THE GREAT CLOWN BANK SHOW
Monday, July 6th, 2026
Though Open Fist Theatre Company scores an “A+” for adventurousness, the often entertaining “immersive theater extravaganza” that is Hank Jacobs’ The Great Clown Bank Show proves somewhat of a hit-or-miss enterprise.
MAMMA MIA!
Thursday, June 25th, 2026
Mamma Mia!, the jukebox musical that started it all, has returned to the Ahmanson Theatre, its 25th-Anniversary Tour treating the Broadway mega-smash’s mega-multitude of fans to not only two dozen of ABBA’s Greatest Hits but a much-needed feel-good night or matinee of musical theater enchantment.
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MY ONE WOMAN SHOW (THE SEARCH FOR A TRUTHFUL MOMENT)
Saturday, June 6th, 2026
I’ve reviewed only 6 autobiographical solo shows over the past 5 years but acclaimed L.A. theater multi-hyphenate Stefan Marks’s exceptional My One Woman Show: The Search For A Truthful Moment has made it a very lucky 7.
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SOUL SACRIFICE
Monday, June 1st, 2026A 9-year-old Mexican American begins her journey towards adulthood in Boyle Heights circa 1970 in Consuelo G. Flores’s powerful autobiographical family drama Soul Sacrifice, a solid CASA 0101 World Premiere production that would be even better with a child actress in its leading role.
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PRIMARY TRUST
Friday, May 29th, 2026
The Pulitzer Prize Board doesn’t always get it right but they most definitely did in 2024 when they opted for hope, healing, and heart over heavy-handedness in honoring Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust, now getting a much anticipated Los Angeles Premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’
Monday, May 25th, 2026
The “joint is jumpin’” like “nobody’s bizness” at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center now that Ain’t Misbehavin’ has set up shop there to gift L.A. audiences with a bona fide entertainment bonanza.
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ASCENT
Saturday, May 23rd, 2026
Henry Ong pays long overdue tribute to Qian Xuese, aka the “Father of Chinese Rocketry,” in Ascent, the much-missed playwright’s look back at not just one of the ugliest pages in American history but one with unmistakable parallels to today’s United States, brought to stunning life at the Skylight Theatre by director-dramaturg Diana Wyenn.
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FLOWER DRUM SONG
Friday, April 24th, 2026
A hundred million miracles may be happening every day, but none are more miraculous where musical theater is concerned than the one that has transformed Flower Drum Song, splendiferously revived at Little Tokyo’s Aratani Theatre, from a show filled with antiquated stereotypes to one that can now take its place among Rodgers and Hammerstein’s finest.
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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