PROOF
posted on July 28th, 2026 at 9:40 AM by Steven StanleyEd Begley Jr has earned a whopping Emmy nominations in his illustrious career, but it’s Heyden Begley who commands the El Portal Theatre stage as the brilliant but emotionally fragile daughter of a mathematical genius gone mad in David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Proof.
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Tags: David Auburn, El Portal Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review
CLOWN SH*T
posted on July 27th, 2026 at 12:42 PM by Steven Stanley
Absurdist theater meets romantic comedy meets a meditation on life and death and what comes in-between in Clown Sh*t, Hope Lauren’s exhilarating, thought-provoking roller coaster ride of a World Premiere two-hander.
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Tags: Hope Lauren, Los Angeles Theater Review, the Eastwood
posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Now Playing, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!
APPLAUSE
posted on July 25th, 2026 at 5:35 PM by Steven StanleyLeslie Stevens and Savannah Mortenson deliver matching star turns as Margo Channing and Eve Harrington in the Group Rep’s Summer of 2026 revival of Applause, but the stage adaptation of the Hollywood classic All About Eve pales in comparison to its fellow 1970s Best Musical Tony winners Company, A Little Night Music, A Chorus Line, and Sweeney Todd.
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Tags: Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Group Rep
posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Now Playing, WOW!
F**KING STRANGERS
posted on July 22nd, 2026 at 4:07 PM by Steven Stanley
Erik Patterson, L.A.’s master of “I didn’t see that coming” plot twists, is back at Echo Theater with his sexiest and most provocative play in years, the twisty-turny, edge-of-your-seat, and very sexy F**king Strangers.
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Tags: Echo Theater Company, Erik Patterson, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Now Playing, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!
FOOTLOOSE THE MUSICAL
posted on July 21st, 2026 at 12:30 PM by Steven Stanley
I dare you not to feel the urge to kick off your Sunday shoes and cut footloose to the 1980s hits and new-for-Broadway tunes featured in Inland Valley Repertory Theatre’s crowd-pleasing revival of Broadway’s Footloose the Musical, the most irresistibly finger-snapping, toe-tapping show in town.
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Tags: Dean Pitchford, Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Tom Snow, Walter Bobbie
posted in Musical, Now Playing, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!
JAGGED LITTLE PILL
posted on July 20th, 2026 at 11:55 AM by Steven Stanley
Chance Theater superstar Jocelyn A. Brown delivers yet another dramatic and vocal tour-de-force performance, this time round as a seemingly perfect but secretly drug-addicted suburban housewife, in Chance Theater’s riveting take on Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill.
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Tags: Alanis Morisette, Chance Theater, Diablo Cody, Glen Ballard, Orange County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Now Playing, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!
AMERICAN IDIOT
posted on July 18th, 2026 at 9:36 AM by Steven Stanley
Punk rock energy ignites the Broadwater Mainstage in Conundrum Theatre Company’s high-octane revival of the international smash American Idiot, easily the rawest, grittiest, and most ear-splitting of the nine productions I’ve now seen of the Green Day musical.
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Tags: Conundrum Theatre Company, Green Day, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Broadwater Mainstage
posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!
MEXODUS
posted on July 14th, 2026 at 12:17 PM by Steven Stanley
New musicals don’t get any more one-of-a-kind than Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s supremely inventive, supremely innovative, supremely elucidating and entertaining off-Broadway two-hander Mexodus, now dazzling Pasadena Playhouse audiences direct from its New York run.
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Tags: Brian Quijada, Los Angeles Theater Review, Nygel D. Robinson, Pasadena Playhouse
posted in Musical, Pasadena, Presented Production, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.


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