PALM SPRINGS THEATER REVIEWS

The OBC Theater, in Corona, has a winner in its rollicking production of OLIVER. It is a bit of a schlep from the Coachella Valley, but it's worth the trip to see the imaginative choreography and adept acting, to hear the lovely singing from adults and children alike, and to marvel at the clever cos...

POTO's current national touring production is about to land in the Los Angeles area, possibly for the last time. It is worth the trip from the Coachella Valley....

Saturday was beautiful night under the stars and LimonCarr Desert Theatricals, in partnership with the City of Rancho Mirage, provided just the right entertainment with their production of The Pirates of Penzance....

It was a tech rehearsal for Tym Moss's cabaret show Tym Moss (A) Live at Desert Rose Playhouse, yet he gave it his all, and his all is everything....

Palm Canyon Theatre is taking an exuberant romp on the Mississippi in their current musical, Big River. The 1985 Broadway hit, with songs by Roger ("King of the Road") Miller, is a stage adaptation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the capable hands of director Se Layne, it shows energy, sty...

Desert Theatreworks, the Valley's fastest-growing theatre company, has stepped outside of their pattern of familiar Broadway hits with their current production of Real Women Have Curves. The audience is the winner! Director Rebecca Havely has taken five dynamite actresses, a 1987 script, and present...

Almost everyone has fallen on hard times. Sometimes they're financial, sometimes they're emotional, sometimes they're both. It's how we get through them that defines us. A deep look into who we are, and what we will do to survive those times, David Lindsay-Abaire's 2011 play Good People explores all...

PAGEANT, currently playing at Desert Rose, is a drag show, with beautiful "women" competing for the title of Miss Glamouresse, corny jokes, and a smarmy, Nick the lounge singer type emcee. Beyond that, there is nothing except nonstop, goofy hilarity....

My first visit to Desert Ensemble Theatre proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Their presentation of two one-act plays -- Graceland and Asleep on the Wind - harkened back to a purity of theatre which was so exciting to me in my college days. By stripping away full sets in favor of a few stra...

In producing 12 shows per season, sometimes Palm Canyon Theatre's productions become a blur, but their current offering, Grand Hotel, is one that will stay in viewers' memories for a long time. It is one of their most beautiful productions, combining top talent, design, direction, and choreography w...

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Greater Tuna is a strange little play that was written in 1982 and was a huge hit in middle America before it made its way Off-Broadway, and eventually to HBO. There are three plays in the series, and Coyote Stageworks has mounted the first one as their final production in their 2018/2019 schedule a...

Coachella Valley Repertory's (CVRep's) production, the first in its spectacular, new theater building, is highly enjoyable. Most of the acting, singing, and dancing is superb and two of the leads - David Sattler (Anatoly) and Gabriela Carrillo (Florence) - demonstrate an electrifying stage presence....

Palm Canyon Theatre presents SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, a delightful adaptation of the 1998 film, for one weekend only. Not to be missed!...

DEAR ANITA BRYANT, a Readers Theatre stage play by activist and author Dr. Ronni Sanlo, is coming for one show only on April 7, 2019, at 7 pm to the Desert Rose Playhouse....

Playwright Terry Ray's Electricity, the story of two gay men trying to figure out how they fit into each other's world, is a powerful reminder that we are worthy of being loved, even if we think we are broken. Not to mention, you'll laugh your past off....

Desert Rose Playhouse's production of THE VIEW UPSTAIRS is a must-see -- 100 minutes of an emotional roller coaster with tears and laughs and great acting, singing, and dancing....

If you hear an explosion of energy coming from the east end of the valley over the next couple of weekends, it is almost certainly the production of Hairspray at Indio's Desert Theatreworks. I enjoyed virtually every detail of the production so much that it's hard to know where to start. The perform...

The dramatist.com website describes White Guy on the Bus thusly: Week after week a wealthy white businessman rides the same bus, befriending a single black mom. As they get to know each other, their pasts unfold and tensions rise, igniting a disturbing and crucial exploration of race.' While that is...

Palm Canyon Theatre's current production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas breathes plenty of energy - and a fair bit of sexuality - into the 1978 musical. Although it is not the first musical to be based on a factual event, it has certainly chosen one of the stranger events to revisit: the clo...

Country music is like cilantro. Either you like it or you don't. I fall into the latter category on both. It's not a snobby thing. My dislike for cilantro, I'm told, has to do with genetics and my country gene seems to either be latent or missing. I mean, all of my friends love it, and I'd like to g...

CV Rep's last production at its old space is James iJames' black comedy, White. And what a way to go....

Guys and Dolls is possibly the most frequently produced musical in the world. Since its Broadway debut in 1950, it has had numerous revivals on Broadway and the West End, and it has been tackled by just about every high school, college, and community theatre in the world. Fortunately, its popularity...

Everyone has a secret or two stashed away. We hide them for fear of being shamed or in some cases, worse. Shame is solely the product of 'agreed upon' societal 'norms'; if we don't fit into any given box then we have an Achilles heel, something others can use to hurt or destroy us. Mean girls, churc...

Indio's Desert Theatreworks has scored another bullseye with their current production of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. Simon's semi-autobiographical memory piece about his early teenage years in a crowded Brooklyn tenement is delivered in a finely-nuanced performance by a dream cast in the ca...