While its original production, as most Broadway shows go, offered the expected big sets, first-rate costumes, and impressive production values, the 2015 Tony Award-winning revival production of THE COLOR PUPLE---currently slaying audiences for a week-long stop at Orange County's Segerstrom Center fo... (more...)
Directed and choreographed by musical theatre whiz Kathleen Marshall with Musical Direction by Gerald Sternbach who brilliantly directs a full orchestra seen onstage as part of the staircase set designed by Stephen Gillford, SWEET CHARITY stars Laura Bell Bundy who brings the joy and wonder of Chari... (more...)
As its inaugural production, new classical theatre company The 6th Act, led by co-artistic directors Matthew Leavitt and Liza Seneca, presents two playwrights united by a common theme in AN EVENING OF BETRAYAL. Act One is Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, which tells its story of marital infidelity from end... (more...)
Motown legend Diana Ross kiiiiiicked off the Hollywood Bowl's 2018 summer season with polish, pizzazz, and professionalism. Performing for approximately an hour post-intermission, Ms. Ross had the Hollywood Bowl audience in her very capable hands; and, more frequently than not, dancing in their seat... (more...)
North Hollywood's Lonny Chapman Theatre was packed Friday night for the opening of Neil Simon's RUMORS. This classic farce followed five couples that had all been invited to a dinner party to celebrate a sixth couple's 10th anniversary. However, everything changed when the couples discover the host ... (more...)
Directed by Patricia McGregor at the Geffen Playhouse, this emotionally-charged play looks deep into the hearts and souls of its four characters, with all four actors brilliantly commanding the stage from start to finish. Caroline Stefanie Clay portrays Faye, the factor's UAW union rep who finds her... (more...)
Lula Washington, an L. A. native from Watts, along with her husband Erwin Washington and daughter Tamica Washington Miller, have been the incumbent founders, creators, directors and choreographers of the LULA WASHINGTON DANCE THEATRE since 1980. They began with the goal to motivate, educate, inspire... (more...)
Halfway through Act I of Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at the Wallis, I was looking at Rob Howell's see-through set design when it dawned on me. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. If only the Tyrones had gotten the memo.... (more...)
??As part of the Hollywood FRINGE Festival, this tango treat, with a minimum of props and scenery, not one word spoken and a whole lot of passion and technique, Tomas Galvan and Gimena Herrera, from Argentina, tango their way into your hearts. Both Creators and the Choreographers of this piece, they... (more...)
Director Daniel Sullivan's adaptation of HENRY IV, Parts 1 & 2 may only be playing in the Japanese Garden on the VA campus for another three weeks but it is bound to rank as one of the summer's most talked-about events. Why? Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has saved up a secret weapon for the prod... (more...)
John Farmanesh-Bocca directs the world premiere of a bracing new version of Eduardo Machado's LYSISTRATA UNBOUND, starring Brenda Strong (Supergirl, 13 Reasons Why) as Lysistrata, in a collaboration between Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Not Man Apart - Physical Theatre Ensemble. First presented at th... (more...)
Theatricum Botanicum takes on Shakespeare's stinging drama CORIOLANUS this summer on its outdoor stage in Topanga Canyon and offers an intriguing look at the cynicism of politics and power. The work includes a massive cast of 45. Some are seasoned veterans and many are young actors in the early stag... (more...)
East West Players, in association with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, has another entertaining hit on their hands with the world premiere of playwright Nathan Ramos' AS WE BABBLE ON. Ramos' very clever, contemporary script (lots of screen grabs of texting and emojis) weaves a sometimes funny, sometime... (more...)
After our intake interview with the Asylum's Dr. Spivey (Trent Mills), we were invited through the loading dock door into the showers where two asylum staff members required us to don our patient wear. Once we learned the rules for the evening's entertainment, double doors opened to reveal the Psych... (more...)
Erin Sullivan has created (with help from co-writer Stephanie Rosenberg and co-conceiver Robin Milling) WITH LOVE, MARILYN, her one-woman homage to Marilyn Monroe. Sullivan nails Monroe's breathy line deliveries and body language, especially in recreating Monroe songs 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy' and... (more...)
Admirably directed and choreographed by Richard J. Hinds, La Mirada Theatre's NEWSIES aims to be an amiable hybrid between the popularly-received original show and a new iteration that feels fresh for us Fansies forever obsessed with the earlier Disney-backed production that played Broadway and went... (more...)
BODY TRAFFIC is a well-established multi-themed contemporary dance company, made up of eight incredibly strong, amazingly agile dancers. They are known world-wide, but call Los Angeles their home. Their 3-night appearance at The Wallis Annenberg marks the conclusion of their 10th successful internat... (more...)
