LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

On Sunday September 7, at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, due to an advance sell-out crowd for the 7 pm show, an additional matinee show was performed for the Fourth Anniversary of Kritzerland. Needless to say, both matinee and evening performances were sold out, making the monthly Kritzerland t...

Playwright Carey Crim has a great talent for digging deep and exposing the many different layers of her characters. In Wake, her main character, an undertaker, is agoraphobic and attempting to recover from the death of her husband. She struggles to find a sense of self-worth, independence and freedo...

Impro Theatre's mission is to create a play from scratch in a particular style, right before the eyes of its audience. Their improvised plays include: The Twilight Zone, and the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Dickens, Tennessee Williams, even Sondheim - all unscripted. This time around it's The West...

BILLY SHAKESPEARE is a spicy little independent film by Deborah Voorhees that imagines what might happen if William Shakespeare tried to make it as a writer in today's Hollywood rather than Elizabethan England. Quirky characters, compromising situations, and the kind of deadpan humor made famous in ...

Those with an affinity for fast-talking Valley Girl-speak should find a lot to enjoy in Chiara Atik's Women....

Going above-and-beyond your typical museum diorama or theme park animatronic showcase, WALKING WITH DINOSAURS - THE ARENA SPECTACULAR is a dino-lover's dream: a wondrous feat of technology, theatrical magic, and imagination---bringing to (virtual) life those figures that continue to scare/fascinate ...

Since high school I have found Greek tragedy a repetitious, tedious bore - lots of emoting with zero action and no laughs. As I watched the magnificent SITI Company from New York perform Aeschylus' very first tragedy Persians at the Getty Villa in Malibu, things took a different turn, I somehow beca...

The world premiere of PSYCHE: A Modern Rock Opera is undeniably impressive, especially when you consider the scope of the author's vision and the level of detail that has gone into its execution....

The 1920s were not called the roaring twenties for nothing, and when 'modern' girls came from small towns across America to New York to seek a job, a husband and money, they were an overabundant lot. Take Millie Dillmount (Allyson Spiegelman) for example, who, like many others, sets her eyes, but ha...

One of the best ways to end the stress of a busy work week is with a few laughs. Best place to find those laughs right now is at ComedySportz LA, where the classically-trained, comically-proficient ladies of CHICKSPEARE take over the courtyard on Friday nights and improvise a one-act Shakespearean c...

Subtle and, at times, molasses-slow in execution---yet ultimately powerful in impact---ONCE is a beautifully-staged, soul-searing musical that interchanges romantic entanglement for creative fulfillment---and how the line that separates these emotions are often blurred. The eight-time Tony award-win...

Playwright Joanna McClelland Glass's autobiographical Trying is a two character play based on her working relationship as secretary to Judge Francis Biddle from 1967-68 in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Now in a fine West Coast premiere at ICT in Long Beach, Trying recounts the difficult professional...

Sex in a title is an eye-catching titillation guaranteed to attract an audience. I had never seen It's Just Sex originally, so I thought, 'OMG, let's do it - no pun intended - and be done with it'. Is it about sex for the sake of sex or what? Hardly. The play is not a parody of the porn industry or ...

A trio of strong female performances anchor playwright Eisa Davis' Bulrusher; an intriguing story of a mixed-raced 18-year-old with psychic powers growing up in a predominantly white 1950s California town....

In It's Just Sex, producer Rick Shaw has concocted the perfect cocktail for the main soiree of this piece; expertly blending one part-genius script of Jeff Gould; one part-firm and slick-paced directing by himself (Rose); one part-clean, efficient, non-obtrusive production elements; and seven parts-...

When you've been given the privilege to watch and, of course, listen to legendary Tony winner Jennifer Holliday sing live---in that signature inimitable style---it's practically akin to a religious experience. She is, to put it mildly, still one of the world's most treasured, gifted musical voices. ...

Actor/singer Dan Callaway has been revered over the last decade in New York and Los Angeles for his fine tenor/baritone voice, and so it is with mixed feelings that we say goodbye to him as he leaves to assume a teaching position in his home state of Elon, North Carolina. We are indeed happy that th...

On Friday August 15 singer/actress Rebecca Spencer made her Los Angles concert debut with Fair Warning at Upstairs at Vitello's with her long-time collaborator Philip Fortenberry as musical director, also making his LA debut....

Guiding a group of harmonious singers and a kick-ass band in their re-creation of past Motown hits, producer/director Michael Yorkell has transformed The Laguna Playhouse into a lively Las Vegas lounge....

What a wonder is love in the hands of a writer like Shakespeare. Through comedy, tragedy, sonnet and poem, the way he captures lovers and their essence is pure magic. In MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, bringing that magic to life rests largely with its leading man and lady, and when a company gets the pairi...

It is always great when a theatrical event meets your expectations. It is even better when it exceeds them. TOP ROCK at The Hard Rock Hotel Palm Springs did just that. Live It Up Production's TOP ROCK rivals the best production show on the Las Vegas strip with a tremendously talented and charismatic...

'Up, Up and Away' is not only the signature tune of the Fifth Dimension but it expressed the overall uplifting feeling Saturday night when the group made a rare Los Angeles concert appearance at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Their positive energy made the entire audience want to fly right alon...

Neil LaBute is known for writing abrasive plays, in which aggression often leads to violence. And the characters are not criminals but ordinary people who find themselves reacting differently when placed in extreme circumstances. It could happen to anyone. Take Bash for example. In his latest work r...

It begins with a wager and ends with a food fight and in between the laughs fly fast and furious in Independent Shakespeare Co.'s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Yes, throughout much of the play those laughs come at the expense of one woman, Katherine (Melissa Chalsma as the shrew of the title), but direct...

The Max Factor Factor boasts precision dancing and gorgeous harmonies amidst well-timed madcap shtick....