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
A man and a woman meet at the airport. She is on her honeymoon, solo, after being dumped just before her wedding. He says he is on assignment for Animal Planet, researching the unemployed logging elephants of Myanmar. Turns out they are sitting next to each other on the plane, and then staying at the … More Theater Review: Unemployed Elephants at The Victory Theatre Center
Sometimes the most compelling theater happens when a text we thought we knew inside and out is presented in a way that illuminates new layers and creates a deeper understanding. The current production of A Streetcar Named Desire at Boston Court Performing Arts Center is a fresh take on a play that has been well-known … More Theater Review: A Streetcar Named Desire at Boston Court
Someone stands in front of you with a cat in one hand and a knife in the other, threatening to kill it. What do you say to save the cat? In An Undivided Heart, a co-production of Echo Theater Company and Circle X Theatre Company that opened this past weekend at the Atwater Village Theatre, … More Theater Review: Echo Theater Company and Circle X’s An Undivided Heart
Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Elliot Trilogy, which begins in Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue and the Pulitzer Prize-winner Water by the Spoonful, concludes in The Happiest Song Plays Last, which made its California premiere this weekend at the Latino Theater Company. Together, these three plays follow their central character, Elliot, over the course of nine years, beginning with … More Theater Review: Latino Theater Company’s The Happiest Song Plays Last
Playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Elliot Trilogy, which begins with Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue, now playing at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, continues at the Mark Taper Forum in Water by the Spoonful, which opened last week. Together the three plays, which conclude with The Happiest Song Plays Last, opening this coming weekend at the … More Theater Review: Water by the Spoonful at Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum
ON STAGE & SCREEN 