A BLUES REVUE A female-centric revue from 1980, Sheldon Epp’s Blues in the Night celebrates the melancholic but often very humorous songs of black American folk origin. The blues as we…
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR RISES AGAIN, BUT ONLY PARTIALLY TO THE HEAVENS Not nearly as powerful and raw as it could have been, NBC's live telecast "event" of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's …
NO MUSICAL IS AN ISLAND Whenever it's revived, it's hard to imagine a more necessary musical than this 1949 Pulitzer Prize winner. 72 years after the Japanese surrender, it remains a healing…
O, BEAUTYFUL AMERYKA After a successful run in 2016, Ameryka has arrived for a short run at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of CTG’s Block Party. It’s a testament to writer/dire…
It’s 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where people are disappearing right off the street. The so-called “Dirty War” waged by the military Junta against its own people is in…
JUBILATION! It promises to be one of the most enchanting nights of theater in a long time. On Saturday April 28 at 8:00, some of London and Hollywood's greatest names will gather at The Wall…
A ROYAL TREAT For almost 40 years, The Groundlings has proved itself to be one of the premiere comedy troupes in the nation, creating more stars than the Big Bang (and creating more Big Bang…
WILIES AT THE WALLIS First staged in 1841, Giselle is one of the oldest surviving ballets still in the international repertory, especially because the lead role is a showcase for the w…
SAVING FAITH Even with a few blemishes, Bedlam's revival of George Bernard Shaw's 1923 masterpiece Saint Joan is an immersive and ultimately gratifying theatrical experience. The story…
WELL WORTH A VISIT Perhaps composer/lyricist David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) was inspired by one of our best new playwrights, Itamar Moses, and his adaptation of the t…
REPRISE REPRISED It’s a strange sort of serendipity. Just when Musical Theatre Guild announced its final season after eight glorious years presenting rarely produced musicals, along co…
SUCH SWEET SORROW FOR THE WRONG REASONS It's as if choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, director of the Polish National Ballet, gave Prokofiev the opportunity to protest Stalin's tyranny that he …
DON’T MYTH OUT, OR DANCING THAT’S ORPH THE CHARTS LA Opera’s gorgeous production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice), featuring a welc…
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST I'm actually happy I didn't see this musical live on stage. It makes for a wonderful original cast recording, but what seems like a giant heart on this CD, out…
THE MUSICAL THAT KEEPS ON WORKING Was 2017 really the European premiere of this oft-produced musical? Yep. 40 years since the Broadway opening of Working, and we’re just getting the Or…
A MODERNIZED STREETCAR Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams' still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that direct…
A BEAUTIFUL DOLL It's amazing. Were this masterpiece from Broadway's golden age an actual guy or doll, he or she would be scoring Social Security. But make no mistake, this 1950 hoofer is no…
HIS AND HERS HISTORY Looking for some inspiration? From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and lauded author Sarah Vowell comes a powerful examination of one of American history'…
MY KINDA CABARET ACT It was the decade that changed our nation forever. What began as nothing but promise — victors of a World War and a young forward-thinking President — sudden…
A MAGNIFICENT MARIACHI OPERA COMES TO THE SORAYA It was by sheer luck that I was in Chicago and happened upon the world's first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face o…
MARVIN’S GARDEN One of composer Marvin Hamlisch's first gigs was that of rehearsal pianist and assistant vocal arranger for the original production of Funny Girl on Broadway in 1964, a…
THESE THINGS MUST BE DONE DELICATELY If you lose your way trying to navigate the enigmatic journey Anna Ziegler wants to take us in her well-written but thematically dense A Delicate Ship…
RARELY PRODUCED BERLIN SCORE COMES TO LIFE No doubt when folks hear “Louisiana Purchase,” they think of Thomas Jefferson’s gargantuan land acquisition from France in 1803, …
AN OPERATIC CIRCUS ODYSSEY The uber-innovative Australian performance troupe, Circa, returns to the States with its newest production, Il Ritorno, a unique production that melds circus arts …
YOU LEAVE SEEKING PEACE AND A PLOT When a play comes along that is entirely different from any play that has preceded it, especially in our era of over-informative white noise and copycattin…