THOUSAND OAKS THEATER REVIEWS

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An interview with Carly Bracco, who performed as Jane and Tootles in the national tour of 'Peter Pan' who is now playing the title role....

What would it be like if dogs could speak? That's one question that is answered in A. R. Gurney's 1995 play Sylvia, which deals with much more than just a man and his dog.  Sylvia is currently playing through Sunday, May 7 at the Rubicon Theatre Company Ventura. ...

It used to be true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But not anymore. For the next five weeks, LA audiences will get a taste of Sin City right here in our own backyard, thanks to Spiegelworld's in-your-face adult-only production, ABSINTHE LA....

It's been 80 years since Bessie Smith, the celebrated Empress of the Blues, died a lonely death, after an auto accident on a desolate Mississippi road. Contrary to legend, Smith did not bleed to death after being refused admission to a white Southern hospital. That story was related to Down Beat m...

In See Rock City, the second installment of Arlene Hutton's trilogy about a post-World War II family, aspiring novelist Raleigh Brummett had left for New York to pursue his career, leaving his school teacher wife May behind in the rural town of Corbin, Kentucky. Hutton's trilogy about the Brummett...

The success of the awkwardly titled Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage depends primarily on whether or not you were a fan of the motion picture it was closely modeled after. It's easy to say this since the stage version is nearly identical to the film, and in many ways works better as a live ...

???????Calendar Girls, a 2009 play based on a hit 2003 film, is Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi's true-to-life comedy about six middle-aged women from a village in Yorkshire, England who raise money by posing nude for a calendar, in the process becoming a worldwide sensation. The women's goal was to ...

A Clean, Crisp, and Entertaining "Pippin" Plays at Newbury Park High School!...

Before Mamma Mia!, before The Marvelous Wonderettes, and before Jersey Boys, there was Return to the Forbidden Planet, an Off-Broadway space farce that was one of the first musicals to incorporate pop hits into its score. A spoof of the 1956 cult sci-fi film, Forbidden Planet, Bob Carlton's musical ...

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 ...

The title of All My Sons, Arthur Miller's riveting play of guilt, heartbreak, and tragedy, refers to 21 young World War II combat pilots, who were needlessly killed when cracked cylinder heads were unknowingly installed in their airplanes. The blame for this lays at the feet of Joe Keller, a success...

You've seen them. Gaudy costumes worn by Hollywood and Broadway stars, preserved and on display in museums and galleries. It's a great way to witness first-hand the trappings of the pretend, magical worlds brought to us on celluloid, television, and the live stage. But when you see those famous ou...

Last Sunday, we ventured into Los Angeles to see two Ventura County theater alumni in a production of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's Next to Normal, the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that is being staged at the Pico Playhouse. Michelle Lane and Harrison Meloeny were both in Cabrillo Music The...

Bling, beats, and Bollywood in 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' bring an end to the 20th Anniversary Celebration with a bawdy burst at Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival....

For its 20th Anniversary Season, Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival starts out with a bang with this production of war, loss, love, social classes, and uniquely filled with humor....

Kingsmen Shakespeare Company's production of HENRY V takes its cue from one of Shakespeare's most well-known speeches, 'O for a Muse of fire ,' the prologue to this play. In it, Shakespeare invites the audience to use its imagination in viewing what is about to transpire, to picture the battle scene...

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It's funny how many shows we've seen recently that bring to mind concepts evident in the current election season. In In the Heights, it was the plight of immigrants trying to make lives for themselves in America, in Amadeus, it was a lead character with an obsessive personality, and in Ragtime, it...

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...

As the audience walks into the lobby of the performing arts center, we are greeted with glittery visions of teacups and saucers, large animated flowers, and welcoming oversized characters beckoning us with which to take a photo-op. Life is good and happy...just like a Disney Parade....

The grand rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his erstwhile mentor Antonio Salieri is mainly apocryphal, generated for dramatic effect by playwright Peter Shaffer in his 1979 play, 'Amadeus,' but the idea was, nevertheless, a brilliant one. Conejo Players Theatre has put on an opulent, emoti...

For those of you who have never seen a production of this ode-to-classic-Broadway-musicals-with-a-modern-twist, run to the nearest production to see this campy, clever, and double entendre-filled romp....

'The very powerful are always fools,' intones Kit Maxwell, the one character with a conscience in Jason Wells' 2009 black comedy, Men of Tortuga, a taut and ironic thriller about corporate terrorists conspiring to plan a dastardly assassination. The show opened at the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard...

With the angst over the immediate future of Cabrillo Music Theatre finally receding into the background, it's time to focus once again on what is happening on the Cabrillo stage. Its current production of Children of Eden, which made its debut last night at the Fred Kavli Theatre, proves how indispe...