MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL
Wednesday, June 17th, 2015Motown Records founder Berry Gordy tells his life story surrounded by the Detroiters he turned into superstars in Broadway’s crowd-pleasing Motown: The Musical, now in its second year of touring the country and stopping for the next two weeks at the Segerstrom Center For The Performing Arts.
(read more)
MURDER FOR TWO
Thursday, April 30th, 2015Who says you need a dozen performers and a full orchestra to create a supremely inventive, thoroughly delightful (Ladies’ and) Gentlemen’s Guide To Love And Murder? As Joe Kinosian & Kellen Blair’s Murder For Two makes abundantly clear, all it takes is a pair of gifted quadruple-threats, four hands, a baby grand piano, a nifty plot, an inventive book, and some clever, catchy songs to come up with an award-winning off-Broadway hit.
(read more)
GUYS AND DOLLS
Wednesday, April 15th, 2015RECOMMENDED
Damon Runyon’s colorful New York denizens have set up shop this week in Costa Mesa, and if the revival of Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls now playing at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts isn’t the bona fide “Broadway National Tour” we expect on the SCFTA stage (the scenic design in particular doesn’t stand up to Segerstrom standards), it features all-around terrific performances and the most exciting “Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat” I’ve ever seen.
(read more)
NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015Take a classic George and Ira Gershwin musical, rewrite the book, add a whole bunch of Gershwin hits not in the original, and what have you got? Well, until recently the answer would have been “The New Gershwin Musical Comedy” Crazy For You, right?
Since 2012, however, there have been two correct answers to the above question, 1992’s Crazy For You having recently been joined by Nice Work If You Can Get It (which bills itself simply as “A New Musical Comedy”), the latter now getting its very first L.A.-adjacent production as its First National Tour makes its 30th-and-final stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts—and to quote from one of the show’s lesser known ditties, it’s simply “delishious!”
(read more)
DIRTY DANCING – THE CLASSIC STORY ON STAGE
Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
An Oscar-winning ‘80s smash returns to exciting new life as the Segerstrom Center For The Arts presents Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage, the ultimate 3-D “movie” musical experience.
(read more)
KINKY BOOTS
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014Only rarely does a “feel-good musical” come along with the transformative power and emotional punch to set it apart from the rest of the “feel-good” pack. That rare musical is Kinky Boots, the 2013 Tony–winning Best Musical now beginning a two-week stay at Orange County’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
(read more)
PIPPIN
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014The spectacular and the personal mesh to perfection in the most extraordinary Pippin you will ever see, and if you don’t believe me, check out the 2013 Best Revival Tony winner during its two-week stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
(read more)
ONCE
Wednesday, August 20th, 2014Sometimes execution can be everything. It certainly is in the case of Once, the multiple Tony-winning Best Musical of 2012. The story and the songs are the same as those in the film on which it is based (a movie I found quite unbearable), and yet as brought to freshly inspired life on the musical theater stage, Once The Musical turns out to be one of the best, and quite possibly the most original Broadway smashes, of the past decade.
(read more)