LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

[title of show] is the story of two musical theatre guys who aren't anywhere close to making it but decide to write a musical about writing a musical, starring themselves and their two best friends....

On Sunday June 23 consummate singer Eileen Barnett brought a new version of her night club show to Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal entitled You Must Believe in Spring with superb musical direction from John Boswell and crisp direction from Kristen Benton Chandler....

The King and I/music by Richard Rodgers;/book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II/based on Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon/directed by Neil Dale/Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre/through August 4...

Revolver/by Chris Phillips/directed by Ryan Bergmann/Celebration Theatre/through July 21...

The Real Housekeepers of Studio City is banking on the fact that everything old is new again by playing to the audience who views the world through a less cynical lens and remembers a time when you didn't get up to leave the room when the commercials came on because you loved them just as much as th...

Shakespeare. It's not just for highbrows anymore. You can be sure of that when you see The Flynnsmen present Shakespeare's KING PHYCUS at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. What may have once scared off those less familiar with Shakespeare's plays for fear of not understanding the language is now made c...

I know next to nothing about Pokemon and from the photos I'd seen I figured THE POKEMUSICAL would simply be a family-friendly musical that might be cute and probably fun, but I never imagined I would love it as much as I did....

If you like your musicals short, fast-paced, funny, and smart enough to spoof the big guys while delivering a healthy dose of pure fun, this is the musical for you. Brooke Seguin's 30 MM: INDEPENDENCE DAY clocks in around 40 minutes, which is plenty of time to run the aliens out of town and save the...

When Michael Shaw Fisher walks out to introduce EXORCISTIC: The Rock Musical Parody Experiment at its Fringe Mainstage home, it takes a few minutes before you realize that the musical has actually begun....

O, FALLEN ONE is the initial concept workshop of a devised play that combines stylized scenes with fragmented language, movement, dance, and other devices to create a unique artistic experience....

Let me start off by saying that the performance of The Rainmaker on Saturday June 15 was almost cancelled due to the illness of the two actors playing File and the Sheriff. Ron Vignone and Daniel Robinson respectively stepped in with only a couple of hours rehearsal so that the show could go on. Wit...

Heartbreaking. Gutsy. Intensely riveting. These are some of the words I jotted down in the dark---while simultaneously wiping tears streaming down my face---during the Southern California Regional Premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL, now playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the...

I decided to see Andrew Potter's one man show THE ROAD TO HIGH STREET, a busker's digital rock & roll story, after reading a glowing recommendation from a theatre colleague who saw it last year's Fringe Festival....

Not unlike David Mamet's November, a screwball look at the overwhelming incompetence of an American President, Yes, Prime Minister by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn in its American premiere at the Geffen, is a savvy, right-on-target satire of British politics that is over-the-top, hysterically funny w...

THE TIME MACHINE MUSICAL is a one-hour condensed version of a longer two act musical adapted for the Fringe by Steve Altman and Joshua Fardon based on the H.G. Wells sci-fi story....

A man - seemingly oblivious to the sound of his own cell phone ringing - sits in a cafe during lunchtime. His phone rings…and rings…and rings until, no longer able to bear the intrusive sound, Jean, a young woman from a nearby table, asks him to please answer it....

What a treat to see a brand new theatre company present such a fine opening show like A Man of No Importance! Winner of the 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award in New York as Best Off-Broadway Musical, Man..., based on a 1994 film starring Albert Finney, tells a simple but rich story of an ordinary bus ...

There are no fewer than nine different productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream playing in theatres around the Southland this summer but I can guarantee that none of them will be done up quite like the Troubies' A MIDSUMMER SATURDAY NIGHT'S FEVER DREAM at the Falcon Theatre....

I am a huge fan of theatre that gets you thinking and questioning the experience, characters and subject matter presented. And I find myself, even after so many hours, still thinking about this fine production and just what reality was really being presented. I challenge you to do the same after s...

Hilarious, visually arresting, and surprisingly heart-warming, PRISCILLA - QUEEN OF THE DESERT---the rousing stage musical adaptation of the 1994 Oscar-winning indie film of the same name---is an outlandishly silly show from start to finish, filled with non-stop eye-popping visuals, out-of-this-worl...

The Sunday, June 2nd Kritzerland Show at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in North Hollywood proved another highly enjoyable evening from Bruce Kimmel and Adryan Russ. The composer celebrated in this show, Noel Coward, is perhaps more renowned for his lyrics than his melodies, but what lyrics they...

Originally on Broadway in 1951 Lerner & Lowe's Paint Your Wagon was one of their less successful shows, which chronologically came right before their mega-hit My Fair Lady. As with most Lerner & Lowe, it's the place and characters that Lerner had such a talent for depicting. In Paint Your Wagon it's...

Sleepless in Seattle is one of the most popular films of the 90s which gave Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan two of their best roles ever as destined.to.meet lovers Sam and Annie. In a brave move Jeff Arch, Ben Toth and Sam Forman have composed a musical based on the movie which is making its world premiere a...

Now performing at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through June 9, Director Amanda Dehnert's beguiling new revival of THE FANTASTICKS comes to vibrant life as an old-timey vaudevillian review that just happens to have a love story woven into it. This clever, magical makeover, setting the piece in...