LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

The dueling forces of light and dark are constantly at play in A Noise Within's fantasy-meets-reality world of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, the first production of its 2014-15 season. Deborah Strang takes on the role of Prospero in a gender-switch that now finds mother and daughter (rather than father...

According to Blank Artistic Producer Noah Wyle, "THE WHY is a truly original take on a very serious and very complex subject: what is happening to the youth of America? Why are kids killing each other? Who or what is to blame? Through blended styles, mixed media, and a constant shifting between dram...

Director Michael Arden gives the word discovery new meaning in a spectacular production of Steven Sater (book & lyrics) and Duncan Sheik's (music) Spring Awakening based on Frank Wedekind's 1891 expressionist play. Arden, who has had a long partnership with Deaf West that goes back to Big River, whi...

Actress/lawyer Allison Brush made her very well-received cabaret debut at Upstairs at Vitello's Sunday September 14 with her show entitled For This You Went to Law School? Once an actress/singer, Brush, discouraged by rejection like many, left the profession and studied law, passing the bar exam on ...

Think quirky like Moonstruck, only transplant the action from New York to Los Angeles and replace the large Italian Family with a dysfunctional community of friends and their current significant others. For those that have forgotten Moonstruck it was a hit movie in 1987 in which relationships were t...

What a joy-filled experience to see tap legend Arthur Duncan live onstage in his one man show One More Time! at the El Portal when he performed five shows September 12 - 14 in the Monroe Forum Theatre! Duncan was the first African American performer to do a regular TV gig - for 18 years in fact - on...

All the elements on this Rogue Machine production perfectly come together, much like a successful recipe for the delicious cheesecake presented for dessert near the climax of Cock....

Like Rockwell's previous residency, Jagged Little Pill, their latest show Roar brings life to contemporary songs with the use of storytelling and a cast of incredible talent. Think 'Rent' meets a jukebox musical of contemporary female singer/songwriters....

Multiple award-winning fashion designer to the stars, Octavio Carlin, is playwright, director and costume designer of his new world premiere comedy HOLLYWOOD PARTY now at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre. Carlin states in the program he has been eternally captured by Hollywood icons from Marilyn Monroe ...

Something completely enchanting is happening right now on a stage in Costa Mesa. Kicking off its 51st season, South Coast Repertory---in association with the American Repertory Theatre and the Smith Center---is currently staging the remarkable, re-envisioned new take on William Shakespeare's classic...

Close to three hours of crazy behavior, with doses of disgusting, despicable action mixed in, make for an extremely intense, but trying evening....

Lovers of Shakespeare are in for a real treat when Shakespeare's Globe Theatre brings its all-male Original Practices production of Twelfth Night to local cinemas beginning September 22. Starring award-winning actors Mark Rylance as Olivia and Stephen Fry as Malvolio, the film gives audiences an exc...

It used to be, in days gone by, that hit Broadway shows would be made into movies; now, it's the reverse. With a dearth of ideas for Broadway musicals, the trend lately has been to turn to the big screen and revamp a popular film for the stage, adding song and dance. Such was the case with 9 to 5 an...

When Oklahoma! was first produced on Broadway in 1943 it became the first smash hit for newly formed collaborating team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and also the first real book musical, preceded only by Showboat. It was a breakthrough musical, which when given a first-class production, ...

Throughout two thirds of Bill Cain's political thriller EQUIVOCATION, a confused Shagspeare (known to us otherwise as Shakespeare and played by Ted Barton) keeps asking questions and getting answers that don't make sense. Finally a circumspect Father Garnet (Franc Ross) tells him to look for the que...

Does genius have to be accompanied by totally a-hole behavior? John Stark directs his uniformly strong cast in a slick, strong-handed pace, in which they vividly exhibit the demons alternately possessing and inspiring the playwright's writings....

On Sunday September 7, at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, due to an advance sell-out crowd for the 7 pm show, an additional matinee show was performed for the Fourth Anniversary of Kritzerland. Needless to say, both matinee and evening performances were sold out, making the monthly Kritzerland t...

Playwright Carey Crim has a great talent for digging deep and exposing the many different layers of her characters. In Wake, her main character, an undertaker, is agoraphobic and attempting to recover from the death of her husband. She struggles to find a sense of self-worth, independence and freedo...

Impro Theatre's mission is to create a play from scratch in a particular style, right before the eyes of its audience. Their improvised plays include: The Twilight Zone, and the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Dickens, Tennessee Williams, even Sondheim - all unscripted. This time around it's The West...

BILLY SHAKESPEARE is a spicy little independent film by Deborah Voorhees that imagines what might happen if William Shakespeare tried to make it as a writer in today's Hollywood rather than Elizabethan England. Quirky characters, compromising situations, and the kind of deadpan humor made famous in ...

BLACK COFFEE is a little known, slow-paced mystery by Agatha Christie which her fans will enjoy. Written in 1934, the story takes place in the library of the home of Sir Claud Amory, a physicist who has just come up with a formula for the atomic bomb. When Sir Claude is poisoned, in his coffee of c...

Those with an affinity for fast-talking Valley Girl-speak should find a lot to enjoy in Chiara Atik's Women....

Going above-and-beyond your typical museum diorama or theme park animatronic showcase, WALKING WITH DINOSAURS - THE ARENA SPECTACULAR is a dino-lover's dream: a wondrous feat of technology, theatrical magic, and imagination---bringing to (virtual) life those figures that continue to scare/fascinate ...

Since high school I have found Greek tragedy a repetitious, tedious bore - lots of emoting with zero action and no laughs. As I watched the magnificent SITI Company from New York perform Aeschylus' very first tragedy Persians at the Getty Villa in Malibu, things took a different turn, I somehow beca...

The world premiere of PSYCHE: A Modern Rock Opera is undeniably impressive, especially when you consider the scope of the author's vision and the level of detail that has gone into its execution....