Palm Springs Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: OTHER DESERT CITIES at Coachella Valley Repertory
by June August - April 28, 2025

As a regular theatergoer who has seen Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities before--twice in the Palm Springs area--I wasn't expecting to be surprised. Well, I was. It became more than a play; it was an experience. At rise, I found myself embraced by a set that invited me into the living room of an ...

Review: FALSETTOS at Dezart Performs
by Gilmore Rizzo - April 22, 2025

As the end of the theatre season approaches, the best theatres in the desert are finishing with its finest productions. One such case is the exceptional musical produced by Michael Shaw and Clark Dugger at Dezart Performs, as they present FALSETTOS, directed by Dennis Courtney....

Review: A COURAGEOUS PRODUCTION OF DIARY OF ANNE FRANK at Desert TheatreWorks
by June August - April 21, 2025

Desert TheatreWorks is to be congratulated for mounting a successful production of DIARY OF ANNE FRANK at the Indio Performing Arts Center April 4-13, 2025. A strong cast of 10, starring Tess Martinez in the title role, recalls the desperation of millions of innocent people during the Second World W...

Review: HAIRSPRAY at Desert Theatricals
by Kay Kudukis - April 14, 2025

John Waters made films for queer people long before the word queer was embraced by the community. That he was good friends with Warhol makes complete sense to me. They were cut from the same jib. What makes Waters a far better filmmaker was his ability to give us a fun story steeped in pretty clear ...

Review: The SHARK is BROKEN at Revolution Stage
by June August - April 14, 2025

The SHARK is BROKEN, a three-man, two-hour play inspired by the technical problems that delayed the filming of Jaws, is now amusing audiences at Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs through April 19. Directed by Roger Welch, the script by Ian Frost and Joseph Nixon dramatizes the frustrations of...

Review: GREEN ROOM THEATRE: A CULTURAL CONNECTION at GREEN ROOM THEATRE
by June August - April 14, 2025

I was moved—completely captivated by the stunning performance of Luis Alfaro’s award-winning Black Butterfly, a poignant peek into one aspect of Mexican-American culture, now playing at Green Room Theatre Company. The show offers more than the play itself.  On a makeshift stage in the RAP Foundation...

Feature: BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL PEACE TALKS at Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre
by June August - April 21, 2025

Remember the advertising slogan, 'The Gift That Keeps on Giving'?  It originated in the 1920's to promote the newly invented phonograph by the Victor Talking Machine Company. It was so effective that RCA Victor resurrected it in 1963 as a Christmas season advertisement.  Well, in the spirit of 'I wi...

Review: THE CAKE at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - April 07, 2025

In 2012, Colorado bakery owner Jack Phillips refused to bake a cake for couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig because he said it went against his religious beliefs. The couple won the case in the Colorado Supreme Court, but in a ruling written by Justice Kennedy, the United States Supreme Court sai...

Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre
by June August - March 22, 2025

Bravo to Maestro Steven Hulsey and Director Adam Karsten. Brava to Choreographer Karen Sieber. Not a note of Andrew Lloyd Webber's brilliant score was wasted. ...

Review: GOD OF CARNAGE at Palm Springs Cultural Center
by June August - March 22, 2025

What did our critic think of GOD OF CARNAGE at Palm Springs Cultural Center?...

Review: OLIVER at Rancho Mirage Amphitheatre
by June August - March 21, 2025

When my 8th grade English class read Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’ exposé of the cruel and unjust treatment of the poor in Victorian London, I never dreamed it would become Lionel Bart’s poignant, award-winning 1960 musical Oliver. Alas, Broadway Theatricals’ delightful production just ended its Ma...

Review: OLIVER at Desert Theatricals
by June August - March 24, 2025

God of Carnage does not necessarily suggest comedy. Since I and those attending the Desert Ensemble Theatre production at the Palm Sprngs Cultural Center found ourselves laughing at the satiric humor in author Yasmine Reza’s dive into the exigencies of communication, the play conforms to the genre o...

Review: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING at Revolution Stage Company
by Kay Kudukis - March 16, 2025

What did our critic think of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING at Revolution Stage Company?...

Review: VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Revolution Stage Company
by Kay Kudukis - February 22, 2025

What did our critic think of VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Revolution Stage Company?...

Review: FRANKENSTEIN: THE MUSICAL at Skylight Music Theatre
by Cathy Jakicic - February 22, 2025

What did our critic think of FRANKENSTEIN: THE MUSICAL at Skylight Music Theatre?...

Review: AVENUE Q at Revolution Stage Company Makes A Delightful Comeback
by David Green - February 13, 2025

What did our critic think of AVENUE Q at Revolutiion Stage Company?...

Review: PERFECT ARRANGEMENT at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - February 07, 2025

Sometimes I get to see a very good production of a very good play, and I go home feeling satisfied. As a reviewer, I sometimes have to see that same play again at another theatre with an entirely different cast and an entirely different directorial approach. It’s a bit like the remake of a classic. ...

Review: TRU at Desert Ensemble Theatre
by David Green - January 28, 2025

What did our critic think of TRU at Desert Ensemble Theatre?Since I missed Chuck Yates’s award-winning performance of Jay Presson Allen’s TRU the first time around, I was thrilled to review the reprise of his solo show, playing through February 2, 2025, Desert Ensemble Theatre at the Palm Springs Cu...

Review: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA at Coachella Valley Repetory Theatre
by David Green - January 28, 2025

What did our critic think of THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA at Coachella Valley Repetory Theatre?Take it from the top: another charming and effective Jimmy Cuomo set that embraces the style and provides the backdrop for The Light in the Piazza. From the piano, Music Director Stephen Hulsey conducts the orc...

Review: FAT HAM at Dezart Performs
by Kay Kudukis - January 21, 2025

I will start off straight away by saying you have to see FAT HAM. And I hope you are lucky enough to see it at Dezart Performs. This cast, in the hands of Michael Shaw, and AD Chuma Gault, form a very realistic, very dysfunctional family coming together at a backyard barbecue in North Carolina resul...

Review: SPRING AWAKENING at Revolution Stage Company
by Kay Kudukis - January 21, 2025

Go see it. ​​​​​​​If you check out the history of the musical, Spring Awakening, you will find that it is origins are in a German play titled The Awakening of Spring; underneath that, “A Tragedy of Childhood.” It was so controversial, it make it to stage for 15 years after it was written in 1891....

Review: SKIPPY AND BITSY’S ALL-STAR TV CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - December 18, 2024

It’s all in good (and a little naughty) fun at Skippy and Bitsy’s All-Star Christmas TV Extravaganza on “live television”. This is a tv special you might have run across while surfing cable access tv, or in an SNL Christmas skit from the 1980s where it’s live and it’s a trainwreck, and there ain’t n...

Review: THE 39 STEPS at CVRep
by Kay Kudukis - December 13, 2024

What did our critic think of THE 39 STEPS at CVRep?...

Review: COMPANY at Revolution Stage Company
by Kay Kudukis - December 12, 2024

It’s all a big conundrum, isn’t it? Life in general, of course, but specifically, the idea as to whether or not someone will be happier single, or married. And in the musical COMPANY, Bobby’s friends, who are all married to each other, have decided that at the age of 35, Bobby’s getting a bit too lo...

Review: I’LL EAT YOU LAST: A CONVERSATION WITH SUE MENGERS at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - December 09, 2024

In 2015, Vanity Fair published an article about the first super agent in Hollywood, Sue Mengers. Mengers career started where all women agents started in 1961, as a secretary. It was the same year she met the not-yet legendary Barbra Streisand, “before she lost the ‘a’,” quips Cathy Moriarty as Meng...