LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Despite some glitches in lighting and sound, which obviously irritated her, and some throat problems due to a cold, Neile Adams proved a great trouper once more as she adhered to the old adage ' the show must go on' and wholeheartedly essayed The Lives of Me at the Monroe Theatre of the El Portal Sa...

Back in the 50s, the era that was innocence personified, Broadway musicals were written to entertain first. Of course, Stephen Sondheim and other more serious composers were beginning to change the face of the American musical with the goal to enlighten, but shows like Li'l Abner, with book by Norma...

Love and Pizza…and Shakespeare! That's what authors Kim Askew and Amy Helmes have cooked up Chicago-style in ANYONE BUT YOU, book three of their popular Twisted Lit series for young adults. Each of the stand-alone books takes a classic Shakespearean story and spins it into a modern tale that is fr...

What do the 1950s have in common with 1912? Ages of innocence, both. When Meredith Willson wrote his story with Franklin Lacey about a con artist bamboozling an Iowa town in 1912, which formed the substance of his musical The Music Man (1957), the effect became like that of N. Richard Nash's The Rai...

It's always nice to revisit a show and see a 100% improvement. Such is the case with the rewritten spoof A Big Gay North Hollywood Wedding at Crown City Theatre, which opened May 15 for an extended run, at least throughout the summer. The first time around - 2009 - (review below) I noticed a lot of ...

On Sunday May 18 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal phenomenal Broadway singer Terri White brought down the house with her all new cabaret show Two Score with musical direction by the incomparable Bryan Miller. The slightly under one hour set marked the second appearance, by popular demand, of th...

After being on the road for almost two years now, the hilarious Tony Award-winning Broadway musical hit THE BOOK OF MORMON has finally made its way inside the OC... And, man, it's about frikkin' time. All that hype and hyperbole about just how amazing this show is isn't an exaggeration; every accola...

Think Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Move the action ahead a century or so, adding Asian Americans and Mexican-Americans to the Anglo-Saxon mix and you come out with a very contemporary perspective of a small American town in Kimber Lee's different words for the same thing, beautifully staged by direct...

Unorganized Crime/by Kenny D'Aquila/directed by David Fofi/Elephant Theatre/through May 31...

The Ghost of Gershwin/A New Old-Fashioned Musical/book by Doug Haverty/music by Wayland Pickard/lyrics by Wayland Pickard & Laura Manning/directed by Jules Aaron/Group rep at Lonny Chapman Theatre, NoHo/through June 22...

Though the term is rarely used today, there was an era when ending up an old maid was the worst possible scenario for a woman. Hard times and modest dreams made finding a husband a requirement for happiness, especially during the Depression when people lived off the land, family meant all, and survi...

Stephen Sondheim's lyrics and James Lapine's book are so brilliantly profound in INTO THE WOODS that, when in doubt, the best thing an actor can do is simply make sure the audience can hear the words. 3-D Theatricals struggles with this basic tenet in its gorgeously appointed though unmanageably lar...

Bursting with magic, wit and whimsy, INTO THE WOODS---the sprightly Tony Award-winning musical that features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine---is currently on stage at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through May 18. Produced by OC's Ovation Award-winning 3-D Theat...

Two character plays about love and friendship over time like Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade and Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry are A-list treasures. Their lack of pretension and real humanity make them linger quite joyously in the mind. In spite of some wonderful moments, Six Dance Lessons...

Fraggled Productions has put together a respectable production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Cupcake Theater in Hollywood with a delightfully oddball cast and the requisite fun audience participation. The Tony Award-winning musical, featuring music & lyrics by William Finn, bo...

In the new play FIVE MILE LAKE---currently in the midst of its World Premiere at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory through May 4---author Rachel Bonds populates her quiet, snail-paced drama with characters that speak in hushed tones and coded exchanges that seem to mask a lifetime's supply of jealo...

Everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves artistically. Theatre, music, dance, poetry - all forms of art stimulate growth and nurture our intuitive connection to the world around us. CRE Outreach (which stands for Create, Reflect, Empower) uses theatre as a means of artistic explora...

Cheyenne Jackson won the hearts of a sold-out crowd by completely opening his own in his debut performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night. The self-professed goal of the tall, dark and handsome singer was simply 'to blanket the audience with love,' which he did repeatedly in a program...

Wake/by Carey Crim/directed by Matt Kirkwood/SeaGlass Theatre at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Pasadena/through May 25...

Tarzan The Stage Musical/book by David Henry Hwang/based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' story 'Tarzan of the Apes' and the Disney film/music and lyrics by Phil Collins/directed by Erik Austin/El Portal, Monroe Forum Theatre/through May 18...

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The Tallest Tree in the Forest/written & performed by Daniel Beaty/directed by Moises Kaufman/Mark Taper Forum/through May 25...

Ruth Draper's Monologues/written by Ruth Draper/directed & performed by Annette Bening/Geffen Playhouse/through May 18...

Touching, richly-staged and beautifully-acted, REST---Samuel D. Hunter's oh-so-engrossing and oh-so-funny new play now having its world premiere at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory through April 27---presents a disheartening reality of life we all must face sooner or later: that getting older is, ...

Come Back, Little Sheba/by William Inge/directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott/a Noise Within, Pasadena/through May 17...