Despite an impressive pedigree, there is little that’s flashy about The Humans, the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Play that opened this week at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre. Written by Stephen Karam with the entire original Broadway cast reprising their roles, the one-act play unfolds over the course of Thanksgiving dinner with a … More Theater Review: The Humans at the Ahmanson Theatre
The aptly named Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for playwright Eugene O’Neill in 1957, is an in-depth look at an exhaustingly dysfunctional family over the course of one very long day. The Bristol Old Vic production, directed by Richard Eyre, opened this week at the Wallis Annenberg … More Theater Review: Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
There is truly nothing like live theater. At the performance of Henry IV attended for this review, the show was stopped about forty minutes in to act one due to a medical emergency in the audience (according to an announcement made later, the person was ultimately alright). During the fifteen minute pause, as audience members … More Theater Review: Tom Hanks in Henry IV at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
With school shootings more prevalent than ever, it is unsurprising that Ripe Frenzy, a new play currently in its west coast premiere at Greenway Court Theatre as part of a National New Play Network rolling world premiere, tackles this difficult subject head on. While 2017 brought what felt like an onslaught of theater commenting on … More Theater Review: Ripe Frenzy at Greenway Court Theatre
If you watched only the opening scenes of Forever Bound, a play written by Steve Apostolina now in its world premiere at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles, you would likely never guess the turns the story eventually takes. Presented by Sankalpa Productions, it is one of those shows that is difficult to discuss … More Theater Review: Forever Bound at the Atwater Village Theatre
How is it possible that a musical based on a book written nearly 40 years ago feels more timely than ever today? The tour of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of The Color Purple just opened at the Pantages Theatre, and its messages of female empowerment in the face of rape, sexual assault, and domestic abuse … More Theater Review: The Color Purple at the Pantages Theatre
Native Son begins at the end of the story—with Bigger (Jon Chaffin), a 20-year-old black man in 1930s Chicago, hunted down by an angry mob, furious about a crime he possibly committed. Based on a book of the same name by Richard Wright, this stage adaptation by Nambi E. Kelley is in its southern California premiere … More Theater Review: Native Son at Antaeus Theatre Company
A few years ago, much earlier in the existence of the UMPO (Unauthorized Musical Parody Of) Series, they did a production of Clueless. Now, it is back in a new and much improved iteration starring the series’ talented stable of actors. Written by UMPO Series Executive Producer Kate Pazakis and directed by Jimmy Smagula, this 2018 … More Theater Review: The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Clueless at Rockwell Table & Stage
Soft Power, currently in its world premiere at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre, is billed as “a play with a musical.” This is a unique description fitting for a unique show, both in structure and in content. With play and lyrics by David Henry Hwang and music and additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori, Soft Power taps … More Theater Review: Soft Power at the Ahmanson Theatre
The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running show in Broadway history. For this reason alone, I suppose it makes sense that composer Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to write a sequel, Love Never Dies, the national tour of which is currently playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. But this misguided, messy, melodramatic musical fails … More Theater Review: Love Never Dies at the Pantages Theatre
ON STAGE & SCREEN 