In 1970, Maria Callas posed for Blackgama's iconic What Becomes a Legend Most ad campaign. The famous black and white Richard Avedon photographs shot against a simple gray background captured the glamour and allure of black mink featuring some of the most iconic faces in the world. It was indeed a... (more...)
The temptation to take a film classic and turn it into a Broadway musical is a road fraught with peril. How do you take something perfect and make it better? This was the question posed in 1972 when producer David Merrick decided to musicalize the uproarious 1959 farce Some Like It Hot. The result w... (more...)
In a new, incredibly enjoyable regional revival of the Tony Award-winning AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - THE FATS WALLER MUSICAL SHOW, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is presenting one of the most rousing, rip-roaring iterations of this musical treat, under the informed direction of one of the show's... (more...)
Much props must be given to Camille Spirlin for her unflinching, unapologetic portrayal of the unsympathetic, totally evil main character of Kali, of which RUNAWAY HOME revolves around. Runaway teenager Kali has no hesitation in blackmailing a Latino storekeeper, scaring an elderly neighbor with the... (more...)
The Old Globe has opened a window and let in a beautiful breath of fresh air in its latest world premiere musical, BENNY AND JOON, by bookwriter Kirsten Guenther, composer Nolan Gasser, and lyricist Mindi Dickstein. Based on the 1993 MGM film starring Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson and Aidan Qui... (more...)
The west coast premiere of THE VIEW UPSTAIRS bursts with a high-energied hodge-podge of some great vocals, charming performances and wonderfully executed choreography. Playwright Max Vernon, through the eyes of a present-day electronically dependent fashion designer, retells the stories of victims... (more...)
Though the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of writer/director John Carney's well-liked indie film ONCE is a musical that this reviewer has liked quite a bit from past productions, it took seeing South Coast Repertory's brand new regional production---now on stage in Costa Mesa through Septembe... (more...)
Master satirist Paul Rudnick blends a deep humanity with a honed sense of hilarity in this powerful and funny play about family and fame, the personal and the political, and the drive to stand up and speak out. But it is also one that promotes a very progressive political stance on human rights, es... (more...)
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is a hip musical comedy which follows six young people in the throes of puberty, who are overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, as they learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a lose... (more...)
The world premiere of playwright Tom Jacobson's WALKING TO BUCHENWALD receives a sturdy outing from Open Fist with the ensemble's strong performances of his three-dimensional characters steered firm-handedly by Roderick Menzies.... (more...)
While watching Crystal Sep lveda perform during the opening of Pacific Standard LA/LA's Condemned To Be Modern exhibit, I couldn't help but think of a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright: 'Space is the breath of art.' Poetic in its simplicity, it is an observation that is particularly eloquent when consider... (more...)
A cross between a murder mystery and a psychological drama told with a high-tech showmanship flair, the intriguing touring production of Simon Stephen's Tony Award-winning play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME now in Costa Mesa at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts throu... (more...)
For those of us who have lived through the passing of a loved one from cancer, it may seem an impossibility to create humor out of that heartbreaking situation. But the West Coast Premiere of Halley Feiffer's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kette... (more...)
Just as so many retired Americans over the age of 55 are choosing to sell their homes and take to the roads crisscrossing our nation in motor homes or campers for extended periods of time, a growing number of Australian retirees, called Grey Nomads, are choosing to continuously circumnavigate the wo... (more...)
Performed in both English and Spanish to appeal to a broader Los Angeles fan base, the family friendly musical fantasy Disney's Aladdin, Dual Language Edition is set in the fictional Middle Eastern city of Agrabah, where a beloved Disney princess named Jazm n decides to rebel against her father the ... (more...)
CARMEN, the title character in Georges Bizet's opera, is a young woman who wants the social freedoms nineteenth century men simply took for granted. Sung magnificently by Ana Maria Martinez, Carmen is suave and self-confident, but enroute to certain destruction. Currently, L A Opera is offering an e... (more...)
The neon blue Son of Semele sign casts faint light on to the outdoor lobby where the audience gathers until the house opened. As you walk inside the theatre, it is as if you were entering your high school's black box building. Thirty-five seats rest in front of the stage, and all but one were filled... (more...)
