LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

So. Cal audiences should check out Musical Theatre West's rather admirable regional production of LES MISERABLES, which continues its limited run at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach through April 26, 2015. This highly-commendable, local production features a superb-sounding 30-pers...

World premiere of playwright Stan Rich's Loopholes: A Pain In The I.R.S. benefits from a very game cast of talented actors performing his fun, pun- galore, shtick-filled musical. The troupe's overall enthusiasm and commitment really pull off this 90-minute piece which possesses a very Judy Garland-...

Filled with relatable humor, wit, and plenty of fiercely sarcastic dialogue and gasp-lite melodrama, OF GOOD STOCK explores the layered, often contentious relationship between a trio of sisters who have decided to gather together at their family's gorgeous ocean-side summer home for a little weekend...

Satire on religion can be fun to watch. Take The Book of Mormon, for example, with its ferocious attack on innocence and man-made intervention. On a much smaller scale, Smoke on the Mountain is an intimate up close theatrical experience that comes to life via its bluegrass-style gospel musical numbe...

The now classic musical A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum is silliness personified from its zany characters and inane plot contrivances to its corny yet witty dialogue. It is clever farce set to music. Mistaken identities, zippity fast exits and entrances...it has no rhyme or reason but...

Sweeney Todd first bowed on Broadway in late 1979. Fortunately, I was in New York to witness the brilliant achievement of Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou and the entire creative team. Kelrik Productions is presenting the masterwork for the first time, hardly an easy...

In 1948, a decade before Motown, John Dolphin opened his soon-to-be world famous Dolphin's of Hollywood record store in South Los Angeles, just off legendary Central Avenue, but his contributions to music and the formative years of rock 'n' roll have often been overlooked. Based on the book "Recorde...

Kudos to George Villas for mastering Neil LaBute's extremely word-heavy monologues-the opening 20 minutes and the what-seemed-much-longer closing one. But Villas' Smith's long involved diatribes might be easier digested presented by a pivotal character more sympathetic and grounded....

Heartrending tales of tragedy weaved together by the common denominator of a gun (hence, Bang Bang) will rip your heartstrings and possibly cause a flow of tears. Ably directed by Mark Bringelson at an even, fast clip; his talented cast succeeds in presenting actual human faces to the oft-times, de-...

Charles Evered's West Coast premiere Class is a lovely piece of theatre currently onstage at the Falcon Theatre through April 19. It's always great to see a good script be given a laudatory production with fluid staging by director Dimitri Toscas, two sensitive performances from Gildart Jackson and ...

The always reliable and very informative host Bruce Kimmel unfailingly surprised his captured audience with the most interesting tidbits of Broadway trivia. Songs of this evening were chosen as to their fit in this, to quote Kimmel, 'potpourri of pleasant and perverse.'...

The best scripted comedy drag show in Los Angeles, this episode of the hysterical Hispanic spoof of the 1970's hit TV show Charlie's Angels receives a hilarious mash-up with another '70s hit The Love Boat....

Betrayal lurks around every corner when a ruler's ability to rule comes into question. Whether real or imagined, its weighty presence stands as a cautionary phantom in A Noise Within's JULIUS CAESAR. Directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliot and Geoff Elliot have turned Shakespeare's thought-provoking politi...

On Monday March 30 actor/singer Kevin Earley brought his show On the Record to a packed house of adoring fans at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in NoHo, and it proved nothing short of a triumph. Earley's tenor is no stranger to these parts, as the Chicago born spent a lot of time from 2001 onwa...

What happens when two of the world's most extraordinary theater companies, the England's Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Scotland, make the decision to work together on a sequel to Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, one of his darkest and most powerful works? It's no less than a m...

Thanks to Wilson Milam's fast paced direction and the highly gifted cast, CORKTOWN '57 truly becomes not only a serious look at a family in distress for both religious and political reasons but also a great history lesson on how intolerance can lead you down the wrong path to salvation. And how many...

Playwright Micah Schraft's world premiere of A Dog's House receives an absolutely stunning mounting with a first-rate, kick-ass cast. Schraft's witty, intelligent, entertainingly thought-provoking script flows fluidly out of the talented mouths of Christine Woods, Graham Sibley, Katie Lowes, and Dea...

SIGHT UNSEEN by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies opened on Broadway in 2004 and went on to win an Obie Award for Best New American Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play, and brought Laura Linney a Theatre World Award and nominations for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awa...

In 1899 droves of newsboys from every borough of New York City banned together and went on strike against Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and other wealthy newspaper owners, in a crusade to save children from menial wages and physical abuse. This was a first, where uneducated street kids st...

Broadway's Tony Award-winning production of Cinderella (2013) has a brand new book by Douglas Carter Beane and an expanded score of the glorious music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. As the musical based on the fairy tale possesses a more contemporary storyline, both Cinderella (Paige Faure) and Prince To...

Due to the enormous success of their first show, Sixth Avenue presented an encore of its National Tour 'ILove99 The Musical!' cabaret event to save Los Angeles intimate theatre on Tuesday, March 24 at the Dragonfly on Hollywood's Theater Row. Produced by Adam Silver and directed by Alan Smithee (wi...

The brainchild of Craig Taggart & Chris Pudlo, Rise 'n Shine with Bette & Juliette, exudes a fun 'Let's put on a show!' vibe via a talented troupe of enthusiastic performers....

The online world of social media began long before the internet exploded with email services and today's outlandish graphics and photo capabilities. Local BBS online systems allowed its members to log on, visit various chat rooms on lots of topics and create a world unto themselves by just typing a...

Actors/singers Eddie and Anthony Edwards, identical twins originally from Burbank, Ca, have been doing singing impressions for the last 30 years. In their renowned Vegas-style show entitled Twintastic, which tours much of the east coast and Canada, Anthony creates mostly male celebrities and Eddie, ...

A talented ensemble energizes the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Leilani Chan's Global Taxi Driver, a collection of taxi drivers' stories from all over the world....