LOS ANGELES THEATER REVIEWS

Peter Pan/a musical production of the play by Sir James Barrie/lyrics by Carolyn Leigh & music by Moose Charlap/additional lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green; additional music by Jule Styne/directed by Glenn Casale/Pantages Theatre/through January 27...

Watching two wonderful actors play out the conflicting rhythms of life to Holtzman's uplifting strains is a valued and most enjoyable experience....

As expected (thankfully) 2012 provided Southern California audiences--specifically here in Orange County and nearby Los Angeles and San Diego--a season full of outstanding, remarkable theater offerings from touring companies, impressive regional productions, and even some tiny black box theaters. An...

Tony Award-winning Idina Menzel is in a class of performers who simply defy description. She has an extraordinary quality that must be experienced up close and personal, for it's not only the tremendously dynamic voice that impresses but a wildly disarming charisma that holds you spellbound. On New ...

I am not really sure where to begin with my praise for Sophie B. Hawkins after seeing her commanding performance as Janis Joplin in Gig Gaston's new musical 'Room 105 - The Highs and Lows' which ended its 4-month run tonight at the Macha Theatre in West Hollywood. I will start by saying that Hawkins...

This holiday season, Orange County found itself playing host to two very different families that couldn't be more disparate from one another--well, at least on the surface. On this corner... LITTLE WOMEN: The Musical. In the other... THE ADDAMS FAMILY: The Musical. What do they have in common? A dau...

As far as theatrical arena shows go, Dreamwork's "How To Train Your Dragon Live" makes the top of the list for those worth seeing, and arena shows are growing in number (case in point, the rather boring, but visually interesting, Batman Live arena tour)....

Good original musicals tend to be one based on the familiar, that sing out with universal values. Now through December 31 on the stage of Encore Dinner Theatre, Erik Przytulski's A Song for Christmas is enjoying a lovingly directed production wrapped up in true community spirit....

It's indeed a pleasure to see some fresh, gifted writing as in Guy Picot's The Christmas Present, in which he takes a familiar theme, that of loneliness/bitterness at holiday time, and puts it in a new unexpected context. Colin (Troy Blendell) may be your average UK divorced businessman, but his day...

No finer Christmas present will come your way than Christmas My Way now onstage at the El Portal in NoHo through December 31. Written by David Grapes and Todd Olson who gave us My Way - A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, the show is a delicious combo of Christmas and nonholiday standards made famou...

Mirror, Mirror on the wall - whose is the loveliest Panto of them all? Well, in Pasadena it's the Playhouse, which has begun a new holiday tradition with this year's debut of Lythgoe Productions' A Snow White Christmas....

For its 7th consecutive year Chris Isaacson presents brought Upright Cabaret's popular A Broadway Christmas to the Catalina Jazz Club for two performances on Tuesday December 11. Featuring an all-star cast of prolific singers, dancers and musicians A Broadway Christmas celebrates the talent of Broad...

Actor/singer Cortes Alexander debuted his delightful Swell Party at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal on Monday August 13, and as I wrote then 'What a uniquely fun evening of anecdote and song!' Alexander worked with Liza Minnelli in Liza at the Palace, but she met him years before when his group T...

At the core of Jon Robin Baitz' engrossing Other Desert Cities is the intense love between two siblings, so strong that the sister is willing to destroy the respect and trust of her parents in order to be faithful to her brother's memory. Brooke Wyeth (Robin Weigert) has written a book about how her...

White Christmas , always a treat on film (1954), creates a unique and refreshing glow on stage. The touring and original Broadway productions, which played Los Angeles only once at the Pantages, in 2005 were gloriously directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Randy Skinner, who turned the seco...

There is quite frankly no other theatre company in LA like the Troubadour Theater Company or as they like to be nicknamed the Troubies. Therefore, any comparisons are invalid. They compose and perform to the tune of their own drummer to such a high degree of professionalism that their reputation pre...

It's no wonder that Donny & Marie Osmond's Vegas show won the Best in Vegas 2012, having premiered there in 2008. It's a big, splashy, hi-tech evening with all kinds of fun, popular music. They are finally recreating it at the Pantages, with the inclusion of several segments of Christmas music. Ther...

Want to see another side of Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Company you might not expect? Take your kids to see THE TORTOISE & THE HARE MAKE A HOLIDAY WISH, brought to you by their companion theatre group, Limecat Family Theatre....

Coney Island Christmas/by Donald Margulies/based on the short story The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley/directed by Bart DeLorenzo/Geffen Playhouse/through December 30 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies triumphs with nostalgia, tradition and simplistic storytelling in his stage ada...

Anything Goes/original book by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and/Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse/new book by Timothy Crouse & John Weidman/music & lyrics by Cole Porter/directed & choreographed by Kathleen Marshall/Ahmanson Theatre/through January 6, 2013...

This, my third viewing of the smash Tony Award winning musical superhit Avenue Q, was by far the most joyous and rewarding of all. This little show, like a Sesame Street for adults, plays out like life - only bigger - with off-the-wall grotesquely funny situations, hilarious one-liners and tantalizi...

Based on the actual atrocities committed circa 2004 onward at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Bad Apples is another bold undertaking by Circle X, one that is scathingly real and at the same time exhilarating theatre. Two soldiers Specialist Charles Graner - named Chuck Shepard (James Black) in the play a...

Two-character plays for the most part take flight - no pun intended - if the plot and dialogue are terribly funny, as in Bernard Slade's Same Time, Next Year or if it's a musical, like I Do! I Do! The writing and players must have that extra special something to engage the audience consistently for ...

Unlike the leading character in Stephen Temperly's brilliant comedy SOUVENIR -- the Coyote Stageworks production, now playing through December 2 at The Annenberg Theatre in Palm Springs, is pitch perfect. Producer, and CSW Founder, Chuck Yates has skillfully assembled a stellar cast and creative tea...

The McCallum Theatre kicked off its Broadway Series last night with the national tour of the wildly popular Jukebox Musical ROCKS OF AGES to a sell-out opening night crowd. The McCallum once again proved itself to be the near perfect road house for a musical - it is large enough to accommodate a big...