There are many reasons why THE FANTASTICKS original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical which continues to enchant audiences around the world. Aside from it being a 'Romeo and Juliet' type story we can all relate to, ... (more...)
The small dining room at a local studio was an excellent choice to showcase a classic dysfunctional family living an upper-class life as they descended into chaos over the course of one year. With each of the family members in this dark comedy only really thinking of themselves and their own needs, ... (more...)
It's official. I have a new favorite thing, and it is called MUSE/IQUE. You would too if you'd been in the audience for GLOW/TOWN, the third in a 3-part series celebrating Motown and its roots Saturday night at Caltech. From the structure of the program to the sophistication of the environment, Arti... (more...)
As a lifelong fan of David Bowie and human rights equality, when I heard The Los Angeles LGBT Center was hosting a return performance of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA) to its Renberg Theatre the weekend of August 26-27, 2017 to perform planet Earth's first staged concert production of Bowie'... (more...)
The 1941 ARSENIC AND OLD LACE gets a dusting off from the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble providing a wonderfully expressive vehicle for the acting talents of Sheelagh Cullen and Jacque Lynn Colton as Abby and Martha Brewster, the seemingly harmless and most delightful murderers of their single unattached ... (more...)
Chico's Angels, the comedy drag troupe celebrating their 14th year performing in the bowels of Silver Lake's Casita Del Campo, delivers once again with their latest laugh-filled riot CHICO'S ANGELS 4: CHICAS ARE 4EVER. Think 70's TV classic Charlie's Angels re-envisioned as Latina drag queens at the... (more...)
When I found out John Mayall "The Godfather of British Blues" was going to be at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Friday, August 25, I rushed to get tickets to be in the presence of the man who directly influenced generations of the greatest musicians of all time during his impressive musical care... (more...)
BWW Review: MASTER CLASS at Garry Marshall Theatre, or What Becomes a Legend Most?
BWW Review: SUGAR at Alex Theatre
BWW Review: Rousing Revival of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' Roars at La Mirada
BWW Review: RUNAWAY HOME - An Always Intense, Somewhat Touching Katrina Tale
BWW Review: BENNY AND JOON, A Breath of Fresh Air for your Musical Senses
BWW Review: History Revisited in THE VIEW UPSTAIRS
BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Raises Hopeful, Exquisite New Production of ONCE
BWW Review: BIG NIGHT Starts Humorously but Changes Direction After a Senseless Attack
BWW Review: Rogue Machine Presents U.S. Premiere of DAYTONA
Review: Laughs Abound at THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE at the Norris Theatre
BWW Review: WALKING TO BUCHENWALD - A Walk Definitely Worth Taking
BWW Review: Recontextualizing Architecture as Art in Pacific Standard Time LA/LA's CONDEMNED TO BE MODERN
BWW Review: Theatrically Inventive CURIOUS INCIDENT Tour Captivates at OC's Segerstrom Center
Review: Halley Feiffer Creates A FUNNY THING for Two Opposites Overseeing Their Mothers at a Cancer Treatment Center
Review: World Premiere Comedy GREY NOMAD Celebrates the Lifestyle of Australia's Newly Retired Cross-Country Travelers
Review: It's a Whole New World in Disney's ALADDIN, Dual Language Edition at LA Theatre Center
BWW Review: CARMEN at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
BWW Review: West Coast Premiere Of MARION BRIDGE Shines To A Sold-Out Crowd
Review: THE FANTASTICKS Enchants with Original Off-Broadway Staging Thanks to Director Sherman Wayne at Theatre Palisades
Review: PTERODACTYLS Ponders the Extinction of a Traditional American Family Due to Self-Indulgence
BWW Review: The Pure Joy of MUSE-IQUE's Summer of Sound: GLOW/TOWN
Review: TCLA Revels in Personal Freedom via Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
BWW Review: ARSENIC AND OLD LACE - A Most Potent Showcase for Sheelagh Cullen And Jacque Lynn Colton
BWW Review: Hysterical CHICO'S ANGELS 4: CHICAS ARE 4EVER Should Run Forever, Forever, Forever...
Review: John Mayall The Godfather of British Blues Wows Audience at The Broad Stage
WICKED UK & Ireland Tour Announces Full Cast!
Barks and Kazee to Star Broadway's PRETTY WOMAN + Chicago Tryout
