THOUSAND OAKS THEATER REVIEWS

World premiere of playwright Stan Rich's Loopholes: A Pain In The I.R.S. benefits from a very game cast of talented actors performing his fun, pun- galore, shtick-filled musical. The troupe's overall enthusiasm and commitment really pull off this 90-minute piece which possesses a very Judy Garland-...

Frost/Nixon is Peter Morgan's award-winning play about the televised 1977 interviews between British talk show host David Frost and deposed president Richard M. Nixon. The interviews were divided into four segments, each focusing on a different topic. The original broadcast of the first segment drew...

An all-teen cast highlights Panic! Productions' staging of Jason Robert Brown's '13,' now playing through April 19 at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts in Thousand Oaks....

In 1948, a decade before Motown, John Dolphin opened his soon-to-be world famous Dolphin's of Hollywood record store in South Los Angeles, just off legendary Central Avenue, but his contributions to music and the formative years of rock 'n' roll have often been overlooked. Based on the book "Recorde...

Kudos to George Villas for mastering Neil LaBute's extremely word-heavy monologues-the opening 20 minutes and the what-seemed-much-longer closing one. But Villas' Smith's long involved diatribes might be easier digested presented by a pivotal character more sympathetic and grounded....

CSUCI Senior Andrew Metzger is proving to be a formidable force on the Ventura County stage scene. A combination of Zero Mostel and John Belushi, Metzger commands attention from his very first words. He is simply magnificent in this role....

Did it succeed or can one have too much of a good thing?...

Broadway's Tony Award-winning production of Cinderella (2013) has a brand new book by Douglas Carter Beane and an expanded score of the glorious music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. As the musical based on the fairy tale possesses a more contemporary storyline, both Cinderella (Paige Faure) and Prince To...

A talented ensemble energizes the Los Angeles premiere of playwright Leilani Chan's Global Taxi Driver, a collection of taxi drivers' stories from all over the world....

In playwright Kimber Lee's hushed yet absorbing sushi-making drama TOKYO FISH STORY---now having its World Premiere production at Costa Mesa's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory through March 29---centuries of painstaking tradition are... well, rapidly showing its age against the progress of m...

I remember the melodrama of the film Carrie (1976) and director Brian De Palma's splashy special effects more than anything else. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie really tore up the scenery in their overblown scenes together. Onstage Carrie The Musical brings out so much more. It really zeroes in on th...

In JACK LEMMON RETURNS, the legendary actor's son Chris takes the audience through highlights of his father's career. There is, of course, lots of laughter but also poignant moments about the elder Lemmon's total preoccupation with his career, to the detriment of his satellite family's relationship ...

Rockwell Table & Stage could barely contain the theatre aficionados' applause and excitement generated by the incredible singers belting out one showstopper after another in An Evening of Classic Broadway....

Switzerland/written by Joanna Murray-Smith/directed by Mark Brokaw/Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, Geffen Playhouse/co-world premiere with the Sydney Theatre Company/through April 19...

David Auburn's 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof receives a sturdy mounting from Noisy Nest, with Amanda Bird directing the real-time scenes with a firm grip....

In ChicabaRENT, director/writer Shannon Sukovaty creates a clever mash-up of Chicago, Cabaret and Rent in a non-stop, in-your-face attack on your senses....

A stellar cast, led by Laurie Metcalf, gives their all in the West Coast premiere of Nick Jones' smartly written Trevor. Jimmi Simpson embodies his character of Trevor, an 11-year-old chimpanzee with a child-like humanness, not unlike a human youngster with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (...

NEXT TO NORMAL tells the story of a mother, Diana Goodman, who struggles with bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family. This contemporary musical is an emotional powerhouse that addresses such issues as grieving a loss, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the day-to-day realit...

Charles Busch's one-act comedy, THE DIVINE SISTER, appearing at the Desert Rose Playhouse, in Rancho Mirage, is a divine parody of nun movies and a zany comedy. It is almost impossible to describe the over-the-top story, but the production is hilarious and well worth seeing....

CVRep's new production of LA GRINGA is brilliantly acted and brilliantly directed. The set design and other technical aspects of the production are also superb. However, Carmen Rivera's script is mediocre, because this 'comedy' is not funny....

Desert Theatreworks (DTW), one of the Coachella Valley's nonprofit theatre companies, is presenting the hilarious musical comedy, NUNSENSE: THE MEGA-MUSICAL. Dan Goggin's musical farce contains clever wordplay and groaner puns. The show as DTW presents it is silly, irreverent, and highly enjoyable....

One faces an undeniably horrendous situation that will only get worse before it gets better...and the clincher?... it is fueled by love. That's the trap created by Frawley Becker in his play Tiger by the Tail now playing at Group rep in Noho through April 19. The tender theme is made sweeter by smoo...

Andrew Heffenan ably directs his capable cast of two in their machine-gun deliveries of well-written, word-heavy dialogue....

Remember when you were a child and hated to think? Or were you like JoJo with excessively brilliant thinks? No matter! Put yourself into a Dr. Seuss...ical mode and get on down to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center from Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8 only for the final weekend of performance...

In the rolling world premiere of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; playwright Nathan Alan Davis has vividly created strong empathetic characters; some very wise, some very witty, all someone you'd like to get to know better in your own life....