LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

As the axis of this spinning vortex, Noel Coward's The Vortex, the talented Shannon Holt dominates as Florence....

Susan Soon He Stanton has woven insights to Japanese philosophy amidst sharp, witty lines in her two-hour, three-dimensional character-driven drama, directed by Leslie Ishii in a smooth, flowing pace....

Following in the footsteps of La Cage Aux Folles, Billy Elliott and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, all foreign films turned into Broadway musicals, Kinky Boots, the 2013 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, brings its spirited message of 'Just Be Who You Wanna Be' to the Pantages in its West Coast premi...

Broadway's loss is definitely Long Beach's gain now that the big, bright, and buoyant new musical BIG FISH is making a splash as the season opener for Musical Theatre West's 62nd season. Filled to the brim with heart, emotional heft, and colorful storytelling, this slightly flawed but charmingly ima...

This isn't the first time the Illyrian Players have taken on Shakespeare. In 2011, the company began its provocative theatrical conversation about gender and sex with Twelfth Night, and it has since given LA a BDSM version of The Taming of the Shrew and a gender reversed Macbeth. In addition to Shak...

On Saturday November 8 at Upstairs at Vitello's in Studio City, international jazz vocalist Lyn Stanley presented a CD release party to celebrate her new recording Potions (from the 50s). Onstage with her were sensational musicians tenor-saxophonist Terry Harrington, pianist Mike Lang, bassist Mike ...

The historic reunion---formatted as part talk-show, part concert---featured not only its creators Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine waxing nostalgic about the making of this beloved show, but also had several members of the Original Broadway cast including Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zie...

A troupe of 8 talented actors perform essentially 8 separate monologues during this 90-minute show, Tom Yewell's THE PENIS CHRONICLES...

Greasepaint's best and most recognizable songs ('Who Can I Turn To?' 'The Joker') receive strong vocal performances, backed by fully-realized acting from the charismatic Alec Medlock...

The Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, in Rancho Mirage, California, has mounted a brilliant production of THE CHOSEN as part of its 'American Melting Pot' series. THE CHOSEN examines the lives of two Orthodox Jewish high school friends in Brooklyn during and immediately after World War II. One bo...

You'll get no argument from me: Cheyenne Jackson is a powerhouse vocalist and his charismatic quotient is off the charts. It is easy to gush about his vocal prowess, his versatility as a singer and his movie star magnetism. He is a consummate crooner with a vocal ease that is equally adept at the Br...

The several intertwined stories about characters motivated by the seven deadly sins and shocking scenes of excessive cruelty and suffering (especially the violent blinding of Gloucester, Lear's descent into madness, the raging storm, and the tragic death of Cordelia), make KING LEAR a profound explo...

On Sunday November 2, Kritzerland presented its 51st show Put on Your Sunday Clothes, The Songs of Jerry Herman at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal with special guest star Karen Morrow. No surprise that this was an uplifting, thoroughly enjoyable evening of song, for as host Bruce Kimmel stated up...

In the world premiere production of playwright (and creator of NBC's Smash) Theresa Rebeck's ZEALOT---now performing at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through November 16---Mecca, Saudi Arabia serves as the setting for a volatile tug-of-war that erupts at the start of the 'Hajj,' the holy city'...

Get ready all you "Rocky Horror" fans! There's a new show in town that is begging for you to join in the fun, just as long as you don't mind being splattered with blood, breaking pencils, or waving pompoms. Due to robust ticket sales and an ever-increasing dedicated fan base, RE-ANIMATOR THE MUSICAL...

Based on Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel and Tim Burton's 2003 film of the same name, Big Fish, with a few minor changes in plot, becomes quite an imaginative musical...with Andrew Lippa composer of some of the best songs written for a Broadway show in a long time. So, it is hard to imagine why its Broa...

WAIT UNTIL DARK centers on a missing doll carried into the United States by photographer Sam Hendrix (Linden East) for a woman named Lisa he meets at a Canadian airport. When the doll goes missing in Sam and Susy's apartment, three ruthless thugs show up to try and find it, terrorizing Susy in the ...

Everyone in the audience, including the men, ended up sobbing by the end of this, in real time, eavesdropping of a mother and daughter's last conversation, otherwise better known as Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize winning 'night, Mother....

Long before Trey Parker and Matt Stone became famous and transformed the world of entertainment with their hit television series South Park and Broadway phenomenon The Book of Mormon, they were two unknown college student with big dreams. They shared the same wickedly subversive sense of humor and h...

In 2012 Theatre Unleashed produced a clever little parody musical by Justin Moran called The Spidey Project that spoofed a big problematic Broadway extravaganza no one could stop talking about (Spider-Man, Turn off the Dark). It also took some very funny shots at the comic book superhero genre as a ...

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions but for Dr. Faustus (Adam Mondschein) the shortcut forged by a writ in blood expedites a journey that has nothing to do with being good. Frustrated in his search for knowledge and arrogant in his desires, he makes a deal with the Devil (Lexie H...

Arguably, director Diane Paulus' greatest triumph to date is the spectacular new production of PIPPIN, the 2013 Tony-winning revival of Stephen Schwartz's trippy but winsome musical about the angst-riddled but hyper-aspirational young son of King Charlemagne, and his erratic, sometimes frustrating j...

Which is more important in life ... love or position? Ambitious men and women compete for power in the corporate world and sometimes business partners fall in love, but can they have both equally? In his new comedy A or B? Ken Levine thinks not. With two dynamic and likable actors and directed skill...

For some inexplicable reason, composer Frank Wildhorn frequently gets a bad rap, accused of copying from other composers or just being a giant step below the quality of say, Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, or Jerry Herman, among others. Many forget Wildhorn is responsible for the beautiful music of ...

On Sunday October 26, Clifford Bell presented the first Rick Starr Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert, entitled Starr Bucks, at Upstairs at Vitello's in Studio City. The beloved Starr, who passed away about a year ago, worked at Hollywood Sheet Music and served the Los Angeles musical theatre communit...