PALM SPRINGS THEATER REVIEWS

I had the absolute pleasure of seeing two things last night that I had never seen before. A production of Harvey Fierstein's CASA VALENTINA and a sold out, standing room only crowd at The Pearl McManus Theatre. Brava to Dezart Performs on both counts!! CASA VALENTINA is the premiere performance of...

Don LaFontaine was one of the most prolific voice actors in the movie industry for more years than I can even remember, until his death in 2008. You may not know his name but you've certainly heard his deep bass voice and famous catch phrase, 'In a world…' in hundreds of movie trailers during his ...

Coachella Valley Repertory's (CVRep's) first play of the 2016-17 season, ANNAPURNA, is a finely acted and directed, intelligent comic drama that generates plenty of laughs on its way to a moving ending. ANNAPURNA, which tackles CVRep's theme for the season, 'love, marriage, and life changing events,...

To kick-off its 9th season, DEZART PERFORMS will present Casa Valentina, a thoroughly entertaining Tony Award-nominated "dramedy" written by Harvey Fierstein, the multiple Tony Award-winning actor/playwright and American Theatre Hall of Famer. Fierstein's raucous dramedy, CASA VALENTINA, is a hugely...

Desert Rose Playhouse's production of POZ, by Michael Aman, is superbly acted and directed. The play is more o a sweet comic drama than the comedy, as which it was originally billed....

CABARET's Tony Award-winning 1998 Broadway revival co-directed by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, still stands, arguably, as the show's definitive stage iteration. That same vibrant Roundabout Theatre Company production rightly serves as the basis for the newer 2014 revival that is now in the midst of ...

Desert Theatreworks (DTW), Palm Desert's community theatre, will present the zany LOVE, SEX, AND THE IRS, from June 17th-25th. Playwrights Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore pay homage to television comedies in the play, which takes place in the 1970's, when sitcoms ruled the airwaves....

Frozen fans will be ecstatic with the way Disney has re-imagined its much-loved blockbuster film for the stage, now that the doors to FROZEN - LIVE AT THE HYPERION are open on the Hollywood backlot of Disney California Adventure. And with its stunning state-of-the-art visual technology and heart-ope...

Desert Rose Playhouse, the Coachella Valley's main LGBT-friendly theatre, is currently presenting the world premiere of JUNK, a sweet, funny musical, written and composed by Michael Penny. The talented actors perform their roles with panache, and the company's behind-the-scenes designers help give M...

The Coachella Valley is quickly becoming a mecca for exceptional theatre. And Dezart Performs' THE OUTGOING TIDE is no exception. Under Michael Shaw's skilled and measured direction the three actors bring tremendous honesty and poignancy to dialogue that could have easily waded into "made for televi...

CVRep's current production, Amy Herzog's 4000 MILES, is a sweetly sentimental comedy with dramatic moments. Ron Celona's brilliant direction and the brilliant performances strike the perfect balance between humor and pathos....

AGNES OF GOD is challenging theatre at every level. It demands a lot of its audience. It demands its audience be engaged and active at every turn. It is both emotionally and intellectually stimulating and provocative. It is ninety-plus minutes of thought provoking dialogue with minimal action. One m...

We tell a lot of stories in the theatre. Here in Los Angeles, however, we don't often tell stories that are authentically home-grown. FIGHTING SHADOWS is that rare exception, a deeply personal story of a Mexican-American boy who grew up in east L.A., survived abuse, gangs, prison, and drugs, ultimat...

The Desert Ensemble Theatre (DETC), in Palm Springs, has put together a fabulous production of Joshua Harmon's off-Broadway hit, BAD JEWS. The four young actors and director Rosemary Mallett have done a superb job with the one-act comedic drama that presents the story of two brothers and their cousi...

Desert Theatreworks, Palm Desert's community theatre, hits the mark with Its current production, Jon Robin Baitz's OTHER DESERT CITIES, a must-see. The acting, directing, set design, and lighting are all top-notch....

In Coyote Stageworks' superb production of ART, a plain white painting that contains a bit of texture, and possibly, a few almost invisible tints, serves as the catalyst for three middle-aged men to examine their friendship.The expressions of emotion, whether through the writer's words or through th...

Theatergoers at the Fox Performing Arts Center (Fox PAC) in Riverside, California, had the pleasure of watching the hilarious FORBIDDEN BROADWAY revue. The audience laughed uproariously at the onstage antics, which consist of skewering Broadway's musical hits and stars....

Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep), in Rancho Mirage, and its artistic director Ron Celona, have scored another coup with I AM MY OWN WIFE, the slightly fictionalized story of German gay rights activist and antique collector Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Actor Vince Gatton brings her to life, along with ...

Desert Rose Playhouse, in Rancho Mirage, is currently presenting COCK, an intelligent and moving comic drama. It is sensitively directed (by artistic director Jim Strait), and performed superbly by a first-rate cast. COCK is a drama that is likely to interest both the LGBT community (Desert Rose's c...

CLUE THE MUSICAL, as interpreted by director Lance Phillips-Martinez and music director Joel Baker, Desert Theatreworks' production is a great deal of family-friendly fun. Mr. Phillips-Martinez and Ashley Hernandez (who also plays the multiply-widowed Mrs. Peacock) have provided superb choreography....

Desert Ensemble Theatre (DETC), in Palm Springs, is presenting ENDANGERED SPECIES, a richly layered work written by founder and producing artistic director Tony Padilla. Mr. Padilla directs a fine ensemble cast that does justice to the difficult material in this unsettling play....

The national tour of THE PRODUCERS, the Mel Brooks musical farce,is a hilarious production.The Tony-award winning musical, which originally starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, ran from 2001 to 2007 on Broadway. The touring production is hilariously funny and will play several nearby venues in...

Palm Springs' Desert Ensemble Theatre Company (DETC) has scored a coup with its production of Caryl Churchill's 2002 four-character, two actor play, A NUMBER. Ms. Churchill, a British playwright whom dramatist Tony Kushner calls 'the greatest living English language playwright,' provides an exceptio...

Leave it to the creative folks over at 3-D Theatricals, Orange County's award-winning Broadway-caliber theatrical company, to be the entity responsible for this splendid new regional production of DISNEY's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST---the 1994 stage adaptation of the studio's gorgeous Academy Award-winnin...

Now on stage in an exquisite new regional production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 21, 2016, John Logan's riveting Tony Award-winning two-character play RED imagines a specific time period in the life of world-renowned abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (played with...