Los Angeles Theater Reviews Page 4

Review: INHERIT THE WIND at Pasadena Playhouse
by Evan Henerson - November 16, 2023

Director Michael Michetti has put thought and heart into his production and peopled it with a strong cast whose characters opt for playing the strength of their convictions over histrionics. A hurricane force this WIND is not, but there’s plenty to enjoy....

Review: East West Players Presents Energetic SPRING AWAKENING
by Michael Quintos - November 15, 2023

Based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 play about a group of young students ill-informed about their budding sexuality, this 2006 Broadway adaptation is buoyed by its alt-rock score by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik. EWP's new production boasts a pleasantly diverse cast blessed with excellent s...

Review: ALEX EDELMAN'S JUST FOR US at Mark Taper Forum
by Amanda Callas - November 14, 2023

Just For Us is a brilliant, award-winning, one-man comedy show by Alex Edelman at the Mark Taper Forum downtown, coming after sold-out hit runs on Broadway, and in London, Edinburgh, and Melbourne. This is must-see, hilarious stand up tackling identity and antisemitism, and it is hard to think of a ...

Review: Superb A RAISIN IN THE SUN Moves In at South Coast Repertory
by Michael Quintos - November 09, 2023

Directed with engaging, often riveting pacing by Khanisha Foster—and featuring some of the absolute best, deeply-searing acting performances I've witnessed so far this season—this brand new, powerfully-staged SCR production of Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 play is just too damn good to mi...

Review: LINES IN THE DUST at Matrix Theatre
by Amanda Callas - November 08, 2023

Chronicling the story of school residency fraud in the affluent township of Millburn, New Jersey, Lines in the Dust fearlessly tackles uncomfortable, vital issues of identity, education, class, race, and access to opportunity. While describing it, I feel it’s almost inevitable that I am making this ...

Review: NERVOUS UNICORNS at Cat's Crawl
by Amanda Callas - November 02, 2023

Nervous Unicorns is a gripping world premiere play by Jake Sidney Cohen at The Cat’s Crawl in Hollywood. This is a meditative drama about a group of eight people who participate in recovery meetings and then, quite unexpectedly, a supernatural experience changes them all....

Review: ROMEO AND JULIE: LOVE IS A FIRE at Santa Monica Playhouse
by Evan Henerson - October 30, 2023

Neno Pervan’s production takes no risks and provides not a shred of insight - within the text or outside it - why this tale unfolds as it does. A few textual adjustments notwithstanding, Pervan’s production is standard issue ROMEO AND JULIET, fire or chill....

Review: METHUSALEM OR THE ETERNAL BOURGEOIS at The Actors' Gang
by Amanda Callas - October 30, 2023

Hallucinatory, astoundingly visual, and provocative, this absurdist, surreal satire runs through December 16...

Review: THE ANGEL NEXT DOOR at Laguna Playhouse
by Amanda Callas - October 26, 2023

The Angel Next Door is a glittering, effervescent hit romantic comedy by Paul Slade Smith at the historic Laguna Playhouse. It’s an elegant, sweet-dry glass of champagne, bubbling over with non-stop laughs, merriment, glamor, and high-spirited hijinks. It’s hard to think of more fun you could have a...

Review: Musical Theatre West's Heartwarming THE SOUND OF MUSIC Blesses Long Beach
by Michael Quintos - October 25, 2023

MTW's pleasantly perky, traditionally-executed production comes across as a show that's very eager to please, armed with a keen, fine-tuned goal of making sure both fans and newbies to this beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein classic are left feeling uplifted and happy. The show continues through Novemb...

Review: SHE at Antaeus Theatre Company
by Harker Jones - October 25, 2023

SHE is a moving, lyrical story with deft characterizations, luminous performances, and a poetic quality that reflects our heroine’s dreams...

Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at A Noise Within
by Evan Henerson - October 23, 2023

Visually and acoustically, from performances to pacing, this DREAM directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott is so beautifully thought out and rendered that the Noise Within brain-trust should consider filming it for posterity....

Review: BEFOK (OR THE DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO IMPRESS IÑÁRRITU) at Odyssey Theatre
by Amanda Callas - October 22, 2023

Gutsy and gonzo, this wild ride runs through November 5th at Odyssey Theatre...

