RICHARD III
Friday, February 27th, 2026Ann Noble delivers a tour-de-force performance in the title role, but I found Guillermo Cienfuegos’s edgy, contemporary, stunningly staged take on William Shakespeare’s Richard III hard to follow (and most of its characters hard to distinguish one from another). Then again, that just might be me and my conflicted feelings about the Bard, particularly when he is in history play mode.
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UNCLE VANYA
Sunday, February 22nd, 2026
Neil LaBute gives Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya a more contemporary-sounding tweak in the Tony nominated playwright’s third visit to Santa Monica’s City Garage Theatre, and the result is a Vanya that even Chekhov “non-fans” like this reviewer can enjoy.
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CYMBELINE
Sunday, October 26th, 2025
Cymbeline may seem an unlikely title for a Western a la Gunsmoke, Bonanza, or The Rifleman, but William Shakespeare and the American West prove an inspired mix in Antaeus Theatre Company’s 2025-26 season opener.
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ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
Monday, September 8th, 2025
The Swinging Sixties have rarely if ever swung as wildly and wackily as they do in the physical-comedy-packed screwball funfest that is the West End-to-Broadway smash One Man, Two Guvnors, A Noise Within’s couldn’t-be-more-fabulous 2025-2026 season opener.
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THE SEAGULL: MALIBU
Monday, August 18th, 2025
Ellen Geer updates Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull from 1890s tsarist Russia to Malibu, California during the “It’s All About Me” 1970s, and the exhilarating result is The Seagull: Malibu, a romantic dramedy that’s both Chekhovian and Southern Californian, and a Summer Of 2025 treat no matter how you feel about Chekhov.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Monday, July 21st, 2025
Beatrice and Benedick are once again at it tooth and nail, but this time round she’s wearing a hoopskirt and he’s sporting a Civil War-era Army uniform as director Ellen Geer transposes the Shakespeare comedy classic from 16th-century Italy to 1860s Virginia while sprinkling in one I Love Lucy-inspired physical comedy bit after another.
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Monday, June 30th, 2025
Summer has come to L.A., and with it the annual return to Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Shakespearean classic once again delighting audiences of all ages, whether they are experiencing its magic for the first time or returning for another summer afternoon or evening of enchantment.
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THE WINTER’S TALE
Friday, April 25th, 2025
If you’ve ever wished Shakespearean English weren’t so darned hard to understand (I certainly have), then Tracy Young’s modern verse translation of The Winter’s Tale, the sparklingly performed latest from Skylight Theatre Company, is the Shakespeare production for you and for me.
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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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