LET HER ENTERTAIN YOU! Some people say Gypsy: A Musical Fable is the greatest Broadway musical ever written. And some people are probably right. It isn’t just a stirring story of…
THE DEVIL’S AT THE DOOR "He knows not Who lives most easily on land, how I Have spent my winter on the ice-cold sea Wretched and anxious, in the paths of exile Lacking dear friends, hu…
MARY SHELLEY'S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FRANKENSTEIN’S TRICK IS OUR TREAT Creating a Halloween story for all seasons in a novel that launched a terror genre, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelle…
THIS TURKEY IS SO SCARY, YOU HAVE TO KEEP REPEATING TO YOURSELF, “IT’S ONLY A PLAY… IT’S ONLY A PLAY…” There's a glaring contradiction in It's Only a P…
CASTE ASIDE Todd Solondz, one of the most profound filmmakers working today (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse), begins his first play Emma and Max — which he also directs —…
WHO DOES HE THINK SHE IS? Him…Her…Them…Zir…Hir? In the transgender and non-binary community, the struggle with pronouns almost rivals the struggle with civil rights. Hir, now …
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR AS FLOWER CHILD Some shows stay young by never growing up: Stephen Schwartz' silly-stupid 1972 musical is the (im)perfect example of a musical that's saved by its song…
HANNIBAL THE CANNIBAL WANTS A WHIFF OF SOMETHING SPECIAL I didn't know what to expect when I made plans to see Bucket List Theatre's production of Silence! The Musical, a parody of the multi…
FLYIN’ HIGH: THE HEARTLAND SOLIDARITY OF SODBUSTING SISTERS For a while it must have seemed like a black Eden. Founded in 1877, Nicodemus, Kansas was a Reconstruction success story fou…
YOU’VE GOT SOME FEET TO MEET Call us saps or suckers but we can't, it seems, get enough of "The Understudy Who Becomes A Star." Not when the sweet and satisfying story is stuffed with …
Newsroom, political platform, local hot spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. They talk…
CRUMBS IS A RICH MEAL Much like Lorraine Hansberry and Tennessee Williams, Lynn Nottage is a memory-monger. She sees truth in small stuff that looms larger later. And as with Arthur Miller o…
ANCIENT LIES AND MODERN QUESTIONS Theatrical magic happens when all the elements of a production come together to form a seamless whole; when the text, direction, acting, and technical contr…
BACK FROM OVER THE RAINBOW Please don't take my word for it. See, hear and cherish for yourselves Angela Ingersoll's wonderful reclamation of the great Judy Garland — the look, voice, …
A THOROUGHLY METROPOLITAN LIFE A worshipful cult greeted Fran Lebowitz at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. on September 30. She seemed incredibly pleased but not at all surprise…
HERE’S SOME GOOD NOOSE FOR YOU Amid the jukebox musicals and feel-good issue plays of the moment, thank the macabre heavens for two grippingly disturbing entertainments. The first is E…
MORE LIKE A SILVER TICKET Saccharinity, like speed, can kill: The guilty pleasure of loving chocolate can, it seems, cover a multitude of sins. Harnessing "pure imagination" as well as a swe…
A READY ROGUE MACHINE OPENS OPPENHEIMER J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant, enigmatic and complex man. Ambitious and charismatic, Oppenheimer found himself uniquely placed to spearhead th…
IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS If anyone should dislike the confrontational and cynical aspects of Echo Theatre’s knockout L.A. premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria, I assert it…
HE’S NOT GOING TO THE DOGS, BUT THE PROCEEDS ARE There are many reasons to see writer/performer Steve Spiro’s entertaining and touching one man show, a powerful and emotional tru…
BRADLEY COOPER — A STAR REBORN The first A Star Is Born (1937) tells of aspiring actress Esther Blodgett (played by Janet Gaynor) who impresses an alcoholic matinee idol Norman Maine (…
GENDER-SWITCHED REENACTMENT OF THE KAVANAUGH/FORD TESTIMONIES ONE NIGHT ONLY, TUESDAY OCTOBER 2 If you think the Senate hearings last week were high drama, imagine seeing them live in the th…
CHILD MOLESTERS GET A PLAY Some underdogs seem deeply deserving — which makes sympathy for devils a tricky proposition. Pulitzer-winning Bruce Norris has never shied away from upsettin…
THE BELLE OF COAL YARD ALLEY LEAVES YOU GWYNNING FROM EAR TO EAR When you're mistress to a monarch, your perch is precarious. Envy supplants praise as, moving from "rags to royalty," your or…
FEAR THAT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN IAMA Theatre Company's 2018-19 season opener, Bess Wohl's American Hero (a Pasadena Playhouse guest production at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre) is a portrait in …