this EARNEST was set in modern day Manh...

I had never heard of the romantic comedy PERFECT TIMING by Kristi Kane before enjoying it so much at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills - and with good reason as this is only the second production of the play. This wild and often bordering on farce production is perfectly marvelous and brilliantly cast, d...

In the world premiere of WOOD BOY DOG FISH, playwright Chelsea Sutton has intricately written a very dark re-telling of Pinocchio and his maker Geppetto, fully utilizing the perfect combination of ocean video projections, mood-enhancing  music, modular set pieces, fantastic costumes, and most every...

John Patrick Shanley has won many accolades throughout his career as a poet and playwright. The author of more than 23 plays, including 80 productions in North America, Shanley won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play “Doubt” and an Oscar for his screenplay, “Moonstruck.” But his ...

Ever since I was dazzled by Creating Arts Studios production 'Thenardiers Inn' which well-deservedly went on to win the 2015 Hollywood Fringe award for best cabaret and variety show, I wait with anticipation for their next totally immersive theater experience, knowing it will be like no other. It w...

What is it about human nature that makes us so curious about what goes on with other people? For instance, just how often have you wondered what is going on next door or have put your ear to the wall hoping to hear whatever it is you think might be going on other the other side? Human nature's NEED...

It's a story that takes too long to tell but the jazz sizzles and Miravel definitely has potential. Billed as a jazz musical by Jake Broder, co-author of the hit musical Louis and Keely, Live at the Sahara, it really falls under the 'play with songs' category, currently more talk than music. Broder'...

Need a pick-me-up from a bad day? Aching to smile heartily through a pleasantly peppy stage musical? Then you need not look further than the rousing, just-launched new touring production of the Tony Award-winning hit 42ND STREET, now currently entertaining audiences at Orange County's Segerstrom Cen...

The Stella Adler Theatre's west coast premiere of AY, CARMELA! boasts the great fortune to have the stellar contributions of renowned architect Frank Gehry (in his first foray into the Los Angeles theatre scene as set designer) and Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel...

Jazz singer par excellence Lyn Stanley never ceases to amaze. A mere two years ago in 2013 she debuted her very first album Lost in Romance, which became an overnight sensation worldwide. Last year she premiered her second Potions From the 50s and now in 2015 we are more than thrilled to have her...

As art imitates life, dysfunctional family make up the majority of characters onstage nowadays. Life crises consistently prove that no one is perfect. Thank heavens! If they were, there'd be no conflicts, and in the theatre, no drama. In Tom Baum's new world premiere play Front Door Open, the matri...

In his STREEP TEASE, Roy Cruz has created an entertaining, all-male revue of Meryl Streep interpretators using actual (or actual-esque) dialogue from Ms. Streep's many films. With minimal use of props and just a hint of costume enhancements, this talented nine-membered Streepers perform some side-sp...

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote plays more character-heavy than plot-heavy, with unhappy Russians bemoaning their past and current plights. As a result, productions must be cast with actors who understand internal character motivation and insights (or lack thereof). Antaeus' latest production of a C...