LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

John Cox is a definite "fish-out-of-water."  A natural actor (in his late-thirties, I imagine), average-looking, with an average-build, who has eschewed an acting career to continuing working his blue-collar interests, he has written and stars in an absorbing 85-minute intimate history of his three...

Rivers and Sanders make a great team, bouncing bawdy one-liners off each other with fluid ease throughout the first act. There is lots of slapstick humor, ranging from the famous "walk this way" physical gag to several modern references that kept the audience entertained and laughing. There are mo...

It was 25 years ago when South Coast Repertory first staged the World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley's dark comedy ABUNDANCE. Fast forward to 2015, and Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater saw it fitting to once again revisit the property in a brand new prod...

WOMEN w/o WALLS is based on the myth of Charon the ferryman on the River Styx, inspired by Dante's Inferno and Sartre's No Exit. It is an exploration of the fine line between life and death, decision and non-decision, and the intense human experience of connection. While there is no doubt from the m...

With the impressive resumes and awards the REUNION team of writers and director/choreographer possesses, one would expect a first-rate show with dazzling choreography, wonderful songs and an involving plot. The world premiere of REUNION greatly benefits from the sensational, though sadly underused, ...

Ron House's original El Grande de Coca Cola was a huge hit and ran for 3 years off-Broadway. It's about the five-member Hernandez family, an in.your.face incompetent troupe of Mexican cabaret performers who have spent many many years performing in run-down over.the.border clubs. Now House returns wi...

Dane Whitlock sharply directs his talented cast in his PRAIRIE-OKE! delivering a fast-paced, 100-minute, high-camp romp full of not-so-subtle double entendres via the not-so-pure underbelly of 'Little House on the Prairie' denizens....

WIESENTHAL tells the powerful true story of Simon Wiesenthal, often called the "Jewish James Bond," a Holocaust survivor who, after cheating death at the hands of Hitler's S.S., spent his life bringing to justice the most notorious war criminals in human history. This provocative solo performance, w...

One of the things Independent Shakespeare Co. does exceedingly well is communicate Shakespeare's text to audiences who may have little or no background with Shakespeare in a way that they can understand it. And since an audience member rarely comes back to see another production when they haven't ha...

Desert Theatreworks, in Palm Desert California, has mounted a top-notch production of STEEL MAGNOLIAS. The acting is Broadway-quality, and the sets and costuming are also superb....

Joseph Kesselring's dark comedy farce Arsenic and Old Lace dates back to 1941 and was made into one hilarious film starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra in 1944. Nevertheless, the comedy is timeless, so it stills holds up quite deliciously in 2015. One never tires of murder especially wh...

The Celebration Theatre has picked a perfect production, the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Robert O'Hara's BOOTYCANDY, to inaugurate  their new home @ the Lex.  Entertaining, and with prominent reoccurring social themes of gay acceptance and upended racial stereotyping. ...

Fourth time's the charm for Musical Theatre West as the award-winning regional theater company opens its 63rd season with the 1956 Lerner and Loewe Broadway classic MY FAIR LADY. Retaining the effervescent wit and jubilant spirit of the original, MTW's irresistibly beguiling, top-notch local revival...

The west coast premiere of THE SPARROW successfully intrigues as a stylistic performance art piece with some stunning visuals utilizing backlite scrims, clever choreography and inventive staging, with some haunting original music by Gregory Nabours. Kudos to Kristin Browning Campbell's scenic desig...

It would not be the Halloween Season in L.A. without WICKED LIT, presented by Unbound Productions Executive Director Jonathan Josephson, Artistic Director Paul Millet, and Producing Artistic Director Jeff G. Rack. The company's 7th annual immersive theatre event takes place inside and on the grounds...

HOPSCOTCH is a new mobile opera performed in limos on three different routes (Red, Yellow or Green) at various points in and near downtown Los Angeles, presented by the Industry, directed by the amazing Yuval Sharon and his incredible production team comprised of composers, singers, musicians, sound...

18 years and billions of box office receipts later, Disney's Tony Award-winning global hit THE LION KING is still going strong both on Broadway and on various touring and sit-down productions across the world. The show's North American tour is currently finishing up its four-week return engagement a...

On Friday October 23 at the E-Spot Lounge upstairs at Vitello's, jazz, soul, R&B singer Aaron Akins delivered his striking Into the Cole show in honor of the music of legendary Nat King Cole. It is so rich to hear someone that can replicate with such class the smooth, distinctive, unforgettable ...

Called by many the perfect musical, My Fair Lady based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion has perhaps the wittiest and showiest debate between the sexes. Shaw despised marriage and loved to magnify human frailty, both female and male. And with Lerner and Loewe to create the book, music and lyric...

THE DOCK BRIEF runs 70 minutes without an intermission, focusing on an unsuccessful barrister who has been waiting for years to make a grandstand defense. He is overjoyed when he gets assigned to defend an innocuous little man appropriately named Fowle who is accused of murdering his ever-merry and ...

What if Satan was alive and decided to write his memoirs about GOD, THE EARLY YEARS? Just what would he have to tell us from his rather off-center point of view? And what would you like to ask him if you could? Emily O'Meara and Renegade Theatre are giving you a chance to do just that during the...

Jonas Sills, Director/Producer of the show, played one the leads, Russian chess player Anatoly Sills is a fabulous singer and his stage presence outshined most of the other performers. His aim was 'to bring this production back to its roots with a simple, but carefully planned fully staged productio...

Ask musical actors/actresses for their choice of favorite Broadway musical of all time and they most often concur, West Side Story. Why? It has phenomenal music by Leonard Bernstein, with concise poetic lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a tight and gripping book by Arthur Laurents, and brilliant choreo...

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Appropriately enough, the supposedly haunted Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton is currently playing host to the happy spooks of 3-D Theatricals' regional production of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, which continues performances at this historic theater through October 25 before migrating south to the Redondo Beac...