The west coast premiere of playwright Mfoniso Udofia's HER PORTMANTEAU receives a most reverential mounting at Boston Court Pasadena. Omoze Idehenre energetically supplies the needed jolt of energy and enthusiasm as Adiaha, Abasiama's loving daughter with the desire to please her mother's every whim... (more...)
Many baby boomers whose parents married quickly and inexpensively after World War II will identify with the premise in A CATERED AFFAIR, taking place in the Bronx in 1953. At the beginning of the play, we meet young lovers Janey Hurley (bubbly blonde Alison Boettcher) and Ralph Halloran (handsome Ch... (more...)
That joyful noise you hear coming from the Hollywood Pantages Theatre this month is the thrilling sound of female empowerment, and it is reverberating like thunder from the heavens in the dynamically robust national tour of THE COLOR PURPLE.
Director John Doyle's Tony Award-winning reinvention of... (more...)
What made the Hot List? Check out these productions for a look at the vast creativity of theatre makers in action in Los Angeles: FOREVER BOUND at Atwater Village Theatre, PLUNGE: Part 1 of The Ballad of Bimini Baths Trilogy at Son of Semele, SOFT POWER downtown at the Ahmanson, VIOLET at Actors Co-... (more...)
The world premiere of playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks' HOSTAGE receives an absolutely stunning mounting by the Skylight Theatre Company. Tracie Lockwood gives a tour de force performance as Barbara, normally an inconspicuous, yet outspoken, mother like most in the Oak Creek, Wisconsin neighborhood... (more...)
This summer's LIVE IN CONCERT film choice Beauty & the Beast brought together a wonderful mix of theatre, television and film talents to sing live along with the live orchestra deftly led by musical director Michael Kosarin as the animated 1991 film Beauty & the Beast played on the accompanying big ... (more...)
On May 25, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented a concert version of Matthew Aucoin's third opera, CROSSING. This work was first seen in Boston in June of 2015. Its story deals with Walt Whitman's stint as a volunteer at a Civil War military hospital near Washington DC. In 1862,... (more...)
Despite being birthed in the early 1990's, THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG-the late Pulitzer Prize-winning Wendy Wasserstein's acerbically witty and vibrantly poignant play about a trio of fascinating, strong-willed Jewish-American sisters-has a remarkably timeless, relatable quality, evidenced by South Coas... (more...)
BWW Review: Beautifully Sung Revival of THE COLOR PURPLE Enraptures OC
BWW Review: Reprise 2.0 Inaugurates its Return with SWEET CHARITY at UCLA's Freud Playhouse
BWW Review: Pinter Plus Shakespeare Equals AN EVENING OF BETRAYAL
BWW Review: DIANA ROSS - The Diva Delivers A Spectacular Hollywood Bowl Opening!
BWW Review: It's No Rumor… Neil Simon's RUMORS Is A Rollicking Good Time
Review: SKELETON CREW Asks When is Doing Just Enough Really Good Enough?
BWW Review: LULA WASHINGTON DANCE THEATRE is an Entity All its Own at The Ford Theatre
BWW Review: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT - The Tragedy of a Family's Downward Spiral
BWW Review: EARTH & FIRE WALKING & ELOQUENTLY TANGOED at The Broadwater
BWW Review: An Irresistible Tom Hanks Goes for the Gusto as Falstaff in HENRY IV
BWW Review: Brenda Strong Stands Tall in LYSISTRATA UNBOUND
BWW Review: Politics and Power Clash in Theatricum Botanicum's CORIOLANUS
BWW Review: A Well-Produced AS WE BABBLE ON Deserves A 'Heart' Emoji & Many 'Thumbs Up' Emojis
Review: Totally Immersive ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Draws You Realistically into the Psych Ward Experience
BWW Review: Erin Sullivan's Strong Vocals Bolster WITH LOVE, MARILYN
BWW Review: Lively New Production of NEWSIES Carries the Banner in La Mirada
BWW Review: BODY TRAFFIC - an Arresting, Full-Speed Ahead Performance at The Wallis
BWW Review: HER PORTMANTEAU - Inexplicably Serious Baggage to Carry
Review: A CATERED AFFAIR Encourages Everyone Take the Ride of Life, But Never Miss the View
BWW Review: THE COLOR PURPLE Sounds the Clarion Call to Arms
BWW Review: THE HOT LIST! What's Hot on Stage Now
BWW Review: A Gripping, Tension-Packed HOSTAGE Completely Captivates
BWW Review: Ever Just As Sure BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - LIVE IN CONCERT - They Can Sing, They Can Dance!
BWW Review: CROSSING at Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts
BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Revisits Wendy Wasserstein's THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG