THE BEST BOARDING HOUSE IN DELAWARE
Friday, March 13th, 2026
Playwright Marja-Lewis Ryan is back, and reunited with her One In The Chamber star Heidi Sulzman in The Best Boarding House In Delaware, not only the year’s most deliciously dark comedy but one that marks the return to the stage of the exquisite Leigh Taylor-Young.
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YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Sunday, March 8th, 2026
Inspired direction and an all-around fabulous cast overcome community theater design limitations in You Can’t Take It With You, the latest crowd-pleaser from Santa Monica’s now 80-year-old Morgan-Wixson Theatre.
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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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SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA
Saturday, February 14th, 2026Haunted house stories can be both thrilling and entertaining. There is, unfortunately, little fun to be had inside the Beacon Hill apartment occupied by blocked, depressed writer Sally in the present day and in the 1950s by her more celebrated (albeit equally depressed) 20th-century counterpart in Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia, Beth Hyland’s downer of a World Premiere at Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse.
WHAT OPA DID
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026Audiences in search of uplifting, escapist entertainment in the dismal times we’re living through will not find it in Christopher Franciosa’s Holocaust drama What Opa Did, a Theatre 40 World Premiere not done any favors by James Paradise’s misguided direction.
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AN INSPECTOR CALLS
Tuesday, November 25th, 2025
Leave it to director Cate Caplin to take a play I had previously found to be heavy-handed and preachy, J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, and transform it into something quite magical at Theatre 40.
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BORDER CRISIS
Tuesday, November 18th, 2025Considering how much of what’s coming out of Washington DC these days seems like théâtre de l’absurde, the time could hardly be riper for City Garage to debut Charles A. Duncombe’s absurdist comedy Border Crisis, though in the case of this contemporary adaptation of a 1967 Polish play, excellent intentions yield less than successful results.
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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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