A REALLY GOOD LIFETIME MOVIE ON STAGE Chicago Theater comes to L.A. lock, stock and barrel with the Goodman production of Rebecca Gilman's Luna Gale. Â A winning cast"led by the remarkable…
IT'S ONLY INVISIBLE IF YOU KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN The first time I heard Christopher Cerrone's opera Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino's 1972 fictional novel, was during The Industry's i…
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT Beginning November 26, 42nd Street Moon will revist one of its earliest hits, the mirthful 1943 farce Something for the Boys. This rarely performed boisterous mus…
PROMISING PROMISES, I PROMISE The premise of Promises, Promises is one you are probably familiar with even if you have never seen the 1968 musical, which opens in a splashy revival at San Fr…
KANDER & EBB'S DANCE MARATHON MUSICAL FINALLY ARRIVES IN LOS ANGELES I can understand why you hear about a "Staged Reading" and want to bolt in the opposite direction. Don't let that tit…
SILVER DOESN'T EVEN GET A BRONZE It took fifteen actors, two writers, two directors, and three designers to create a Working Theater's one-hour interactive theatrical experience, a Silver Li…
HAUNTEDÂ BY POWER Aurora Theatre once again proves its might by presenting the West Coast Premiere of a great play. Opening this week and running through Dec. 7, 2014, Breakfast with Mugab…
AÂ CASE WHERE CURIOSITY WON’T KILL THE CAT Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the global phenomenon Cirque du Soleil arrives at San Francisco's AT&T Park for the U.S. Pr…
COMPLETELY SMART The exciting and insightful writer Itamar Moses may be one of our brightest playwrights, yet he has astoundingly been given short shrift by the L.A. theater community. Wi…
GRANTING YOUR WISH FOR A FUN OPERA Gioachino Rossini's Cinderella (La Cenerentola) was written in 1817 during the bel canto era when operas were written to showcase beautiful singing, and Je…
REIMAGINING THE REIMAGINED ATÂ NCTC No one can deny why Romeo and Juliet has achieved cult status. Not only is Shakespeare's comic tragedy one of the most enduring stories ever told, but i…
SLIDING BORES A or B? The question of Ken Levine's title refers to the choice between two parallel universes set forth in his two-act two-hour two-hander. Played out simultaneously with flip…
COOL AS A CUCUMBER BUT NOT AS REFRESHING In Boys in the Band, the character of Harold states: "Although I’ve never seen my soul, I understand from my mother’s Rabbi that it’…
I'M NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD BE SKIPPIN' PIPPIN, BUT… Prepare yourself. After all the rave reviews and buzz from New York, Diane Paulus's Tony-winning revival hits the road filled with enough…
NUDITY IS AS NUDITY DOES For the sake of argument ("arguendo"), let us consider G-strings as tools of oppression, and pasties as violations of our First Amendment rights. This was the perspe…
KOSKY'S QUEEN AND CASTLE On the surface, there isn't much that unites Henry Purcell's 1688 Dido and Aeneas and Béla Bartók’s 1918 Bluebeard's Castle, except perhaps that men are no…
FOR BETTER OR WORSE Based on her own experience with a dying father and marital breakup with playwright Hamish Linklater (whose The Vandal is currently running in Chicago), Jessica Goldbe…
THERE'S A BRIGHT STAR SOMEWHERE ON THE HORIZON It takes a while to get on board with Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's new musical at The Old Globe. In fact, emotional involvement by intermis…
TRICKSTERS WHO ARE A TREAT From Vegas extravaganzas to intimate parlors, my favorite magicians are those with personality and humor. Even when tricks are well-rehearsed and mindboggling, sli…
SWAN IN A MILLION Featuring a live orchestra, The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this weekend, October 9-12, 2014. While this is one of the world's favo…
A TRANS-PORTIVE EXPERIENCE AWAITS YOU When I saw the trio of headliners who will be performing for one night only at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, I had to do a Little Rascals double-take. …
REAWAKENING In one of the bios for Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening, actress Ali Stroker thanks the company for stepping out of the box, and turning what some may think as a 'limit…
COME HOME TO THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote's plaintive 1953 teleplay (adapted for Broadway and for the 1985 film with Geraldine Page), paints a picture of rural A…
POP DOES OPERAÂ BIG, INTIMATELY Under Artistic Director Josh Shaw's hands-on guidance, Pacific Opera Project has become L.A.'s most exciting new opera company. In just three years since PO…
HERE'S CHARLEY This Sunday, September 21, Musical Theatre West will begin the Reiner Staged Reading Series fifth anniversary season with a one-time only performance of Where’s Charley?…