THOUSAND OAKS THEATER REVIEWS

The Zombie Effect -the ideal scary experience for the haunting Halloween season. Like taking one of those house of horrors rides where some creature jumps out at you when you least expect it...

In 1972 Pippin opened on Broadway and became one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history, closing in 1977. Stephen Schwartz's bubbling optimistic tunes made the surreal and sensual mood of the piece an ultra-pleasant experience for theatre goers. One actually left the theatre humming the...

Admirably directed by 3-D Theatricals co-founder and resident artistic director TJ Dawson, this ambitiously impressive regional revival of RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL, continues through October 26 at its home-base at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton before moving north for its set of performances at the...

Each Halloween season, Unbound Productions presents adaptations of classic horror literature as an immersive theatre event that takes place at Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery in Altadena, California. Yes, that's right - you spend the evening surrounded by dead people with much reverence and re...

A strong, nicely-matched cast of four playing well opposite, and with, each other; firmly directed at a steady clip by Elina de Santos; and presented with top-notch production elements make Nice Things a very nice 85 minutes of entertainment....

Multi-award winning playwright Jim Leonard, Jr. definitively succeeds in explicitly depicting the tragic affects of caring for Buddy, a mentally disturbed boy with a gift for divining water....

Folks who are unfamiliar with the Don't Hug Me series of shows need look no further than at the signs in the lobby of the group rep that say 'Have a Crappie Day!' It's obvious that the show inside is unlike any other with an unmistakable individuality and peculiarly regional point of view, that ever...

Tim Bagley weaves the hysterically sad and poignantly funny incidents of his working actor career into his quick, one-hour, entertaining creation No Actors Allowed...

David Ives' fascinating two character play within a play Venus in Fur won a Best Actress Tony Award for Nina Arianda in 2012. It's no wonder as the role in theatrical size and scope is every actress's dream. Now onstage at SCR, Casey Stangl directs two first-rate actors in Ives' thoroughly engrossin...

Since its creation in 1997, Ragtime has remained one of my favorite musicals for two reasons. Its simply gorgeous almost opera-like musical score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens moves me to the bone, and it has more meaningful historical content about America at the turn of the 20th century than...

Dane Whitlock directs his creation, subtitled 'A New Musical Mash-up Parody SLASHER Musical,' at a uproarious neck-breaking pace allowing just enough time to laugh at the hysterical antics or gasp at the low-budget frights or sway your bodies to the recognition of Donna Summer classics....

Writer/director Sean Abley has wisely chosen this troupe of talented actors to be his Bitches. All women characters (performed over-the-top by males in men's clothing) sharply deliver some snappy one-liners with some delicious drag queen bulls-eyed intensities....

The appeal of trading in the hustle and bustle of a 21st Century lifestyle for a 1955 throwback downgrade is the focus of Jordan Harrison's wonderfully intriguing play MAPLE & VINE, now having its Los Angeles/Orange County premiere production at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills through October 19...

What I found so utterly engaging about the world premiere of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's new musical BRIGHT STAR is its complete unpretentiousness. Certainly its musical style --American bluegrass with a heaping helping of laid back mountain charm -- has the kind of lilting homespun ease that m...

Jersey Boys, called a jukebox musical, is an uber well-structured, Tony Award-winning show presented in a documentary-like format. It tells the true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, retaining most of their original musical hits. There are lots of laughs, great rock and roll music and a r...

In his timeless and invigorating script The Trip to Bountiful Horton Foote engages our attention with his keen appraisal that 'The world can't be bought'. Believing the best things in life are free - well, almost..., elderly Carrie Watts (Cicely Tyson), in her Tony-winning role, proves just how heal...

TONY Award winning actress, Faith Prince, is bringing her one-woman cabaret act in addition to her world-renowned Master Class to the Conejo Valley the weekend of October 10th. Of Note Productions is producing this weekend event. Of Note Productions seeks to provide the people of Ventura County spec...

BRONIES! THE MUSICAL made a big splash at this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival. It won multiple awards including Best Musical, the Thirty9One Golden Elephant for best director/producers, and a Producers' Encore Award, and more importantly, it won the hearts of everyone who saw it....

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's thoughtful, riveting character study GOOD PEOPLE continues at the La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts through October 12. Buoyed by impressive performances, this excellent regional production of the Tony Award-winning play shines the spo...

I revert to childhood when I see a Mel Brooks movie or show. The sillier the better: the sight gags, the double entendres, the more the merrier. The New Mel Brooks Musical, Young Frankenstein is a real rip-roaring hoot of a show from start to finish as produced by DOMA with a great cast and zippy fa...

Melissa Arctic, Craig Wright's re-imagining of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, doesn't quite jell, despite many good elements in this two-hour production....

Most of the time, when you go to the theater, you pretty much know what to expect. Though the subject matter and delivery varies, when you buy a ticket to a play or musical you basically know what kind of show you're going to see. Well here's one for those of you that want something that is truly di...

Audiences may be somewhat confused, but nonetheless intrigued and maybe even stimulated by Jordan Harrison's world premiere play Marjorie Prime now onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through October 19. It's an insightful 80-minute one-act but would most likely work better in tandem with another one-ac...

Clever and full of campy humor, the world premiere Scary Musical The Musical has a dangerously speedy pace that will surely keep you on your toes as you enjoyably try to figure out whodunit. Now at the NoHo Arts Center and produced by NoHo ACE, the new musical has brilliantly skilled direction and c...

Charles Dickens' last novel, unfinished at the time of his death in 1870, supplied the story for the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood which won five Tony Awards when it first premiered in 1985. Although it won for Best Book and Best Score, I hardly find either completely satisfying. On the musical...