THE VIOLIN MAKER

posted on April 29th, 2025 at 9:17 AM by Steven Stanley

Its heart is definitely in the right place, and I can’t fault the performances elicited by director caryn desai, but I found Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak’s downer of a Holocaust memorial play The Violin Maker too narration-and-flashbacks-heavy to fully command my attention throughout most of its two-hour running time.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review

LEGALLY BLONDE

posted on April 28th, 2025 at 10:49 AM by Steven Stanley

An incandescent Kathryn Brunner makes it crystal-clear what musical theater stars are made of as the indomitable Elle Woods in La Mirada Theatre and McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s big-stage big-talent revival of the 2007 Broadway smash Legally Blonde, about as perfect a screen-to-stage adaptation as there’s been in the past twenty years.
(read more)

Tags: , , , , ,
posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

THE WINTER’S TALE

posted on April 25th, 2025 at 12:09 PM by Steven Stanley


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.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Classic Play, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL EXTENSION

posted on April 21st, 2025 at 10:50 AM by Steven Stanley


Branden Lee Roth puts his own engaging stamp on the title role of  Open Fist Theatre Company’s Bat Boy: The Musical, his fortuitous arrival enabling the wild, weird, and wacky L.A.-born, off-Broadway-bred crowd-pleaser to extend its run at the Atwater Village Theatre.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

CORKTOWN ’39

posted on April 20th, 2025 at 12:28 PM by Steven Stanley


Tensions reach a breaking point when an Irish-American family finds itself knee-deep in an assassination plot in John Fazakerley’s slow-boiling thriller Corktown ‘39, another sensational Rogue Machine Theatre Company World Premiere.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

THE TOTALITY OF ALL THINGS

posted on April 19th, 2025 at 12:46 PM by Steven Stanley


All hell breaks loose in an Indiana town when a swastika is found spray-painted on a classroom bulletin board celebrating the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Erik Gernand’s The Totality Of All Things, a discussion-provoking, expectations-defying Road Theatre Company West Coast Premiere.

(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD

posted on April 17th, 2025 at 4:58 PM by Steven Stanley


I’m not what you’d call a fan of the fantasy genre (though I did try to make it through the first Lord Of The Rings movie and the first Harry Potter flick), but even a fantasy curmudgeon like me found myself thoroughly dazzled and ultimately quite moved by Harry Potter And The Cursed Son, now packing them in at the Pantages.
(read more)

Tags: , , , , ,
posted in Action-Adventure, Hollywood/West Hollywood, National Tour, WOW!

BARE: A POP OPERA

posted on April 14th, 2025 at 7:00 PM by Steven Stanley

Mouth Bone Theatre’s revival of Damon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere’s Bare: A Pop Opera works better as a talent showcase for its cast of young musical theater performers than it does as a professional production of a show that’s beginning to show its age.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review

Next PagePrevious Page