102 stories by "David C. Nichols"
“Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.” That stark, matter-of-fact statement launches “Nocturne,” and its embedded significance is inexorable and intense.
In “Day Trader” at Bootleg Theater, a wannabe screenwriter in midlife crisis concocts an elaborate scheme to circumvent his rich wife’s pre-nup without sacrificing his cush…
Snowflakes hit the Sahara in “Aladdin and His Winter Wish,” now turning the Pasadena Playhouse into a surefire seasonal oasis. Although this second annual holiday romp from Lythg…
Delicate, bittersweet nostalgia suffuses “A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote’s enduring 1956 autobiographical story, and the Laguna Playhouse staging of Duane Poole, Carol …
Weimar cabaret meets Pacifica in “Kurt Weill at the Cuttlefish Hotel,” carving a weirdly effective niche for itself on the Santa Monica Pier. This dark-tinged program of deathles…
“In the Heights” is currently irradiating Casa 0101, where it fits as felicitously as cinnamon in café con leche . This galvanic chamber edition of the 2008 Tony winner about t…
A noteworthy degree of high-performance gusto attends “¡Ser!” at Los Angeles Theatre Center. This deeply personal coming-of-age account from writer-performer Karen Anzoategui …
Charles Dickens meets Lewis Carroll, literally, in “A Perfect Likeness” at Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena. This beautifully appointed two-hander about the authors of &l…
It’s a newer Argentina than not on display in “Evita” at the Pantages. This glossy touring edition of director Michael Grandage’s 2006 revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber …
How to enumerate the myriad wonders and delights of “Totem,” now taking its viewers on a dazzling trek from the primordial to the cosmic?
The tenacious human need for connection forms the heart of “Kin” at Theatre 40. Bathsheba Doran’s elliptical 2011 comedy-drama about how familial and personal relations…
The magic of the Gershwin songbook swept the Los Angeles County Arboretum on Saturday, when Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, together with guest vocalists Catherine Russell…
Old Hickory gets a charge of anarchistic electricity in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills. This sublimely raucous take on Alex Timbers and Mic…
The Laguna Playhouse has a surefire proposal in "I Do! I Do!" Although this sturdy revival of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s 1966 two-hander hardly revitalizes an oft-produced regional…
A potent charge of relevant provocation propels “revolver” at the Celebration Theatre. In the final production at its longtime venue, L.A.’s flagship gay theater scores a p…
The delicate theatricality of “The Fantasticks” has weathered countless editions worldwide since its off-Broadway premiere in 1960. But Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s adapt…
Two sets of lives unexpectedly commingle in “Assisted Living” at the Odyssey Theatre. This amiable item from real-life married couple Winnie Holzman and Paul Dooley isn’t e…
Reviewing the 1981 premiere of “Dreamgirls,” critic Frank Rich wrote, “When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it.” To paraphrase him, when Equity-waiver hi…
It’s a softer-grained “Master Class” than usual in Long Beach, but just try to look away. Although more muted than some past editions, this adroit International City Theatr…
“My name is Knott. Doug Knott. And I am the last of the Knotts.” With that plainspoken declaration, “Last of the Knotts” begins its idiomatic trek inside the psyche o…