Review: AIN'T TOO PROUD Revisits The Temptations' Hits at Segerstrom Center
by Michael Quintos - October 20, 2023

A surprisingly enjoyable jukebox musical featuring phenomenally-performed song-and-dance spectaculars (but with an awkwardly delivered story structure), this touring version of the 2019 Broadway musical about the founding of Motown's R&B supergroup The Temptations is a fun evening at the theater, es...

Review: THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY at Geffen Playhouse
by Tracey Paleo - October 18, 2023

“How to Ruin a Relationship in One Easy Step,”  is a definitive alternate title for, THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY, a smart, little 80-minute, light drama written by Samuel Balm, directed by Darko Tresnjak, currently at the Geffen Playhouse, Gil Cates Theater....

Review: BABY FOOT at Rogue Machine, The Henry Murray Stage At The Matrix Theatre
by Amanda Callas - October 18, 2023

Sexy, gritty, funny, and adult, this recovery drama is a triumph for Rogue Machine playing through November 20...

Review: A Legend is Reimagined in Octavio Solis' QUIXOTE NUEVO at South Coast Repertory
by Michael Quintos - October 17, 2023

On the immediate surface, QUIXOTE NUEVO is a feast for the senses. On a deeper level, the play explores relevant issues, particularly those affecting the Latinx community. Sandwiched in between, however, is a distracting use of sophomoric humor that slightly threatens to counter all of the good mess...

Review: OLIVER! at Kavli Theatre At The Bank Of America Performing Arts Center
by Amanda Callas - October 16, 2023

Don't miss this delightful, gorgeously produced classic musical running through October 22nd...

Review: BISEXUAL SADNESS at Road Theatre
by Evan Henerson - October 16, 2023

By its very title, BISEXUAL SADNESS plays and feels like it should be the topic of a seminar or an article in a clinical journal, maybe even the theme of a discussion group. Which is, in a lot of ways, how India Kotis’s play comes across in its world premiere at the Road Theatre....

Review: ON BROADWAY at Smothers Theatre
by Amanda Callas - October 14, 2023

With a fresh lineup of new musical tunes and favorite classics, it’s pretty much the perfect Broadway concert show.  I’m still humming “Popular” from Wicked and “Razzle Dazzle” from Chicago nonstop, floating in a giddy haze of joy-soaked musical elation....

Review: The Scorching-Hot Rhythm of ON YOUR FEET! Is Gonna Get You at La Mirada
by Michael Quintos - October 12, 2023

La Mirada Theatre’s new production of the Estefans’ aspirational life story reverberates with high-octane, vivacious Latin rhythms presented via enthusiastically-performed dance numbers and beautifully-sung songs—elevated by its terrific, talented ensemble. This engaging production (going on tour so...

Review: TACOS LA BROOKLYN at Latino Theatre Company At LATC
by Evan Henerson - October 11, 2023

A co-production with East West Players, Ulloa’s play makes the case for deeper investigation and against the kind of snap judgments that its hero, Chino, endures and fuels. Engagingly performed and containing plenty of cool visuals, Fidel Gomez’s production is a bit of a group hug. But it plays....

Review: BLOOD AT THE ROOT at Open Fist Theater Company
by Harker Jones - October 10, 2023

Dominique Morisseau’s BLOOD AT THE ROOT is a blistering look at race, prejudice, and the complexity of human relationships, and is provocative without being preachy....

Review: BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA at Odyssey Theatre
by Amanda Callas - October 15, 2023

Birds of North America Is a brilliantly well produced drama with a quiet, luminous, elegiac quality, at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles. With exquisite subtlety and sensitivity in the writing by award-winning playwright Anna Ouyang Moench, it chronicles the relationship of a father and daugh...

Review: HADESTOWN at Ahmanson Theatre
by Andrew Child - October 06, 2023

Rachel Chavkin’s staging is resourceful and inventive, packing major punches within Rachel Hauck’s deceptively-simple design. David Neumann’s choreography shines in moments of storytelling, defining locales and making electric the mundane act of sitting in a stool, but flounders during more formal d...