LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Written by acclaimed actress and playwright June Carryl and produced by Imagine Theatre, this light-hearted, fantastical voyage through the savanna is inspired by folktales and origin stories from South Africa.  There is a charming Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland feeling of whimsy and adventure ...

As embodied by Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi in the revival of GODOT at the Geffen Playhouse, Vladimir and Estragon are a formidable pair. Beckett’s play about the unknowable darkness of the human condition has - go figure! - long been catnip for comedians, and you get why Wilson and Mandvi would ...

Pinkleton has thrown every prop gimmick and novel idea in the book at the show, and in the process has disrupted the stuff that simply works about the piece....

Led by a brilliant performance by Jason Alexander, this lively, emotionally-grounded, classic-leaning staging still somehow manages to feel fresh, reinvigorated, and much more searing than prior iterations.This latest SoCal-area revival of the landmark 1964 musical—here directed by Lonny Price—i...

NIGHTINGALE is by turns stark, humorous, shocking, and devastating, revealing truths and realities obliquely but with the power of blunt force....

Is there some sort of formula for roping in both fans of a hit movie and stage hounds, to catch lightning in a new medium? Judging by what the musical's book writer Bob Gale, director John Rando and the musical team must have been thinking, the answer is you slavishly remake the movie on stage....

Before seeing this show, I knew nothing of it besides a quite comedically tantalizing Instagram promo video and a snazzy 60’s referencing sci-fi movie poster.  The script and plot however was as elusive as even the idea of a commonly puerile film executive attempting to write an exploitable and p...

Featuring a remarkable, gutsy performance by Tessa Auberjonois as the legendary comedienne, JOAN is an absorbing and hilarious new work that also feels like an on-going work-in-progress. The world premiere production continues performances at South Coast Repertory through November 24, 2024....

This production feels contemporary and fresh, with an edgy, f-you, punk rock rebelliousness.  Yet it also feels profoundly truthful to the original grittiness of A Streetcar Named Desire, how it was received when it premiered — its New Orleans funk and grime, its rough, perverse sexiness and swea...

In the end, the show is all about seduction, and it has all the dark, gritty sex appeal of a dingy French Quarter speakeasy. That is to say: It’s got the sultry rhythm and blues to sweep you into the fun even if you don’t know exactly why you’re there....

At a brisk 80 minutes, the rock opera flies by in a flash of opulence and sin with an infectious joie de vivre...

Barely six months since braving Wilson's KING HEDLEY II, the company and director Gregg T. Daniel are back an impactful - if leisurely – PIANO LESSON. Where HEDLEY was grim, this one is ghostly, rueful and full of music....

Vibrant, colorful, and charming, this Inland Valley Repertory Theatre production of the Academy Award winning 1989 animated Disney film is a delight.  Looking around the enthusiastic opening night audience, I see everyone from seniors and date-night couples to toddlers on laps completely enraptured...

Eric McCormick and Laura Bell Bundy recently stopped by Segerstrom Center of the Arts to present the OC debut of their cabaret show “A Blonde, A Brunette, and Some Duets: From Primetime to Sondheim,” a fun and cheeky night of silly songs and even sillier stories for a limited three-night engagem...

The Road Theatre’s 2024–2025 season opener, Marlow Wyatt’s ROBBIN, FROM THE HOOD, is a smart and sensitive look at two kids in the projects of an unnamed tropical American city who strive for more....

The Antaeus Theatre Company pulls off another triumph with the enchanting and handsomely mounted Oscar Wilde classic....

Structured as a non-stop song-and-dance revue without any dialogue, the Fats Waller tribute musical relies on its spunky live band and its crazy-good, five-person cast to sing a songbook filled with (mostly) joyful and (some) sorrowful jazz tunes. The show continues through Nov. 3, 2024 at the Carpe...

It’s hard to succinctly describe Shipping, a new musical by Jen Jackson and Louisa Kellogg with music by Brian Heveron-Smith. On one hand, it’s a scrappy little treat— a cobbled-together weave of local comedy talents that filled the Elysian Theatre with non-stop laughs from beginning to end. R...

The show is vibrant and candy-colored, featuring an earnest cohort of character actors perfectly placed into their roles, but with a stirring score by Jeanine Tesori and witty book by David Lindsay-Abaire, the piece is an instant classic of contemporary musical theatre. ...

With a packed Taper house, a stage full of hot young singer/dancers performing, signing and middle fingering their hopes and disillusionments into an iconic rock score; yeah life doesn’t suck too much. Neither does this production, although ironically, here’s wishing that that the experience cou...

The beloved story of dreamers and lovers in late ’80s New York is marred by poor sound and a band that drowns the players out....

While the show’s darker ending may leave younger audiences a bit shell-shocked, there’s no denying the infectious energy of this production. The songs, the performances, and the fun all come together in a show that will have you humming 'Bop sh-bop' long after the final curtain....

Offering a sharp and multi-layered commentary on modern workplace culture, unchecked ambition, and the public-stoked commodification of trauma, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' intriguing play GLORIA—a riveting new dark comedy that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—is currently having its ...

From the second we enter the Morgan-Wixon, ushered in by black cowl-clad members of the Cult of Bat Boy; from the moment we see that pointy-eared effigy strung up to the rafters, we’re primed for two plus hours of four alarm horror camp....

For SCR's impressive, must-see local revival, the show gets a hyper-hybrid treatment that combines nostalgic elements inspired by the original but infused with 21st-century sass and sensibilities. Alongside its visual splendor, the show also features a superb ensemble cast, resulting in a blissfully...