LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

In June 1989, Ann Starbuck was an American student on a year's sojourn in China where she was also working as a production assistant for CNN. When pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, she suddenly found herself swept up in the middle of historic events while assisti...

Spectacle wins out in Cameron Mackintosh's latest tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. Less reinvented than it is repackaged, the crowning glory of this production is its lavish costumes and sets (by Paul Brown and Maria Bjornson respectively), an...

During the crazy broohaha of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, there are plenty of loud, over.the.top noisy shows, if that suits your pleasure. Sondheim's Marry Me a Little is a quiet, gentle little 60-minute musical revue that just doesn't fit that bill. And that's totally fine by me! I prefer Sondhei...

Led by the impressive talents of David Mitrano as Jean Valjean and Garrett Chandler as his arch enemy Javert, the cast of nearly 30 performers harmonize beautifully in each and every number, never missing a beat. This is quite a remarkable feat, given the change to recorded tracks two days prior to...

For nearly three vigorous hours, MOTOWN - THE MUSICAL provides one helluva show. More like a CONCERT rather than your typical book musical, this dazzling, high-octane extravaganza of music and dance is a visual and aural feast that gamely crams in more than 60 hits from the groundbreaking record com...

BRIGHT SWORDS has three essential elements that make it one of the most polished, intelligent, and satisfying productions at Fringe: an elegant performance by Ryan Vincent Anderson, a beautifully written, smart, funny, human script by playwright Rick Creese, and stylish, impeccably focused direction...

Excessively harsh reality is at the core of most current popular dramedies as it is on television. A character cannot be rude or abrasive enough to arouse a viewer's attention or glean laughs. It's particularly characteristic of the irritating females who talk too fast, too loud and scream their shr...

Desert Theatreworks presents the California premiere of the new romantic comedy FUNNY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE, at the Arthur Newman Theatre, in Palm Desert, beginning June 19, 2015....

The musical expands on the many motifs raised in the novel while offering a fresh perspective on the nearly thousand-paged piece of literature. Originally written as a three-hour production, thankfully the Fringe show has been edited down to two. Those not familiar with the novel, however, may fin...

In its series Broadway @ the Broad, which began in October 2013 with Patti Lupone, Sutton Foster was the latest star to grace the stage, featuring Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host. The event took place Sunday June 14 at 5pm and 8pm, and Foster proved a real trouper. On her recent honeymoon in It...

Paul Sand's Kurt Weill at the Cuttlefish Hotel wows and astonishes with musical performances from two incredibly talented women Shay Astar and Kalean Ung. Sands has chosen various Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht compositions from their various hit shows and strung them together for a wonderful musical sho...

Timeheart 's 'Let's put on a show' vibe succeeds primarily due to the talents and stage presence of Dave Reynolds as Bruce Greenstreet, the inventor of the time machine/capsule.  Reynolds' strong and pleasant vocals coupled with his sharp physical comedy antics and timing propel this story of how G...

Set in Germany in 1523 when women had few lifestyle choices open to them, the play offers a very modern reimagining of key events in the life of historic figure Katharina von Bora, a nun who became the wife of Martin Luther, German leader of the Protestant Reformation. Beyond what is found in the w...

Scott Caan has written a very witty and smart script in his world premiere of The Trouble We Come From. Charlie, oh-so-comfortably inhabited by Michael Weston, has invited his leading man and best friend Vince home for some mano-to-mano advice to help him out of his relationship dilemma.  Caan's Vi...

If you have a hankering for romance and you love the old-fashioned musicals of a by-gone era, Waterfall is a perfect fit. Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire have created a beautiful glimpse of passionate love that develops amidst the turmoil of divergent cultures, east and west before WWII. Curre...

The charming new regional production of the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh musical spectacular MARY POPPINS---currently playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through June 21---has found a lovely, practically perfect Poppins in Hart of Dixie's Brandi Burkhardt, who confidently channels ...

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical has finally arrived at the Ahmanson Theatre, and it is a sumptuous treat for the eyes, ears and mind. Imagination runs amok in choreography, staging and in reproducing a feast of visual pleasures via ultra riveting set pieces - with scrabble-like words and phrases j...

Dysfunctional families provide delicious humor for stage and film, because most everyone can identify with one or more of the characters. And if they plan a mercy killing? The irreverent humor quadruples. In Howard Skora's new world premiere comedy Miserable with an Ocean View, we come face to fa...

A brilliant production of LES MISERABLES by Theatre Royale appeared at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside. In addition to top-notch performances, the production of LES MIZ features stunning visuals....

Harvey Fierstein's one-act On Tidy Endings, originally part of his 1987 Safe Sex trilogy, holds up very well in the abled reins of director Sara Wagner and her kick-ass cast. Set in a time when gay men only came out of their closets on a need-to-know basis (ex-wives, kids), contracting AIDS equalled...

When TRU premiered on Broadway, Robert Morse won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for his tour-de-force portrayal of Truman Capote. For his performance in the 1992 American Playhouse presentation of TRU, Morse w...

As a life-long lover of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shew' and now a fan of the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy, I was certainly wondering how the two could be combined. Well it appears to be much easier than I thought given the exciting new production of 'Fifty Shades of Shrew' at the Lounge Theate...

Rogue Machine produces a stunning mounting of the West Coast premiere of A Permanent Image. Playwright Samuel D. Hunter has created a stripped down, no-nonsense portrait of a family separated by distance, both emotional and physical, and the methods the parents will attempt to manipulate their desti...

This theatrical parody of a TV favorite has Fringe hit written all over it! Get your tickets now because the theater only has about 40 seats and the show is going to sell out. It should. Gus Krieger's writing is smart, compact, wickedly funny, and exactly what you hope it will be when you picture a ...

I confess to being very confused by the production. In this modern twist on Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet, women play men and men play women. Or rather, women play male characters as men and men play female characters as women…I think....