DOG MAN: THE MUSICAL
Tuesday, December 5th, 2023
Kids’ shows don’t get any more adult-friendly than Dog Man: The Musical, which is why whether or not you have school-age children who want to tag along, the off-Broadway hit’s new National Tour, now playing at the Kirk Douglas, just might be the most fun you’ll have at a theater this entire holiday season.
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THE HALF-LIGHT
Monday, November 27th, 2023
Four emotionally scarred individuals get a second chance at happiness in Monica Wood’s The Half-Light, a Theatre 40 West Coast Premiere whose touching performances and message of hope make this heartstrings-tugger a bona fide audience-pleaser.
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INSULTED. BELARUS
Tuesday, November 21st, 2023
A nation’s failed efforts to unseat one of the world’s most reviled dictators comes to stunning, gut-punching life in City Garage Theatre’s English-language World Premiere of Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted. Belarus, an eye-opener to those like myself who knew little to nothing about recent events in Europe’s 13th largest country.
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THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY
Saturday, October 14th, 2023
There’s probably never been an engagement party anywhere near as drama-packed as the one now occurring nightly in Westwood as the Geffen Playhouse treats Angelinos to the West Coast Premiere of Samuel Baum’s gasp-aloud, plot-twisty The Engagement Party.
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FOLLIES (CONCERT VERSION)
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023
With a now basically unaffordable original Broadway cast of 47 (and opulent sets and costumes to match), Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies turned out to be the ideal rarely-staged gem for Musical Theatre Guild to introduce audiences to its best-ever new space at Santa Monica’s The Broad Stage, a one-night-only concert version that more than earned Sunday’s extended standing ovation.
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TOWARDS ZERO
Monday, September 25th, 2023Haphazard casting and shaky direction make Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero the weakest Theatre 40 production since the company’s return to live, in-person programming over two years ago.
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BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA
Sunday, September 24th, 2023
A lifetime of failed opportunities to connect weighs heavy on the hearts of the father-daughter protagonists of Anna Ouyang Moench’s haunting Birds Of North America, exquisitely acted by Arye Gross and Jacqueline Misaye at the Odyssey Theatre.
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OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD
Tuesday, August 29th, 2023The four complex, authentic teen characters Alexis Scheer has created and the direction, performances, and design of Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’s West Coast Premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre are all so rave-worthy, it’s disappointing that the play’s gratuitously violent, deliberately unintelligible, and “WTF is that supposed to mean?” last twenty minutes are not.
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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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