LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The Desert Rose Playhouse's production of Terrence McNally's LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! is moving and absorbing. This gay heritage production follows eight men who gather at a lake house over holiday weekends in the summer of 1994....

Hal Holbrook presented his iconic one-man show, MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! , appeared at Riverside's Fox Performing Arts Center for one show on Saturday, January 17th. Mr. Holbrook delighted the audience with Twain's words skewering Congress, misuse of religion, guns, and people's refusal to think before s...

Desert Theatreworks, a nonprofit theatre company in Palm Desert, has served up a delectable production of Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS, at the Joslyn Center's Arthur Newman Theatre. LOST IN YONKERS will be presented on January 23 and 24, 2015, at 7 p.m. and on January 24th and 25th at 2 p.m. Tickets...

On Sunday evening January 18 the beautiful songstress Nita Whitaker brought her inimitable style and warmth to Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in a new show entitled All That Matters. Backed by musical director Nelson Kole at the piano and a three-piece combo, Whitaker spoke of the value of love ...

One of the first - if not the first jukebox musicals, The Buddy Holly Story is short on plot and high on the unique rock and roll music of Buddy Holly. This is my second time seeing the show - I first saw it on its American tour in 1999. The music I grew up with in the 50s is so appealing, that I si...

The ensemble effort of La Mirada Theatre/McCoy Rigby's cast of BILLY ELLIOT is an extraordinary accomplishment and especially resonant in a musical that is all about solidarity and overcoming the odds. It also has the kind of opening night story that wins hearts and shows how a company will rally li...

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies' thought-provoking Time Stands Still receives a strong mounting at the Secret Rose....

In South Coast Repertory's excellent new production of Matthew Lopez's captivating play THE WHIPPING MAN---now playing at the Tony Award-winning Costa Mesa theater through January 25---an internal, theological tug-of-war is brewing just as the Civil War has come to an end. The absorbing, character-d...

A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of parents for a meeting to resolve the matter in GOD OF CARNAGE, now onstage at Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre through February 8, 2015. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses and...

A perfect combination of talents winningly converges in the world premiere of Serrano The Musical, a non-stop, jaw-dropping two-hour-plus of entertainment at the Matrix Theatre....

The Promenade Players Theatre Company presents the Los Angeles premiere of THE MEMORY OF WATER, a witty and moving exploration of family dynamics by British playwright Shelagh Stephenson. Winner of the 'Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy,' this absorbingly entertaining play is full of dark humor...

Like many of us, I love words…and I love to lose myself in a good book. But these days it seems like life moves at such a fast pace that there is little time to relax in the embrace of a good story, lost in a world of new ideas and adventures. The truth is - we're all busy. We all have to-do lists...

Writer/performer Stephanie Satie gives voice to four extraordinary women in her award-winning solo play "Silent Witnesses" now onstage as a returning guest production at the Odyssey Theatre in West LA on Sundays at 2pm through February 1. Basing her play on interviews and conversations with child su...

"Music was his dream but acting was his passion." That's how Chris Lemmon describes his famous father Jack in JACK LEMMON RETURNS, the 90-minute play with songs that has settled into the intimate black box theater (The Edye) at the Broad Stage. The show is a tribute to the man who meant the world to...

The Book of Oded: Chapter Two grabs hold of your attention in a totally involving, one-man retelling of a decade of Oded's life; and doesn't let go until the seventy minutes are over....

The lesson of The Pliant Girls is that that terrifying chaos affects everyone-and that the only way to make the world more manageable is to operate from a place of true compassion....

BLONDE POISON is based on the true story of Stella Goldschlag (1922-1994), a young woman who had exquisite beauty with the blue eyes, blonde hair and bone structure that marked her as a young Aryan goddess. But she was not an Aryan - she was a Jew who survived the Holocaust by becoming a Greifer, an...

Loosely patterned after 'an audition process', this 9th annual fully produced event is geared to discovering new talent between the ages of 18 and 32 for the musical theatre stage....

When it comes to film-to-stage adaptations, the sassy, Tony Award-winning Best Musical KINKY BOOTS---whose touring company is now on stage at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through January 11---is that rare phenomenon we all wish would happen more often: a stage show th...

Just how amazing is the music made by Pink Martini? Well, judging from their recent appearance on New Year's Eve December 31 at Walt Disney Concert Hall - and this was not their first NYE appearance in this venue - pretty awesome! How many other orchestras do you know that play such a mix of genres;...

Akin to a Las Vegas show, We 3 Kings works dynamically as a showcase for its 3 artists: Luca Ellis, Shawn Klush and Brandon Michael Jones, especially for Jones, currently considered the premiere tribute artist of Michael Jackson. Now onstage at the El Portal in NoHo through New Year's Eve, it's enjo...

The Best in LA Theatre for 2014 (alphabetical listings; Equity, Equity-waiver & Non-Equity productions are mixed) (artists performing outside LA may be included in performance categories)...

On Monday December 22 the terribly amusing song stylist Cortes Alexander presented his annual Swell Noel to an uber packed house at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. Alexander has such frenetic energy and charm that, and I've said this before, you just want to wrap him up. What a joyous Christm...

The essential holiday tradition of The Nutcracker ballet continues for one more weekend, presented by the Los Angeles Ballet at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Saturday, December 27 at 1:00pm and 5:00pm and on Sunday, December 28 at 2:00pm. This production is the perfect introduction to ...

In Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, an angel in training named Clarence comes back to earth to earn his wings by helping one man recognize his value in the world. The beloved classic is a reminder to all adults that every man matters and every angel has his own special way of helping those in ne...