LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Nothing like an idyllic family portrait (at left): father Martin (Paul Witten), mother Stevie (Ann Noble), son Billy (Spencer Morrissey) and close family friend Ross (Matt Kirkwood). They are what one might call perfect. They have everything and adore one another. Martin is a prize-winning architect...

Amy Herzog's Pulitzer-Prize nominated 4,000 Miles explores a most difficult relationship between a grandmother of 90 and her grandson some seventy years her junior. That gap in age is very wide like the distance of 4,000 miles from Seattle, Washington to New York City which Leo (Christian Prentice) ...

Michael dies in a car crash that he calmly describes in explicit detail in the opening monologue of Antony J. Bowman's SOMEWHERE. It is a chilling few minutes that sets up what we think will be a thought-provoking exploration of what happens to one man after death....

Melissa Arctic, Craig Wright's re-imagining of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, doesn't quite jell, despite many good elements in this two-hour production....

Most of the time, when you go to the theater, you pretty much know what to expect. Though the subject matter and delivery varies, when you buy a ticket to a play or musical you basically know what kind of show you're going to see. Well here's one for those of you that want something that is truly di...

Audiences may be somewhat confused, but nonetheless intrigued and maybe even stimulated by Jordan Harrison's world premiere play Marjorie Prime now onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through October 19. It's an insightful 80-minute one-act but would most likely work better in tandem with another one-ac...

Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate is a timeless, delightful musical romp that can be seen again and again. It's an overblown, joyous account of two egotistical actors, once married to each other, who adore one another but just cannot be around each other very long without catastrophic, calamitous results. ...

Actors/singers David Burnham and Valerie Perri were critically acclaimed costars of Musical Theatre West's (MTW) Sunset Boulevard last season, but they have never sung together in cabaret until now. Together Again For the First Time premiered at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal on Sunday September...

Clever and full of campy humor, the world premiere Scary Musical The Musical has a dangerously speedy pace that will surely keep you on your toes as you enjoyably try to figure out whodunit. Now at the NoHo Arts Center and produced by NoHo ACE, the new musical has brilliantly skilled direction and c...

Charles Dickens' last novel, unfinished at the time of his death in 1870, supplied the story for the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood which won five Tony Awards when it first premiered in 1985. Although it won for Best Book and Best Score, I hardly find either completely satisfying. On the musical...

In Is There Sex After Marriage?, a talented cast of six hysterically illustrate the pitfalls caused by a husband's off-the-cuff, but honest remark about sex with his wife....

The dueling forces of light and dark are constantly at play in A Noise Within's fantasy-meets-reality world of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, the first production of its 2014-15 season. Deborah Strang takes on the role of Prospero in a gender-switch that now finds mother and daughter (rather than father...

Director Michael Arden gives the word discovery new meaning in a spectacular production of Steven Sater (book & lyrics) and Duncan Sheik's (music) Spring Awakening based on Frank Wedekind's 1891 expressionist play. Arden, who has had a long partnership with Deaf West that goes back to Big River, whi...

Actress/lawyer Allison Brush made her very well-received cabaret debut at Upstairs at Vitello's Sunday September 14 with her show entitled For This You Went to Law School? Once an actress/singer, Brush, discouraged by rejection like many, left the profession and studied law, passing the bar exam on ...

Think quirky like Moonstruck, only transplant the action from New York to Los Angeles and replace the large Italian Family with a dysfunctional community of friends and their current significant others. For those that have forgotten Moonstruck it was a hit movie in 1987 in which relationships were t...

What a joy-filled experience to see tap legend Arthur Duncan live onstage in his one man show One More Time! at the El Portal when he performed five shows September 12 - 14 in the Monroe Forum Theatre! Duncan was the first African American performer to do a regular TV gig - for 18 years in fact - on...

All the elements on this Rogue Machine production perfectly come together, much like a successful recipe for the delicious cheesecake presented for dessert near the climax of Cock....

Like Rockwell's previous residency, Jagged Little Pill, their latest show Roar brings life to contemporary songs with the use of storytelling and a cast of incredible talent. Think 'Rent' meets a jukebox musical of contemporary female singer/songwriters....

Something completely enchanting is happening right now on a stage in Costa Mesa. Kicking off its 51st season, South Coast Repertory---in association with the American Repertory Theatre and the Smith Center---is currently staging the remarkable, re-envisioned new take on William Shakespeare's classic...

Close to three hours of crazy behavior, with doses of disgusting, despicable action mixed in, make for an extremely intense, but trying evening....

Lovers of Shakespeare are in for a real treat when Shakespeare's Globe Theatre brings its all-male Original Practices production of Twelfth Night to local cinemas beginning September 22. Starring award-winning actors Mark Rylance as Olivia and Stephen Fry as Malvolio, the film gives audiences an exc...

It used to be, in days gone by, that hit Broadway shows would be made into movies; now, it's the reverse. With a dearth of ideas for Broadway musicals, the trend lately has been to turn to the big screen and revamp a popular film for the stage, adding song and dance. Such was the case with 9 to 5 an...

When Oklahoma! was first produced on Broadway in 1943 it became the first smash hit for newly formed collaborating team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and also the first real book musical, preceded only by Showboat. It was a breakthrough musical, which when given a first-class production, ...

Throughout two thirds of Bill Cain's political thriller EQUIVOCATION, a confused Shagspeare (known to us otherwise as Shakespeare and played by Ted Barton) keeps asking questions and getting answers that don't make sense. Finally a circumspect Father Garnet (Franc Ross) tells him to look for the que...

Does genius have to be accompanied by totally a-hole behavior? John Stark directs his uniformly strong cast in a slick, strong-handed pace, in which they vividly exhibit the demons alternately possessing and inspiring the playwright's writings....